today after using many mp3 player like ipod, expensive smartphone, expensive mp3 players , I just have to say that I went back to the minidisc, Because it's a real stereo sound. minidisc was ahead light years to its time just like the ps3
Minidisc is basically an mp3 player but using magneto-optical instead of flash. ATRAC 292Kbps has similar audio artifacts to MP3, and same with MP3 less artifacts over time as they made the encoder better.
Hi. I got back into minidisc for exactly the reason you were stating about sorting out your music before you leave the house. I was finding that I was spending all my listening time scrolling through options on my phone, simply thinking to myself; "I have ``literally`` nothing to listen to". Hi-MD helped me out a lot because it gave me a limit, a control over how I arranged and chose my music. Listening in Hi-MD may only give you a 28 minute limit, but in this day and age capacity is is not the problem for anyone with a phone; engagement is. For many, minidisc is great solution. It's just a shame prices for decent portable units are going through the roof these days. Thanks for the video.
I owned several MDs in the mid 00s. My all time favorite is the Sony MZ-R900. I used them to record my drum mix practice and review the results, etc. I had Net-MDs, and I thought the Hi-MDs sounded fantastic, I think they were the ultimate MDs, I had two three models including the color display version, forget the model numbers. I had the Sony white workout MD with orange display, a big favorite MD, waterproof, fit in your hand, ergonomic, just a beauty, solid. I'd buy that again, seriously. I even had a CAR STEREO MD deck by Sony from their ES line if I remember correctly! Then I had high end MD-decks, and I actually attached a keyboard to them and could navigate and title my MDs. I hand wrote with Japanese micro-pens the track titles on the labels, tiny writing, etc. never printing labels. I recorded LPs and specials off the radio. I had Japan imported special MDs in great designs, special storage boxes also from Japan, all the cool stuff. I think what appealed to me was the tactility and meticulous thoughtfulness you engaged in and focus on the music rather than an OS. I found them very useful and have considered getting another one today to record digital internet radio, ie iHeart, etc. for on the go. I owned a Kenwood standard play model, it was B-eautiful and sounded great. Forget the model, but I took good photos of all the models I owned. I was a fan, still am and thus, found your video. Thanks for keeping MD alive! --Gary
I have the R900 and S1...both are excellent!..more in FB.... facebook.com/groups/minidiscgroup/?multi_permalinks=10157347599321553¬if_id=1586542173106369¬if_t=feedback_reaction_generic
Convenience unfortunately breeds lazy listening practices. When you have 10,000 tracks to choose from it is easy to get into the habit of skipping tracks, not listening to the end of each song or listen in the order that the artist intended. Because MiniDisc physically limits the amount of music you can carry, you are forced to be much more considered in your choice of music. You tend not to jump around the music catalogues as much. Music is an emotional medium, it’s not about clinic measurements. The sound might register as inferior, but MiniDisc is tactile, tangible, physical. It FEELS better than MP3.
The problem with those arguments (jumping around music catalogues) is that they were made vis-a-vis selecting songs from albums against CD and MD when the great transition from tape cassette began.
Fauxtaku Lounge I would say the argument that recordable mediums like cassette, DAT, MD, MP-3 have the drawback that they encourage listeners NOT to listen to music the way the artist intended is true, especially with the likes of concept albums. When it comes to music storage, I founds it’s NOT a case of ‘having the most’ but more a case of ‘needing the least’. I don’t know if my music sounds better on MiniDisc, but I find it more ‘enjoyable’ than my iPod. I seem to concentrate more with it.
14:17 Yes, I agree. I don’t need/want my entire music library with me all of the time anymore. Maybe because it makes me think more about what I’m listening to if I restrict my choices. 💽
Nice video, it was a good watch! I started on the Minidisc back in 1995 with the MZ R7 and progressed accordingly through the years eventually buying a MZ NH-1 and then hopping to an iPod in 2005. Incredibly when my iPod died in 2007 whiles enjoying a beer on the balcony and reached out for my trusted R7 and was blown away with the sound. Not because it technically superior, but it was just an exciting listen where coloration, bass and stereo separation was fun. I eventually bought a MZ RH-1, then a X Series Walkman, NW-ZX-1 and recently a NW-WM1A. My latest purchase was a boxed MZ-R7 again. I still use MDs for the sole purpose of Mixtapes, I even travelled across the world last month to Patagonia with 10 Discs only, each disc now represents certain moments. Magical.
I loved Mini Disc, still do. It was released in 1992 but was too expensive at the time. So I bought first a Philips DCC tape recorder deck and a DCC walkman because the prices dropped sooner with DCC than they did with MD. But I bought my first MD walkman recorder in 1995 and have enjoyed MD for years, in fact until its demise in 2006/2007. I even bought the last Hi-MD recorder walman the thin black one and it was to me the best walkman model even though I bought a lot of them (Aiwa, Sharp). There was a Sharp walkman I loved a lot : it was blue, square and with a little red kind of diamond as a record button it was beautiful and it sounded great (that's the only one that I bought twice because someone robbed me of my first in the subway) I cried my heart out when I lost it so I bought another one months later but still the last Sony HI-MD unit (MZ-1 or MZ-R1 I don't quite remember its name) but it was to me, the best walkman MD unit : it was thin, it looked great, had a great remote control and it was the best. But the thing I loved the most about MD is that it was the first consumer product which allowed to record music with a very good sound (even though it wasn't perfect) but it was years before CD-Rs. And with its recording capabilities it allowed you to record interviews, dictations or even full concerts with a high quality sound. I once went to a live concert, I recorded it with my MD and my MD sounded way better than the official live CD recorded and released later by the artist himself (even though my MD had some inconveniences like some fans screaming more than I wanted too, and even some of them singing badly lol). But MD was a revolution is 3 major aspects : - it was recordable and you could randomly access the tracks instantly like on a CD (DCC couldn't do that, not even DAT) - it was really shockproof (once a player slipped my hand when I was dancing, it went through all of my living room floor - the shock it received was really intense but still when I took it back, it was still playing lol) - it was affordable (in the end), way cheapier than DAT units ever were. So for all these years of enjoyment, I still say today : Thank you Sony. And if one day Sony decides to make new Hi-MD recorders, I will still buy one for sure.
