Some RU-vidrs keep comparing minidisc to CDs but that’s a mistake imo. MD were intended to replace cassettes, not CDs. I had a silver Sony MZ-R70 just like yours that I bought new in I think 1999. Loved it to bits and it was such an upgrade from my cassette Walkman. It was incredibly robust. It survived years of abuse including 7 months working in a freezing fish packing factory in Norway with salt water everywhere and cold temperatures. Then brought on a 9 month backpacking trip throughout Russia, Mongolia and China. It was the ultimate travel machine. I made field recordings with a Sony stereo microphone you could get for it. And I brought a couple cables so I could record music from fellow travellers, from hostels and cafes. I got such a wonderful collection of music that was organically integrated with the journey, part of the journey. Only Minidisc could have pulled that off. CD-RWs were unreliable and didn’t always work. They were bulky and fragile. Minidisc was the best format ever
MD comeback is vastly looked forward to… let’s hope Sony or any other well-established music device producer gets this message and follows accordingly… 🙏
@@mariuszadamczyk7766 I doubt that will happen. Most people are just used to streaming,although I will say if streaming services keep begging for money as they are rn,there might be a slight chance
The problem is that the MD technology is still the IP of Sony and anyone with interest in reviving the format would have to pay major royalties and licensing fees to Sony. You don’t have to to that for CDs or tapes. That’s why it’s easy to launch kickstarters and such für new devices. MD is unfortunately special here and Sony not know to give up IP easily 😮
I got convinced to release my album on Minidisc, which admittedly I wasn't familiar with. We ended up selling 30 copies on preorder, so there's clearly some demand still out there! I ended up biting the bullet to have something to play it on and, by sheer coincidence, I got the same blue player you showed in your video. I was pleasantly surprised when my copies arrived - they're gorgeous little bits of kit, especially with the full body printing that the pressing plant offer!
Watching this reinforces why I love MiniDisc and why I try to get as many people as I can into the format. It's such a great format that I wish had taken off more worldwide. It should've been the future of portable audio. My NetMD machine through Web MiniDisc is my favorite way to record stuff from my collection over to work listening media. The designs are so cool to look at too, even the more plain looking ones.
Im 21. I never had an actual portable player other than mp3 player. I have a CD player at home that ive bought to play some of my thrash metal CDs, but now im thinking of buying the MDs. Those MD players are so beautiful.
They were so underrated. I had 2 beautiful Sony MD Walkman's and I loved them. I still have one in mint condition. I used it in work all week on a single AA battery.
Dad bought me a mini disc recorder (came with a portable player) to run my studio recordings off to when I was 17. Still have all the discs and I still love using them. And I agree, there's something really special about physical media like this.
I'm from America and I'm incredibly lucky I found a record shop here that sells blank minidiscs sealed! Just bought a portable player from Japan, I'm slowly acquiring all the parts to make it work!
I've been a minidisc user for a long time. I stopped using them for the last 6 or 7 years but, now I'm back in full swing. I recently bought an Onkyo micro system from Japan which allows USB to Minidisc recording. Very convenient.
@@chilly6470 Sayın Arkadaş Ben Kayıt yapmak için Mini Disc Bulamıyorum Nerede Boş MD Disc Bulabilirim Bi Zahmet Biliyorsanız satış Linkini Yazabilirseniz Çok Menmun Olurum.Saygı ve Sevgilerimle
The only downside is the lack of parts, for example, magnetic heads like to fail. And I think nostalgia is the key word. I've bought my last MD in 2023, and I bought the first one when it came out. I love the philosophy you put in your videos, it's not about logics, it's about we like to record things in real time, why not?
My story with Minidiscs started 3 years ago in a carboot sale....a lady sold me a fully working MZ-N505 for £2...and now I own more that 8 . Love them..more than my hi-fi flac player
We are all on the same journey Tony! MiniDisc is awesome... yes, cassettes have a particularly pleasing aesthetic and I will never give up on them... but minidisc (for me at least) will always have a special place in my heart. I always love the underdog in any fight! Great vid as usual.
