[Osaire]

I've been browsing through this forum and contemplating a purchase, but I can't really decide what to buy! I'm looking for a quality PCDP that is small, has long battery life, sounds good, and is able to take the bumps of biking and other outdoor activities without skipping. I'm going to set a budget of $200. The new overseas versions of the Panasonic SL-CT790 and Sony D-EJ1000 are beautiful, but I haven't seen many people speak about how they are in daily use. Maybe a brand new player isn't the best for me, but I just figured they would have the best anti-shock and battery life. The player would be from the headphone jack without an external amplifier.

I'm open to any suggestions, I was at first considering a PCDP with MP3 playback capabilities, but they seem to either suffer from short battery life, high price, or low quality sound compared with the CDA only models. I guess it wouldn't even have to be a CD player, but CF/SM media is kind of expensive if you want decent storage, and I wouldn't think a HD based player would hold up to jogging very well.

Anyways, thanks in advance for all assistance!

 

[andrzejpw]

Is MD out of the question?

 

[Osaire]

I know nothing about MD, and all that ATRAC3 and etc doesn't make sense to me.

I tried that minidisc.org site but most of the links are bad.

I actually had a really old Sony MD recorder/player and portable player, it came in a package deal and I got it when I worked at Best Buy when I was 16, for $200 on a promotion. It was probably awful stuff, but sure, I'm up for MD if you can convince me.

Edit: The portable was silver, pretty large compared to the pictures of new ones I see online, about the size of a portable cassette player.

The MD home recorder I can't really describe. Large, black, buttons, one knob, lol....

 

[gloco]

If you still have those MD units give us model#'s so we know what you dealt with previously.

Here is a link that may help: http://www.t-station.net/md_tech.html

Also, Atrac 3 is for the long play feature, MDLP. Basically this feature adds LP2 and LP4 modes. LP2 is comparable to 132kb mp3 and LP4 is comparable to 66kb mp3. Here is another link to read up on it:

http://www.minidisc.org/mdlpfaq.html

Seems like that link worked just fine for me. LP2 sounds very nice, very close to an SP recording. This is a direct quote from minidisc.org:

"Minidisc Long Play. It's a new encoding method for audio on Minidisc that offers two modes: one gives 160 minutes stereo ("LP2"), the second gives 320 minutes stereo ("LP4")."

If you have the cash, go for it, I have a Sony MD player and i love it, NEVER skips on me (running to make a light). Research it, i think this might be what your looking for.

 

[Osaire]

Wow, thank you very much for those links! I no longer have the bundle (I *MIGHT* have the portable one somewhere around here), but I did find the exact units I did own, they are shown here:

http://www.minidisc.org/bundle3_review.html

I was totally enjoying the 132kbps ATRAC3 version of the samples on the second link.

The links seem to work fine now, so I'll be reading that site a bit. Thanks again!

 

[gloco]

Well, i can tell you this much, Type R encoding will knock your socks off. Wait till you try one..you'll see what i'm talking about. I just finished listening to a bunch of MD's i recorded and was astounded as to how great and identical they sound to the original cd. Let us know what you decide on!

 

[Osaire]

How much of that higher quality CD-like audio can you fit on a single MD? And I guess I'd need a recorder/player, which should I begin to take a look at?

Edit: One thing I remember about my old portable player was it was practically unskippable, I could violently shake it and it wouldn't skip, does the same hold true to the newer models? Heck I don't even know if mine had the extra shock protection that these new ones do now...

 

[gloco]

Quote:

Originally posted by Osaire How much of that higher quality CD-like audio can you fit on a single MD? And I guess I'd need a recorder/player, which should I begin to take a look at? Edit: One thing I remember about my old portable player was it was practically unskippable, I could violently shake it and it wouldn't skip, does the same hold true to the newer models? Heck I don't even know if mine had the extra shock protection that these new ones do now...

You can buy a 74 minute or 80 minute MD. It might be a good idea to run a search or read up on various MD sites. My player has never skipped on me, so i guess they got something perfected.

 

[Eagle_Driver]

Quote:

Originally posted by Osaire One thing I remember about my old portable player was it was practically unskippable, I could violently shake it and it wouldn't skip, does the same hold true to the newer models? Heck I don't even know if mine had the extra shock protection that these new ones do now...

Well, Duh! Older-generation MD players are much more skip-resistant than PCDPs of the same vintage!