I saw MD as the replacement for the audio cassette. what i loved about it was that you could bring your portable MD player/recorder anywhere and record from any source ,and get a good sounding recording. it was like carrying a cassette deck in your pocket. then they stopped making units with analog dig/opt. input with net MD and that pretty much ruined it in my eyes.
Minidisc has the BEST encoding, for it uses ATRAC of varying versions, with ATRAC type S the best. Far better than any mp3 or other compressed format, Sony just stopped support for it, it was too good.
I believe MiniDiscs were discontinued between 2011 and 2013. There was still a few players and loads of discs being manufactured from 2006 until the end.
i always considered minidisc a perfect replacement for cassette. viewing it in the context of coming from using cassette for portable, for making recordings, for making mix tapes, for re-recording; it was perfect. you didn't have to fast forward and rewind. you didn't have to worry about head alignment resulting in swooshy sound. you didn't have to worry about warbliness from movement. you didn't have one player that played too fast and the next that played too slow. you didn't get the sound quality of cd, but you got all the digital conveniences. for the nineties, it was too perfect. i think it was held back in north america by regulatory bureaucracy. because it was the perfect replacement for cassette.
That was a marketing gimmick. They said in 1997 or so that they had surpassed or equalled CDs, and in 1998 I think that they had done the same for DAT. Both are impossible.
@@guyprolly most probably, although the forums said it was a kinda custom firmware on the last MiniDisc models that allowed these to record/play on 48 KHz WAV files which gave them the last advantage over DAT and CDs.
I recorded FLAC on mine sounded amazing (lossy in an older pre pro with not so good DAC). He (OP OF VIDEO) probably used a average or below average source
Oh Dear me what a beautiful view !! I dearly love MD , Hi Mds and I had all of them . Some broken and gone after 10 years but I still having 3 working . I don't know what I will do when these little things gone forever . I hate smartphones music
Over the years I've had the finest home and portable MiniDisc equipment ever made but in 2019 I'm running 256gb MicroSD cards, lots of fond memories but there's no turning-back...
You sound like John Malkovich with an accent. Just got a Teac MD-70C the other day for a whopping $900 brand new. My Sony deck from ca. 1997 didn't survive the move from Alaska to New Mexico. I have so much on the format and still use it for recording if I need to access something quickly that I have in my cassettes. Also have some soundboard recordings of Alice Cooper from the early 2000s that his assistant recorded directly to MiniDisc and they are therefore 100% digital. Granted, they are recorded in mono to double the recording time, but digital nevertheless.
Great video, I've Always loved MD the audio Quality is excellent, and it's very versatile. The only gripe I have about you review on the mini disc, is I disagree with what you said about the sound quality, obviously I depends on what model you are judging, you never mentioned the model that I have and its the HI-MD MZ-RH1 SONY And it will record in Linear PCM RECORDING, CD QUALITY. the separate deck that I have had since 2002 the QS range made by Sony is the MDS-JB980 and uses the mini disc standard discs supports atrac/atrac3 DSP type S sonys compression systems but you have the option to do virtually flawless Stereo recordings up to 80mins.
I’m not talking about preference I’m talking about objective audio quality, measured against targeted and measured and parsed input signals such as square waves and simple audio suites like RMAA. A lot of Sony players actually added bass to the signal rather than remain neutral. A bunch of others dropped treble from the signal. Most had poor stereo signals via a vis the original 16-bit signal and this includes hi-md units. Measureably most decent MP3 players of the day were actually better. Whether a person liked the sound or not (and there’s even a bevy of people that don’t mind their hiss and noise levels) is secondary. If you go to ohm-image.net and check out data, you’ll see how bad MD units are, the beat unit of which comes close in some areas but fails to reach anywhere near 16-bit audio quality. And it is a hi-md unit. I love MD but not for objective audio quality.
That's right, if you have the best minidisc-equipment you have best sound an reliable player which will last for many decades without virus or new versions for boring downloads!
Heh, if you have to "discover" that it isn`t superior to CD, then it`s not really an issue is it? Lets just remember that measurements mean nothing, how it sounds and how any individual *appreciates* that sound is what matters..
I agree, numbers on a spreadsheet can't come close nor compare to experience. It can give you a rough idea or gauge as to what you're in for but that's about it
still have mine, mds jb980, they were the king.went from tape to md around '99/2000 originally had a mds jb930, got sick of recording in real time so it had to go. some of the decks had very good dac's in them, there is a trick to partnering your md deck and using its dac to kind of overide a cd players dac,i did that with my cd63 ki signiture, the 980 made the cd player sound much better, thats probably why some md decks sound so good. also have a mz r909 i bought that off a well known auction site about 15 years ago, it was mint complete with all its bits for about 20 pounds had 2 or 3 discs with it too,its still alive and well.