Ive been watching your videos for only a short time after getting back into cassette as I wanted to put something in my classic car and wanted it to be age appropriate. I also found my old walkman. I never really got into mini disc but accidentally purchased one with a couple of broken walkmen. Im impressed with the quality and the fact I have a tiny player/recorder.The only issue is that any spares for a mini disc machine are a lot more expensive compared with cassette...Good video and im now subscribed
I loved MiniDisc in it's heyday, I still have dozens of discs, the recorder and some portables. I still record on them for fun occasionally. What really helps by the way those portables tend to have very good headphone amps, much better than most cellphones have. And the ability to edit tracks down to a fraction of a second is a boon too. Still love cassettes too. The limitions of the format (especially playing time) are actually it's strength, because it forces you to really think what you put on them. It makes for much better mixtapes. And with Spotify you have a perfect source. Used to record a lot of digital satellite radio too.
Yeah, it's weird though. Playing through my Sharp 702 I got a much stronger signal than through my Sony NF520D. Never noticed that before. I wonder what causes that?
@@grizzlyaddams3606 Different headphone amp, with different charasteristics like restistance etc. It's quite common that a given headphone works much better on one device than on another. It's why the current trend where headphones have mini-usb connections rather than an analog one in itself is not a bad thing, as the ampification and D/A conversion is now done in the headphone rather than the device.
@@BlaBla-jj6sh I was surprised to say the least. I had been listening to the Sony with the phones in just the night before. Then went to use the Sharp on my home setup but was too lazy to hook in the optical. So I plugged it into the phone jack. The sound was hot, liquid and loud. When I went to the Sony just to compare.... Sad face, like it was a completely different machine when hooked up to a good sound system than with a pair of cheap jacks. 😄 Guess I know what's for what now.
Takes me back to the days when I used to record Pages From Ceefax from my VHS video recorder to minidisc. I still have a portable HiMD recorder which I used last night and was pleasently surprised at how good those recordings were.
"and right now, they're not expensive"... MOMENTS LATER, EBAY PRICES EXPLODE ;-) I love minidisc too, for much the same reasons you do, and my little Panasonic unit still works fine. Minidisc is further proof, if any were needed, that the better format doesn't always win.
I became a MiniDisc user shortly after NetMD came on the scene. I could not afford one of those new fancy iPod things all the cool kids were showing off. But I could get a Minidisc with 160 min of music per disc (LP2 mode). All in a much smaller form factor then portable CD players or cassette players. The player and a hand full of discs provided plenty of listening time. I am now a second time MiniDisc user (as well as cassettes). I seem to have a soft spot for outdated/obsolete audio formats. No doubt I am in good company.
MiniDisc was a technically awesome format which was basically killed off by Sony's paranoia about copy protection. About the time when Napster popularized digital copying, Sony's clumsy efforts made the format look bothersome in comparison. I still have my two portable recorders, one of them being a NetMD, as well as a Yamaha stationary deck and a Denon mini format deck. And a bunch of recorded material.
Anders Nilsson I agree, I have many Sony mini discs and even a beautiful Sony computer that had a mini disc drive, but it was crippled by Sony’s paranoia about copyright. It would actually record off the built in fm radio in the computer but would not let me upload recording I my of myself playing my guitar. How stupid that was. But interesting that Sony mini disc deck in my stereo set up would allow me to transfer my recordings to a teac recording deck that burned CDs. How dumb was that! Yes Sony killed off their brilliant MD format. Glad I kept all my mini discs and players , and my teac deck.
@@warlockboyburns Don't know, haven't used them for a while. I suspect that they would have issues with anything later than Win XP since Win 7 changed the driver interface.
@@timwilliams113 Yes. Platinum MD. It's for Net MD. I have yet to use it but others have already and it seems to operate with no issues. You can use Sonic Stage with varying degrees of success. (i.e., drive signature disabled for later versions of windows) or running SS on a Win7/10 machine on a virtual drive.
I love how enthusiastic you are about these things! It's really enjoyable to hear the genuine reverence in your voice. And yeah, I agree, they are amazing! Minidiscs are bloody brilliant.
