I am going on a vacation to Australia and New Zealand this summer, and I want to bring something to allow me to listen to my CDs on the flights, bus rides, etc. I have 70-80 CDs, so bringing them doesn’t seem like the best idea, so I turn to the wonderful world of technology. The basic question is: minidisc player or MP3 player? Any information or opinions?
I live in a Mac-only house, so Mac compatibility is about the only requirement. Price isn’t to big a factor, but anything over about US$300 had better be really, really cool.
Ipod.
Nomad Zen is mac compatible… I think.
Mini-disc players just won’t cut it for 70-80 cd’s.
Well, espectially considering that you’ll be travelling, keep in mind that with a MiniDisc player, you’ll have to deal with… MiniDiscs. They may be small, but keeping up with 70-80 of them is bound to be a pain. Not to mention recording them and labelling them all before you go. Unless they’ve made improvements since I bought mine, it takes as long to record a CD onto MiniDisc as it takes to play the CD. (Oh, and if you’re sort of a slob like I am, you’ll discover that the discs don’t respond well to being even lightly stepped upon.)
I don’t own an iPod (yet) but that sounds like what you might want. A little pricey but has some nifty extra features and obviously integrates well with the Mac 
Just remember to convert the prices. I’ve checked in NZ , and your US markets beats our prices hands down for consumer electronics. Australia might be better though.
If you’ve got the cash, go for the MP3 players. Check out IGN.com for some good reviews.
They have indeed made those improvements. You can now record at up to 32x over USB, and can fit 4 cds on a single disc. I love my Sony NetMD (The USB models), and would never trade it for an MP3 player.
HOWEVER. Given that you’re going to be spending a few months in a foreign country, and that you won’t want to carry any discs, and you have a Mac, I have to recommend the iPod. It’s the perfect solution for you.
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- Does Sony NetMD even support macs? I seem to remember people on a newsgroup complaining because it didn’t, and they were asking about other compatibla programs, and there weren’t any… and many walkman-style minidisc players do not have a line-in or mic-in for regular recording at all–so if you can’t run the regular PC file-transfer program, you’re screwed.
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- The hard-disk based players are more convenient, but much more expensive and are much more attractive to thieves.
- I would try to find a CD-walkman that can play MP3 CD’s. Regular CD-players only cost maybe $30 now and all CD players pretty much look alike, so it’s less likely to be a target for thieves.
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Another vote for the iPod, it’s small and will hold a ton of music and it also has an address book built in.
That’s a good point, and I don’t actually know if NetMD supports Mac. However, I must point out that while some of the cheaper Sony NetMD recorders don’t have a MIC in, they certainly do have line in. I’ve got the absolute bottom of the barrel (N505) right in front of me as I type this, and it has both optical and analog line in.
OK, thanks guys. I have been thinking about getting an iPod for a while now, and that sounds like the way to go. I hadn’t given any thought to Minidiscs until about a week ago when a friend got one and is saying it’s the coolest thing ever and beats MP3 hands down…no reasons though.
I have a MiniDisc player, without the USB option. To record the MP3’s, I just create a playlist and hook up the soundcard to the optical in of the MD player. Usually overnight, as it’s a real time process. But the 4 times recording lets you put about 5 hours of music on one disc. I have three of them in my carry-on luggage, for those transatlantic flights.
All in all, the recording process is cumbersome, though. I don’t use it all that much.
Minidisc sounds MUCH better (ATRAC 4) when compared to an MP3, but it is more hassle, if fidelity is not an issue, buy the IPOD.
unclviny
Even if fidelity is an issue the IPOD will play .wav files(I think!) So you can simply copy the entire 700 mb cd onto the ipod and get 100% fidelity!
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- Yea, I got a Sony minidisk walkman for doing portable hi-fi recording. For that it’s great (sounds almost as nice as a CD, and has mic and line-in!), but mine was the last season before Sony came out with the Net-MD line–so putting songs on minidisk is rather a hassle with it: real-time only.
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- Yea, I got a Sony minidisk walkman for doing portable hi-fi recording. For that it’s great (sounds almost as nice as a CD, and has mic and line-in!), but mine was the last season before Sony came out with the Net-MD line–so putting songs on minidisk is rather a hassle with it: real-time only.
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I would go with an ipod… unless you are going to want to have a portable recording option…
If you are just going to listen to music… I am pretty damn happy with my iPod… I even have it hooked up to my car stereo…
but you may want to wait a little bit… Apple is expected to update the ipod pretty soon…
I have a Mini Disk Player (N707) and I love it. Disks now can be recorded in 70 min, 140 min or 280 min mode, with a corresponding loss in sound quality. At 280 min it is noticeable, but I find it only really stands out if you can compare a song recorded at 70 min and 280 min side by side. Outside of that I don’t even notice. It usually takes me about 5- 10 min max to record a CD to a disc, and at 280 min I can fit between 5-6 cd’s per disk. For you collection, you would need at least 16-17 disks, which could be a pain to record to. I’m also unsure on mac support for the netMD, so I would think an ipod would be your best bet.
