Bought a Kenwood “hifi” component system for Jasper so he could listen to some CDs in bed. It was on special, takes 3 CDs and 1 MD.
After reading the user manual and playing with the MD player/recorder a bit, I reached the conclusion that MD is doomed. For recording it is a lot more convenient than cassette tape, but it is not possible to duplicate the digital data, unless w/ expensive and rare professional equipment. Basically a pain in the neck and I doubt I’ll use the MD deck very often, if at all. In the age of MP3/OGG/FLAC files, iPods and computers I say forget it.
5 responses so far ↓
1 James // May 29, 2004 at 12:14 am
All recordable MD Walkman has digital input and can record in digital mode, and most Discman has digital output for just that purpose. However, most require real time recording which is very slow compared to MP3. MD discs are relatively cheap compared to flash or HD but not as cheap as CD-R, and MD is still bulky in large numbers. While MD is no CD quality, MP3 quality is much worse.
2 tin_the_fatty // May 29, 2004 at 10:35 pm
Most MD decks lack digital output.
Jasper’s Kenwood does 4x CD-to-MD dubbing. On my 2 years old TiBook iTunes does 8x ripping, encoding AND play the CD realtime. iTunes is of course much more flexible than Jasper’s Kenwood, or for that matter, any CD-to-MD equipment out there.
The beauty of the iPod is that you carry your WHOLE music collection w/ you, so there is no hassle updating that 256M flash memory based MP3 player every so often, or carrying the wrong MDs, let along the trouble of creating the complication.
The typical ~1MB/s bit rate for MP3 is perfectly adequate for those cheerful songs from Twins or those boy bands. The more demanding folks could always encode their MP3 files with higher and variable bit rates, or use MP4/AAC (for iPod) or Ogg Vorbis (for iRiver etc.)
3 James Mok // May 29, 2004 at 10:50 pm
That build-in radio in my Nokia does the job for me. And even then I couldn’t be bothered with the earphones so I seldom listen to it or anything else. I usually read a magazine on a bus instead.
The iPod is a great fashion piece for those YUPPIES (or whatever the new term for them guys is) and over paid and pampered lads, but simply way way too expensive for the average honest less forturnate kids.
4 tin_the_fatty // May 30, 2004 at 8:00 am
Arh YUPPIES, it is so 80s.
Everytime I pass the local Broadway the counter selling MP3 players is always packed, and those kids and their parents aren’t buying sub-$1K players, more like over-priced $1.5K players. The cheapest iPod is $2.5K. Expensive yes, untouchable no.
But then if Jasper were a teenager I wouldn’t get him an iPod. Notwithstanding that he probably wouldn’t like its size, I don’t think kids should take any valuables to school, where things get stolen or broken. Kids should also learn to live within modest means.
5 James Mok // May 30, 2004 at 8:23 am
That’s precisely my point.