iPod or minidisc?

Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I am seriously looking for an upgrade to my ageing panasonic CD player. It has served me well but I really need something that offers either more capacity or smalller size, etc. I also have a huge CD/record collection of mostly electronic/classical music.



The iPod seems perfect, but it also has the sound quality issue. If I convert all my vinyls and CDs to MP3, there will be a huge hit in quality. A minidisc player can't hold as much but it has a great sound and the ability to record digitally anywhere.



What does everyone think?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 18
    badtzbadtz Posts: 949member
    This was my debate also........



    the decision would be MUCH easier if the iPod had line-in!
  • Reply 2 of 18
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    It just depends on how much you care about absolute audio perfection. Some people buy centrally controlled, house-wide surround sound systems for tens of thousands of dollars. Others (like me) buy a $100 stereo and an $8 adapter to play my computer's sound through the speakers. I can't really notice the difference between MP3s and CDs, so I wouldn't say I'm taking a "huge" hit in quality. Perhaps, once in a while, I may think that it might sound a little better on a CD, but not enough to make me sacrifice the benefits of an iPod such as portability, capacity, and battery life. There is one caveat, though, especially if you have a lot of electronic music (which often spans a single "mix" of songs across tracks smoothly): The iPod, for some reason, will not play the songs seamlessly. There's always a slight pause. The pause is present in iTunes as well, and it tends to be longer. There is a "crossfade playback" option in iTunes, but it's stupid and doesn't actually play the songs correctly. Hopefully that problem will be fixed soon.
  • Reply 3 of 18
    bernardbernard Posts: 59member
    no comment. well ok your talking about portable music mp3 is not that bad. the other day for grins I mad an mp3 cd (the all of soundgarden 4.5hrs), stuck it in my DVD player played a couple soundgarden tunes then stuck the real CD and I the difference on the ones I encoded @192k VBR was almost unnoticeable bigest gripe would be cymbals, in any case good head phones would help. I am worried the ipod may not last forever and it is expesive but I have used mine everyday at least an hour since X-mas and I like it alot. :eek:
  • Reply 4 of 18
    pevepeve Posts: 518member
    comparing minidisk and ipod is difficult because they are two complitly different things.



    -minidisk compresses sound with its own compressor

    -ipod uses standard mp3's



    -minidisk uses a ...aeh... minidisk

    -ipod uses a hd



    -all minidisk-player i know connect with usb

    -ipod uses firewire



    -minidik has standard usability (navigation through songs/basic handling)

    -ipod has "apple-usability"



    for sound-quality and compression:

    i would compare hands on.



    minidisk is to proprietary imho.

    i would get myself an ipod.
  • Reply 5 of 18
    roonsterroonster Posts: 57member
    iPod every time.



    I was immediately disappointed by the sound quality, but it turned out that it was just the headphones that were supplied. I tried my Sony MDR-888s and the difference was unbelieveable! Far better quality than the Creative DAP Jukeox that I was using before.



    I'm lucky I suppose, I can't tell the difference between a CD and an .mp3 at 192kbps with VBR. I can't tell the difference in a quiet room, nevermind whilst I'm out walking around on the street or on a bus. As my friend says "only a dog can tell the difference".



    iTunes, Firewire, drag and drop, ease of use, battery life, capacity. You don't need to keep hauling it out of your pocket to change the disc.



    Oh, and I installed Mac OS X on my iPod. I can plug it into any Firewire Mac and boot up into my OS with my applications, e-mails. fonts etc.



    It's the best piece of kit I've ever bought (and that includes a 22" Cinema Display).



    Hope this helps a little!



  • Reply 6 of 18
    neutrino23neutrino23 Posts: 1,561member
    I have a desktop Onkyo MD system and a portable MD Onkyo player. Since I started using iTunes I stopped using the MD player. MD sounds OK but MD disks are very slow and each disk only holds an hour or so of music. It takes ten seconds or so to start playing a disk when you turn it on. To change tracks takes a long time. iTunes/iPod is nearly instantaneous. When I was travelling I'd wind up with a bag full of MD disks. Now I just listen on my Powerbook. I'll buy an iPod later this summer. Already in the budget.



    Regarding the quality, I think if you record at 192kb/s it will be very nearly the same as the original CD.
  • Reply 7 of 18
    nx7oenx7oe Posts: 198member
    Bernard, um when i saw your post with this smile, :eek: , it seemed like you were goint to reccomend the mini disc, the face kind of confused me





    Anyway, i have both a minidisc and an iPod. iPod is better, because of the LOUDER headphone amp and the ease of use. I love to hear music the loudest i can and the iPod definetely beats the living shyt out of the minidisc.



    [ 06-05-2002: Message edited by: nx7oe ]</p>
  • Reply 8 of 18
    allinoneallinone Posts: 279member
    I think MiniDisc uses lossy compression too.



    Maybe not as bad as mp3 but it is still lossy compression.



