The Holtonian

I got a New Portable Audio Device that Isn't So New

So, my mp3 player broke a few weeks back. It was an Iriver 128mb thingy I bought for wifey and I to use for various workout type events. It worked ok for a while, though the computer interface for the thing was never fun to use, it was a huge hassel. Plus only have 128mb on it was a nuissance as well. I often longed for my MD player when I wanted to quickly change the music on it. But I used it a lot, mostly for mowing the lawn as hearing the lawn mower is not that fun. All of a sudden it wouldn't upsink/unlink/uppink to my computer, which basically made it stuck with London Calling and Moby---good music to have on an MP3 player but it gets old fast. So i dug through my files and found out we bought a 2 year product replacement at Best buy for the thing... which was cool.

So I took it in and they said they'd give me a new one strait up even though I didn't have a lot of the equipment or the box. I inquired if I could have a gift certificate instead as I didn't want to purchase that same defective product again... they agreed without a batting any eye. I was happy. Here's where the story gets better, I paid a $120 for the thing and after that had a $30 mail in rebate... they gave me $140 in store credit. That was Flawsome! (Like 'awesome' only better).

I checked out the MP3 players and looked at some I pods but after reading Ryedawgs post about his ipod troubles I sort of was turned off to them, that and the astronomical price they charge. And all the things that were around $140 only were the 128 type things, and I was sort of done with that. Then I saw the Sony Md player for 80 bucks. Now I'm one of the five people in the U.S. who has ever owned an MD Player, and I swear by them. I think they're great, don't skip, re-recordable, and still clings on to the disc type mentality that I like for some reason. So I thought to myself, I could buy an MD player and then spend a good chunk of change on cds or something. So I bought an MD player.

Now many will scoff at me for buying an obsolete product, I myself was a little skeptical of myself. But I realized that I already have 20 MDs at home with great mixes. I have one of a terriffic Jason Harrod Concert that rules (thanks to Morris). And I just couldn't afford an Ipod. Also I purchased a 4 year warranty on the thing so I figure, I use it for four years and before the warranty will expire I'm sure something terrible will most likely happen to it and I can use that money to possibly get an Ipod type device, which in four years will have come down in price.

Now this is about the fourth MD Player I've owned... well.... third techinically--I stole Jesse Strows. The first I bought at unclaimed baggage about 4 years ago for 50 bucks.
I thought it was great deal, until I got it home and realized it was a Japanese model and it ate up double AA batteries and didn't have the recording capabilities... so in a sense i got taken... but it was my fault.

And Luckily Jesse had an MD Player too, which I used more than he did to make the MD's and played them in my Japanese model.

His still works and has a Sony rechargable battery that still works after 5 or 6 years, not too shabby. And I still have to give it back to him....

Then I went to unclaimed baggage a few years later after my first trek and found this MD player for 50 bucks....

This one was pretty swank and had all the bells and wistles... except I didn't have the software to hook it up to my computer so I was sort of out of luck. But still it worked great... until I dropped it while jogging about three times. One time I was running down the hill in front of the gym at Covenant and dragged it for about 15 steps... I just couldn't stop on that steep hill. Thus after a few drops the head phone female hole became damaged and the thing only worked if you held the headphone male part in with your thumb. So it is sort of out of commission, but makes a great center piece.

And here's the new one...

This one should be the best, in theory as its brand new and has a 4 year warranty, not like the used ones i bought at Unclaimed. I've already used it and the Sony Software is pretty easy to use. Much more so than I tunes in my opinion. Plus it can cram a lot of music on to one mini disc I've put 40 minutes onto one already and still have about 106 mb left on the disc. Which roughly translates to about 2 cds per mini disc at the rate I have them on there. I was rather frusterated with I-tunes inflexibility which was sort of a reason I was turned off to Ipod, that and the lack of a replaceable battery scares me. I hate how I buy a song off I tunes but it won't play on different players, so I have to use I tunes.. that bugs me. Its such a microsoft thing for apple to do. So I realize, I'm going backwards in a sense, but I'm cool with it. Here's the evolution of the Minidisc player....

Posted by holtonian at October 24, 2004 05:19 PM | TrackBack