So glad to see that you use mini disks. I am the only person I know that he ever used them or even knew what they were in the states. I still to this day use my home and portable players.
MDs are great. Like I mentioned, everyone in Japan used Mini Discs. They were as common as tapes and CDs. I still don't understand what went wrong in the US With mini disc. I am happy to hear there are people over there that still use them 👍
Between the nh1, n910, and r90 in black, you have got one of the best Hi-MD, the best NetMD, and a super rare MD with better laid out controls than the other two. Huge thumbs up for showing us these and for making your own j-cards.
MD was definitely popular in the UK, but huge in Japan, I completely agree. Sony still sell them new (in Japan). Be prepared for some comments from the US stating that MD failed and was unpopular. It was pretty popular for over 20 years! My theory is that Americans do a lot of driving, so a CD player is fine. In the UK and Japan (and EU) people walk and commute by train a lot more, so more portable and durable media was welcome. MD wasn't for a CD replacement, but a *tape* replacement, I think people forget that. Anyway, I literally paused my MD player to watch this video from yourself. Happy MDing my friend!
Yeah, the MD was popular in the UK. My first player was actually a portable Sharp recorder that I bought for about 200 pounds from Dixons. I loved that machine but it was quite a big device compared to the recorders in this video. But man, hearing silence when a track faded out was special.
Retro Core Yes! I have a SHARP mega-unit that runs on AA batteries, as well. I used to love looking at all these little units in Dixons and Currys and Comet etc. I love the format, and its physical nature. I find it forces me to focus a little more on the music, and I enjoy music a lot more than the constant Spotify-skip-streaming thing these days.
Tell me about it. I don't use any streaming service for music even though I have access to many. I still buy all my music on physical media too. There's just something about having an actual product rather than something downloaded.
I have a 5 pack semi sealed music jack discs exactly like these with the japanese writing on the wrapper, won't be sealed for much longer as they will get used, still love the gold colour of them.
Big fan of the mini disc. It was the perfect replacement for tape. Superior audio quality for cheaper devices, seek times of a CD and Great to record mix "tapes" on.
I bought a portable minidisk player back in 2003 and it was the best portable audio player that I ever had! I was really upset to loose it when someone stole it from me 3 years later. Still, I don't know why it wasn't much more popular with consumers.
Enjoyable video! I just wanted to point out that you have MiniDisc recording backwards. The laser is what heats the disc. It runs at a high intensity to heat the writable surface to its Curie point, and the magnetic head above the disc writes the data.
That's right. Well spotted. It's quite a surprise that something so cheap and nasty is Hi-MD compatible. Still a horrible machine though. 100% plastic and quite bulky.
It's a shame. The JVC models seem to be the most poorly built. Kenwood didn't fair much better either. In my experience the players that have lasted are built by Sony, Panasonic and Pioneer.
I had a MD player/recorder back in the early 2000s. I really miss that thing. It was a cheap thing(couldn't afford a Sony) and I believe it was made by Sharp I still think about it. I lost it at a concert. Back then MD players was the most convenient method of recording demos as I'm a musician. In more recent times I've discovered that some MD players have the ability to display the name of the track, artist etc. and the existence officially released factory made albums. mp3 players killed off MDs or at least in Europe 😭
Yeah, having a MD recorder with a good lav' mic was awesome for recording concerts in high quality and as you said, very practical for recording band sessions too. I think because Japanese like recording a lot is the reason the MD was big here. After all, this is a country where audio rentals was just as common and video rentals. MD offered a high quality and easy way to copy a rented CD.
I couldn’t afford one back in the early 2000s but I’ve since picked up a couple on the cheap. The sound from the Sony units I have are very nice better than the iPod in my opinion. Then There’s the satisfying Experience of inserting the mini disc(or any other medium) into unit which you don’t get with the iPod. Thanks great video.
Minidiscs are an interesting medium, i recently got into them as well as cassettes and got two machines from ebay. I don't think they were that popular here but i don't really know since i was still a small kid at that time, and later everyone already used mp3 Players, Phones or still normal CDs. Interesting that they are so cheap in Japan, my Sony MZ-R501 cost me about 15€ (ca.1800 Yen) and the Deck was a bit cheaper, but in most cases they are much more expensive. It uses an AA Battery instead of the Gumstick which makes it a bit fat, but at least i have the convenience of using every standard battery lying around. The Display is quite small, but it actually also has a level meter on it. I also got a few Discs from ebay, and started to record some Songs on them trough the Toslink.
Seems in parts of Europe MD was also not that popular. I guess the UK was an exception. It's great that you can now get in to MiniDisc. A disc recorded via the Toslink sounds really good. Just as good as the source.
In Italy (and I think the rest of continental Europe) the Mini Disc never gained much traction among consumers but was able to carve a niche with people into music recording and production. Artists even used them on stage for high quality playback.
That's sad. In the UK MiniDisc was rather popular. We could buy discs and machines in every store that sold music and music systems. It was not in the same league as it was in Japan but it was rather popular.
