Hi, I currently have a Sony MZ-R900 Minidisc and Etymotic ER-6s, I am very happy with the sound but very tempted by a 40GB Ipod. How does good MP3 or AAC (At least 192Kbps using LAME or Itunes) compare with MD ATRAC recordings. What bout the sound quality of Ipods with the Etys??

Thanks in advance

Denis

I own a 3G iPod and a sharp DR-7. I use the iPod much more often. I think the sound quality of both are pretty good. I use ety 4s. both can drive them without an amp.

I generally encode using EAC/LAME. You can find debates on MP3 vs. ATRAC, but in a portable environment, either are fine in my opinion.

i would recommend the getting the iPod for convience compared to recording albums in SP one per MD.

I have both a 30GB iPod and a Sony MZ-N707.

I find that the MD with SP recordings from my deck can sound just as good as the iPod, but it takes more time to produce these recordings.

I find the battery life on the iPod to be pathetic.

Both are good and I continue to use both formats. If you can keep you MD and swing an iPod then I'd say go for it!

Advantage of MD => longer battery life...
Advantage of iPod => you can use uncompressed WAV or AIFF files on them, and you'll get perfect CD quality and still fit more songs on the iPod. You don't have to buy any medias, authoring playlist is much faster (well, on the MD you'll have to record your own MD.. painful process). Over the long term you're saving a lot of money not having to buy more MD disks. Although at this point you probably have a lot of them anyway.

I haven't seen anyone with a side-by-side test of MD player output versus iPod's output with uncompressed WAV files. Although it's generally known that iPod's uncompressed file output is better than most portable CD players that's being sold today. (Well, in fact, probably better than *all* portable CD players short of legendary PCDP's).

I have compared a D-25s and iPod side-by-side.. when using uncompressed files, there's hardly any quality difference in the output.

Of course, uncompressed files will shorten the battery life further... it's a worthy trade-off depending on your listening habits. I'm never really 5 hours away from a power source of some sort.

Recent comparison (between formats).

Thanks a lot for your help, where is the best place for encoding in ATRAC for somparison on my PC against MP3?

Cheers
Denis

For direct comparison on a PC, you can use the Sony Sonicstage software itself (I'm sure you can go somewhere and download it) to encode the MP3 / CD recording to ATRAC 132K format. And of course any MP3 playback software (I recommend Foobar if you're speed/quality inclined, or Musicmatch if you're convenience inclined) plus LAME or CDEX+LAME.


While there are significant differences between MP3 and PC transferred ATRAC, I believe the difference to the average ear between SP and high-bitrate MP3 files on portable equipment is negligible enough not to be a significant deciding factor in favour of either.


What you're gaining with the iPod over MD is flexibility, convenience and speed compared to SP recordings with the Minidisc. The difference is quite profound, and allows you to do what is after all the point of the whole exercise... enjoy music to the full, instead of pondering which discs to take for that day to limit bulk.


This is not to say the iPod is without it's faults in the sound department. It does have some issues. But certainly for me it was a big leap over Minidisc as a music listening tool... to a level where the two really don't compare.

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Amen! I used to stand there before work trying to decided with minidisc/album I wanted to lug along because I wasn't sick of it - only to pop it on later and shake my head, no, no, not in the mood. That's the key about the ipod for me - carrying basically ALL my albums with me. Now I always have with me something I'll be in the mood for.

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Can you use this software with the R900, though? It was the last high-end model they produced before the NetMDs, if I recall correctly. I have the R900, and I've always just used the USB optical convertor to transfer stuff from the PC at real time to SP.