Sony's ATRAC3 portable music players

[PhoenixOrion]

I'm not familiar with the atrac3 format. But those 1.8inch, 20Gig, with 30hour battery are sure quite nice.

 

[PhoenixOrion]

mighty bump.

 

[ssvegeta1010]

I haven't used one, but I've heard formatting like 50 songs takes over 7 hours. (Don't know the test PC)

 

[Baked]

Sony NW-HD3 now supports MP3. Very pricey even compared to overpriced iPods. Review

Originally posted by: ssvegeta1010
I haven't used one, but I've heard formatting like 50 songs takes over 7 hours. (Don't know the test PC)

You got a link to back that up?

Converting CD to Atrac3/Plus format takes just as quick as converting to anything else. For more info, check out MiniDisc.org

 

[thecrecarc]

atarc3 as better quality. id i say better? i meant much MUCH better quality. however it takes more space.

 

[ssvegeta1010]

I don't have a link because I read in a local newspaper, but I guess that's probably another thing my newspaper has gotten wrong.

They are known for printing obvious misspellings and mixing up the date (Names of days and years).

Knowing them the test pc was a Celeron-300 with 64MB SDRAM.

 

[halfadder]

I played with a Sony "networked walkman" or whatever it's called. It's small, the menus are simple but nice. The audio quality was just as good as any other portable music player. I didn't have a chance to try the host PC software, but I've heard that the encoding to ATRAC3 isn't quite as bad as the initial reports made it seem.

*shrug* There are many portable music players to choose from. The Sony is probably just as good as many of the others out there. Out of personal preference, I'd probably buy an iRiver or an iPod though.

 

[icejunkie]

ATRAC reminds me of 8 Track. Ahh... 😛

 

[skreet]

Originally posted by: thecrecarc
atarc3 as better quality. id i say better? i meant much MUCH better quality. however it takes more space.

I dont know what formart MP3 you're using but ATRAC is 48 or 64 kbps. I tried to make a ATRAC cd for my sister and it was going so slow I canceled it. Compression does take time, I have yet to let it run long enoujgh to finish to tell you all what it sounds like. At that rate i'd expect it to sound lossless 😛

 

[DeeKnow]

Originally posted by: ssvegeta1010
I haven't used one, but I've heard formatting like 50 songs takes over 7 hours. (Don't know the test PC)

nope. that;s baloney....

 

[GoSharks]

Originally posted by: skreet
I dont know what formart MP3 you're using but ATRAC is 48 or 64 kbps. I tried to make a ATRAC cd for my sister and it was going so slow I canceled it. Compression does take time, I have yet to let it run long enoujgh to finish to tell you all what it sounds like. At that rate i'd expect it to sound lossless 😛

you are mis-informed. atrac has a range of bitrates, all of them sound comparable or better than similar mp3 bitrates. atrac maxes out at 292kbps.

 

[andycheah]

I have a Minidisc player that uses ATRAC3. I find the sound quality pretty good and roughly equivalent to an MP3 at similar bitrate. The main annoyance though is the stupid SonicStage software you have to use. It's clunky and awkward. Also, I already have my CD collection in MP3 so it's inefficient having a second copy of everything in ATRAC3 just for my Minidisc.

If I were to do it again, I wouldn't get a Mindisc. Their hardware is great. Would be perfect if I could just drag over my MP3s and not have to convert my collection to ATRAC3 using SonicStage.

Funny thing is the only reason I haven't sold it is because it has AM radio! I can't find AM radio on an MP3 player, otherwise I would've bought it yesterday.

Andy