MiniDisc - Why Would You Bother With Them In This Day And Age?
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- Опубликовано: 27 июл 2024
- I love MiniDisc. I loved them first time round and were one of the reasons I moved away from cassette.
People ask me what the appeal is, above nostalgia. Here I explain for people who've never encountered them before, why I love them so much.
If you like chatting and posting about cassettes, why not join my new Facebook group dedicated to it: Blank Cassette Tapes
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If you'd like to purchase cassettes shown in this video, visit my online store at:
www.cassettecomeback.com
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Some RUclipsrs keep comparing minidisc to CDs but that’s a mistake imo. MD were intended to replace cassettes, not CDs. I had a silver Sony MZ-R70 just like yours that I bought new in I think 1999. Loved it to bits and it was such an upgrade from my cassette Walkman. It was incredibly robust. It survived years of abuse including 7 months working in a freezing fish packing factory in Norway with salt water everywhere and cold temperatures. Then brought on a 9 month backpacking trip throughout Russia, Mongolia and China. It was the ultimate travel machine. I made field recordings with a Sony stereo microphone you could get for it. And I brought a couple cables so I could record music from fellow travellers, from hostels and cafes. I got such a wonderful collection of music that was organically integrated with the journey, part of the journey. Only Minidisc could have pulled that off.
CD-RWs were unreliable and didn’t always work. They were bulky and fragile. Minidisc was the best format ever
Yes. I believe it was the best consumer recording format.
They're just opinions you soft manchild
I was gutted when Mini Disc didn't work out, I love them, I really thought they were the future, Mini disc should also make a comeback, great video 👍
MD comeback is vastly looked forward to… let’s hope Sony or any other well-established music device producer gets this message and follows accordingly… 🙏
Every video I watch about MinDisc talks about how retro-futuristic and how much they look like the future. I agree.
I am 52 years old. I saw the dawn of minidisc. I love love love minidisc.
Still rock'n the minidisc in 2024!
I got convinced to release my album on Minidisc, which admittedly I wasn't familiar with. We ended up selling 30 copies on preorder, so there's clearly some demand still out there! I ended up biting the bullet to have something to play it on and, by sheer coincidence, I got the same blue player you showed in your video. I was pleasantly surprised when my copies arrived - they're gorgeous little bits of kit, especially with the full body printing that the pressing plant offer!
Yeah, tangible media has a charm purely digital will never have.
wow i really like your music! i paid attention to it since i read your comment. keep up your music!
Where did you get ur minidisc albums made? I’m looking todo the same
I'm from America and I'm incredibly lucky I found a record shop here that sells blank minidiscs sealed! Just bought a portable player from Japan, I'm slowly acquiring all the parts to make it work!
I've been a minidisc user for a long time. I stopped using them for the last 6 or 7 years but, now I'm back in full swing.
I recently bought an Onkyo micro system from Japan which allows USB to Minidisc recording. Very convenient.
@@chilly6470 Sayın Arkadaş Ben Kayıt yapmak için Mini Disc Bulamıyorum Nerede Boş MD Disc Bulabilirim Bi Zahmet Biliyorsanız satış Linkini Yazabilirseniz Çok Menmun Olurum.Saygı ve Sevgilerimle
@@sezaialdal1285Amazon & eBay has them
Dad bought me a mini disc recorder (came with a portable player) to run my studio recordings off to when I was 17.
Still have all the discs and I still love using them.
And I agree, there's something really special about physical media like this.
Watching this reinforces why I love MiniDisc and why I try to get as many people as I can into the format. It's such a great format that I wish had taken off more worldwide. It should've been the future of portable audio. My NetMD machine through Web MiniDisc is my favorite way to record stuff from my collection over to work listening media. The designs are so cool to look at too, even the more plain looking ones.
I still use my minidisc in 2019 still love them 👍
I still use my minidisc in 2020 still love them
@@pp312 I still use my cassettes in 2020 cus I don't have minidisc cus in America they flopped like a fat guy falling from a high dive
@@yaboidustin2447 That fat guy was worth knowing, believe me. You'll never know what you missed. Cassettes are...ugh!
2020 still going strong 💪
I still use my minidisc in 2054 still love them.
Im 21. I never had an actual portable player other than mp3 player. I have a CD player at home that ive bought to play some of my thrash metal CDs, but now im thinking of buying the MDs. Those MD players are so beautiful.
They were so underrated. I had 2 beautiful Sony MD Walkman's and I loved them. I still have one in mint condition.
I used it in work all week on a single AA battery.
I am um, actually writing a modern front end for macs for minidiscs...