I loved MiniDisc from the first day on! Great to catch sounds while traveling or to record ideas. Sure I put some of my favorite records on them an listen to them in the car to protect the expensive CD's. Thanks for your video! (PS: I also was a big cassette user before MiniDisc)
Minidisc changed my life!This was pre-PC for me and suddenly I could record my demos in almost perfect digital quality,utilising the old Les Paul 'Sound On Sound' technique and for the first time not having to worry about generational degradation.I fn**ing LOVED minidisc
The ATRAC would start to get a bit glitchy /artifact-y by the twentieth bounce but it was only a slight (and not unpleasant) gurgling sound and I could live with that.
I kind of skipped the minidisc age when it was at its high time. I was still using cassettes, because they were good enough, and mostly.. cheap. I didn't have much money, so I didn't do anything that costed a lot. What I did got eventually was a MP3 compatible CD car radio at the time. And burning CD's was just started to get popular. A blank writable CD costed about the same as a minidisc. Expensive, but also could hold a shitload more than a minidisc could. So I skipped Minidisc. MP3 was fine, and I got roughly 10 hours of music on one CD. All arranged in folders to separate albums easily. Or just a pile of files for endless shuffleplay. I didn't need minidisc. But roughly 25 years later I did got into minidisc because someone gave me a box full of them, with recorders and everything. So the flame ignited anyway albeit a little late.
I take your point, but them "C.D's" now have micro bubles inthem and alot of what i burnt and baught legally are unplayable anymore, especially on a medium that was guaranteed to last atleast 50 years.... M.D's may not be exactly the same audio quality as cd's, but they have stood the test of time, dont suffer from disc rott and are far more reliable... M.D all the way for me for trusted backups that actually might last longwr than 50 years lol.....
I love having the possibility of physically having the music in my hands. Listening to my music through my phone does not bring me the same enjoyment I used to have when using my walkman.
That's part of the appeal, right there. An internet connection isn't needed, an update can't take it away and you don't have to pay for it monthly, and never own it.
No worries Tony! This is a format I have considered just because of it’s small form factor. Highly portable, high resolution and great sounding, can’t lose on this!😊💖
Wow what a treat this was. I used my sharp mini disc player (just to listen to stuff on my dad made up the discs for me ) from age 14_17 I loved it I absolutely took it every where with me along with a couple discs in pocket to change over if one ran out. But then of course I went to MP3 player then iPod then Spotify but....when I want a device souly for music without any Interuptions from.emAils texts apps or mp3 players playing up I decided to go to my mum's loft where my childhood things were and route out the player with ally discs again ....to hold it in my hand put the disc in and out again pop those earphones in and listen to that crystyl clear sound was just so so satisfying I forgot how much I loved it so now I use it again regularly and infact have just purchased a second player. This time a Sony one . It honestly is for me the best way to listen to music on the go no problems no tech faults sound is amazing . I would highly recommend this to any music lover . So glad to have mini disc back in my life again. One positive thing about this shitty year You did a great job with this video sir well done
13:30. It’s always amazed me how Sony managed to make the portable MD players so energy efficient. The playback time on my MZ-R900 is 30 hours off a single AA battery! The recording time is still a respectable 7 hours despite having to heat up the disc with a laser and then write to it. To my mind the portable minidisc players are the absolute pinnacle of consumer electronics miniaturisation and won’t ever be surpassed now we are in the digital memory age where everything is just stored on a computer chip.
Still have all my minidiscs, and players/recorders (portable and standalone). Have not used them in years, but never got rid of them. Now that i my own room for music, with all my equipment, i am going to use it again. Just for the fun of it. Because that is what it is all about, having fun with music and its media. Tapes too. Quality may be less or maybe not, but that does not matter, it is all about having fun with your hobby! So hats off to you, and keep having fun with all these audio media 👍👍👍
I first saw MiniDisc back in around 2005 on a train. Ten years later, I spotted a wild Sony NE410 at the flea market in Barcelona, and that marks the beginning of my journey of discovering MiniDisc.
I love this channel.. and didn't expect this video to pop up in my feed less than 48 hours after scooping up my first mini-disc Walkman (an MZ-R50 which I now know to sell and pick up for the upgrade version so I can have a digital output for the AAD masters produced in my recording studio which uses only pre-Y2k equipment) Thanks again, Tony.