It took ages for mp3 and iPod players to be "better" than MD, and MD came out way earlier. And by that claim, I don't think mp3/iPod are better at all and they aren't even up for comparison. They fulfilled a niche market, just because they weren't as successful in the West - doesn't mean they weren't successful at all. May be rename you video to: Minidisc VLOG - 01: An Elegant Cope.
Just picked up a basic jvc md player today and it easily sounds better then any ipod. I have almost every ipod (including 5 ipod vidoes) and they all sound like ass. As far as mp3 players go iriver h140 and zune 30 are much better.
I understand that you love MD, but MDs generally measure worse, show more hiss/noise, have sometimes way worse stereo separation, to the point of almost being mono, and some (Aiwa and Kenwood) introduce so much mechanical noise to the signal that you are hearing through your headphones the internal whirring of the MD unit. I love MD, but it doesn't sound as good as iPod from a measurable standpoint. Some MD bass boost features were amazing though.
Fauxtaku Lounge I use my ipod almost daily even though I think its mediocre at best. Today is the first time ive ever used or listened to an MD and it instantly sounded better to me. Sounds more natural, better low end without boost and warmer. Ipod sounds like its clipping all the levels all the time no matter the volume and pretty zero bottom end. Ive used it with amps and eq bypass and its still not good. Idk maybe the jvc mx px70 is a good player. Now im trying to find a good himd player/recorder at a decent price. Also battery life is a no brainer. 14hr on ipod and up to a 100hr on my jvc.
@@artby2wenty I'm glad you like your MD, but either your iPod is broken, or a very very old one. Apple's units actually test under nightmare conditions (driving crazy loads) much better than most MD units. There are a few exceptions, but even then, those units are only better in one out of 7 or 8 sections of a full test suite, where the goal is to closely replicate the actual sound signal. Now, that doesn't mean that the iPod will sound better or worse to you... just that objectively, it sounds better. We all have preferences. I tend to prefer warmer, more low-fi sound next to higher-end clearer sound. But others will prefer the opposite. The truth is that the sound I prefer or think 'sounds better' actually is full of artefacts that make it sound that way.
The old Sharp MD Sr50 sound really good and is well made but the battery life isn´t the best but maybe my cheap nimh cell doesn´t handle high current so well because on my more power efficient sharp im dr410 it doesn´t drain too fast but again it´s a cheap nimh cell and i may get something like panasonic eneloop and fix all problems. However minidisc portables do sound okay but my old HTC One M8 for example has a much greater output power and a really good sound and thanks to a custom ROM it doesn´t have anything like BoomSound or Beats Audio crap on it. But it´s always fun to play around with dedicated hardware like a minidisc player. The sharp sr50 also looks like a professional device and that´s what i love about it.
Just watched the whole series. Absolutely love it. Could you please do a buying guide for those of us who haven't gotten that deep down the rabbit hole yet? Thanks and keep up the videos!
Oh, hey, thanks for the encouragement. I actually have a buying guide in mind, but haven't figured out how to work it into a coherent narrative. I've also not finished with my MD narrative as opposed to DAPs and more and hope to finish that first. If I get to the buying guide this year, please consider it a thing that will happen in the fall. My apologies if you are under demanding time constraints.
Fauxtaku Lounge Got it, and no need to apologize! Do you have any quick recommendations for a solid player/recorder or deck under $250USD? Thanks again for any advice!
I must disagree... I prefer the psychology of physical media. And most of them are a good size for your hand. And there isn't any hiss or mechanical sound... (sony mz-r700). Is this video a joke?
I think you will note that I too like physical media. As for hiss, it depends on many items, but mainly these three: 1. your headphones/earphones - some headphones are insensitive even to roaring, hissy outputs. These are: Tin HiFi P1 and other fully planar designs and a few others. 2. your ears: some people simply can't hear hiss. Either their ears are insensitive to it, or they simply can't hear it. 3. your psychology: if you don't fret the small stuff, likely you can get on with hiss. I use headphones from sensitive to insensitive, which is why I always recommend earphones/headphones I review as MD compatible or not. There are very few MD devices that don't hiss. The only one I have found that is on par with a modern DAP is the Sharp MD-DS55. That is no mean feat because it is from 2004 or so, and modern DAPs have gone through many high end generations in order to arrive at this current status. I do not joke about audio stuff. MD is great. But its outputs generally are wholly destroyed by modern hardware, and a lot of contemporary hardware. There are a few gems in the MD world which both sound and measure as well as the best DAPs of their day, and even matched for volume, as well as a modern DAP. But they are few.
Do you know a home (Hi)minidisc recorder that records in PCM. And wich atrac compression is the best? I have heard that atrac 3plus is better than atrac 4.5 and atrac r (5.0)
i have a sony 510 recorder, i record from a soundblaster audigy pc audio card, with flac/hi res/sacd files, and i use my AKG K712pro, the sound its incredible, like tube flavored, very 3D soundstage
I am working on it. It is taking a long time. I like its easy to use controls, low noise floor, good sound, battery life, features such as MDLP, and general reliability.
Silver :( but in a great condition. Purple is way harder to find ^^ | For me sound quality is so much better with MZ-R37 compared to QCom Snapdragon based Android phones.
Sony introduced no new units from 2006. It continued production after that, but, hell, Technics continued to make their desktop until after 2020. As a format, though, MD was dead.
This kind of guy , maybe the same group in the U.S that turns down mini disc back in the day, its because they will not allow JAPAN to be superior in the audio design and technology. U. S. already learned their lesson when SONY JAPAN brought the WALKMAN to the world in 1970. And the reason they manipulate the marketing to get the sony mini disc down. But its the fact that mini disc is better than the new lossing audio frequency format which is mp3. For me mini disc is the best.
