mp3 or MD?

[rudeboymcc]

hi. i didn't know where else to go so here i am.

i have £250 and i need some portable music device. i don't want cd (too wide). the two i'm comparing are the sony MZ-N1 (netmd, very small), or the Apple iPod 5GIG mp3 player.

the mp3 player is about as big as one of those slim sony tape walkman, and the MD is nearly half the size. but the iPod will fit ALL my songs on my PC, whcih is basically my whole cd collection.

i ve asked many people. some say MD becuase you can just take it out and put one in , and its better qulaity (although it's hte same in LP mode). others say mp3 becusae it's the "new thing".

PLease help me.

[OvERaCiD23]

well it depends. do you have large MP3 collection? or just CDs? i've archived all my music (CDs and downloads) to MP3, so I purchased an MP3 player. i can transfer 50-60 songs onto my player (Rio 600) in less than 5 minutes and be gone. for MD, you have to record a MD every time you want to listen to something on it. and if you have an older analog MD player, recording is similar to dubbing to a tape. newer ones are all digital though (for more than the past year i believe). I find MD annoying, it's a format that never really took off but still has some support. MP3 is nearly universal now in support for it, and will be the trendy thing for years to come (unless Vorbis takes over....which isn't likely, the public doesn't enjoy new formats like that). I would purhcase an MP3 player, and use it. make sure it's flash upgradable though, so that new compression formats can be added and/or upgraded.

[smiller667]

The ipod should be pretty cool - fast file transfers due to its firewire interface and you can store pretty much anything on it (not just mp3 files) - at least that's how it works on a mac (it is basically an external HDD plus mp3 functionality).
Apart from that, I would prefer an mp3 player anytime - it is a universal format and sound quality is just as excellent as MD if you use a decent bitrate.

[rudeboymcc]

i have All my music cd's and more on my pc. i don't bother buyin cd's anymore i download most of my music. and my mp3's are mostly >192kbps whcih is good. the only thing that's stopping me is the size.

[OvERaCiD23]

well if size is that big of an issue, go with what works for you. MP3 is the better format choice and will outlive MD. there are other MP3 players that are much smaller, for example, the ones from Rio. they don't hold as much music, but are smaller. maybe try cnet.com for some reviews of MP3 players.

[markrb]

I used to own a MD player and will never buy another one.
I could definately hear a difference in the quality over a cd.
I can't hear that much difference in a good MP3 (say 192KB or above) over a CD.


Mark

[bb]

I own a portable CD player with MP3 support. You can exchange the media (regular CD-Rs or CD-RWs with MP3 files) like MDs.

If you' like to get a smaller device: there are mini-CD MP3 players available as well.

bb

[rudeboymcc]

i own a mp3 cd player but i find it's too big. as for mini mp3 cd players, i don't think they hold much. i've decided that becuase, according to you, MD 's are fading away and aren't great, i'll wait unitl the mp3 hard drvie players get smaller. then i'll buy it. as for now, i'll stick to my walkman. yes TAPE> the cd player is too big to fit in my pocket. thanks .

[BoNz1]

I have had a md player for about a year and a half and I am quite happy with it. It is a older one not one of the new net mds. There are several downsides to the format as I see it. First, and definitely foremost is Sony's copy protection it is just a pain in the royal butt. If I am at school and I record something and I want to bring it home and put it onto my computer I cannot do this at least I can't do it digitally which means that I can record it onto my computer through the optical in or if I had a net md I can't upload it. Plus if I have any kind of burned audio cd or anything like that I will not record it either digitially, there are ways to get around the copy protection but it makes it even more annoying. I am very happy with somethings though. Overall, you will get better sound quality from an md than an mp3 player believe me the sound quality is excellent on my md, in stereo mode I can't distinguish it from a cd and in LP2 mode I can distinguish it but it isn't that noticable. LP4 does sound quite bad so I rarely use it. Also there aren't that many mp3 player that can hold 2 2/3 hours of music on one disc that costs about $5 so it is somewhat more economical in that way. If I had to buy something like it again I probably would not buy an md player again though, I would probably wait for a really nice small one with ogg support or aac that could store like 256MB on a flash card or something like that.