I tell you what; Dang minidisc is awesome. I'd been sitting on an original 'High Fidelity Cassette' recording of The Beatles 'Magical Mystery Tour' that I lucky picked a while back. It was released by Mobile Fidelity some time in the 1980's and is the only analog version of the album released that was copied directly from the original studio master tapes. With a fancy minidisc on the table I decided it was a great time to finally make my copycats. I popped the tape into a Yamaha K-33 (My favorite playback deck, which once made a cameo in the film Boogie Nights) dropped a nice metal tape into a TEAC rx888, and with a little cable adaptation worked the MD player into the mix and, I tell you what; this minidisc sounds fucking FANTASTIC! Even listening through mediocre Presonus studio headphones (all that I have at home right now for some reason) this is easily the best sounding cut of the album I have ever heard. If anyone is on the fence about these little units I urge you to hop right on over it already.
Love the format! I do a lot of recording of my own music onto MD. Have four Sony decks here, and now inspired to pick up a portable after watching this.
I have a Sharp Recordable Minidisc {MD-MT821H}, which I bought years ago, and which I love to this day. It still plays like a dream. Crystal clear and everything. It really is like technology from the future, rather than old technology. To get music for my minidisc, I connect it to my android phone and simply record music.
I couldn't resist a smile early in the vid when you threw a bunch of MD's up - amongst them 'Brothers In Arms' by the Dire Straits. Brothers In Arms was one of _the_ albums from the eighties and it was responsible for the final breakthrough of the CD to the masses. Millions and millions of copies were sold. I think it even became the second-best sold album of the decade, behind only Michael Jackson's 'Thriller'. I believe it spend a staggering 5 years (!) in the Album Top 100 at the time. The thing is, that album became so popular not just because of it's music, but also because of it's superb sound quality. Mark Knopfler decided to go all-in on digital recording, trying out and experimenting with everything to see how digital would react. Then he created a sonic masterpiece that to this very day is amongst the pinnacle of digital CD quality and can still be used as a reference recording. Because of this, Philips - which had Dire Straits under contract - used this album extensively as promotion for the CD format. They did the same some years later when their digital DCC deck came out. The fun part is: even though Philips tried to take all the credit and used it extensively to promote the superior audio quality of the CD format and the DCC digital cassette system, the actual recorder on which Brothers In Arms was recorded, was a _Sony_ 24 bit PCM recorder! So that's why I had to chuckle a little when I saw it presented as a MD recording. Philips may have tried to take the credit, but that's some awesome Knopfler/Sony sound you're hearing there.
I stumbled on this youtube video after watching an entertaining Techmoan one and I must say I love the passion here. So I love cassettes and I am one of those people that skipped the mini disc period. I can't remember the reason but at the time the recorders were expensive and there was some kind of restriction on recording artists content which put me off. However, i see this is not a problem so i think I will have a dabble and buy a recorder.
i bought one meanwhile i was travelling to Osaka Japan back in the 90s and loved it for the time being. The design, the compact size and all the features it offered it also came with a stereo microphone and bought 100 MD disks all for about 150 US dollars. I already had several thousands of audio cds and hundreds of audio cassettes and getting into another format was going to be a bit too much. Therefore i had decided to sale it after some years of using it. Now i am back to audio cassettes and reel to reel tapes as i feel that somehow analog sound is unique.
I got into MiniDisc a bit late. Some of the clubs my band would play at would give us MiniDisc recordings of our shows. My college radio station was using them for some of their underwriting. And I essentially got paid to buy one to record my college choir's concerts in Europe in 2006 and 2008. It was seriously the best device for the job at that price point and even today most of the solid state devices I've seen are larger. My MD is a Hi-MD--more capacity and lots of other cool features. You could even use one like a portable hard drive and store data on it.
Hey, platnium md is now available for Windows and there's a chrome based app for it as well. It will transfer your MP3,flac,wav,etc over as a pcm file, using the Internal dsp at full quality.