It's nice to know I am not *totally* nuts/alone in this :)
Let me know when it's usable. I'll do a video on it 😀
Cassette Comeback Did this ever happen?
Is it up yet??
Did you ever complete that Mac front end for MD??? I know many folks that would like to try it.
@@jeffchastain6202 Archtechture changes around drivers in Catalina beat it down and Big Sur killed it :)
The only downside is the lack of parts, for example, magnetic heads like to fail. And I think nostalgia is the key word. I've bought my last MD in 2023, and I bought the first one when it came out. I love the philosophy you put in your videos, it's not about logics, it's about we like to record things in real time, why not?
"and right now, they're not expensive"...
MOMENTS LATER, EBAY PRICES EXPLODE
;-) I love minidisc too, for much the same reasons you do, and my little Panasonic unit still works fine. Minidisc is further proof, if any were needed, that the better format doesn't always win.
It'll be like the "Techmoan Effect" thank goodness I've got all I need!
I loved MiniDisc in it's heyday, I still have dozens of discs, the recorder and some portables. I still record on them for fun occasionally. What really helps by the way those portables tend to have very good headphone amps, much better than most cellphones have. And the ability to edit tracks down to a fraction of a second is a boon too. Still love cassettes too. The limitions of the format (especially playing time) are actually it's strength, because it forces you to really think what you put on them. It makes for much better mixtapes. And with Spotify you have a perfect source. Used to record a lot of digital satellite radio too.
@DJ Dacha actually, the latest ATRAC versions were pretty good in terms of sound quality. Much more like 224-256 kbps MP3 than 96 kbps.
Yeah, it's weird though. Playing through my Sharp 702 I got a much stronger signal than through my Sony NF520D. Never noticed that before. I wonder what causes that?
@@grizzlyaddams3606 Different headphone amp, with different charasteristics like restistance etc. It's quite common that a given headphone works much better on one device than on another. It's why the current trend where headphones have mini-usb connections rather than an analog one in itself is not a bad thing, as the ampification and D/A conversion is now done in the headphone rather than the device.
@@BlaBla-jj6sh I was surprised to say the least. I had been listening to the Sony with the phones in just the night before. Then went to use the Sharp on my home setup but was too lazy to hook in the optical. So I plugged it into the phone jack. The sound was hot, liquid and loud. When I went to the Sony just to compare.... Sad face, like it was a completely different machine when hooked up to a good sound system than with a pair of cheap jacks. 😄
Guess I know what's for what now.
Takes me back to the days when I used to record Pages From Ceefax from my VHS video recorder to minidisc. I still have a portable HiMD recorder which I used last night and was pleasently surprised at how good those recordings were.
We are all on the same journey Tony! MiniDisc is awesome... yes, cassettes have a particularly pleasing aesthetic and I will never give up on them... but minidisc (for me at least) will always have a special place in my heart. I always love the underdog in any fight! Great vid as usual.
Beautiful job on those. I thought they were store bought at first.
I loved MiniDisc from the first day on! Great to catch sounds while traveling or to record ideas. Sure I put some of my favorite records on them an listen to them in the car to protect the expensive CD's. Thanks for your video! (PS: I also was a big cassette user before MiniDisc)
I still use and record with my minidisc 2019
Do you use software?
Can you get the track titles onto the minidiscs you record?
@@timwilliams113 Yes. Platinum MD. It's for Net MD. I have yet to use it but others have already and it seems to operate with no issues. You can use Sonic Stage with varying degrees of success. (i.e., drive signature disabled for later versions of windows) or running SS on a Win7/10 machine on a virtual drive.
Hi. Im looking for the Open MG jukebox software. Can you send me? Greetings from Argentina!!!}
@@PabloTamburini Creo que el SonicStage es mejor, al menos yo te recomiendo ese.
@@timwilliams113 No software but yes you can get the names on the tracks !
I love how enthusiastic you are about these things! It's really enjoyable to hear the genuine reverence in your voice. And yeah, I agree, they are amazing! Minidiscs are bloody brilliant.
omg minidiscs are the future. totally want to get into them now!
This is by far one of the most comprehensible videos about this subject I've ever seen.
10/10
Ive been watching your videos for only a short time after getting back into cassette as I wanted to put something in my classic car and wanted it to be age appropriate. I also found my old walkman. I never really got into mini disc but accidentally purchased one with a couple of broken walkmen. Im impressed with the quality and the fact I have a tiny player/recorder.The only issue is that any spares for a mini disc machine are a lot more expensive compared with cassette...Good video and im now subscribed
I’ve been looking at going back to minidisc and found your channel. Insta-subbed when I read the channel name! Great video. Thanks for sharing.
