From: Shawn Watson <shawnw_at_internode.on.net>
Date: Thu, 07 Aug 2003 01:44:54 +0930

George Michaelson wrote:

>For a non-jukebox form thing, I think I like the philips mini-cd MP3 player very
>much. A colleague has one, and finds the density of MP3 recording he can fit on
>a mini-cd, and its anti-skip buffer size really hits the sweetspot. Its a much
>longer battery life (20-30 hours from memory) and very very stylish/small. Of
>course it does mean stopping every now and then to change a mini-CD, but thats
>not such a great price to pay.
>
>the density of these mini-CD's with MP3 is close to that of AATRAC devices, and
>you shouldnt ignore minidisc players. they are phenominally well made devices,
>small and light. However I think MP3 is good enough, and a minicd holds about
>4-5 LPs worth at a low bitrate encoding.
>
>There was a compaq device in the same niche as the philips mp3 mini-cd player.
>It may be off the market by now. cruder construction, but otherwise the same, in
>a less stylish enclosure.
>

Mini-disks just don't do it for me. Once you understand what a harddrive
based MP3 player is you just can't get enthusiastic about cassette
set-ups. At least a CD/MP3 player uses CD's with 700MB capacity -
minidiscs only hold about 200MB, and they're a lot more expensive than
MP3/CD players also (on par with harddrive based MP3 players - go
figure?!). Mini-disc players will go the way of the dinosaur soon
enough, I'm guessing, unless some stunningly useful new feature appears
on one. ..

>
>I wish Archos had made the form factor just a bit smaller. I love my JBR, but
>compared to an Ipod its like a VW beetle to a porche :-)
>
Agreed

>
>cheers, happy cycling (and watch out for those speeding cars you won't hear...)
>
Probably get hit by a car with full sound insulation and stereo blasting ;)
Received on 2003-08-06