I think I know why you like them so much - they are/were pretty much the pinnacle of miniaturized electro-mechanical development. Devices are now pretty much solid state (board & box) but these were difference, they had intricate mechanical mechanisms that were tiny and ingenious. I miss this kind of tech.
The disks are like something out of Mission: Impossible too which is pretty cool. Saving the classified information to Dropbox just doesn't have the same panache
@@alexdhall Yes, I had a magneto/optical drive on my pc, cost a fortune at the time, my auntie gave me one, she got from somewhere, I only ever had 1 disc for it!
Yes, the disks are just cute, and the mech is incredible. Current devices turn on, and that's it. You hit play and a progress bar shows. There's also something nice about making choices you can't change on the fly. Once you recorded your limited 80-minute MD playlist it's set, until you do the effort of recording something again. It just makes that playlist on your cassette/MD/CDR a bit more special, IMO.
17:30 According to the manual for the Sony MZ-R909 (thanks Google!), the "Personal Disc Memory" feature is described as: The recorder can store the various settings for each disc, and then retrieve them automatically whenever the disc is inserted. The following setting can be stored: • Volume • Playback mode • Group mode playback • Program play • Sound quality (Digital Sound Preset)
I had an argument with a friend back when these were new. He spent something like $300 for one, and switched a lot of his music to minidisc. His main point was that it could fit easily in the pocket, but at the time we all wore baggy pants with pockets large enough to hold a CD player anyway. A few years later I bought an iRiver MP3 player which was great, except that it had a noisy hard drive and if you recorded audio on it, after a minute or so you could hear the hard drive spinning up on the recorded audio. I still have some old guitar recordings with that hard drive sound occasionally chiming in. None of us could have predicted smartphones and their capability to kill the market for dedicated portable media playing devices. It was an interesting time, with everyone trying to guess the future and no one being right about it.
Luckily phones have not completely killed the market for dedicated portable media. High res portable players using microsd cards have quite a dedicated following.
It was inexpensive flash memory that killed other formats. In 2003 I spent £79 on a 256MByte Compact Flash card. Last year I spent less than that for a 400GByte MicroSD card, negating the need for any compression of my music.
I have the same issue where I always enjoy fiddling around with old tech but I really don't need it and will probably not use it long-term to warrant a purchase.
I did something like that, hanging up on a basement wall, the dozens upon dozens of AOL and similar CDs I got in the mail in the late 1990s/early 2000s.
Watching Mat getting excited like a 5 year old kid over a bunch of really weird MD players literally just made my entire week. Thank you so much for uploading, exactly what I needed after a rough week at work!!
I loved the creativity of this period of electronics! Nowadays everything looks the same. Even if the quality of finish has improved the weird and fun creativity of the 90’s and early 2000’s is a period in electronics we will never see again sadly!
That metallic green one with the white "blob" at one end screams 2000. I guess this is what my dad felt for the 60's and 70's, back when that player was new!
If you think about it, MiniDisc is the pinnacle of physical home recordable music. No company even has plans for any new physical media for music. MiniDisc is the last one. It combines near CD quality music with the most advanced miniaturization and the ease of recording to a cassette.
The MiniDisc era passed me by (something for kids and young people on the bus maybe). It is fascinating to see the range of models that were available. Could have watched another hour of this !
Going through these is a fascinating overview in microcosm of late 90s to mid 00s consumer electronics design. They go from being something that's trying to look technical to desperately wanting to be fashion accessories as much as useful devices.
Mat .... so ... you made me sit through over an hour of 100 minidisc players, on a Saturday morning.... and d'you know what? I loved every bloody second of it :)
The yellow Sony MZ-606W came with a wireless remote control (hence the “W”’on the end). It also had an alarm clock function when in was in the charging cradle.
4:26 that kenwood is quite a nice unit. Really solid headphone amps in those. Lots of really rare and somewhat valuable units in this lot, You could make some if not all your money back shifting some of these on ebay for sure
The 330/300 yen price tag is just tax included and before tax prices - though it is interesting as it shows it was on the shelf still relatively recently, as the consumption tax only went up to 10% in 2019
Great video! The yellow Sony reminds me of the Sony cassette sports walkmans they sold in the 90's. They were waterproof, and bright yellow, I think so you could find it if you dropped it in a lake.
Techmoan: the panasonic D-Sound MD players with the RCA type headphone connector. Did you know those support the fun and strangest headphones? They are called the Brain Shaker Headphones. You can add them to a fun episode about headphones.