Lovely vid there dude, thankyou! I've used minidisc almost every day since 1998. I love them xx
Excellent video and one of the best pieces I’ve seen on Mini-disc. I’ve been using Mini-disc since the mid 90s an£ still using them. It’s such a flexible format and I agree it sounds really great. I am a musician and for years used a Mini-disc deck to record musical ideas to and also at one time to record basic mixes of songs, so I could then carry them around with me to live with the mixes so I could go back and tweak them later. I also agree the technology is just so cool and just so well engineered. I still use my Sony hi-fi Mini-disc deck to record any new vinyl to, just like I used to with cassette. Anyway thanks for a brilliant overview of my favourite audio format. Long live Mini-disc!
My story with Minidiscs started 3 years ago in a carboot sale....a lady sold me a fully working MZ-N505 for £2...and now I own more that 8 . Love them..more than my hi-fi flac player
Solid state audio players are disposable and characterless. These aren't.
I first saw MiniDisc back in around 2005 on a train. Ten years later, I spotted a wild Sony NE410 at the flea market in Barcelona, and that marks the beginning of my journey of discovering MiniDisc.
Very informative vid, thank you for taking the time to explain it all ! :)
Your "simple explanation" was plenty technical for me thanks.
MiniDisc was a technically awesome format which was basically killed off by Sony's paranoia about copy protection. About the time when Napster popularized digital copying, Sony's clumsy efforts made the format look bothersome in comparison.
I still have my two portable recorders, one of them being a NetMD, as well as a Yamaha stationary deck and a Denon mini format deck. And a bunch of recorded material.
Anders Nilsson
I agree, I have many Sony mini discs and even a beautiful Sony computer that had a mini disc drive, but it was crippled by Sony’s paranoia about copyright. It would actually record off the built in fm radio in the computer but would not let me upload recording I my of myself playing my guitar. How stupid that was.
But interesting that Sony mini disc deck in my stereo set up would allow me to transfer my recordings to a teac recording deck that burned CDs. How dumb was that!
Yes Sony killed off their brilliant MD format. Glad I kept all my mini discs and players , and my teac deck.
does your net md still work properly with sonic stage?
@@warlockboyburns Don't know, haven't used them for a while. I suspect that they would have issues with anything later than Win XP since Win 7 changed the driver interface.
my EZ-N707 work fine with sonic stage 4.3 on windows 10.
Love Miidisc ,still using them today together with cassettes . Great video btw.
I stumbled on this youtube video after watching an entertaining Techmoan one and I must say I love the passion here. So I love cassettes and I am one of those people that skipped the mini disc period. I can't remember the reason but at the time the recorders were expensive and there was some kind of restriction on recording artists content which put me off. However, i see this is not a problem so i think I will have a dabble and buy a recorder.
I love having the possibility of physically having the music in my hands. Listening to my music through my phone does not bring me the same enjoyment I used to have when using my walkman.
That's part of the appeal, right there. An internet connection isn't needed, an update can't take it away and you don't have to pay for it monthly, and never own it.
Loved your video, have 7 recorders myself. 2 Hi-MD portables, 2 NetMD portables, 2 MDSP models and a mini Hi-Fi with an MDLP deck built in. Always been my favourite digital format. Cheers.
Long Live the mini disc! Still using and enjoying in 2024! Actually added a few more home decks to my collection.
I had a few MD players in my teens and I loved it. I was swayed into MP3 players and phones etc. But recently I’ve had the want to get back into MD and take more time to enjoy my music, so on the look out for new equipment! I think by not having all known music available all the time, I will take the time to enjoy each track and really get to know my music again, like I did when I was 14. Great video!
Nice video! I loved the MD format as well. I bought the Sony MDS-JE520 in 1998. Sold it a few years later (wish I hadn't). Came upon a MDS-JE500 a few years ago and still have it. I just acquired another MDS-JE520 deck that will replace it. It'll be hooked in to my rack system. I hate that the MD format didn't take off. It was/IS a great format....I mean, how can you not love the little discs? Same amount of music as a 5 inch cd!
Minidisc was a total game changer for me when it came out due to the editing features and also since the portable players could record in the field with excellent quality. Good tribute and explanation for the format here.
I have recently used minidisc as a master for producing a little run of mix tapes :)
I can relate, that's also why I love the Sony UMD, and love collecting for it, both movie and game ones.
