I think others have addressed the quality of minidiscs well...the quality is great, and it's a lot cheaper than having memory cards for a MP3 player. Some caveats though...the minidisc players are definitely larger and  heavier than MP3 players. But smaller and lighter than CD players. May not  be an issue for many people, but I personally love being able to just stick  an MP3 player in my pocket, and not even know it's there.