.................... MD is the way to go.........
Well I just bought a minidisc after pondering the same question.... Heres some info on why I think you should go the minidisc route:
You asked if its going to be around much longer, well its been around for quite a while now and according to how popular it is in Asia, you can bet it will be around for a long time to come.
MD Player's advantage over MP3 Player
1. MP3 has to be edited by computer. Solid state MP3 portable players cannot execute real time recording. MD, on the other hand, can record from any source (digital/analog) through just an optic fiber, coax line, or microphone.
2. MP3's sound quality is far more inferior than MD. MP3 compresses sound data in 1:10 destructive ratio which may result in the loss of sound quality (encoding at 128kb sampling rate or below). MD uses ATRAC technology to compress sound in 1:5 ratio by eliminating noises and inaudible frequencies, preserving the dept of sounds. MiniDisc can actually sound better than a CD. MP3 cannot.
3. The various existing MD equipments, along with the removable colorful discs and labels, be can be easily individualized to show different personal styles. MP3s uses non-removable media, hard to be personalized.
4. MiniDisc equipments' accessories are easily and inexpensively obtained audio accessories whereas MP3 players require expensive computer accessories (such as RAM) for best performance.
Imagine how easy it is for example to record live DJ sets to your MD, just connect the unit and press record. You can record interviews, lecutres... You can set track stops on long live sets that you record onto the disc so you can hop around....
But truly the selling point for me is sound quality, the mp3 players can't compete with the sound. And of course each blank MD disc is re-recordable and Sony claims that there is no degredation of sound after 1 million recordings...
If you want to learn more, check out this website:
http://www.minidisct.com/md_is_better_than_mp3.html
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