I got into MiniDisc a bit late. Some of the clubs my band would play at would give us MiniDisc recordings of our shows. My college radio station was using them for some of their underwriting. And I essentially got paid to buy one to record my college choir's concerts in Europe in 2006 and 2008. It was seriously the best device for the job at that price point and even today most of the solid state devices I've seen are larger. My MD is a Hi-MD--more capacity and lots of other cool features. You could even use one like a portable hard drive and store data on it.
Love the format! I do a lot of recording of my own music onto MD. Have four Sony decks here, and now inspired to pick up a portable after watching this.
I couldn't resist a smile early in the vid when you threw a bunch of MD's up - amongst them 'Brothers In Arms' by the Dire Straits. Brothers In Arms was one of _the_ albums from the eighties and it was responsible for the final breakthrough of the CD to the masses. Millions and millions of copies were sold. I think it even became the second-best sold album of the decade, behind only Michael Jackson's 'Thriller'. I believe it spend a staggering 5 years (!) in the Album Top 100 at the time.
The thing is, that album became so popular not just because of it's music, but also because of it's superb sound quality. Mark Knopfler decided to go all-in on digital recording, trying out and experimenting with everything to see how digital would react. Then he created a sonic masterpiece that to this very day is amongst the pinnacle of digital CD quality and can still be used as a reference recording. Because of this, Philips - which had Dire Straits under contract - used this album extensively as promotion for the CD format. They did the same some years later when their digital DCC deck came out.
The fun part is: even though Philips tried to take all the credit and used it extensively to promote the superior audio quality of the CD format and the DCC digital cassette system, the actual recorder on which Brothers In Arms was recorded, was a _Sony_ 24 bit PCM recorder! So that's why I had to chuckle a little when I saw it presented as a MD recording. Philips may have tried to take the credit, but that's some awesome Knopfler/Sony sound you're hearing there.
Minidisc changed my life!This was pre-PC for me and suddenly I could record my demos in almost perfect digital quality,utilising the old Les Paul 'Sound On Sound' technique and for the first time not having to worry about generational degradation.I fn**ing LOVED minidisc
And it was possible to make seamless edits,almost nano-second perfect and,man,was they ever a big help!
At the time, there was no more flexible recording format.
The ATRAC would start to get a bit glitchy /artifact-y by the twentieth bounce but it was only a slight (and not unpleasant) gurgling sound and I could live with that.
A fabulous format and a joy to use. Whilst I've used many recordings formats MD is my fav. 😎😎😎
I love your enthusiasm. MD was a great format, and still is. I picked it up in 2003 as a means of carrying along more music in less bulk than a walkman, and for less money (including blanks) than a 20GB MP3 player would have cost at the time. The thinking was that once you maxed out a portable MP3 player, that was it. But the beauty of MD was expandability, which theoretically meant your library could be infinitely expanded. Plus, being able to record anything on the go at near CD quality was huge. What a value!
You've basically said everything I've felt about MD's. Lost mime on the divorce, but I still have some of the discs work loads of songs I wrote in the early 00's. You're totally convinced me to buy another.
Lol. Bet your ex doesn't even use the player you "lost".
I still have my Sony MDS-JE 500 unit. Great sound after all these years. Love the way you customized your MDs
I love this channel.. and didn't expect this video to pop up in my feed less than 48 hours after scooping up my first mini-disc Walkman (an MZ-R50 which I now know to sell and pick up for the upgrade version so I can have a digital output for the AAD masters produced in my recording studio which uses only pre-Y2k equipment) Thanks again, Tony.
I tell you what; Dang minidisc is awesome. I'd been sitting on an original 'High Fidelity Cassette' recording of The Beatles 'Magical Mystery Tour' that I lucky picked a while back. It was released by Mobile Fidelity some time in the 1980's and is the only analog version of the album released that was copied directly from the original studio master tapes. With a fancy minidisc on the table I decided it was a great time to finally make my copycats. I popped the tape into a Yamaha K-33 (My favorite playback deck, which once made a cameo in the film Boogie Nights) dropped a nice metal tape into a TEAC rx888, and with a little cable adaptation worked the MD player into the mix and, I tell you what; this minidisc sounds fucking FANTASTIC! Even listening through mediocre Presonus studio headphones (all that I have at home right now for some reason) this is easily the best sounding cut of the album I have ever heard. If anyone is on the fence about these little units I urge you to hop right on over it already.
I love cassettes, but the Mini Disc is the pinnacle of consumer recording formats IMO.
