Rio vs MPMan vs Minidisk

Nog wat stuff van Fast Graphics: een vergelijking tussen de Diamond Rio, MPMan en Minidisk.

All very cool you might think, but what does it have to do with portable MP3 players? Well, the techniques applied to MiniDisk systems is somewhat similar to MP3. When you look at a MiniDisk and compare it to a CD, you'll notice that the MiniDisk is a lot smaller, yet still is can carry the same 74 minutes of audio. This can mean two things: either the tracks on a MiniDisk are smaller, thus having a higher density, or MiniDisk uses compression to fit 74 minutes on such a small disk. And the last option is the case: Like MP3 audio encoding, MiniDisk only records "what we hear" meaning that all unneeded sound info is filtered out and not recorded. This causes a very slight degradation in soundquality but allows for a lot of music to be stored on a disk measuring about 6x6 cm. With the MP3 format of digital music encoding becoming really popular, several companies developed small MP3 decoders (which convert the digital MP3 files to analog audio signals) meant for personal on-the-road use. They figured that people would like to play their downloaded music on other places/systems than their own computer. Till now you had to connect a tape, DAT or MiniDisk recorder to the soundcard to do this.