It wasn't manipulating of the market in the US. It was just a market that didn't jive with the MD. Lots of places sold MDs, but few MD units actually sold. The USA turned to MP3 far earlier than a lot of places, and is probably the reason the US got a strong handhold in the MP3 market early. MD never tests in blind tests better than MP3 unless the MP3 has been poorly encoded. You can prefer MD. That's great. But in audio quality, few to none of these units are even close to 16-bit quality.
When it comes to MiniDisc, the only one that is at fault for it's failure in the audio marketplace is SONY. Upon it's initial launch they focused more on it's ability to play prerecorded MDs then it's ability to replace the home cassette recorder. People were not ready to ditch the compact disc and would have most likely caught on to the advantages MD provided over cassette recording. SONY also waited to long to allow other mfgs to produce MD units. SONY also waited to long to reduce the price of the product to make it more affordable to the average consumer. SONY is no stranger to bad marketing practices. All one needs to do is look to SONY's failure with Beta.
Music used in this video is from RoccoW (freemusicarchive.org/music/RoccoW) 1. RoccoW - Weeklybeats 2014 #4 - All Will Be Well freemusicarchive.org/music/RoccoW/Weeklybeats_2014/Weeklybeats_4_-_All_Will_Be_Well 2. RoccoW - Weeklybeats 2014 #7 - Freaking Viking freemusicarchive.org/music/RoccoW/Weeklybeats_2014/Weeklybeats_2014_7_-_Freaking_Viking
Excuse me for the late reply. All thanks to you. My desire of nostalgia makes me digging through my shelf. Mine is Sony MZ-R91 a small consumer version of mini disk digital recorder/Walkman.
I'd not say that. I'm in it for the hobby value, and not a little aesthetics. Pulling out an MD on the train? Geek street cred. Still, for me, usability and high sound sound allow that action to happen.
Sungjung Ro I have two( backup) ... I have ten years of live concert recordings on mini disc( tapers best friend) I also have two teac decks that record CDs so I can record off my live mini disc concerts to cd. I love my numerous Sony MDs. I also bought a Sony computer that had a mini disc drive, fm radio receiver and could record off the radio to the mini disc. The bad thing on the computer was the Sony software that limited the use of music on the mini disc by limiting how many you could load to the MD and take off. The biggest disappears it wouldn’t let you up load the live concerts . Thus I used transferring live music to cd. I will never get rid of MD, the sound quality on them beats mp3 !
yeah i have the e720 and e730,i really like them both. the eh50 has too much bass imho, also RH910 is very neutral, not bad per see, but i much enjoy the e720/730 pair.
crap, total crap, minidisc kicks arse of mp3 players all the way, love minidisc players, got 4 full sized decks, 3 midi sized decks, and 2 portable players.
You can like them better but that doesn’t mean they sound better. And they don’t. I love MD ans use it almost exclusively in my private life. But I’m not about to pretend that it’s files or it’s hardware sounds better than a decent DAP. I’ve documented a lot of it at my blog. The best MD players score only as high as a low end DAP.
@@FauxtakuLounge If you have to analyse (you claim) the minisisc to within an inch of its life, you can't be enjoying your music to its fullest. Who cares about your technical measurements of wow and flutter, amplitudinal variations, directional impedence etc etc? You have approximately eight player/recorders on the table in front of you and then claim that the best mindiscs are not as good as a low-end DAP. How would you know, when hundreds of models of minidisc players and recorders were produced by dozens of manufacturer? Mine sound every bit as good as CDs to me, and I'm sure to most other lovers of the medium. We don't need to have our corns trodden on by the audio sheriffs of this world.
today after using many mp3 player like ipod, expensive smartphone, expensive mp3 players , I just have to say that I went back to the minidisc, Because it's a real stereo sound.
minidisc was ahead light years to its time just like the ps3
Minidisc is basically an mp3 player but using magneto-optical instead of flash. ATRAC 292Kbps has similar audio artifacts to MP3, and same with MP3 less artifacts over time as they made the encoder better.
I’d like to MD but no new hardware, new discs are expensive, so only for fun “may be”.
Hi. I got back into minidisc for exactly the reason you were stating about sorting out your music before you leave the house. I was finding that I was spending all my listening time scrolling through options on my phone, simply thinking to myself; "I have ``literally`` nothing to listen to". Hi-MD helped me out a lot because it gave me a limit, a control over how I arranged and chose my music. Listening in Hi-MD may only give you a 28 minute limit, but in this day and age capacity is is not the problem for anyone with a phone; engagement is. For many, minidisc is great solution. It's just a shame prices for decent portable units are going through the roof these days. Thanks for the video.