I'll never forget seeing the first Sony MD portable recorder on display at a store. So so cool. Finally got that same model a couple years ago, complete with the demo disc that came with it. :-D I'm a little late, but I totally agree - they just look like the future and I'm going to get my turn enjoying them whether it makes any sense anymore or not. :-)
Cassettes and mini discs are just fun formats. But they also have another charm. They got me back into listening to entire albums again. Rather than just single mp3 tracks. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed full albums!
I can't believe it's been like 30 years since I was in NYC and walked from one store to another until I found the right price and blew all my student savings on a MZ-1. When I came back to Montreal I was insufferable, I was carrying it around with me everywhere (most of the time not playing a thing because of the miserable battery life) and making sure a minidisc was visible in the little pouch of the carrying case...
Two years ago I bought a used (of course...) Tascam MD 350 Minidisc recorder and started playing my "old" minidiscs from the 90's. Surprise, surprise, they sounded much, much better then back in the day, played on the same Sony minidisc recorder I recorded them with. So, the Tascam has a much better A - D / D - A converter then my old Sony. TheTascam makes them sound fantastic so I bought a bunch of TDK RXG discs - not only for use on my home stereo but also for on my Sony Minidisc Walkman. Fantastic sound for "on the move". I love this format, completely agree with you on the best discs still looking like the future of recorded sound.
Minidisc was a total game changer for me when it came out due to the editing features and also since the portable players could record in the field with excellent quality. Good tribute and explanation for the format here. I have recently used minidisc as a master for producing a little run of mix tapes :)
I bought a Sharp MD MT170 personal minidisc recorder back in 2003 and mainly it was to record CD's to play on my Sony minidisc car stereo. In the last year I've got my sharp recorder back out of the loft and I'm listienng to all the music I recorded back then as well as a few new discs I've recorded too. Don't tell the wife but I've just bought a Sont net MD machine off ebay so I can finally but all the track titles on my discs :-) I always thought the format was great. I think many people call it a failure but in reality it was big in Europe and Japan but not the USA as the record company's didnt like the idea of digitaly recording music. Interest has grown in the States now though. I'm going to enjoy it as well as my vinyl and my cassettes too!!
I have a minidisc deck MDS-JE330 and I'm very satisfied with sound from this device. Week ago i've repaired portable minidisc MZ-R90. This is a high tech, small unit with analog and optical input, have possibility record from mic. You can take your favourite music to walk. I know how a minidisc works, how ATRAC works. It's a great technology, it's a pity it has been replaced by phone and network services related to streaming music. Portable players offer a high quality of sound, decks are better. Thanks for prepare this video.
Nice video! I loved the MD format as well. I bought the Sony MDS-JE520 in 1998. Sold it a few years later (wish I hadn't). Came upon a MDS-JE500 a few years ago and still have it. I just acquired another MDS-JE520 deck that will replace it. It'll be hooked in to my rack system. I hate that the MD format didn't take off. It was/IS a great format....I mean, how can you not love the little discs? Same amount of music as a 5 inch cd!
thanks a million showing me how to record on mini-disk you are the only one that had the right type of info video you are great no one I asked would help me thank mate
Excellent video and one of the best pieces I’ve seen on Mini-disc. I’ve been using Mini-disc since the mid 90s an£ still using them. It’s such a flexible format and I agree it sounds really great. I am a musician and for years used a Mini-disc deck to record musical ideas to and also at one time to record basic mixes of songs, so I could then carry them around with me to live with the mixes so I could go back and tweak them later. I also agree the technology is just so cool and just so well engineered. I still use my Sony hi-fi Mini-disc deck to record any new vinyl to, just like I used to with cassette. Anyway thanks for a brilliant overview of my favourite audio format. Long live Mini-disc!
The best thing about Minidisc: you can't scratch them. You can leave them out of the case and stack them and there's no need to worry about them skipping as a result.
@@CassetteComeback Don't forget about DAT. There is also a huge supply of tapes and portables around. Tapes are DDS or DAT labeled. You can also have up to four hours or even more of high quality uncompressed raw PCM digital audio on one tape. They are built like little VCR's. Being that it's a tape it forces you to listen though it although you can still skip tracks you make but in a linear way unlike a disc. You can also edit on the fly or after. You can't do that with CD. I have a portable and a home deck. I have been using then for years now. They are my best sounding pieces of equipment. I never had a problem with tape wear or with the players itself. I think it's the best of both digital and analog player worlds as a long term storage format.