I've had my sharp md since 1997/8. It's sat in my loft since and survived over ten house moves. I used to use it to record tracker music. I haven't used it since MP3 authoring became the norm. Something really satisfying about clucking discs into them tho.
great video as always, watched it at the time but mustn't have watched till the end because I am now all the way down a Japanese dancehall rabbit-hole, having never been before. As always with Japanese varients of regional music (reggaeton, hip-hop etc) it's uniquely superb stuff. So, uhhh, cheers for that?!?! Ps. Can't believe you weren't as drawn to the blue and orange Sony like my eyes immediately were. Currently waiting for one to appear on eBay. Again: great content.
Omg... I've gone full circle! I'm pretty sure your first mini disc player video is the first I had ever discovered from your channel! Excited to watch.
i got my MD player for free because the mini cd player/burner i got from CompUSA was defective. when i called and complained that it didn't work and wanted it replaced, they told me that all of the units had been recalled so they had to offer me something similar, which was the MD player from Sony. i still have my MD player and sometimes i still use it! i wish i bought the car stereo MD player that was sold in Japan though. they seem pretty impossible to get now, but they were super popular in Japan in the early 2000's
Me: carefully unpacking stuff, taking care of the bubble wrap, folding it and storing it away for no matter how unlikely later use. Him: Victorinox Cybertool. BTW, my favorite one is the red dual-headphone Sony. Flashier than the dull grey one, but not over the top like the green/blue one. I hope it's working.
After your final comment about seeing the minidisc shapes in front of your eyes, I got the idea that you could put the dead ones in a Tetris collage on your wall. It would be eye-catching and save them from the rubbish bin. 🙂
If I lived in the UK, I would help getting those all fixed up not for money, but just for fun. I love fixing these things and old mobile phones, and old laptops, too.
Hi Nick here in Honolulu, Hawaii USA. My first MD RECORDER was the SHARP MS702, 2nd MD RECORDER was the SHARP MD MS722. I also own a JVC home component X3 CD to MD burner copier.
Just a tip from a film student, you don't have to dim lights to reduce reflections, you can just turn them so they aren't as direct on the subject and cover the lights with a diffuser frame/sheet
These videos make me wanna buy a minidisc player to play some MDs I found in my attic (I did find a Sharp MD-MT20 up there too but AFAIK it's kaput - Tried the battery pack and two AAs, and a PSP power supply as it was the closest thing I had to it)
41:50 oh I seen that shop before! It's a cheap store in Japan where you can buy 2nd hand used tech stuff 42:32 and that one has the previous owner's name on it
I feel like my brother had the 28:30 one, since he was, maybe still is an opera singer. Don't know, haven't talked to him in almost 4 years now after our father died. ANYWAYS, but he was a decent singer who traveled the world doing all sorts of performances, The Bat, Barber of Seville, Madame Butterfly, Moby Dick, and I'm sure others. But he used the recorder to hear himself sing and correct errors in it.
Techmoan is as good as it can get. Incredible host, incredible content, incredible production, always goes that extra mile if needed to make video complete if something doesn't work out.
Although Sharp made some cheap, and not very cheerful, portables they also made some quality machines. The MD-MT888 has a duo colour remote (with animated fish when disc plays) and sound that equals the best Sony portables. I only have this one Sharp (and 5 Sonys). This is the one I listen to most.
Bought one sony md player when I visit japan, and a few blank mds, but still kicking myself for not buying a 5pack bublegum battery with a cradle charger. Turns out a provided strip battery only last me less than 2 hours, which is ok for a jog, but not nearly enough for a 5-6 hours of work trips. Have to say, these old sony MDs could have a better sound quality even compared to newer phones.
This video is a perfect example as to why I don't like buying a portable electronic device...especially cell phones which if you are lucky, have a custom battery which will quit working after a few years. Portable cassette players generally suck, too. Enjoy your videos!
I have a Victor MD unit from Japan its like a lightish purple color I have the remote and the battery adapter to it works really nice and for a long time on a single AA battery it goes loud to for the audio its in very good condition to I havent seen it come up online.
I had that Sharp MD-MT50 (46:60) and I remember it drained batteries like nothing i witnessed before or after. Needless to say, I swapped it out for a Sony not long after. :)
Kind of unreal how timeless Sony's logo/typeface is, even though I'm over 30 years old it almost looks too modern for an older product somehow. Meanwhile an Onkyo's branding looks perfectly natural on something ancient? It's bizarre.
My Sister had got also an late sony md recorder without display, the display was in the earphones adapter - I think they moved to this solution at the late models.
Looks like the Sony MZ-E630 was quite rare outside of Japan and that definitely looks like it's in good condition. Honestly I'd love one like that now to use.
I bought a minidisc player to digitise my wife’s collection from yesteryear. Turns out I think she chucked them so now I just have a random minidisc player and no discs.