No worries Tony! This is a format I have considered just because of it’s small form factor. Highly portable, high resolution and great sounding, can’t lose on this!😊💖
thanks a million showing me how to record on mini-disk you are the only one that had the right type of info video you are great no one I asked would help me thank mate
Still have all my minidiscs, and players/recorders (portable and standalone). Have not used them in years, but never got rid of them. Now that i my own room for music, with all my equipment, i am going to use it again. Just for the fun of it. Because that is what it is all about, having fun with music and its media. Tapes too. Quality may be less or maybe not, but that does not matter, it is all about having fun with your hobby! So hats off to you, and keep having fun with all these audio media 👍👍👍
Enjoy all for what they are. Perfection is boring and the pursuit of it is futile.
Wise words indeed 😉
I'll never forget seeing the first Sony MD portable recorder on display at a store. So so cool. Finally got that same model a couple years ago, complete with the demo disc that came with it. :-D I'm a little late, but I totally agree - they just look like the future and I'm going to get my turn enjoying them whether it makes any sense anymore or not. :-)
this was worth watching while i was eating dinner.
even if i know most things about MD, its always nice to see other reviewing something myself has a nostalgic feeling for.
i feel less lonely then :D.
What did you have for dinner?
@plooopymops
When did you last go to the toilet?
Excellent video Tony I have the MZ-R 37 & a Hi-Fi deck. I love minidiscs as well. Thank you.
That R37 is one of the nicest bits of audio gear ever IMHO 😍
BRING MINIDISCS BACK!!!
13:30. It’s always amazed me how Sony managed to make the portable MD players so energy efficient. The playback time on my MZ-R900 is 30 hours off a single AA battery! The recording time is still a respectable 7 hours despite having to heat up the disc with a laser and then write to it. To my mind the portable minidisc players are the absolute pinnacle of consumer electronics miniaturisation and won’t ever be surpassed now we are in the digital memory age where everything is just stored on a computer chip.
I still have and use minidisc, I love the format and recently played a few discs for my toddler daughter to dance to!
You did a great job on this video. I recently came to MiniDisc, and you hit all of the main points, except what a pain it is to get the MD unsigned USB driver loaded under Windows 10! I would've skipped that too. That'd put anyone off! I also liked your riff on reel-to-reel. You made me laugh when I visualized trying to get a reel-to-reel tape threaded and working while driving a car or riding a bike or taking a run. But it'd sound great!
Maybe they need to wear it like a backpack 😀
what's interesting is that the R37, which you show, was my first MD recorder/player back in high school, and the R70, which you also show was one of the later units I bought in high school, and also the one I bought off eBay earlier this year when I got back into the format
Wow what a treat this was. I used my sharp mini disc player (just to listen to stuff on my dad made up the discs for me ) from age 14_17 I loved it I absolutely took it every where with me along with a couple discs in pocket to change over if one ran out. But then of course I went to MP3 player then iPod then Spotify but....when I want a device souly for music without any Interuptions from.emAils texts apps or mp3 players playing up I decided to go to my mum's loft where my childhood things were and route out the player with ally discs again ....to hold it in my hand put the disc in and out again pop those earphones in and listen to that crystyl clear sound was just so so satisfying I forgot how much I loved it so now I use it again regularly and infact have just purchased a second player. This time a Sony one . It honestly is for me the best way to listen to music on the go no problems no tech faults sound is amazing . I would highly recommend this to any music lover . So glad to have mini disc back in my life again. One positive thing about this shitty year
You did a great job with this video sir well done
They still look like the future to me...
Great video as always Tony! I’m yet to get a Minidisc to add to my HiFi, but I have used them and they are fab. I had to choose between getting a brand new in box Philips dcc 730 deck, or the Minidisk deck recently. I went for the dcc. Don’t get me wrong, I love it and it sounds great, but this video, and Matt’s (Techmoan) video have whet my appetite to get Minidisk in my life that little bit more! I’m 19 so didn’t use it first time around! Keep up the good work
Thanks for sharing about a format I didn't know much about.
Just bought my first player/recorder. And some blank disks. Hurrah
I thoroughly enjoyed the "boring" technical explanations and details of the mechanics of the minidisc and Atrac specifications. I have always loved using minidiscs since 1999. Unfortunately, I had sold my one and only minidisc player/recorder a few years ago and I am trying to find another minidisc player/recorder with the latest Atrac encoding scheme. I have two boxes of minidiscs with old R&B, jazz, and pop songs that I recorded off FM stations WWSO 92.9 and WJCD 105.3 twenty years earlier. As those stations have long been taken off the air, I would love to hear those old recordings. Such is life. Cassette Comeback, keep up the good work.