@@GOGGLETUBESUCKS4UIC problem with DAT portables now, is finding one that's actually still working, and keeps working. There's a lot of precision moving parts in a very small size, and in the long term like 20 years, are basically too fragile. Techmoan did a feature about DAT, and the pocket sized machines he had were broken, and making horrible noises. The mechanics of a Minidisc are actually quite simple compared to DAT, so I guess that's why many of the portable players are still working
Tow years ago I bought a second-hand TASCAM MD350 minidisc recorder and - I love it! Fantastic sound quality (probably very, very good DA/AD converters), it makes near perfect copies, great for portable use in my Sony minidisc walkman. I bought a bunch of TDK MD-XG and Maxell MD discs and they are outstanding. . I still have discs I recorded during the 90´s and all of them are still in great shape.
You've basically said everything I've felt about MD's. Lost mime on the divorce, but I still have some of the discs work loads of songs I wrote in the early 00's. You're totally convinced me to buy another.
I am from York Pennsylvania in the good old USA and I have 4 Sony minidisc player recorders. I don't have any of the pocket-size players as shown in this video. I have four audio stereo units. I'm a DJ and when mini just came in before CDR, I was still playing vinyl and some CD while DJing. Suddenly, boom!... The mini discs appeared! At that time it was a late 1990s and although it took real time to record Tunes from Vinyl to play while DJing, it completely annihilated any reason to bring a turntable and a record to DJ with. I loved and still love mini disc! One of the coolest things about mini discs is that there's a stereo and mono switch and if you switch it into mono, somehow it doubles the length of the recording on the desk. So if you had an 80-minute minidisc and you put it into mono mode, bingo!... You had 160 min on just one mini disc which made things even better because when you're dancing, who the hell cares if it's in Stereo or mono, right? So as far as DJing goes, mini discs were amazing. I have a machine that has a CD on the left side and a mini disc recorder player on the right side of the unit. That particular unit can take one 80 min mini desk and put it into a 5-hour mode and if you mix things right, you had a 5-Hour party that just slipped into your shirt pocket! Amazing! Now, that's just for DJing. As far as home use goes, the mini disc actually recorded much better then the common CDR disc from any sores on any recordable deck I've ever tried. For whatever reason the sound captured on a mini disc when played back was so much smoother and I dare even say warm sounding then any CDR or any CD. To me, yes, it was not like recording on good old blank audio cassette or reel to reel, but when you record vinyl onto a common CDR, the result sounds like shit! But, that's not so with the mini disc! The sound of vinyl recorded onto a mini disc was and still is very pleasant to listen to and not harsh like the sound of vinyl record it on the common CDR. I have probably about 200 mini discs in my collection. Although I must say I don't use the mini disc hardly at all anymore, I will say this, mini disc was always more practical for me sound wise but the trouble was by the year 2000, mini discs we're getting harder and harder to find here in the USA. Believe it or not, I DJ'd with mini discs up until about two or three years ago along with CDR's. Of course these days I use my cell, tablet, and Virtual DJ on my PC. The only thing that never got to the states as far as I can you remember, were pre-recorded mini discs. I was an assistant manager at Camelot Music, a very healthy music store chain in the 1980's and 1990's here in the USA and I tried to order 1 pre-recorded minidisc from Europe and it never made it to the store. But as far as recordable mini discs, there were actually plenty available from the early 1990s until the early 2000s. I love the mini discs! Thanks for this video Tony! You are awesome!
Yeah, ATRAC is different than MP3, it gets rid of signals that aren't audible at the time, so you're not the first person to say that it sounds "warmer" That's a debate that could rage on, so I'll settle for the fact I think MDs sound great :-) Nice to hear your DJ story, things like this make an item much more than what it was designed to be.
what's interesting is that the R37, which you show, was my first MD recorder/player back in high school, and the R70, which you also show was one of the later units I bought in high school, and also the one I bought off eBay earlier this year when I got back into the format
I had a few MD players in my teens and I loved it. I was swayed into MP3 players and phones etc. But recently I’ve had the want to get back into MD and take more time to enjoy my music, so on the look out for new equipment! I think by not having all known music available all the time, I will take the time to enjoy each track and really get to know my music again, like I did when I was 14. Great video!
