MINIDISC PLAYERS : Absolutely. To play MP3s on a Rio, you 1)get the MP3 on a computer (download, rip from CD, whatever) and 2) transfer it to your Rio.To play MP3s on a MD, you 1)get the MP3 on a computer (download, rip from CD,whatever) and 2) transfer it to your MD.To play MP3s on a tape deck, you 1)get the MP3 on a computer (download, ripfrom CD, whatever) and 2) transfer it to your tape deck.Same exact process. The audio formats (and the resulting fidelity) may bedifferent, but the mechanics are identical. I'll repeat - MD makes a MUCHbetter portable MP3 player than the Rio, from many different viewpoints - costof media, editability, features, etc.1) The transport is hardly the same. This is what happens when you recordan MP3 to the various devices.Rio: The MP3 file is transferred digitally, in the same file format, through your computer's parallel port at a high speed. The file thensits on the Rio until it is played back, at which point it is decodedfrom its original file format from memory for analog playback. MINIDISC PLAYERS : File transfer time (ie, time to playability on the device): ~six seconds/mbEnd file size for high-quality audio: ~1mb/minuteMinidisc (assuming digital copy): The MP3 file is decoded by an MP3 decoder on the host computer, converted to standard 44,1khz/16 bit audio, transmitted by SP/DIF or TOSlink to the MiniDisc recorder, the MiniDiscrecorder encodes the audio into ATRACx and writes it to the minidisc.To play back the file, the MiniDisc player reads the ATRAC-encoded filefrom the MiniDisc and decodes it for analog playback.File transfer time: ~60 seconds/mbEnd file size for high-quality audio: ~2mb/minuteAnalog tape: The MP3 is decoded by an MP3 decoder on the host computerto 44.1khz/16 bit audio, converted from digital to analog in the soundcard, output using the analog out on the sound card through analog cabling, input into the tape deck's analog inputs where the signalis then filtered by the recording pots and/or any sound processing MINIDISC PLAYERS : Grasping at straws. Any MD user knows the sound quality of MD, and we'redealing with low to medium quality source material, assuming the usual 128KBMP3. There is no real world difference here. There IS a real worlddifference, however between a CD copied to MD and a CD ripped to 128KB MP3. Tothe extent that sound quality is a difference, it weighs heavily on the side ofMD. For me, MP3s are still OK for portable listening.But with the Rio, this is a process you do every day. With MD, you do it ONCE,and you have the disk available for future use. I suppose it depends on howyou listen. If you listen to the same mix for a week, then switch to another,the Rio would suit that style well. If you switch back and forth betweenseveral, the Rio gets expensive or annoying. If you carry six MDs around likeI do, and decide what to listen to during the day, carrying eight hours ofmusic on a Rio gets very expensive. MINIDISC PLAYERS : Ouch. Try editing 10 seconds of audience noise from a live recording on a PC. Load the software, load the file, do the edit, save the file. On a Sony MZ-R30this is a ten second chore - put in a new track mark and erase the old track.You can also edit without your computer. I routinely put in track marks andclean up recordings in otherwise useless time on a train. The Rio's playbackcontrols are also primitive compared to MD. And why would you do titling on aRio when you're only going to erase the whole thing in a day or two anyway? Ican type in song titles from my computer (Sony VAIO), but with 500 or so MDs,there's no way I'm going to bother.But is there one between a CD ripped to a high quality VBR-encoded MP3?Very little, and the VBR file is often smaller than the 128kbps file, bothof which the Rio will play just fine.(VBR = variable bitrate encoding. With high-quality VBR, "easy" passages like silence are recorded at a low bit rate, down to 48kbps, whereas "difficult" passages, with a particularly large dynamic range can go up to 160kbps (or higher, I've just never noticed)) MINIDISC PLAYERS : I agree that ATRAC beats 128kbps MP3 in terms of sound quality, but it'susing more physical space (and a transfer rate of ~256kbps), right? Honestly, if you could use a single MD and get twice as much recordingtime with -slightly- lower quality music, which would you use?If you need that much music before making a PC pitstop, that's true. But imagine you have a rather large collection of music (I do) and each daywant to listen to a different mix (never repeating mixes) with your fullcollection at your disposal? If you did that with a MD player, you'retalking over an hour a day of generating mixes. On the Rio, you justzap up the files (assuming that you rip CDs as you get them, and haveI'd use MP3. As I've stated, for me, MP3 (even copied to MD) is more thanadequate for portable listening. I'm not everyone, though. For a stronglydissenting opinon, check outThe time that you spend ripping CDs as you get them is not only a significantamount of time, but it it more labor-intensive than copying a CD to MD (hitsync record, press play, walk away). MP3s don't appear out of thin air. Ifyou download them with a 56K modem, the time involved gets even more gruesome.
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