phosfiend
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2005
- Posts
- 298
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- 11
I love my MiniDisc Player, I really truly do. I felt that up until very recently, featurewise, it couldn't be beat. But I find myself finally succumbing to the lure of greater storage capacity - and interestingly, it's not in terms of portability but transfer convenience. Transferring an MD's worth of tunes via NetMD used to be fun, giving me that mixtape thrill that I enjoy so much. Firing worthy albums down optical into this little gadget for SP discs used to be a labour of love. But lately I can't be bothered. NetMD transfers are 25X, and buggy 50% of the time and optical is bloody REAL-TIME (but sounds fantastic).
So, that leaves me here today, fetishizing other, more badassed miniature examples of beautiful industrial design. While my requirments are few, they do seem to be limiting my choices, and that is why I'm here; looking to the experts to help guide me. Here are the criteria:
The Iriver, nothing but praise is heard about the intergration of RockBox - usability, gaplessness, speed... but what of sound quality on this unit? My MD unit sounds really, really good - i don't want to downgrade in this department. I'll take SQ over storage convenience... plus, this thing is a brick!
Rio Karma - if it weren't for the state of the RIO corporation, this discussion would probably have been solved. Sound quality, gaplessness and size. Also, in photos one can clearly see that these units should be remote capable - does such a remote exist?
And finally, the future. I gather the next gen Neuros gadget might satisfy my needs, and sound bloody awesome, but alas, it's all hypothesis until someone actually uses one. Are my portable hopes un-attainable?
Thanks you guys,
So, that leaves me here today, fetishizing other, more badassed miniature examples of beautiful industrial design. While my requirments are few, they do seem to be limiting my choices, and that is why I'm here; looking to the experts to help guide me. Here are the criteria:
What, "Sound Quality isn't a priority?" you ask? It most certainly is, but for me, you could stream 96khz 24bit directly into my skull, but if there are gaps between that sweetness i just cannot enjoy it. Fortunately, it seems for now atleast, that gapless and sound quality are usually part of the same pakage. Other than these few, what are my options?absolutely necessary:
Gapless
absolutely UNnecessary:
colour screen
playsforsure/itunes compatible
video playback
last things first - the Sony units. I must admit, despite being a longtime MD user, doing the atrac thing all over again doesn't really appeal to me. This is further enforced by the fact that a sizable portion of my music is already in lossy formats. Also, While HiMD has its benefits, in terms of live recording my current units satisfy me entirely. The design of the HD5, plus the option of a decent remote does still keep me curious though...Rio Karma
Iriver H1X0 + RockBox
Sony HD5 + ATRAC
Sony HiMD + ATRAC
The Iriver, nothing but praise is heard about the intergration of RockBox - usability, gaplessness, speed... but what of sound quality on this unit? My MD unit sounds really, really good - i don't want to downgrade in this department. I'll take SQ over storage convenience... plus, this thing is a brick!
Rio Karma - if it weren't for the state of the RIO corporation, this discussion would probably have been solved. Sound quality, gaplessness and size. Also, in photos one can clearly see that these units should be remote capable - does such a remote exist?
And finally, the future. I gather the next gen Neuros gadget might satisfy my needs, and sound bloody awesome, but alas, it's all hypothesis until someone actually uses one. Are my portable hopes un-attainable?
Thanks you guys,