Great video Tony, I only metioned minidisc yesterday, I've still got my Sony MD Walkman - MZ-G750 working perfectly, as well as a Panasonic MD Midi system along with about 40 "mixtape" discs, along with a handful of still sealed blanks. I Think they sound as good as CDs.
The only failure I've had is with a Sony model ZS M -35, a Boombox type unit which failed a couple of years ago, first the tuner went then the rest of the functions failed, eventually it just showed 'error' on the display. I'd one day like to be able to get it fixed although it's probably a complex software fault.
I have those two model players too! The MZ-R70 plays in my car and goes with me running because it's got an anti-skip buffer, and the MZ-R37 stays at home with my hi-fi and discs.
I use the optical-out from my PC soundcard to record in real-time from my PC and I use optical-out from my Laserdisc player to record CDs.
I've NO plans on entering the 21st Century anytime soon! 👍😎
Kudos to you for honoring that great format.
I had a 700QS deck and an R30 portable back in the day. Both were great machines while they lasted but showed some glitches down the road like any format does. From my experience, especially the recording lasers were somewhat weak and tended to lose power over time (after all, they did have lots of work to do) and some MD discs started to show wear which manifested in drop-outs after having been recorded multiple times. Plus, the mechanics in the devices were unquestionably sophisticated, but also very delicate.
Then again, I also lost lots of CD burners due to the same issues.
But while MD was a hot topic, it was an amazing format. And given what we have seen as improvements in the world of audio coding, it would have only gotten better over time. But CD Recording for everyone, dropping storage prices for HDDs and HDD- or flash-based portable audio players ultimately killed it.
I kind of skipped the minidisc age when it was at its high time.
I was still using cassettes, because they were good enough, and mostly.. cheap. I didn't have much money, so I didn't do anything that costed a lot.
What I did got eventually was a MP3 compatible CD car radio at the time.
And burning CD's was just started to get popular.
A blank writable CD costed about the same as a minidisc. Expensive, but also could hold a shitload more than a minidisc could. So I skipped Minidisc.
MP3 was fine, and I got roughly 10 hours of music on one CD. All arranged in folders to separate albums easily. Or just a pile of files for endless shuffleplay.
I didn't need minidisc.
But roughly 25 years later I did got into minidisc because someone gave me a box full of them, with recorders and everything. So the flame ignited anyway albeit a little late.
10 hours of very bad quality music on a CD though.
The best thing about MD was that you could erase at any time.
I take your point, but them "C.D's" now have micro bubles inthem and alot of what i burnt and baught legally are unplayable anymore, especially on a medium that was guaranteed to last atleast 50 years....
M.D's may not be exactly the same audio quality as cd's, but they have stood the test of time, dont suffer from disc rott and are far more reliable...
M.D all the way for me for trusted backups that actually might last longwr than 50 years lol.....
Another nice job on an informative video there Tony. Now I gotta buy an MD player.😄😄😄
Get them before they go up in price 😂
Two years ago I bought a used (of course...) Tascam MD 350 Minidisc recorder and started playing my "old" minidiscs from the 90's.
Surprise, surprise, they sounded much, much better then back in the day, played on the same Sony minidisc recorder I recorded them with.
So, the Tascam has a much better A - D / D - A converter then my old Sony.
TheTascam makes them sound fantastic so I bought a bunch of TDK RXG discs - not only for use on my home stereo but also for on my Sony Minidisc Walkman. Fantastic sound for "on the move".
I love this format, completely agree with you on the best discs still looking like the future of recorded sound.
Nice video!!! I love Minidisk!!! Specially now with the new web Minidisc application. So easy now to transfer music to the md player.
I didn't know much about MiniDiscs and I have found your video very informative. I have just purchased a MZ-R70 and an MZ-N707 from ebay. I can't wait till I get them as I also love retro tech and have never owned a MiniDisc. I ask myself why, but I just didn't know much about them. Such a lot of technology in a small form factor.
I just purchased two players on EBay as well. I paid $200 for each. Both mint. The prices are going up so I think they are making a comeback. The sound is incredible!
@@professorvoluck9311........ They're expensive on ebay.
I still have my original from back in the day.
But, I was looking for more discs and some dude was selling a portable player/recorder with 40 discs for 80 bucks. I grabbed that.
I still have the Mzr-37 the first silver one you picked up and some blanks and prerecorded Disc. I also had the Black mdp-je 510, I believe it was, which I purchased at Best Buy. Mini Disc was extremely good for recording and editing. You could record a whole item and break it up into individual tracks later. You could move tracks around on the disc, name tracks, rename tracks, erase tracks (and bring them back after you erased them as long as you didn’t turn the player off).