I owned several MDs in the mid 00s. My all time favorite is the Sony MZ-R900. I used them to record my drum mix practice and review the results, etc. I had Net-MDs, and I thought the Hi-MDs sounded fantastic, I think they were the ultimate MDs, I had two three models including the color display version, forget the model numbers. I had the Sony white workout MD with orange display, a big favorite MD, waterproof, fit in your hand, ergonomic, just a beauty, solid. I'd buy that again, seriously. I even had a CAR STEREO MD deck by Sony from their ES line if I remember correctly! Then I had high end MD-decks, and I actually attached a keyboard to them and could navigate and title my MDs. I hand wrote with Japanese micro-pens the track titles on the labels, tiny writing, etc. never printing labels. I recorded LPs and specials off the radio. I had Japan imported special MDs in great designs, special storage boxes also from Japan, all the cool stuff. I think what appealed to me was the tactility and meticulous thoughtfulness you engaged in and focus on the music rather than an OS. I found them very useful and have considered getting another one today to record digital internet radio, ie iHeart, etc. for on the go. I owned a Kenwood standard play model, it was B-eautiful and sounded great. Forget the model, but I took good photos of all the models I owned. I was a fan, still am and thus, found your video. Thanks for keeping MD alive! --Gary
I have the R900 and S1...both are excellent!..more in FB.... facebook.com/groups/minidiscgroup/?multi_permalinks=10157347599321553¬if_id=1586542173106369¬if_t=feedback_reaction_generic
Convenience unfortunately breeds lazy listening practices. When you have 10,000 tracks to choose from it is easy to get into the habit of skipping tracks, not listening to the end of each song or listen in the order that the artist intended. Because MiniDisc physically limits the amount of music you can carry, you are forced to be much more considered in your choice of music. You tend not to jump around the music catalogues as much. Music is an emotional medium, it’s not about clinic measurements. The sound might register as inferior, but MiniDisc is tactile, tangible, physical. It FEELS better than MP3.
The problem with those arguments (jumping around music catalogues) is that they were made vis-a-vis selecting songs from albums against CD and MD when the great transition from tape cassette began.
Fauxtaku Lounge I would say the argument that recordable mediums like cassette, DAT, MD, MP-3 have the drawback that they encourage listeners NOT to listen to music the way the artist intended is true, especially with the likes of concept albums. When it comes to music storage, I founds it’s NOT a case of ‘having the most’ but more a case of ‘needing the least’. I don’t know if my music sounds better on MiniDisc, but I find it more ‘enjoyable’ than my iPod. I seem to concentrate more with it.
@@mattcameron9349 I absolutely agree, which is why I covered that exact topic (however tersely) in this video.
Still rocking my MZ-R900 today on a daily use. Love this player such a well built and great sounding portable.
Absolutely agreed.. My Fav audio gear from 1997.. Sadly it has to discontinue. Hope it will be produce again like vinyl now days.
14:17 Yes, I agree. I don’t need/want my entire music library with me all of the time anymore. Maybe because it makes me think more about what I’m listening to if I restrict my choices. 💽
Nice video, it was a good watch! I started on the Minidisc back in 1995 with the MZ R7 and progressed
accordingly through the years eventually buying a MZ NH-1 and then hopping to an iPod in 2005. Incredibly when my iPod died in 2007 whiles enjoying a beer on the balcony and reached out for my trusted R7 and was blown
away with the sound. Not because it technically superior, but it was just an exciting listen where coloration, bass and stereo separation was fun. I eventually bought a MZ RH-1, then a X Series Walkman, NW-ZX-1 and recently a NW-WM1A. My latest purchase was a boxed MZ-R7 again. I still use MDs for the sole purpose of
Mixtapes, I even travelled across the world last month to Patagonia with 10 Discs only, each disc now represents certain moments. Magical.
facebook.com/groups/minidiscgroup/?multi_permalinks=10157347599321553¬if_id=1586542173106369¬if_t=feedback_reaction_generic
Awesome!
I love minidisc. Thank you for your great video 😊
I loved Mini Disc, still do. It was released in 1992 but was too expensive at the time. So I bought first a Philips DCC tape recorder deck and a DCC walkman because the prices dropped sooner with DCC than they did with MD. But I bought my first MD walkman recorder in 1995 and have enjoyed MD for years, in fact until its demise in 2006/2007. I even bought the last Hi-MD recorder walman the thin black one and it was to me the best walkman model even though I bought a lot of them (Aiwa, Sharp).
There was a Sharp walkman I loved a lot : it was blue, square and with a little red kind of diamond as a record button it was beautiful and it sounded great (that's the only one that I bought twice because someone robbed me of my first in the subway) I cried my heart out when I lost it so I bought another one months later but still the last Sony HI-MD unit (MZ-1 or MZ-R1 I don't quite remember its name) but it was to me, the best walkman MD unit : it was thin, it looked great, had a great remote control and it was the best.
But the thing I loved the most about MD is that it was the first consumer product which allowed to record music with a very good sound (even though it wasn't perfect) but it was years before CD-Rs. And with its recording capabilities it allowed you to record interviews, dictations or even full concerts with a high quality sound. I once went to a live concert, I recorded it with my MD and my MD sounded way better than the official live CD recorded and released later by the artist himself (even though my MD had some inconveniences like some fans screaming more than I wanted too, and even some of them singing badly lol).
But MD was a revolution is 3 major aspects :
- it was recordable and you could randomly access the tracks instantly like on a CD (DCC couldn't do that, not even DAT)
- it was really shockproof
(once a player slipped my hand when I was dancing, it went through all of my living room floor - the shock it received was really intense but still when I took it back, it was still playing lol)
- it was affordable (in the end), way cheapier than DAT units ever were.
So for all these years of enjoyment, I still say today : Thank you Sony.
And if one day Sony decides to make new Hi-MD recorders, I will still buy one for sure.
I saw MD as the replacement for the audio cassette. what i loved about it was that you could bring your portable MD player/recorder anywhere and record from any source ,and get a good sounding recording. it was like carrying a cassette deck in your pocket. then they stopped making units with analog dig/opt. input with net MD and that pretty much ruined it in my eyes.
Minidisc has the BEST encoding, for it uses ATRAC of varying versions, with ATRAC type S the best. Far better than any mp3 or other compressed format, Sony just stopped support for it, it was too good.