Can't have too many of the things you like. Just hope the missus doesn't get angry 😅 I might have slept on the street a few days if I ordered a hundred walkmans 🤣🤣
@SteelRodentHi MD can record lossless or lossy. It can use 16 bit PCM just like cd, but you cant fit a full album on Hi Md, its 30 or so minutes and you have to turn it on, it isn't the default mode.
@@KRAFTWERK2K6 well then look at eBay and pay a bit more postage. They are on eBay all the time. If you persist, I will put some up myself targeted at German audience.
That Cinnamoroll player is so CUUUTE! I really hope he sends these back out into the wild and they don't just collect dust in a closet somewhere. That said, super cool vid, there's so many different designs and methods companies use to make their players, real interesting stuff.
I never thought we’d get another one of these. Especially at this expense! Don’t feel obligated to, but I know a lot of us that have been here for years would definitely enjoy a long format video of any sort a few times a year! These have been such fun to watch and you really let me live out my dream of ordering loads of electronics, without spending my own money 😂
i love how MD combines the sounds and feel of opening the player and putting in a cassette with the aesthetics of the shiny holographic look of CDs. definitely my favorite dead media format that i will probably never own. not going to lie though, these videos always have me checking ebay for albums on MD edit: nice, my top two favorites were the final two working ones - the green-blue colorshift sony, and the stormtrooper/panda sony!
I like these videos cos I get to see all the stuff without accumulating a bunch more crap I won't fix and won't use. I already have like 30 milk crates full of broken pro audio and guitar gear, I don't really need to add minidisc, reel to reel and cassette stuff to it lol. Vicarious hoarding is techmoan and look mum no computer is good enough for me.
I have one that needs fixing......the jog wheel doesn’t operate properly. But it plays and recorde quite well. Bought it brand new in late nineties....
sometimes if you use compressed air to dust it or use a ionizer on a compresser that will protect the electronics. Clean out the headphone jack with dw40 on a headphone cable then Insert it a few times. And sometimes adding a little grease to the lens/roller guide mechs it can help....
@@keithgilliard9191 have you tried a small amount of wd40 down the shaft of the jog wheel or use compressef air ? It may help just depends on what kind of pot is there.... maybe an encoder or a traditional pot of sorts... encoder may be dusty or needs resolderd or a pot gets dirty/coroded/dusty,and the grease fails or hardens of over time
It doesn't really matter what content techmoan puts out. It's the production quality that keeps everyone hooked. He could put out a video watching paint dry and we would all still be here.
So many "content creators" or whatever you would call them get obsessed with quality and forget the reason people come back is 90% because of the person.
totally. I watch a lot of channels devoted to comics and movies, and the ones I've subscribed to or go back to often have in common appealing personalities more than actual content interest
The whole reason we watch these videos is because of your witty British commentary! I mean, otherwise, watching an hour of unpacking random MD players would be complete insanity, wouldn't it? 😂 So bring it on!
The sticker at 10:42 says to direct any questions to the Bic-Camera shop in Yurakucho, Tokyo. The date is August 2006. At the top it says it is for sticking onto the item, and in parentheses it clarifies that it is not to be stuck to the warranty documentation.
@@tarstarkusz Don't know. I think because if people want a MD player, they buy a MD player. If they want a radio, they buy a radio. Cramming too much stuff into one package doesn't increase sells, just reduces quality. At least that is my instinctual answer. I really don't know.
I would absolutely love to see you mount them all facing outward in 1 big glass picture frame on a white wall. Like a cool retro MD mosaic. Please make it so. Thanks very much for the vids and much love from Northern Ireland.
That Cinnamoroll player is pretty rare and worth quite a lot of money, I saw a blank new and sealed recordable disk on eBay recently which matched this player and it's graphical design, which the seller was asking £80 for it; don't think Techmoan realised he had a gem on his hands, lol.
@PINAC C.R.A UK The cheapest working player on US EBay is over $100. Most are between $200-$400. That ugly green one he opened in the video is $500. That’s because so few minidisc players were sold here new so not many to choose from secondhand. There are tons of Japanese sellers on US EBay cashing in. Prices have skyrocket in the states and Amazon “coincidentally” started selling Sony blank minidiscs again. Walkman cassette players are popular again as well.
@@KRAFTWERK2K6 Sony is doing decent. They just can't compete against smartphones in personal/portable electronics and they know it. The way to kill your company is to kick a dead horse. Yes, Sony's number one business is the Playstation which is highly successful in consoles. Number 2 is financial services (they have a bank, if you don't live in Japan or Asia you don't know this), number 3 is media (music+movies), number 4 is electronics (split around 50/50 with pro solutions and consumers), then number 5 is CCDs for smartphones. Out of this, consumer electronics is the smallest share. They don't care about it and they don't need to.