I decided a couple of years ago that I was fed-up with trying to find albums on my iPod Classic 160GB and I would go back to Minidisc 🙂 I bought a NET MD recorder on eBay and the propriety cable it needed and a power supply as it had a gumstick internal battery. Then I had to convert everything from iTunes format to MP3 before I could transfer anything with Sonic-stage and that took so long and it was only on a Windows 7 Laptop I could do it :-( I gave up. Then the other month I discovered the webAPP that transfwers any music format to a NET MD :-) :-) The web Minidisc project I think it's called anyway it works on my Macmini with no drivers and apparently on Windows and Linux too 🙂 And then the Sony propriety USB cable failed - I'm waiting for a new device from Hong KOng to stop needing that cable 😲
10 Years ago MiniDisc 💽 was my first entry into digital recording on a mobile recording device (before i could afford flash audio). And holy cow was MiniDisc a great and fun entry. Did pretty much nothing else but fieldrecording with a little stereo mic or recording Radio programs. The physical aspect is the important factor. Especially when you had differently coloured MDs so you often knew right away what stuff was on which MD. I hated it when you couldn't get the coloured ones anymore, only the golden "professional" Sony MDs and then suddenly, literally within days, you couldn't even get those anymore either. Except online through scalper sellers… I should have stockpiled these coloured ones while i still had the chance… Sony had such potential with MD and look how they treated it…
I don't think it was Sony's fault. Just as it started to take off, solid state musical devices you could drag and drop music to took off. It couldn't compete.
Not gonna lie, you're correct in saying that your favorite MiniDisc player is beautiful, and those J Cards and labels you made for your Minidisc are badass
I am a fan and record all my music onto minidisc, i play it back in my two cars, my garage, my big garden shed, and in my Conservatory. I have a very large collection of songs i like on many discs, and haven't listened to a radio for a long long time because as far as i am concerned music died circa 1980.
I agree..... 2,000 is my cut off point for all media unless its really special.... No radio and no T.V now for atleast 10 years, and i live in my own "bubble" watching and downloading utube 60's thru to 90's music and films...... Anything else from 2,000 is either a poor re-release (film or music) or is of no value to me..... im happy where i am and keep the memories associated with my media contwnt.
Especially the first years of MD era when you come up to sign an autograph on a minidisc at the concert while everyone else had a piece of paper or a cd you would be treated a kinda special way by the celebrities - like a guy from the future
this was worth watching while i was eating dinner. even if i know most things about MD, its always nice to see other reviewing something myself has a nostalgic feeling for. i feel less lonely then :D.
Nice vid.There is no reason MD or the ATRAC compression format should be retired to the scrapheap of obsolete tech/software! I initially got into MD, Net MD first actually to be precise, in order to record, and then retire all my CDs that were taking up way too much space! A bit of archiving one could make a case for I suppose was the reality of it. I decided that I would cram as many CDs onto one disc as humanly possible so I opted for Lp4 mode, using the MD simple burner as opposed to sonic stage initially, I preferred it if I remember correctly, and it seems it is no longer available to download! I never finished the project completely, as I continued to buy CDs for a few years after, and still do on occasion. But I did achieve what I set out to do, archive my CD collection up to that point, then storing them away. That was many moons ago, Lp4 was far superior to Mp3 IMHO, without a shadow of doubt. I use Mac now, so cant use the Net MD, so use Toslink on the MacBook or with my CD player sometimes. Other uses have been recording Vinyl, Recording my own performances as a creative word artist when I am on the radio.... I am going to utilise my sons older windows 10 gaming PC and get sonic stage on it one of these days very soon and finish the archiving. Also might use virtual box on my MacBook. On a side note for you, I now use Sharp non Net MD (still MDLP) units as the Sony ones always get a fault with the headphone jack. I kept one of my Sony Net MDs though as a recorder even though the headphone jack is broken, to use with USB and Sonicstage. HIMD was/is a whole other story, I bought and used one, but I hated the sound quality and sold it on. Had decks in the past too, and always check eBay to see if I can a bargain deck. Well, I could go on, and on, and on.....LOVE MD, it will never be beaten and will never really die!