It was a great format and Sony did advertise it in stores with posters and a place in showrooms and even Best Buy had their own Mini Disc section with a display and headphones for you to listen to. Mini Disc did have protections built in that would see the optical to optical and wouldn’t let you make multiple copies of a copy. To do this you would have to use the RCA inputs. The lower end ones or first gen, didn’t sound as good due to compression as the later models and HiFi stores didn’t like them and didn’t go out of their way to promote. Sony learned their lessons from DAT, which is why it did better in the consumer market.
I can tell you that no other format before Mini Disc and since it had the overall editing capabilities of Mini Disc and it should from that standpoint been the format that took over Cassettes and challenged CD and should have still been around. It was a true technical marvel. Thanks for doing this Tony. You are bringing back fond memories and I will go to eBay and I might search out one of the highend units. Tony for the hiend, I’m also looking at a Teac Da-3000, it uses sd, compact flash and usb sticks, I know all still sd tech, but it has a great Dac built in and should make exact copies MQA, the masters of Tidal, which I subscribe to up to 96. It is currently used for some mastering by some bands, check it out.
Great video, I use MiniDisc a great deal, both home decks & portables. As you say, the last of the real physical media. ( I still use cassettes and VHS too!).
I became a MiniDisc user shortly after NetMD came on the scene. I could not afford one of those new fancy iPod things all the cool kids were showing off. But I could get a Minidisc with 160 min of music per disc (LP2 mode). All in a much smaller form factor then portable CD players or cassette players. The player and a hand full of discs provided plenty of listening time. I am now a second time MiniDisc user (as well as cassettes). I seem to have a soft spot for outdated/obsolete audio formats. No doubt I am in good company.
another excellent video Tony
I can't believe it's been like 30 years since I was in NYC and walked from one store to another until I found the right price and blew all my student savings on a MZ-1. When I came back to Montreal I was insufferable, I was carrying it around with me everywhere (most of the time not playing a thing because of the miserable battery life) and making sure a minidisc was visible in the little pouch of the carrying case...
I still use these damn things. Minidisc is great! I love the format. I still have my Sony minidisc mds-je470 hooked up on my hifi setup.
I only got some MiniDisc stuff about 4 years ago, and as you said I had hardly heard of it being in the US. They're still very cool looking, and the weird mix of floppy disk and CD with the multicolor shells combined with the small size makes for a really cool look. I definitely spent several hours adding titles to albums I had recorded using my home deck. Only have one prerecorded disc, Simon and Garfunkel
I have a Sharp Recordable Minidisc {MD-MT821H}, which I bought years ago, and which I love to this day. It still plays like a dream. Crystal clear and everything. It really is like technology from the future, rather than old technology. To get music for my minidisc, I connect it to my android phone and simply record music.
I purchased the JB 940 about 18 years ago and today I've just fitted a new loading mechanism belt as the discs weren't loading or ejecting. It's now working like new!!! I also still have a couple of playback only walkman's... It's such a great format I love minidisc! 😁
Tow years ago I bought a second-hand TASCAM MD350 minidisc recorder and - I love it!
Fantastic sound quality (probably very, very good DA/AD converters), it makes near perfect copies, great for portable use in my Sony minidisc walkman.
I bought a bunch of TDK MD-XG and Maxell MD discs and they are outstanding.
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I still have discs I recorded during the 90´s and all of them are still in great shape.
Because the format is awesome! I own 2 portables one being a recorder, one component recorder and 2 Ford in dash players. Love them all!
Was waiting for this one. 👍
2022 and still using it in LP2 mode could squeeze 2 album in 1 disc. My SHARP MD from 1996 works fine till now. 😊
you got lucky; i bought several different machines and they all died within 18 months. Wouldnt recognise a disc.
I spent about 2 or 3000 dollars on MiniDisc. It was the best. I still have heaps. Now I want a player and recorder again.
Do it. They're not expensive and the beauty is all your old discs will still work.
I loved my minidiscs and the entire format. I was able to edit, and combine tracks or even separate tracks from each other. The sound is very good. I found this whole format very useful... the minidisc was my favourite format.
I can do all of that with mine too. Still going strong after all of these years. Fantastic bit of kit.
Mini Discs are great. I have many and players it was my first medium after cassette and before the Ipod. I listen to mine regularly.
Great video. I'm still using my MZ-R50 26 years after buying it in Japan. The original battery still charges and works well. Long live MD!
Same here with my MZ-R30. Solid and quality.
MiniDisc is my number 1 home music source.............Glad they're still available.
Nice vid.There is no reason MD or the ATRAC compression format should be retired to the scrapheap of obsolete tech/software!