I love seeing all the different designs, I think you should take the broken or lesser quality models that have neat flashy cases and make a nice mounted display of them for your wall
I had a similar idea. I love the shot near the end of the picks of the litter sitting on all the others, and thought "that would make a great looking table". Might need to suspend them in acrylic to give it any real strength, though.
I think I know why you like them so much - they are/were pretty much the pinnacle of miniaturized electro-mechanical development. Devices are now pretty much solid state (board & box) but these were difference, they had intricate mechanical mechanisms that were tiny and ingenious. I miss this kind of tech.
The disks are like something out of Mission: Impossible too which is pretty cool. Saving the classified information to Dropbox just doesn't have the same panache
I remember in the 90s that Magneto Optical disks were going the next big thing. Outside of Mini Disc, it really didn't catch on...
@@alexdhall Yes, I had a magneto/optical drive on my pc, cost a fortune at the time, my auntie gave me one, she got from somewhere, I only ever had 1 disc for it!
I don’t remember magnetooptical, sounds like a great subject for a future presentation, Matt!
Yes, the disks are just cute, and the mech is incredible. Current devices turn on, and that's it. You hit play and a progress bar shows. There's also something nice about making choices you can't change on the fly. Once you recorded your limited 80-minute MD playlist it's set, until you do the effort of recording something again. It just makes that playlist on your cassette/MD/CDR a bit more special, IMO.
I find this fascinating, because each one is like a piece of history, and I can imagine the people who owned and loved them at one time.
my wife would prolly say that I have a electronics museum i think
17:30 According to the manual for the Sony MZ-R909 (thanks Google!), the "Personal Disc Memory" feature is described as:
The recorder can store the various settings for each disc, and then retrieve them automatically whenever the disc is inserted.
The following setting can be stored:
• Volume
• Playback mode
• Group mode playback
• Program play
• Sound quality (Digital Sound Preset)
....but ... not which point you stopped playback and removed the MD so it can pick up at that spot to play again... ?
There’s definitely a reason ‘Y2K’ is back in fashion, orange camo and random holographic stuff? Hell yeah!
Lol 🤣
love it! gimme more cool translucent stuff!
It isn’t -quit meth.
@@Jason-Scott OK boomer
@azeria - what reason are you thinking? im all for it!
I had an argument with a friend back when these were new. He spent something like $300 for one, and switched a lot of his music to minidisc. His main point was that it could fit easily in the pocket, but at the time we all wore baggy pants with pockets large enough to hold a CD player anyway. A few years later I bought an iRiver MP3 player which was great, except that it had a noisy hard drive and if you recorded audio on it, after a minute or so you could hear the hard drive spinning up on the recorded audio. I still have some old guitar recordings with that hard drive sound occasionally chiming in. None of us could have predicted smartphones and their capability to kill the market for dedicated portable media playing devices. It was an interesting time, with everyone trying to guess the future and no one being right about it.
Luckily phones have not completely killed the market for dedicated portable media. High res portable players using microsd cards have quite a dedicated following.
It was inexpensive flash memory that killed other formats. In 2003 I spent £79 on a 256MByte Compact Flash card. Last year I spent less than that for a 400GByte MicroSD card, negating the need for any compression of my music.
No body cares🤪
@Gernot Schrader 😀
ngl, watching these MD videos makes me want to buy one and I'd probably never use it.
I have several and don't use them... (*/ω＼*)
It makes me want to import a 25 year old Japanese car with a MiniDisc headunit. I'd have a problem if I actually followed through on these ideas.
I have the same issue where I always enjoy fiddling around with old tech but I really don't need it and will probably not use it long-term to warrant a purchase.
Same lol
I’ve bought 3 since the first minidisc video, they’re fantastic but I rarely use them. I still want more though.
An entire wall of these would make a unique display, kinda like the stuffed game of a hunting lodge.
I thought similar, epoxied into a coffee table would be cool too.
Display at the Museum of Everything Else ?
I did something like that, hanging up on a basement wall, the dozens upon dozens of AOL and similar CDs I got in the mail in the late 1990s/early 2000s.
Those jeweled players are all hideous, each one uglier than the last.
41:53 mentioned the price. 330yen is the price with sales tax, while 300yen without tax.
It's mandatory to display both price in Japan.
Watching Mat getting excited like a 5 year old kid over a bunch of really weird MD players literally just made my entire week. Thank you so much for uploading, exactly what I needed after a rough week at work!!
I loved the creativity of this period of electronics! Nowadays everything looks the same. Even if the quality of finish has improved the weird and fun creativity of the 90’s and early 2000’s is a period in electronics we will never see again sadly!
