Digital Dreams, Analog Budget
Apr 23 '01 (Updated Feb 28 '05)
The Bottom Line choose portables that fit your needs; for me, smaller and cheaper and interactive with a variety of media-sources is better than higher-tech or bulky or pricey
Walkman, discman, minidiscman, or other? A Personal History of Mixed-Media Ways and Woes.
warning: there will be no discussion of MP3 players, as transportable solid-state media is something I haven't tried: what follows is all about devices that operate discs or tapes which you insert and collect
I've realized from reading Epinions that not everyone thinks about media or uses it in the ways I do. I thought maybe a personal anecdote might be useful in this advice category.
Here are the devices I own or have access to at home:
[price paid in brackets after each line]
Portable cd player.[119.00]
Component cd player.[125.00]
Sports walkman.[49.99]
Boombox with cassette.[99.99]
Computer CD-Rom drive.[standard w/computer]
Computer CD-R burner.[199.99,installed later]
Portable Minidisc player/recorder.[179.99]
Vinyl record player.[who remembers?]
Here are the media-types I have collections of:
CDs, both pre-recorded and R
Cassettes, both pre-recorded and R
Mindiscs, home-recorded
Vinyl albums.
How do I use all these things, you may wonder, and why?
Well, I'm old. I've been buying music through all the technology changes since the mid-70s.
Thank god I was just young enough to miss the whole 8-track thing. Whew!!
I have cassettes. I have records. I have CDs. I have music in all these formats, music I still like to listen to.
Only, I don't so much. The vinyl is too fragile, too prone to scratch and skip. The cassettes are too prone to tangle up in the players (all those mobile parts!), and the sound quality just doesn't rival (without Dolby NR and other related high-end features I lack) the digital media.
Plus, on the home-recorded tapes, yeah, I can fit two albums on one cassette, but to have to FF, RW, or be forced to listen to both out of laziness even if I only really want one song halfway through track two? Tedious much?
Sadly, even though I can cue any track I want at digital whim, portable CD players are just too big and weirdly shaped. I'm clumsy. I drop everything, all day long. I use my portable cd player for minimum portability -- when i want to hear something in the kitchen or on the back porch without lugging the whole boombox around. When I want to have headphones and listen quietly while others at home are doing other things. Also, it's an old puppy with no anti-skip, so it doesn't really like mobility so much, anyway.
Even the smallest, slimmest Discmans (the ones that aim to be no larger than a CD itself sure are pretty) don't fit easily in a pocket. Everyone I see on the subway carries them in hand, or puts them in a purse or backpack. For me, that's a formula for ripping the cords out or straining the headphones or other complications. And they don't often record, and certainly not with the ability to edit. Not for way more money than I want to spend.
So, my solution has been to buy cds (or download music) for use at home, over computer or stereo, and to record selected tracks/albums/mixes with my portable MD, which I can then edit or erase at will. I use a simple analog cord available at RadioShack, and anything that plays a sound to an output jack can be recorded efficiently and without distortion by the MD. with a microphone, live sounds can be recorded as well. Like tape recording without the hiss. I can cary three or four minidiscs AND the player in a small coat pocket, and I'm off and all set for the day.
I've recorded downloaded songs (when played over my jukebox software) this way, and tracks from vinyl, cds, and other cassettes. My old collections live on! If in altered form, and only partially.
So, this is my system. It's not the highest-tech. It's not the most practical way. But it makes use of the media I have, allowing me to get more life out of cherished records and cassettes as well as my substantial CD collection. With the help of the software on my computer, I can manipulate any song I record or download into it.
The minidisc player sounds good, fits in my pocket, and I can even play my little mix-mad mini-disc creations (with a different connecting cord) over my stereo at home if I have the patience to do the connections.
I've made CD-R mixes, too, but I find I seldom listen to them. Too easy to randomize the regular cds or have the jukebox mess around with the songs I've loaded into it already. And, as said, I don't often travel with my bulky CD player.
Weirdly, I still find myself using the SportsWalkman on occasion, as some cassettes I haven't bothered to redub, or when I want to listen to a radio on the road. If only my little MD player/recorder had a radio, I might love it more. As both it and the Walkman (with handy wrist-strap, clumsiness factor resolved!) take only one doubleA battery each for several hours playtime, I can live with the occasional switching back and forth.
Plus, the MDman is made of metal, and the SportsMan is reinforced plastic; ie, encased in one big bumper. They don't break when I drop them!
Update on 2/28/05: Well, I got a mini iPod for Christmas, and while I hesitate to say that all problems are solved, it does work remarkably well. It couldn't be smaller or slicker or easier to use, and it's sheathed in tough metal. Titling (a big issue for non-prerecorded minidiscs) is seamless as all data is entered through iTunes on your computer. It's really ideally designed for ease of use, like most Mac products.
Though I still find myself using my walkman for old tapes, of which I have hundreds, and a discman for playing not-yet burned cds at home, the minidiscs only remaining advantage is that it can record any sound source analog, and it's still a bit bulky and fragile and noisy.
And the new ones don't even do that, having chosen to compete with the iPod on computer functionality. Sad to say it, but iPod is a more satisfying device, if your computer can handle iTunes (newer Mac or Windows XP at least).
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
seric26
|
|
Member: Eric
Location: Boston, MA
Reviews written: 176
Trusted by: 47 members
About Me:
What's it all about? Home entertainment (including reading) and cooking.
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.