I believe MiniDiscs were discontinued between 2011 and 2013. There was still a few players and loads of discs being manufactured from 2006 until the end.
i always considered minidisc a perfect replacement for cassette. viewing it in the context of coming from using cassette for portable, for making recordings, for making mix tapes, for re-recording; it was perfect.
you didn't have to fast forward and rewind. you didn't have to worry about head alignment resulting in swooshy sound. you didn't have to worry about warbliness from movement. you didn't have one player that played too fast and the next that played too slow.
you didn't get the sound quality of cd, but you got all the digital conveniences. for the nineties, it was too perfect. i think it was held back in north america by regulatory bureaucracy. because it was the perfect replacement for cassette.
I read somewhere that on their final updates, some miniDiscs had equiparable or even better quality than DATs. Maybe it was a lie, dunno.
That was a marketing gimmick. They said in 1997 or so that they had surpassed or equalled CDs, and in 1998 I think that they had done the same for DAT. Both are impossible.
@@guyprolly most probably, although the forums said it was a kinda custom firmware on the last MiniDisc models that allowed these to record/play on 48 KHz WAV files which gave them the last advantage over DAT and CDs.
I recorded FLAC on mine sounded amazing (lossy in an older pre pro with not so good DAC). He (OP OF VIDEO) probably used a average or below average source
Oh Dear me what a beautiful view !! I dearly love MD , Hi Mds and I had all of them . Some broken and gone after 10 years but I still having 3 working . I don't know what I will do when these little things gone forever . I hate smartphones music
I have had a Sharp, recordable minidisci for years without any issues. It is a great piece of kit which I still use.
Over the years I've had the finest home and portable MiniDisc equipment ever made but in 2019 I'm running 256gb MicroSD cards, lots of fond memories but there's no turning-back...
You sound like John Malkovich with an accent.
Just got a Teac MD-70C the other day for a whopping $900 brand new. My Sony deck from ca. 1997 didn't survive the move from Alaska to New Mexico. I have so much on the format and still use it for recording if I need to access something quickly that I have in my cassettes. Also have some soundboard recordings of Alice Cooper from the early 2000s that his assistant recorded directly to MiniDisc and they are therefore 100% digital. Granted, they are recorded in mono to double the recording time, but digital nevertheless.
Seems to be contradicting himself all the way through this post. Odd!
Great video, I've Always loved MD the audio Quality is excellent, and it's very versatile. The only gripe I have about you review on the mini disc, is I disagree with what you said about the sound quality, obviously I depends on what model you are judging, you never mentioned the model that I have and its the HI-MD MZ-RH1 SONY And it will record in Linear PCM RECORDING, CD QUALITY. the separate deck that I have had since 2002 the QS range made by Sony is the MDS-JB980 and uses the mini disc standard discs supports atrac/atrac3 DSP type S sonys compression systems but you have the option to do virtually flawless Stereo recordings up to 80mins.
I’m not talking about preference I’m talking about objective audio quality, measured against targeted and measured and parsed input signals such as square waves and simple audio suites like RMAA. A lot of Sony players actually added bass to the signal rather than remain neutral. A bunch of others dropped treble from the signal. Most had poor stereo signals via a vis the original 16-bit signal and this includes hi-md units.
Measureably most decent MP3 players of the day were actually better. Whether a person liked the sound or not (and there’s even a bevy of people that don’t mind their hiss and noise levels) is secondary.
If you go to ohm-image.net and check out data, you’ll see how bad MD units are, the beat unit of which comes close in some areas but fails to reach anywhere near 16-bit audio quality. And it is a hi-md unit.
I love MD but not for objective audio quality.
They are lovely, Ive had few trough the years and still have 2 mini and 1 deck
Great collections!
I love your clear video style. It looks great and comfortable!
That's right, if you have the best minidisc-equipment you have best sound an reliable player which will last for many decades without virus or new versions for boring downloads!
Why do I feel like agent Smith is talking from the Matrix movie?
Heh, if you have to "discover" that it isn`t superior to CD, then it`s not really an issue is it?
Lets just remember that measurements mean nothing, how it sounds and how any individual *appreciates* that sound is what matters..
I agree, numbers on a spreadsheet can't come close nor compare to experience. It can give you a rough idea or gauge as to what you're in for but that's about it
Music is not only decimals and technology, Music is ritualistic, emotional and nostalgia.
Of course.
So, Ipod sucked, Creative tanked overall, so yea...
Otherwise MDs with AA bay and then make old school mix disks and you're golden!
still have mine, mds jb980, they were the king.went from tape to md around '99/2000
originally had a mds jb930, got sick of recording in real time so it had to go.
some of the decks had very good dac's in them, there is a trick to partnering your md deck
and using its dac to kind of overide a cd players dac,i did that with my cd63 ki signiture,
the 980 made the cd player sound much better, thats probably why some md decks sound so good.
also have a mz r909 i bought that off a well known auction site about 15 years ago, it was mint complete
with all its bits for about 20 pounds had 2 or 3 discs with it too,its still alive and well.
It took ages for mp3 and iPod players to be "better" than MD, and MD came out way earlier. And by that claim, I don't think mp3/iPod are better at all and they aren't even up for comparison. They fulfilled a niche market, just because they weren't as successful in the West - doesn't mean they weren't successful at all. May be rename you video to: Minidisc VLOG - 01: An Elegant Cope.
Merci pour la vidéo,
Je sauvegarde mes MiniDisc via un Dictaphone qui les transforme automatiquement en MP3. L'Aventure continue, clic sur le smiley.
Just picked up a basic jvc md player today and it easily sounds better then any ipod. I have almost every ipod (including 5 ipod vidoes) and they all sound like ass. As far as mp3 players go iriver h140 and zune 30 are much better.