Agree
That metallic green one with the white "blob" at one end screams 2000. I guess this is what my dad felt for the 60's and 70's, back when that player was new!
just think of the G3 imacs
@@worldcomicsreview354 "Function is out; form is in!"
If you think about it, MiniDisc is the pinnacle of physical home recordable music. No company even has plans for any new physical media for music. MiniDisc is the last one. It combines near CD quality music with the most advanced miniaturization and the ease of recording to a cassette.
The MiniDisc era passed me by (something for kids and young people on the bus maybe). It is fascinating to see the range of models that were available. Could have watched another hour of this !
Going through these is a fascinating overview in microcosm of late 90s to mid 00s consumer electronics design. They go from being something that's trying to look technical to desperately wanting to be fashion accessories as much as useful devices.
Mat .... so ... you made me sit through over an hour of 100 minidisc players, on a Saturday morning.... and d'you know what?
I loved every bloody second of it :)
Same here, as an adult I feel like Techmoan has become the new Saturday lunchtime entertainment!
Watch party!
i totally second that!
This man now has the biggest Minidisc collection in the entire UK
The yellow Sony MZ-606W came with a wireless remote control (hence the “W”’on the end). It also had an alarm clock function when in was in the charging cradle.
I liked the mini trend of seeing these on Instagram.. there's just this mechanical aesthetic to them. The last appeal of making music physical.
41:56, the store is part of the off group, some of their stores had discounts for members
4:26 that kenwood is quite a nice unit. Really solid headphone amps in those.
Lots of really rare and somewhat valuable units in this lot, You could make some if not all your money back shifting some of these on ebay for sure
The 330/300 yen price tag is just tax included and before tax prices - though it is interesting as it shows it was on the shelf still relatively recently, as the consumption tax only went up to 10% in 2019
“It’s after 5 in the morning and I should probably get to be…”
*Techmoan uploads a new video*
Great video! The yellow Sony reminds me of the Sony cassette sports walkmans they sold in the 90's. They were waterproof, and bright yellow, I think so you could find it if you dropped it in a lake.
Dear Matt. Still enjoying your older videos. Thank you so much. Happy Holidays.
Your content is so wholesome. Always brightens my day. Thank you.
Techmoan: the panasonic D-Sound MD players with the RCA type headphone connector. Did you know those support the fun and strangest headphones? They are called the Brain Shaker Headphones. You can add them to a fun episode about headphones.
I've had my sharp md since 1997/8. It's sat in my loft since and survived over ten house moves. I used to use it to record tracker music. I haven't used it since MP3 authoring became the norm. Something really satisfying about clucking discs into them tho.
>>"I didn't add it all up because it'd probably make me sick if I did" (20:30)
Now THAT is a vibe
great video as always, watched it at the time but mustn't have watched till the end because I am now all the way down a Japanese dancehall rabbit-hole, having never been before. As always with Japanese varients of regional music (reggaeton, hip-hop etc) it's uniquely superb stuff. So, uhhh, cheers for that?!?!
Ps. Can't believe you weren't as drawn to the blue and orange Sony like my eyes immediately were. Currently waiting for one to appear on eBay.
Again: great content.
Omg... I've gone full circle!
I'm pretty sure your first mini disc player video is the first I had ever discovered from your channel! Excited to watch.
i got my MD player for free because the mini cd player/burner i got from CompUSA was defective. when i called and complained that it didn't work and wanted it replaced, they told me that all of the units had been recalled so they had to offer me something similar, which was the MD player from Sony. i still have my MD player and sometimes i still use it! i wish i bought the car stereo MD player that was sold in Japan though. they seem pretty impossible to get now, but they were super popular in Japan in the early 2000's
Me: carefully unpacking stuff, taking care of the bubble wrap, folding it and storing it away for no matter how unlikely later use.
Him: Victorinox Cybertool.
BTW, my favorite one is the red dual-headphone Sony. Flashier than the dull grey one, but not over the top like the green/blue one. I hope it's working.
After your final comment about seeing the minidisc shapes in front of your eyes, I got the idea that you could put the dead ones in a Tetris collage on your wall. It would be eye-catching and save them from the rubbish bin. 🙂
I'm waiting for Matt to take a bunch of these MD players and turn into Dr. Frankenstein.
"IT'S ALIVE! IT'S ALIVE!"
Omg! My MD was that Kenwood one in the batch you first opened! Ahhh memories! That one you got is spotless!
Mat is the #1 UK importer of Minidisc players for two years running now!
Good thing he's not in the US, or else the RIAA would be all over him.
"It's a sickness, innit?!"' Great line!
If I lived in the UK, I would help getting those all fixed up not for money, but just for fun. I love fixing these things and old mobile phones, and old laptops, too.
