MP3 Players??

[ayoungman]

Jaredp, yes I know you can convert to atrac3 SP/LP2/LP4 but I find LP4 unlistenable and LP2 just so-so. Yes, this is recording directly from CD. Since mp3's would have to go through a reconversion process to change the codec to atrac they lose even more data and sound worse. That's why I cited 1 gig of music (7H 55 mn?) with SP encoding, which doesn't compress the files as much.
From what I've read, SP just knocks out frequencies we shouldn't be able to hear that are encoded in the CD (of course then you get into audiophiles claiming they still have an impact, I'm undecided on the issue)

I had a (normal) MD player for a while and was ecstatic with the prospect of encoding (LP4) 5 hours of music on one disc. That quickly faded away after I listened to it. After that, I tried LP2 encoding and it was almost tolerable.. But seriously, SP is the only way to go in my eyes.
If you use an MD player in the gym you can get by with LP4 since there is all the outside noise...


oh, it looks like you are looking for <200$ player for the gym!
Then most HD players are out of your price range, and you will find Hi-MD to be a good choice. Flash players will be smaller, so you might want to check out the iRiver IFP-series or Nomad Muvo's. Plenty of people enjoy both. I don't know too much about flash players though

 

[myopicmouse]

between CD and MP3 is noticable

no such thing maybe you mean WMA and MP£, unless you have a VERY good home speaker system u will not notice, and u certianly wont notice if u use earphones.


if price is issue, thn u are better of getting MD even though its on way out, but you have been warned...save for ipod.

 

[Jared P]

no such thing maybe you mean WMA and MP£, unless you have a VERY good home speaker system u will not notice, and u certianly wont notice if u use earphones.

Huh? There IS a distiguishable difference in sound quality from a CD compared to an MP3, you disagree? You would be the first person I've ever met to do so. Even ripping at the highest quality it's still not the same, that's the nature of compression.

if price is issue, thn u are better of getting MD even though its on way out, but you have been warned...save for ipod.

MD's are cheaper for more storage with better sound. I'm still so confused by your adament stance that they are on the way out. I'm not being defensive or sarcastic when I say please show me some industry articles or news or something to substantiate this claim cause I'll sell mine and get something that's going to be around if this is the case. However, I've not seen anything like this and in fact it seems as though MD as a format is trying to improve it's place in the market. Again, maybe this is a UK/N.Ireland deal and perhaps MD in the UK Is on it's way out. However here in the US it seems to be doing fine.

Jared

 

[myopicmouse]

Huh? There IS a distiguishable difference in sound quality from a CD compared to an MP3, you disagree? You would be the first person I've ever met to do so. Even ripping at the highest quality it's still not the same, that's the nature of compression.

MD's are cheaper for more storage with better sound. I'm still so confused by your adament stance that they are on the way out. I'm not being defensive or sarcastic when I say please show me some industry articles or news or something to substantiate this claim cause I'll sell mine and get something that's going to be around if this is the case. However, I've not seen anything like this and in fact it seems as though MD as a format is trying to improve it's place in the market. Again, maybe this is a UK/N.Ireland deal and perhaps MD in the UK Is on it's way out. However here in the US it seems to be doing fine.

Jared

Ha, no I don't think your being sarcastic at all, I mean polite disagreement is what this forum is for and our 'tiff' is helping others with the merrits of both as we are both champoning our own causes, it's not like your bashing me on the head with a MD to 'make me see good'

WMA is the format you find on CD, yes it is better quality, but when listening I can't tell the difference. CD isn't better quality per see, as you can play WMA on a MP3 player, such as you can burn MP3 files onto a CD. WMA is better but i can't tell the difference. With the price I think MD is a far better choice than a 256MB MP3 player [rember guys and gals its a mp3 player but can play WMA same as mini disk if you want, alos MD i think can also play MP3] as I said in this case a MD is far better choice than a small 256MB MP3.

With the formats & sound quality sorted out, I will move onto my "adament stance" No, I don't have figures, I just see whats being bought and MD plummeting prices. MD is a god system, but with 10-40GB MP3 players (a lot of these are europian, and as far as i know, america is a very small market for the variaty, all america has really is ipod in this class of MP3. Even though there is diversity here, ipod rules. Now I bought ipod before the whole hype/style/cool thing so it's not a fashion accessory, i bought it on its own merrits. The fact is, ease of use, I can pull and song i want from my 1700+ music colection and with playlists ease of use, no extra disks, layout, playlists, it realy is supreme, you jsut have to try one. After using a ipod, these just no way MD are going to be bought, they are like cassets when CD's came out, trust me buy an ipod, if you dont like it sell it on ebay but you wont, once you have the revolution change your music listening.

 

[ErikD]

CD's are not in WMA format. WMA is a Windows sound scheme made by Microsoft. It also uses compression, so there will be some quality loss depending on how compressed it is. Yes some, MP3 players will also support WMA. CD's use their own format to store music, which is why you can fit many times more songs on a single CD using MP3 or WMA than if created as a music CD.

 

[myopicmouse]

ErikD - Your quite correct, my mistake. Since I use itunes for AAC from CD you would have thought that would have occured to me. Sorry for any confusion, my lapse of thinking.

 

[andymp]

(...) unless you have a VERY good home speaker system u will not notice, and u certianly wont notice if u use earphones.

This is false.
What kind of crap headphones are you using? Low-end headphones will give detailed sound rivaling far more expensive speaker systems. It's more of an issue with headphones, not less. I can hear with $60 headphones things I can't hear with a $500 speaker rig.

Give me any decent pair of cans, even in the sub $100 range (I'm thinking low end grado, Senn px-100 or koss portapros - all about 60 bucks if you shop around) and I sure can tell the differance. And I have a tin ear.

Perhaps many people can't hear the differance. That's likely because they've only used the crappy phones that came with the player.

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