I understand that you love MD, but MDs generally measure worse, show more hiss/noise, have sometimes way worse stereo separation, to the point of almost being mono, and some (Aiwa and Kenwood) introduce so much mechanical noise to the signal that you are hearing through your headphones the internal whirring of the MD unit.
I love MD, but it doesn't sound as good as iPod from a measurable standpoint. Some MD bass boost features were amazing though.
Fauxtaku Lounge I use my ipod almost daily even though I think its mediocre at best.
Today is the first time ive ever used or listened to an MD and it instantly sounded better to me. Sounds more natural, better low end without boost and warmer. Ipod sounds like its clipping all the levels all the time no matter the volume and pretty zero bottom end. Ive used it with amps and eq bypass and its still not good. Idk maybe the jvc mx px70 is a good player. Now im trying to find a good himd player/recorder at a decent price.
Also battery life is a no brainer. 14hr on ipod and up to a 100hr on my jvc.
@@artby2wenty I'm glad you like your MD, but either your iPod is broken, or a very very old one. Apple's units actually test under nightmare conditions (driving crazy loads) much better than most MD units. There are a few exceptions, but even then, those units are only better in one out of 7 or 8 sections of a full test suite, where the goal is to closely replicate the actual sound signal.
Now, that doesn't mean that the iPod will sound better or worse to you... just that objectively, it sounds better. We all have preferences. I tend to prefer warmer, more low-fi sound next to higher-end clearer sound.
But others will prefer the opposite. The truth is that the sound I prefer or think 'sounds better' actually is full of artefacts that make it sound that way.
The old Sharp MD Sr50 sound really good and is well made but the battery life isn´t the best but maybe my cheap nimh cell doesn´t handle high current so well because on my more power efficient sharp im dr410 it doesn´t drain too fast but again it´s a cheap nimh cell and i may get something like panasonic eneloop and fix all problems.
However minidisc portables do sound okay but my old HTC One M8 for example has a much greater output power and a really good sound and thanks to a custom ROM it doesn´t have anything like BoomSound or Beats Audio crap on it.
But it´s always fun to play around with dedicated hardware like a minidisc player.
The sharp sr50 also looks like a professional device and that´s what i love about it.
I'd love to know what you think of the MZRH1 for sound. I never heard a better recorder/player, period.
I reviewed it last year. I hope this helps you: ua-cam.com/video/CUmHEKf6z8o/v-deo.html
I started with Kenwood DMC-L5-B as my childhood first portable music player. I just loved it.
Just watched the whole series. Absolutely love it. Could you please do a buying guide for those of us who haven't gotten that deep down the rabbit hole yet? Thanks and keep up the videos!
Oh, hey, thanks for the encouragement. I actually have a buying guide in mind, but haven't figured out how to work it into a coherent narrative. I've also not finished with my MD narrative as opposed to DAPs and more and hope to finish that first. If I get to the buying guide this year, please consider it a thing that will happen in the fall. My apologies if you are under demanding time constraints.
Fauxtaku Lounge Got it, and no need to apologize! Do you have any quick recommendations for a solid player/recorder or deck under $250USD? Thanks again for any advice!
I must disagree... I prefer the psychology of physical media. And most of them are a good size for your hand. And there isn't any hiss or mechanical sound... (sony mz-r700). Is this video a joke?
I think you will note that I too like physical media. As for hiss, it depends on many items, but mainly these three:
1. your headphones/earphones - some headphones are insensitive even to roaring, hissy outputs. These are: Tin HiFi P1 and other fully planar designs and a few others.
2. your ears: some people simply can't hear hiss. Either their ears are insensitive to it, or they simply can't hear it.
3. your psychology: if you don't fret the small stuff, likely you can get on with hiss.
I use headphones from sensitive to insensitive, which is why I always recommend earphones/headphones I review as MD compatible or not. There are very few MD devices that don't hiss. The only one I have found that is on par with a modern DAP is the Sharp MD-DS55. That is no mean feat because it is from 2004 or so, and modern DAPs have gone through many high end generations in order to arrive at this current status.
I do not joke about audio stuff. MD is great. But its outputs generally are wholly destroyed by modern hardware, and a lot of contemporary hardware. There are a few gems in the MD world which both sound and measure as well as the best DAPs of their day, and even matched for volume, as well as a modern DAP. But they are few.
Do you know a home (Hi)minidisc recorder that records in PCM.
And wich atrac compression is the best? I have heard that atrac 3plus is better than atrac 4.5 and atrac r (5.0)
There are several hi-md decks from Onkyo. Later ATRAC technically is better than earlier ATRAC. Whether you like it better or not is personal.
i have a sony 510 recorder, i record from a soundblaster audigy pc audio card, with flac/hi res/sacd files, and i use my AKG K712pro, the sound its incredible, like tube flavored, very 3D soundstage
Please make Panasonic SJ-MJ17 video! What is it you like so much about its sound? And thanx for all the work on your chanell!
I am working on it. It is taking a long time. I like its easy to use controls, low noise floor, good sound, battery life, features such as MDLP, and general reliability.
Sony MZ-R70 players and others have malfunctioning heads. I have went through many of them
Just bought a Sony MZ-R37 a few days ago, nice VLOG :)
XGreenThumb my favourite. What colour? Purple was mad hot.
Silver :( but in a great condition. Purple is way harder to find ^^ | For me sound quality is so much better with MZ-R37 compared to QCom Snapdragon based Android phones.