    I tried to read up on it on the Sony site but there is not much detail and it appears to have been written by someone who does not speak english as a first language



    <a href="http://www.sony-europe.com/cds/showpage.asp?nodeid=88833&loc=eu"; target="_blank">http://www.sony-europe.com/cds/showpage.asp?nodeid=88833&loc=eu</a>;
  • Reply 9 of 18
    aquaticaquatic Posts: 5,602member
    I thought ATRAC was lossless? There should be an audio format like this, 100% lossless. It could just "stuff" the files. And be compatible with all players. Or even just the iPod. Still, someone told me ATRAC was lossless, and for this, I think the iPod should support playback of it. It would be nice if Apple added more formats.
  • Reply 10 of 18
    Thanks for the help everyone.



    I went to the Sony website and checked out their new Net-MD players... They look pretty good but the are all USB based and only compatible with windows. Ugh <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[No]" /> I think I'm going to wait until Macworld and see if Apple comes out with a new iPod. Maybe it will be cheaper by then as well.
  • Reply 11 of 18
    agtagt Posts: 5member
    I've been testing a MD player/recorder for about a month (I gave it back today), partly because I wanted to know if it was better than an iPod.



    The iPod (I also tested one for a month) does a far better job, for all the reasons given in this thread and also because:
    • the iPod's design is way more elegant ( :cool: );

    • the iPod's interface is much more efficient;

    • the iPod uses MP3 tags while the MD uses a single line of text (and you can only see a few letters at a time on the MD);

    • downloading songs from your Mac is 200 times faster (!);

    • you don't need to carry a bagfull of disks with your iPod;

    • the iPod is not only a walkman?

    The MD has two advantages on the iPod:
    • the line-in (you can record anything anywhere);

    • the remote control (your MD can stay well protected in your bag or pocket all the time)

    I'll be buying an iPod as soon as the new version (what will it be?) is in stores.



    Agt
  • Reply 12 of 18
    scott2scott2 Posts: 39member
    Apple has come out with the public preview version of Quicktime 6. In it they have a remplacement to MP3 called ACC audio. They claim the sound quality is much better.



    Obviously they will upgrade iTunes and iPod to this format. When is a big question, do you want to wait?
  • Reply 13 of 18
    zerozero Posts: 39member
    [quote]Originally posted by Scott2:

    <strong>...



    Obviously they will upgrade iTunes and iPod to this format. When is a big question, do you want to wait?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Why wait? iPod firmware can be updated to AAC, and AAC sounds great! If I had the money I would buy an iPod immediately.



    Other question: can I convert mp3 to aac or do I have to rip all my CD's again ?



    zero
  • Reply 14 of 18
    badtzbadtz Posts: 949member
    it'll be better to rip the CD's again...



    going from lossy codec [mp3] to lossy codec [aac] = VERY lossy audio
  • Reply 15 of 18
    donnydonny Posts: 231member
    [quote]Originally posted by Luca Rescigno:

    <strong>The iPod, for some reason, will not play the songs seamlessly. There's always a slight pause. The pause is present in iTunes as well, and it tends to be longer. There is a "crossfade playback" option in iTunes, but it's stupid and doesn't actually play the songs correctly. Hopefully that problem will be fixed soon.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    You can play it seamlessly in iTunes 2.0 (2.0.4 for certain...but the other 2.0 versions should work also...) If you go into the fade preferences and set it to "on" and slide the slide bar to 0, you will hear the tracks play one after another with no skip or pause between tracks. The iPod does it though, and I have found no fix for this problem.
  • Reply 16 of 18
    Excuse my frankness:



    What are you ****ing stoned? Duh. iPod!
  • Reply 17 of 18
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    [quote]Originally posted by Donny:

    You can play it seamlessly in iTunes 2.0 (2.0.4 for certain...but the other 2.0 versions should work also...) If you go into the fade preferences and set it to "on" and slide the slide bar to 0, you will hear the tracks play one after another with no skip or pause between tracks. The iPod does it though, and I have found no fix for this problem.<hr></blockquote>



    Not true. I tried it out, using crossfade playback set to 0. There is no longer a pause between the tracks, but the volume drops off to almost nothing before coming back up. I want it to be completely seamless, like it is on the CD, with no dropoff in volume. This is definitely not too much to ask, as my $30 portable CD player can do it. If I spend 13 times more money on the iPod than on the CD player, it should have this feature. That's the one thing where I've really been disappointed. I'd also like the ability to create playlists right on the iPod (instead of having to use iTunes), but I don't think it'll be done.
  • Reply 18 of 18
    I bought a minidisc setup a couple of years ago, because I wanted near-CD quality with the ability to erase. Was happy with the minidisc. Am happier now with the iPod than the minidisc. Many talk about sound differences. I've been a professional musician for 25 years and have yet to 'hear' a difference. I can see a difference mathematically, but, unless one is an audio engineer with really well-trained ears, you probably won't hear any difference. IPod is a great machine, and I'm really satisfied with MP-3 coding. For what it's worth.
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