I bought MD in the 90's my portable player/recorder sat in a draw for about the past 10 years. I'm now i've actively using it everyday after buying a JB920 and JB940 hi-fi separates. The sound is amazing and I cannot tell the difference between MD and CD anyway it's much better than listening to spotify. I thoroughly love making my own mixtapes and filling a 80min disc and the editing aspects are untouchable.Fact: My CDrs made about 5-8 years ago are no longer playable but my MD's from the 90's are all working and playable even my HiSpace discs! It's a great medium which i will continue to use and how Sony cocked it up is beyond me as it should have wiped the floor with cassette tapes.
@@CassetteComeback Sony completely cocked it up as they should have been sold to replace tape cassettes. The price should have been lower fro greater take up, remember when you buy a DVD player for £50. Sony are good at inventing certain things but completely rubbish at marketing them.
2024 and I still use them. I’ve just brought them back to the future with a Bluetooth transmitter. Now no more wires but miss the remote on the old earphones
I had a friend who went to college in Germany. When he came back to the States, he had all mini disc. I never heard of it at the time. I tried to get into it, but there was no way to buy them locally.
I used to love my mini disc. I used to plug a microphone into it and had great fun recording my mates at school. Would have liked a radio in one though and be able to record off air, not sure if that ever was a thing
I loved my minidiscs and the entire format. I was able to edit, and combine tracks or even separate tracks from each other. The sound is very good. I found this whole format very useful... the minidisc was my favourite format.
Loved your video, have 7 recorders myself. 2 Hi-MD portables, 2 NetMD portables, 2 MDSP models and a mini Hi-Fi with an MDLP deck built in. Always been my favourite digital format. Cheers.
i went to minidisc about 20 years ago from cassette, i still have an mds jb980 and use it from time to time, i have shed loads of discs some still unused, i found it more handy than tape, performed just as well and unlike tape it takes a lot to knacker a disc. i dug out the old tape deck recently sony 870, left pinch roller shot, to be replaced,otherwise all ok still have a few tapes mostly tdk ma about 7 of them, i will get the deck right before i see whats on them because i cant remember. i got 2 maxell vertex tapes off a guy i knew years ago, i read they are worth a bit. in about 2007 i bought a mz-r909 for next to nowt it came with some discs, it still is working to this day. overall i preferred minidisc all round, and good decks have very good dacs in them. to finish, back in the day i went to buy californication by the chilli peppers, originally on vinyl, they took the vinyl albums off the shelves for some reason, so ended up buying it on minidisc, the only shop md i ever bought.
Kudos to you for honoring that great format. I had a 700QS deck and an R30 portable back in the day. Both were great machines while they lasted but showed some glitches down the road like any format does. From my experience, especially the recording lasers were somewhat weak and tended to lose power over time (after all, they did have lots of work to do) and some MD discs started to show wear which manifested in drop-outs after having been recorded multiple times. Plus, the mechanics in the devices were unquestionably sophisticated, but also very delicate. Then again, I also lost lots of CD burners due to the same issues. But while MD was a hot topic, it was an amazing format. And given what we have seen as improvements in the world of audio coding, it would have only gotten better over time. But CD Recording for everyone, dropping storage prices for HDDs and HDD- or flash-based portable audio players ultimately killed it.
I loved them too, for all those reason and more. On the home desks from Sony they editing facilities were just unrivalled. In record pause mode they buffed 4 seconds or so of audio so you could still record the beginning of the classical concert even if you were late hitting the start button, you could move and delete tracks as you wanted, better still post process without loss of quality to fade a track in or out the next day. And more too, you could losslessly after the fact rewrite the coded scaling cooefficents, that is up the recording level afterwards. On some of the Sony decks a Ps2 keyboard connector to edit the metadata and use as transport controls. The effort Sony put in...
I have decks too and do my recording on them to be honest, for the reasons you mentioned, but the portables are easier to film 😀 Yeah, Sony really pulled out the stops for this format, it's really special.