I initially got into MD, Net MD first actually to be precise, in order to record, and then retire all my CDs that were taking up way too much space! A bit of archiving one could make a case for I suppose was the reality of it. I decided that I would cram as many CDs onto one disc as humanly possible so I opted for Lp4 mode, using the MD simple burner as opposed to sonic stage initially, I preferred it if I remember correctly, and it seems it is no longer available to download! I never finished the project completely, as I continued to buy CDs for a few years after, and still do on occasion. But I did achieve what I set out to do, archive my CD collection up to that point, then storing them away. That was many moons ago, Lp4 was far superior to Mp3 IMHO, without a shadow of doubt.
I use Mac now, so cant use the Net MD, so use Toslink on the MacBook or with my CD player sometimes. Other uses have been recording Vinyl, Recording my own performances as a creative word artist when I am on the radio.... I am going to utilise my sons older windows 10 gaming PC and get sonic stage on it one of these days very soon and finish the archiving. Also might use virtual box on my MacBook.
On a side note for you, I now use Sharp non Net MD (still MDLP) units as the Sony ones always get a fault with the headphone jack. I kept one of my Sony Net MDs though as a recorder even though the headphone jack is broken, to use with USB and Sonicstage. HIMD was/is a whole other story, I bought and used one, but I hated the sound quality and sold it on. Had decks in the past too, and always check eBay to see if I can a bargain deck.
Well, I could go on, and on, and on.....LOVE MD, it will never be beaten and will never really die!
Not gonna lie, you're correct in saying that your favorite MiniDisc player is beautiful, and those J Cards and labels you made for your Minidisc are badass
Hello Cassette Comeback,
In earlier time I used Cassettes (1978 - 1999). Than, in 2000, I used Minidisc. Until this year (04.2019). Now I have recorded my last minidisc (no. 571). A wonderful thing!
Matthias Schreiber, Bergisch Gladbach
Great video. My player is currently stuck in Pc to md mode from the moment it’s turned on. Any Ideas on how I can fix it? It’s a Sony Mz N10
Thank you for an excellent video. Good to there is still and appreciation of the minidisc format. In my mind the best mobile audio format. Still using mine to this day. I use streaming service in my phone. But it has no soul. If that makes any sense. The physically of minidisc makes the music special in some way. A bit like vinyl does. In fact to me vinyl recorded to minidisc is something special. I see you concentrated on Sony hardware but there were many others the like of Panasonic, Awia, even Denon but in particular Sharp who made some great machines. I use a 1 bit Net MD unit which is by far the best i have ever heard. It's a shame it never really cought on in cars. It was the perfect format for that, way better than CD' s.
I have Sharp units and Technics too. The sharp 1 bit player I have is a lovely little unit Indeed. Streaming appeals to one sense...hearing. MiniDisc appeals to hearing, sight and touch.
Can I plug a guitar in to the MiniDisc recorder?
Would be worth it just for that if its a cable to cable connnection with no mic.
I have a minidisc deck MDS-JE330 and I'm very satisfied with sound from this device. Week ago i've repaired portable minidisc MZ-R90. This is a high tech, small unit with analog and optical input, have possibility record from mic. You can take your favourite music to walk. I know how a minidisc works, how ATRAC works. It's a great technology, it's a pity it has been replaced by phone and network services related to streaming music. Portable players offer a high quality of sound, decks are better. Thanks for prepare this video.
Great piece. I was also into Minidisc in the 90's and early 00's. In many ways the move to MP3 and Ipods was a backwards step in sound quality and usability on the go. The portable I had was fantastic - could rip over USB direct from a PC (remember Napster?!) as well as record optically and analogly over the same connector. Great headphone amp with control with blue-lit LCD screen half way up the cable.
Progression in electronics is mostly now about convenience, profit and inbuilt obsolescence, not quality. Look at streaming services, Spotify for example still doesn't sound as good as a CD...
I am a fan and record all my music onto minidisc, i play it back in my two cars, my garage, my big garden shed, and in my Conservatory. I have a very large collection of songs i like on many discs, and haven't listened to a radio for a long long time because as far as i am concerned music died circa 1980.
Some of the best music came out in the 80's my friend, even carrying on into the 90's, it actually died at the millennium.
I agree..... 2,000 is my cut off point for all media unless its really special....
No radio and no T.V now for atleast 10 years, and i live in my own "bubble" watching and downloading utube 60's thru to 90's music and films......
Anything else from 2,000 is either a poor re-release (film or music) or is of no value to me..... im happy where i am and keep the memories associated with my media contwnt.
#content.