Just got mine in the mail yesterday. Lovely device with a sexy futuretro design aesthetic.
"Mini Disc has been discontinued essentially in 2006" is incorrect. Sony officially discontinued Mini Disc production in 2013.
Sony introduced no new units from 2006. It continued production after that, but, hell, Technics continued to make their desktop until after 2020. As a format, though, MD was dead.
ok.@@guyprolly
Fascinating product, great video.
❤
I would have loved to hear your thoughts on the Panasonic remote plugs vs. all the other plugs.
This kind of guy , maybe the same group in the U.S that turns down mini disc back in the day, its because they will not allow JAPAN to be superior in the audio design and technology. U. S. already learned their lesson when SONY JAPAN brought the WALKMAN to the world in 1970. And the reason they manipulate the marketing to get the sony mini disc down. But its the fact that mini disc is better than the new lossing audio frequency format which is mp3. For me mini disc is the best.
It wasn't manipulating of the market in the US. It was just a market that didn't jive with the MD. Lots of places sold MDs, but few MD units actually sold. The USA turned to MP3 far earlier than a lot of places, and is probably the reason the US got a strong handhold in the MP3 market early. MD never tests in blind tests better than MP3 unless the MP3 has been poorly encoded. You can prefer MD. That's great. But in audio quality, few to none of these units are even close to 16-bit quality.
When it comes to MiniDisc, the only one that is at fault for it's failure in the audio marketplace is SONY. Upon it's initial launch they focused more on it's ability to play prerecorded MDs then it's ability to replace the home cassette recorder. People were not ready to ditch the compact disc and would have most likely caught on to the advantages MD provided over cassette recording. SONY also waited to long to allow other mfgs to produce MD units. SONY also waited to long to reduce the price of the product to make it more affordable to the average consumer. SONY is no stranger to bad marketing practices. All one needs to do is look to SONY's failure with Beta.
Mp3 suck,just another compressed lossy audio format...no matter how it's encoded...and btw,sound is subjective.
lol you are so full of shit
Reply
Can l buy 1 of thos
What track did you use in the intro?
Music used in this video is from RoccoW (freemusicarchive.org/music/RoccoW)
1. RoccoW - Weeklybeats 2014 #4 - All Will Be Well
freemusicarchive.org/music/RoccoW/Weeklybeats_2014/Weeklybeats_4_-_All_Will_Be_Well
2. RoccoW - Weeklybeats 2014 #7 - Freaking Viking
freemusicarchive.org/music/RoccoW/Weeklybeats_2014/Weeklybeats_2014_7_-_Freaking_Viking
Still have mine.
Charlie Liu which one or ones do you have? And for what reason did you purchase?
Fauxtaku Lounge now you asking, I need to dig it out ha ha, will get back to you. It is a Sony for sure
Excuse me for the late reply. All thanks to you. My desire of nostalgia makes me digging through my shelf. Mine is Sony MZ-R91 a small consumer version of mini disk digital recorder/Walkman.
rule of thumb he is making, don't buy crap on Ebay that you think is good. Gotcha.
I'd not say that. I'm in it for the hobby value, and not a little aesthetics. Pulling out an MD on the train? Geek street cred. Still, for me, usability and high sound sound allow that action to happen.
Where is seller in this itam
frumoasa colectie domnule
I have minidisc deck
Sungjung Ro
I have two( backup) ... I have ten years of live concert recordings on mini disc( tapers best friend)
I also have two teac decks that record CDs so I can record off my live mini disc concerts to cd.
I love my numerous Sony MDs. I also bought a Sony computer that had a mini disc drive, fm radio receiver and could record off the radio to the mini disc. The bad thing on the computer was the Sony software that limited the use of music on the mini disc by limiting how many you could load to the MD and take off. The biggest disappears it wouldn’t let you up load the live concerts . Thus I used transferring live music to cd.
I will never get rid of MD, the sound quality on them beats mp3 !
informative video
How much is noe n
Of i this
😊
Beautiful home!
Thank you! I have an awfully dirty storage room that needs a good clean, but we like our home.
Thank you too for your explanation about minidisc technology. I like minidiscs and its recorders very much and also I own some of them.
u should try mz e720. i really like the sound, better than rh910 i guess... if u want, its cheap too as well.
Thank you for the recommendation.
yeah i have the e720 and e730,i really like them both. the eh50 has too much bass imho, also RH910 is very neutral, not bad per see, but i much enjoy the e720/730 pair.
crap, total crap, minidisc kicks arse of mp3 players all the way, love minidisc players, got 4 full sized decks, 3 midi sized decks, and 2 portable players.
You can like them better but that doesn’t mean they sound better. And they don’t. I love MD ans use it almost exclusively in my private life. But I’m not about to pretend that it’s files or it’s hardware sounds better than a decent DAP. I’ve documented a lot of it at my blog. The best MD players score only as high as a low end DAP.
@@FauxtakuLounge If you have to analyse (you claim) the minisisc to within an inch of its life, you can't be enjoying your music to its fullest. Who cares about your technical measurements of wow and flutter, amplitudinal variations, directional impedence etc etc? You have approximately eight player/recorders on the table in front of you and then claim that the best mindiscs are not as good as a low-end DAP. How would you know, when hundreds of models of minidisc players and recorders were produced by dozens of manufacturer? Mine sound every bit as good as CDs to me, and I'm sure to most other lovers of the medium. We don't need to have our corns trodden on by the audio sheriffs of this world.
3:38 Freudian slip
is everybody on the payroll?
Um... what's that mean?
Are you German or Irish? Your accent is confusing me.
Iwould .ike