Olá, porque foi que o Mini Disc Não teve continuidade??? Tenho um MDLP da Sony MDS JE 640 e mais de 50 MD Gravados, estão todos impecáveis e tem aquele som Maravilhoso...
Yes you can (WAV files work, maybe others, but I doubt MP3), but SonicStage is hard to install on recent versions of Windows 10. There's actually an alternative to SonicStage now that uses the Chrome browser (or recent, Chromium-based) Microsoft Edge browser. I can't remember the name of it at the moment, but search RUclips for 'alternative to MiniDisc'.
Still have a Sony NetMD player, I just need to find if the software works on WIn10... and a Cable for it. I love how these things sound. I wish the caught on here.
@@retrocoreav7025 Thank you. I have just ordered a MZ-NH1 without any accesory, hope it will arrive soon. The seller stated it was tested could play disks, but didn't test recording due to no data cable, I hope it could work, and, it would be some time to buy(or DIY) a data cable, and battery, still i like it.
Do they make recorders just as small? I like tapes because I can record analog and the player fits in my pocket. I make a lot of tapes from youtube and when you download the files they are horrific because of the digital generation of compress/recompress. I have yet to find a way around this problem. But simply playing the yt video into the tape deck yields very nice sounding tapes. These discs seem like they might be a better solution because the player is so much smaller and can fit in the pocket without tape hiss. Because these discs are compressing, is this going to cause problems? Compressing already compressed music yields HORRIBLE results. Bit rate does not matter. 320 mp3 of already compressed (but in a different format to mp3) music does not compress well. Does this problem extend to MD? Also, do these players come with am/fm tuners? Because that is another reason I like to use a walkman. I don't even know of a single decent mp3 player that has a good am/fm tuner. I listen to both AM and FM.
So, the last 4 machines I showed are all Mini Disc recorders and players. Those machines will be able to record from RUclips or anything else just like a tape recorder. Mini Discs do compress the audio but it isn't like a poorly compressed MP3. You won't be able to tell the difference. The Hi-MD recorders use the best compression which is also compatible with even the very first Mini Disc players. But as I said, even the first gen Mini Disc recorders have a compression technique that won't change the music in any way you'll be able to notice. As for them having radio receivers, I've never come across a machine with one.
@@retrocoreav7025 Yeah, I saw they were recorders, but I didn't know about analog recording. Thanks. If I can get into it for a reasonable amount of money, I'm probably going to check them out.
Just buy a standard multi format charger with contacts on spring loaded "sleds" and you will be able to charge those gumstick batteries. They will be probably all gone bad, because of many years of no use, by the way they are still produced by other (chinese) companies.
Nice collection! Shame the E900 doesn't work. I hate to be one of those commenters, but what I've heard is that writing to a disc is not how you describe. The laser heats the disc from the bottom, which allows the magnetic head at the top to write the data.
@@retrocoreav7025 I'm going down a rabbit-hole now :) Wikipedia says "Recordable MiniDiscs use a magneto-optical system to record data. A laser heats one side of the disc to its Curie point, making the material in the disc susceptible to a magnetic field. A magnetic head on the other side of the disc alters the polarity of the heated area, recording the digital data onto the disk. Playback is accomplished with the laser alone: taking advantage of the Faraday effect; the player senses the polarization of the reflected light and thus interprets a 1 or a 0." I'm off to watch an A-Level physics video now on the The Curie Point. Probability of understanding, 40% :(
@@retrocoreav7025 I think erasing a disk would just be editing the TOC (Table of Contents) so that no tracks are listed. What amazes me is that the laser can heat up the surface to that temperature.
The best for my old cassette collection that truly saved the actual quality of my cassettes.The were a hit in Japan but here in the US did not get a real chance.They were on their last legs. Its true audio quality proves to this day its possible future that never was. To many competitors with multiple cheaper products. One lesser known story is DAT the Predator of all Media. So many companies said. The reality was really fear 😨 and we have seen what false fear is beyond disastrous. And MiniDisc suffered from this false label. Its struggle was picked of not by DATs quality but it perceived danger to the to the cd world. The hate for DAT was at the forefront of this claim and MiniDisc on life support anyway was lumped in with this controversy and held and also blamed for Media and Copyright issues of the day. The final blow to finish MiniDisc as an option. But years later the disc has its fans like me.The disc are still recordable and the quality is still comparable and even better . I used the discs for backup and stored in safe deposit box when worry of the being tossed during a health issue in 2005. I have about 100 discs and I also have cassette tapes to back the backup. Luckily for me the danger passed and they are still here. A great product but came at a bad time that ended it short life. Watch the Videos on DAT by TECHMOAN.😁.
Well, I guess it's technically true because it's very unlikely anyone would write to a MD enough times to kill it. So yeah, technically it is true but also unlikely anyone would do it.
So glad to see that you use mini disks. I am the only person I know that he ever used them or even knew what they were in the states. I still to this day use my home and portable players.
MDs are great. Like I mentioned, everyone in Japan used Mini Discs. They were as common as tapes and CDs. I still don't understand what went wrong in the US With mini disc. I am happy to hear there are people over there that still use them 👍
Between the nh1, n910, and r90 in black, you have got one of the best Hi-MD, the best NetMD, and a super rare MD with better laid out controls than the other two. Huge thumbs up for showing us these and for making your own j-cards.
