MP3 player almost certainly, they're generally much better both in technical ability, versatility and mechanical quality.

I have a minidisk player/recorder and an mp3player (8cm cds). If you have a cdburner (rewriter) get a few of those rewriteable disks (8cm) and enjoy.

The sound is pretty good they are not all that bulky and they don't take the same time to record than the actual song and with the rewritable media you can even start over again if you want. Sure you can't add your own titles and delete songs directly with the player/recorder...

I would say mp3player for sure!

I've had a mini-disc player/recorder for a while now so not the latest model but it's still really good. I find that it's really useful that you can get quite a bit more music on a mini-disc than on a cd. I've also got one built into my hi-fi which gfets used an awful lot. I have to say though, buying parts for my portable one has proved very difficult and expensive. (That serves me right for losing things!)

Mini-Disc Player. Mini-Disc Player.

I've used Mini-Disc players since Sony first started pushing them, and it's a great format. If you have decent headphones and a good (read: Sony) player, the quality is very good. Most people don't notice the difference between good MP3s and anything else.

I have a Sony NetMD player atm, which is tiny small, and allows you to a) download songs from the net and transfer them onto the mini-disc (which in the player sits on a cradle where it charges and connects to the pc) b) transfer existing mp3s onto mini-discs c) transfer from a cd to the mini-disc.

This is all done alot faster than recording normally (the box says 32x faster) and the quality is excellent. It automatically labels the songs and albums so on the remote stick you can see who the artist is and what the track is called. Plus, you can do all the normal mini-disc stuff like mix and edit tracks and stuff.

So, NetMD is fantastic. The players are very small and slimline and fit in a pocket without being noticeable really.

If you want an MP3 player, the only way to ensure great quality is to pay decent money and get either one of the new Creative ones or one of the Apple ones.

Edit... I forgot, the NedMD supports LP4, so you can fit loads more minutes onto one mini disc.

(Edited by Maffrew 06/02/2003 18:36)

I had an MP3 player, loved it, it broke. Now i have a mini disc player, love it even more. I suppose it depends on how much you spend, but i think the overall quality is better on mini disc. I know some people like MP3's so they can download music to play on it, but that can be done with a mini disc too, i do it all the time. If my mini disc broke i would have to buy something new, and it would be a mini disc every time.


(Edited by GothBoy 06/02/2003 20:53)

Mindisc

I'm thinking about upgrading my very elderly Sony mZR 37 at the moment (about 4 years ould & still going strong)

I only want to upgrade it because I want MDLP & the battery life of modern players.

The main problems I have against MP3 is that either you have to go with a solid state player & limit yourself to about 2 hours of tunes at a time, or you go for a hard drive based player (Apple Ipod etc) & I'm far too clumsy for them. They would fail the "Tycho Whoops test in weeks"

plus you can give people minidiscs & not worry about the cost.

Imagine saying, "here, have the hard drive from my Ipod"

The 8cm CD MP3 players arepretty cool though

I've got one of the 40Gb Creative Jukeboxes. It's bigger than I'd like but still smaller than a portable CD player. I love it. They're best suited for trains, planes, cars and desks, less so for listening on the move (although it is small enough to clip onto a belt). It particularly proved it's worth when I got shipped out to Indonesia/Singapore. No need to worry about what CDs to take with me - they were almost all on the Jukebox already! I also have one of the earlier 6Gb versions which was still pretty damned useful although bigger.

Main snags with hard disk units are that battery life could be longer and it's potentially embarassing when friends start looking through the contents of your Jukebox and start sniggering. OTOH, that's how I learned a friend was possibly the only other person I knew who'd bought the last T'Pau album...

I also used to have a Compact Flash based player with a 96Mb card in it. OK but it was too much of a pain to keep changing tracks on the cards and CF was (and still is) to have lots of spares.

That said, my current PDA also takes CF cards and I have a 256Mb card with MP3s on it to listen to while on the Tube. I wouldn't have bothered with another solid state MP3 player but quite enjoy making use of the ability to play MP3s off a device I'd be carrying on me anyway.

Hmmm... not actually sure this helps answer your question at all...

I've had a minidisc for almost 4 years now (Sony component & sony portable), and MP3 is just soooooooooo much easier!
I got the new Creative Jukebox Zen at christmas.
It's the same size as my portable minidisc player, but holds a ridiculous amount of music
I've spent the past week converting my music collection to MP3s (some 300-400 CDs - lost count after the first night...)
Couldn'ta done that with minidisc - best of all I didn't have to do any labelling - even with a keyboard attached to my component minidisc that part got real boring real fast.
I now have some 10 000 songs on my walkman, and it fits in my pocket
No need for extra discs, folders

*Wants a jukebox zen or Ipod*
Not got the money though

VERY OLD THREAD ALERT

I had minidisc for years - a gorgeous little Sony portable and a TEAC hi-fi unit. The Sony got stood on and never recovered, and my TEAC unit needs a service at the moment. (heh, its 6 years old now)

At one time, when pretty much all of my friends had minidisc, it was *the* format for us - we all swapped, shared and made compilations of music via minidisc. I don't see my 'in real life' friends as much since moving to Manchester, and sharing music over the internet seems to be more common now. I practically don't listen to CDs anymore unless I take the time to sit down and actually listen to something on my hifi. I havent space at my new house to rig up my turntable either.

So with that in mind, and the fact that i'm listening to podcasts an awful lot thesedays, I finally bought an MP3 player. It's an Olympus M:Robe and i'm in *love* - its the sexiest darn thing! Similar spec wise to the IPOD mini.

Upgraded to the 40GB Creative Zen Touch in April.
Then spent all of May and June in India - couldn't have lived without it.
Battery lasted the entire 18 hours each way, which my previous 20GB wouldn't have.....that is it lasted the 18 hours there, and then after recharging it lasted the 18 hours back.
Only gripe is the "Touch interface"
It's bloody useless, the slightest twitch and you've just skipped 400 songs up the list....kind of annoying, if you have over 6000 songs on it...
Don't use the interface at all, just the remote control which is great.
For setting up playlists, I do it on the PC, which only takes a matter of minutes...