Some other pluses for a minidisc:
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Small. I can fit it into my front shirt pocket with no problem
Tough. I’ve dropped it onto concrete, and outside of some superficial scratches, no damage at all.
Doesn’t skip. The player has anti skip memory, and the disks themselves have shock absorbers inside to minimize skipping as well. I have never had it skip on me, even during the dropping onto concrete episode.
Battery use. An important, but often overlooked, feature. I can get 30+ hours of play time on one single AA battery. Most CD players require tow batteries for a comparable amount of play time.
Minidiscs. Can be a pain to record onto, but once you have, they are done, and you don’t have to worry about losing the data. The disks themselves look like small floppy disks. The recording surface is completely enclosed in plastic, with a little window that only is pulled back inside the player itself. SO you don’t have to worry about scratching the surface. I usually record a CD onto disk as soon as I buy it, and then put the CD in storage.
Recording from CD. I imagine that the ipod does the same, but when you record a CD, it gets all of the artist info and such from gracenote CCDB, and then when you play the songs all of the info is displayed on a LCD screen.
Microphone. You can buy a separate microphone, and record onto minidisc. I’ve used my in classes to record lecture notes, so I can listen to them later.
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Okay, I think that is enough talking about my minidisc player. Can you tell I love the thing? As I said before, I think an ipod would be best for you, but I figured I would post the previous just in case anybody else who was reading had any questions about MiniDisc.
One more question, which Emperor Penguin alluded to: if I get the iPod, how can I recharge it on the road? It says it can charge via either FireWire or an AC adaptor, but doesn’t Australia use a different electrical system (200V or some such) from the US?
merge, how do you have it hooked up to the car system? The iRock adaptor, or something else? My car’s trunk-mounted changer bit the dust a while ago, and if I could use the iPod to rock out on the road, I’d be quite happy.
especially because you are in a mac- only house. just wait a few weeks until the new ones are released.
I have an md just for sound recording work. Lately I’ve found I don’t even use it for listening to music at all. Somehow I don’t like to constantly carry hundreds of $ around, knowing myself enough to know that I’ll eventually have it stolen (tried that once, and when it’s an indispensable tool for work you definitely don’t want that).
Sounds like you need the iPod more. But I’m really posting to say: Sound recording is actually great for holidays. A bit like photo snapshots, you can do a journal of sorts, record conversation with local people, interesting sounds & atmospheres, those street musicians etc - can be a great laugh to play it to yourself and friends/relatives when you come home. But I’d defiitely recommend a cheap cassette dictaphone for that stuff. And what goes for photos goes here as well: You’ll want to look at them lots more if you organize the stuff. So run it through the computer, edit it and burn a cd.
Maybe I’m just too much into sound for my own good. But I enjoy it. Sorry for the hijack.
I’ve been thinking of getting an iPod. One question for you iPod owners - how shock resistant is it? I’ve got a flash-memory based .mp3 player that I run with. Being memory based, nothing skips when I run. I worry that the iPod might skip, or I might kill the hard drive with the shock of running. Any first hand experiences with running with an iPod?
my 2 cents.
I recently bought a net md after years of faithfull service from my previous minidisk, and just ordered an mp3 player yesterday.
1 see you having three options for your music
Minidisk(net md of course)
mp3 player, flash memory
mp3 player, hard disk.
as you have so much music that rules out the flash mp3 player, as they only hold somewhere between 64 and 512 MB of music, which is nowhere near enough to get 70 cd’s on.
Leaving just minidisk, and mp3 hard disk
i have no experience with mp3 hard-disk set up’s, but i know that my brand new net md jumps. only after 90 seconds of constant shoogling, but i have to wrap it in a t-shirt at the gym( my MAJOR gripe about it ) to dampen the vibrations and running any distance with one is no fun, as you have to run in such a fashion that the md gets a disk read every 30 seconds or so, otherwise it stops :(
As well as skipping there is your problem of being mac-only, as i know of no software for the mac for net md. leaving you recording in real time. which sucks.
i-pod sounds perfect for you, and i would be most surprised if it jumped, as i expect it has a hefty memory buffer.
If jumping’s not a problm at all, the maybe an mp3 cd thhing would be acceptable, as they are a fair bit cheaper than the i-pod.
good luck and have fun