02:32 the blue one looks beautiful, black one next to it resemble 90's game consoles.
Hi Nick here in Honolulu, Hawaii USA.
My first MD RECORDER was the SHARP MS702, 2nd MD RECORDER was the SHARP MD MS722. I also own a JVC home component X3 CD to MD burner copier.
Yeah! Loads of MD's!
I still use and love mine.
Good work mate!
Watched till the end.
You should make your own mega MiniDisc player that plays 50 discs at once, because why not
Just a tip from a film student, you don't have to dim lights to reduce reflections, you can just turn them so they aren't as direct on the subject and cover the lights with a diffuser frame/sheet
Mat Taylor MD the Minidisc medic. A long show. Loved it. Thanks Mat.
These videos make me wanna buy a minidisc player to play some MDs I found in my attic (I did find a Sharp MD-MT20 up there too but AFAIK it's kaput - Tried the battery pack and two AAs, and a PSP power supply as it was the closest thing I had to it)
41:50 oh I seen that shop before! It's a cheap store in Japan where you can buy 2nd hand used tech stuff
42:32 and that one has the previous owner's name on it
Great video, I must admit I'm part of the crew who loves these type of videos! Have you ever thought about a similar video with Walkmans?
I feel like my brother had the 28:30 one, since he was, maybe still is an opera singer. Don't know, haven't talked to him in almost 4 years now after our father died. ANYWAYS, but he was a decent singer who traveled the world doing all sorts of performances, The Bat, Barber of Seville, Madame Butterfly, Moby Dick, and I'm sure others. But he used the recorder to hear himself sing and correct errors in it.
Reminded me of my old Panasonic RQ-S15, damn I loved that one......
I was really hoping to see more players unwrapped and presented, so I watched the video twice.
I miss those days of working for your music.
Techmoan is as good as it can get. Incredible host, incredible content, incredible production, always goes that extra mile if needed to make video complete if something doesn't work out.
Love the puppet voice slip @ 49:41.
Didn't realise there were so many different designs and models of Mini Disc players!
the orange camo one truly looks gorgeous
Although Sharp made some cheap, and not very cheerful, portables they also made some quality machines. The MD-MT888 has a duo colour remote (with animated fish when disc plays) and sound that equals the best Sony portables. I only have this one Sharp (and 5 Sonys). This is the one I listen to most.
I used to have a MD player and i got to say i loved it.
Only a master could turn this into an entertaining show
I can't believe I was watching that for a full hour. but that was awesome!
Bought one sony md player when I visit japan, and a few blank mds, but still kicking myself for not buying a 5pack bublegum battery with a cradle charger. Turns out a provided strip battery only last me less than 2 hours, which is ok for a jog, but not nearly enough for a 5-6 hours of work trips. Have to say, these old sony MDs could have a better sound quality even compared to newer phones.
This video is a perfect example as to why I don't like buying a portable electronic device...especially cell phones which if you are lucky, have a custom battery which will quit working after a few years. Portable cassette players generally suck, too. Enjoy your videos!
FYI if that Cinnamoroll is officially licensed it could be worth a pretty penny. Cinnamoroll collectors are rabid for unique items.
I have a Victor MD unit from Japan its like a lightish purple color I have the remote and the battery adapter to it works really nice and for a long time on a single AA battery it goes loud to for the audio its in very good condition to I havent seen it come up online.
I had that Sharp MD-MT50 (46:60) and I remember it drained batteries like nothing i witnessed before or after. Needless to say, I swapped it out for a Sony not long after. :)
Kind of unreal how timeless Sony's logo/typeface is, even though I'm over 30 years old it almost looks too modern for an older product somehow. Meanwhile an Onkyo's branding looks perfectly natural on something ancient? It's bizarre.
Now to begin my deep dive into Japanese Dance Hall starting with Rudebwoy
Most of these, if I saw someone carrying them I'd assume it was a cigarette case.
Also, I enjoy your voiceover.
My Sister had got also an late sony md recorder without display, the display was in the earphones adapter - I think they moved to this solution at the late models.
Looks like the Sony MZ-E630 was quite rare outside of Japan and that definitely looks like it's in good condition. Honestly I'd love one like that now to use.
Just imagine the poor Reditune and Teffifon machines are getting squeezed out by this lot! If you're struggling for storage space Mat, I can help 😏
I wonder what total proportion of all the MD players ever made, are currently owned by Techmoan
I bought a minidisc player to digitise my wife’s collection from yesteryear. Turns out I think she chucked them so now I just have a random minidisc player and no discs.
I remember having one of these as a teen. Was cool
You are an amazing creator. Watch the entire video. Keep it up. I'd be happy to listen to mini discs with you Sir! 🎶
Reduce reflections put a polarised filter or lens over the camera lens test and turn the filter to get the best reflection reduction. !
