Ha! Take THAT, Sony!

Yesterday, my patience ran out. I've been at work without any music for weeks & couldn't take it anymore, I decided to get the best portable audio I could afford RIGHT NOW (which ain't much really, haha.) I almost went for a Creative Labs 6GB Zen Micro, since they're on sale now for $150. Unfortuantely, my ears were bigger than my checkbook and I'm still not 100% sold on it's built-in microphone. So I looked at good ol' CD Walkmans.

The first one I looked at was a $30 Sony model. All it does is plays CDs, but I needs music NOW dammit! Then I saw a Panasonic one that plays mp3s. Ohhhhh yeah, They DO that now! They did it back then when I got my MD, but I didn't even consider it cos it sounded gay. "HellllOOOOO, look at my thweet widdle mpthwee CD pwayer!" Granted, "Check out my MINIDISC" doesn't sound much better, if at all. Hard Drive either. Hmmmmm, I may have just uncovered an industry secret...

Then I saw one of Sony's PSYC CD players. It's a rather striking clear orange & clear black design, but what really caught my eye was that it plays CDs, mp3s AND Sony's proprietary ATRAC format, which is what my MD uses! If I use a CD-RW disc, I could be using this thing the same as my MD player, except it can't record anything. But hey, music again, similar application, $50! And since a CD can hold a helluva lot more songs than an MD disc can, I'd be a fool NOT to buy! But I didn't.

The lil' dreamer in me said CHECK FRY'S. Fry's is an electronics chain that looooves to stock older equipment. They carry all the new shit too, just they seem to not let go of the past. Good thing too. They turned out to be the ONLY store in So. CA I've seen Sony's Hi-MD players at. They didn't have any older MDs, but they DID have the PSYC CD player... and it's immediate predecessor, the D-NE319. This model has the exact same features as the current model, only with no wired remote. But it was $30. And it was blue. And I bought it. \:D/

The thing works beautifully. I can use my existing MD software with it, it doesn't skip under any driving conditions so far, it's got a surprisingly thorough list of settings and options, 3 EQ settings with a 4th you can customize, 3 bass settings, and it looks like a small UFO. An awesome blue UFO.

I suppose "Take THAT, Sony" isn't really applicable here. After all, I DID end up buying another Sony product, and I still can't record vocals. I just feel somewhat victorious having avoided shelling out $156 \:D/ Of course, now that I see that Fry's carries Hi-MD, I'll be spending around $200 there for one, once I can afford it. Maybe tax refund time \:D/