I loved minidisc players. You dont really see devices made with that kind of charm anymore
Can't have too many of the things you like. Just hope the missus doesn't get angry 😅 I might have slept on the street a few days if I ordered a hundred walkmans 🤣🤣
I've never owned a minidisc player but I still find this interesting
I love your videos. I also love that u always sound like u have a cold. 🤣
I dunno, something about the light Sharp is aesthetically appealing. If I was a Brit in the 00's I'd have probably asked the folks for that one.
If you have a victor battery pack I think they also work with the kenwoods
I still have my Sony MZ-R500/S that I used daily for many years like 20 years ago. Still works as a charm.
Meanwhile, in Japan...
"What shall we do with all these old MiniDisc players? If only there was someone to take them off our hands."
@SteelRodentHi MD can record lossless or lossy. It can use 16 bit PCM just like cd, but you cant fit a full album on Hi Md, its 30 or so minutes and you have to turn it on, it isn't the default mode.
@@KRAFTWERK2K6 well then look at eBay and pay a bit more postage. They are on eBay all the time. If you persist, I will put some up myself targeted at German audience.
That Cinnamoroll player is so CUUUTE! I really hope he sends these back out into the wild and they don't just collect dust in a closet somewhere.
That said, super cool vid, there's so many different designs and methods companies use to make their players, real interesting stuff.
Can't wait for the 10 hour cleaning and fixing episode where you make them all work again
10 hours must be the condensed version lol 😂
LOL! It sounds like a joke, yet I totally agree! ;-)
I never thought we’d get another one of these. Especially at this expense! Don’t feel obligated to, but I know a lot of us that have been here for years would definitely enjoy a long format video of any sort a few times a year! These have been such fun to watch and you really let me live out my dream of ordering loads of electronics, without spending my own money 😂
i love how MD combines the sounds and feel of opening the player and putting in a cassette with the aesthetics of the shiny holographic look of CDs. definitely my favorite dead media format that i will probably never own.
not going to lie though, these videos always have me checking ebay for albums on MD
edit: nice, my top two favorites were the final two working ones - the green-blue colorshift sony, and the stormtrooper/panda sony!
The minidiscs _are_ in cassettes, as much as the tape is on a micro cassette, so naturally they load in a similar manner
I always wanted one, then one day I bought a car when an aftermarket md head unit
Bore off 🤪
I like these videos cos I get to see all the stuff without accumulating a bunch more crap I won't fix and won't use. I already have like 30 milk crates full of broken pro audio and guitar gear, I don't really need to add minidisc, reel to reel and cassette stuff to it lol. Vicarious hoarding is techmoan and look mum no computer is good enough for me.
Looking forward to the cleaning / repair videos. Was disappointed that the high-MD one didn't kick in. Fingers crossed for the future 🤞
I have one that needs fixing......the jog wheel doesn’t operate properly. But it plays and recorde quite well. Bought it brand new in late nineties....
Hey! No spoilers! 😉
*Hi-MD
sometimes if you use compressed air to dust it or use a ionizer on a compresser that will protect the electronics. Clean out the headphone jack with dw40 on a headphone cable then Insert it a few times. And sometimes adding a little grease to the lens/roller guide mechs it can help....
@@keithgilliard9191 have you tried a small amount of wd40 down the shaft of the jog wheel or use compressef air ? It may help just depends on what kind of pot is there.... maybe an encoder or a traditional pot of sorts... encoder may be dusty or needs resolderd or a pot gets dirty/coroded/dusty,and the grease fails or hardens of
over time
I don't know why I enjoy "man looks at random old Minidisc players" but I do. That green color-shifting Sony is cool as heck.
I agree, I wish my car was that colors _[sic]_
@@RobCamp-rmc_0 yep, a nice miata
I had that one many years ago! It was ace, especially the remote design.
yes. I don’t even know what an “Md” is
It doesn't really matter what content techmoan puts out. It's the production quality that keeps everyone hooked. He could put out a video watching paint dry and we would all still be here.
Ps Matt the quality is absolutely fine, it’s your technique and personality that has us keep coming back!
So many "content creators" or whatever you would call them get obsessed with quality and forget the reason people come back is 90% because of the person.
Agreed, I'm using good headphones and don't have any problems with the sound quality on previous videos.
As far as I´m concerned, Mat could make a video about drying paint and I would lap it up.
totally. I watch a lot of channels devoted to comics and movies, and the ones I've subscribed to or go back to often have in common appealing personalities more than actual content interest
The whole reason we watch these videos is because of your witty British commentary! I mean, otherwise, watching an hour of unpacking random MD players would be complete insanity, wouldn't it? 😂 So bring it on!
I love when he go the extra mile and do some "haters" (more like pedantic commenters) impersonations on the fly
The sticker at 10:42 says to direct any questions to the Bic-Camera shop in Yurakucho, Tokyo. The date is August 2006. At the top it says it is for sticking onto the item, and in parentheses it clarifies that it is not to be stuck to the warranty documentation.
BIC Camera are a dream. They’re a destination every time I get to visit.
I've only been to Japan twice but immediately recognised the name. They are everywhere!
The E in e3 stands for enso(演奏), which means 'performance', as in a theater performance. Basically, playback.
Today I learned something again. Thanks for it ;)
Here I was thinking E was for Everyday, then R for Recorder and S for Sport.
My guess was Extended play since it didn't record.
@@tarstarkusz I'm pretty sure AM/FM radio isn't a big thing in Japan like it is in the US.
@@tarstarkusz Don't know. I think because if people want a MD player, they buy a MD player. If they want a radio, they buy a radio. Cramming too much stuff into one package doesn't increase sells, just reduces quality. At least that is my instinctual answer. I really don't know.
I would absolutely love to see you mount them all facing outward in 1 big glass picture frame on a white wall. Like a cool retro MD mosaic. Please make it so. Thanks very much for the vids and much love from Northern Ireland.
I really like that Cinnamoroll one, its so cute! I'd have just to display on a shelf next to my Hi-Fi set up.
That Cinnamoroll player is pretty rare and worth quite a lot of money, I saw a blank new and sealed recordable disk on eBay recently which matched this player and it's graphical design, which the seller was asking £80 for it; don't think Techmoan realised he had a gem on his hands, lol.
There's a rare Axia Hello Kitty new and sealed minidisc currently being sold on eBay, can be yours for £55 + £2.50 postage.
@PINAC C.R.A UK The cheapest working player on US EBay is over $100. Most are between $200-$400. That ugly green one he opened in the video is $500. That’s because so few minidisc players were sold here new so not many to choose from secondhand. There are tons of Japanese sellers on US EBay cashing in. Prices have skyrocket in the states and Amazon “coincidentally” started selling Sony blank minidiscs again. Walkman cassette players are popular again as well.
Sony’s going to think demand has suddenly gone up in the UK and release a cheap model for the hipsters.
@@KRAFTWERK2K6 That's very much your opinion and not one shared by many people.
@@KRAFTWERK2K6 Sony is doing decent. They just can't compete against smartphones in personal/portable electronics and they know it. The way to kill your company is to kick a dead horse. Yes, Sony's number one business is the Playstation which is highly successful in consoles. Number 2 is financial services (they have a bank, if you don't live in Japan or Asia you don't know this), number 3 is media (music+movies), number 4 is electronics (split around 50/50 with pro solutions and consumers), then number 5 is CCDs for smartphones. Out of this, consumer electronics is the smallest share. They don't care about it and they don't need to.
Mat, you're absolutely mad and I love it.
As mad as a box of frogs, I’d say.
I couldn't say it any better! ❤️ Settles down in front of TV to watch 1:08:36 of delightful madness.
MadMat
This MD obsession is getting serious.
mad as a friggin' Hatter
Seeing so many MD players unpacked by Techmoan, that's so stress relieving.
It’s a joy.
Ha it is!
Unpacking therapy
It was, ASMR-level. '100 Cliclacks and the Crackle' could well be the title of the clip
Techmoan, you seem to have wiped out the whole world's stock of minidisk players in one swoop.
20 years ago: cannot afford *one* MD player...now: ALL THE MD PLAYERS, ALL OF THEM
I love seeing all the different designs, I think you should take the broken or lesser quality models that have neat flashy cases and make a nice mounted display of them for your wall
Good idea, even if he just took the fronts off to save weight
Matt, I think you should take the ones that don't work at all, but are attractive, gut them and turn them into little cigarette case type boxes.
Yes, I was thinking the same. Then when he goes to the auction site again to buy more in the future he can look at the wall display and go, nahh!
In anyone else's house this would be an idea. However, I suspect in 'Chez Techmoan' this would be greeted by a less than enthusiastic response. :)
I had a similar idea. I love the shot near the end of the picks of the litter sitting on all the others, and thought "that would make a great looking table". Might need to suspend them in acrylic to give it any real strength, though.
This is one of the best sequels on the internet right now! This puts Hollywood cinematic universes to shame!
WILL YOU STOP WORRYING ABOUT FOCUS, REFLECTIONS, PERSPECTIVE, LIGHT AND SOUND!.... WE DON'T CARE.
The content is always spot on.
My thoughts, exactly!