MD was definitely popular in the UK, but huge in Japan, I completely agree. Sony still sell them new (in Japan). Be prepared for some comments from the US stating that MD failed and was unpopular. It was pretty popular for over 20 years! My theory is that Americans do a lot of driving, so a CD player is fine. In the UK and Japan (and EU) people walk and commute by train a lot more, so more portable and durable media was welcome. MD wasn't for a CD replacement, but a *tape* replacement, I think people forget that.
Anyway, I literally paused my MD player to watch this video from yourself. Happy MDing my friend!
Yeah, the MD was popular in the UK. My first player was actually a portable Sharp recorder that I bought for about 200 pounds from Dixons. I loved that machine but it was quite a big device compared to the recorders in this video. But man, hearing silence when a track faded out was special.
Retro Core Yes! I have a SHARP mega-unit that runs on AA batteries, as well. I used to love looking at all these little units in Dixons and Currys and Comet etc. I love the format, and its physical nature. I find it forces me to focus a little more on the music, and I enjoy music a lot more than the constant Spotify-skip-streaming thing these days.
Tell me about it. I don't use any streaming service for music even though I have access to many. I still buy all my music on physical media too. There's just something about having an actual product rather than something downloaded.
I have a 5 pack semi sealed music jack discs exactly like these with the japanese writing on the wrapper, won't be sealed for much longer as they will get used, still love the gold colour of them.
You could always rely upon Axia to provide a good product.
Fantastic. We love Minidisc.
Big fan of the mini disc. It was the perfect replacement for tape. Superior audio quality for cheaper devices, seek times of a CD and Great to record mix "tapes" on.
@@retrocoreav7025 It's great to see the minidisc format still going strong.
I bought a portable minidisk player back in 2003 and it was the best portable audio player that I ever had! I was really upset to loose it when someone stole it from me 3 years later. Still, I don't know why it wasn't much more popular with consumers.
Enjoyable video! I just wanted to point out that you have MiniDisc recording backwards. The laser is what heats the disc. It runs at a high intensity to heat the writable surface to its Curie point, and the magnetic head above the disc writes the data.
Ah. I see. Thanks for the info 👍
17:36 -- don't know if you noticed but your cheap and nasty "lady's MD player" is also HiMD compatible.
That's right. Well spotted. It's quite a surprise that something so cheap and nasty is Hi-MD compatible. Still a horrible machine though. 100% plastic and quite bulky.
Looking forward to watching this episode later. I love minidiscs. I saddened me a couple of weeks ago when I tried my old JVC player and it was dead.
It's a shame. The JVC models seem to be the most poorly built. Kenwood didn't fair much better either.
In my experience the players that have lasted are built by Sony, Panasonic and Pioneer.
I had a MD player/recorder back in the early 2000s. I really miss that thing. It was a cheap thing(couldn't afford a Sony) and I believe it was made by Sharp I still think about it. I lost it at a concert. Back then MD players was the most convenient method of recording demos as I'm a musician. In more recent times I've discovered that some MD players have the ability to display the name of the track, artist etc. and the existence officially released factory made albums. mp3 players killed off MDs or at least in Europe 😭
Yeah, having a MD recorder with a good lav' mic was awesome for recording concerts in high quality and as you said, very practical for recording band sessions too. I think because Japanese like recording a lot is the reason the MD was big here. After all, this is a country where audio rentals was just as common and video rentals. MD offered a high quality and easy way to copy a rented CD.
The Panasonic one is nice. Gonna look for it on ebay!
It is. I wish I had a nice shinny one. Mine is really old. Been using it now for 20 years or so.
I couldn’t afford one back in the early 2000s but I’ve since picked up a couple on the cheap. The sound from the Sony units I have are very nice better than the iPod in my opinion. Then There’s the satisfying Experience of inserting the mini disc(or any other medium) into unit which you don’t get with the iPod. Thanks great video.
I don't wish to be an apple basher here but the iPod never sounded great. Same with all apple ear buds. So it's no surprise the Sony MD sounds better.
Minidiscs are an interesting medium, i recently got into them as well as cassettes and got two machines from ebay. I don't think they were that popular here but i don't really know since i was still a small kid at that time, and later everyone already used mp3 Players, Phones or still normal CDs. Interesting that they are so cheap in Japan, my Sony MZ-R501 cost me about 15€ (ca.1800 Yen) and the Deck was a bit cheaper, but in most cases they are much more expensive. It uses an AA Battery instead of the Gumstick which makes it a bit fat, but at least i have the convenience of using every standard battery lying around. The Display is quite small, but it actually also has a level meter on it. I also got a few Discs from ebay, and started to record some Songs on them trough the Toslink.
Seems in parts of Europe MD was also not that popular. I guess the UK was an exception.
It's great that you can now get in to MiniDisc. A disc recorded via the Toslink sounds really good. Just as good as the source.
In Italy (and I think the rest of continental Europe) the Mini Disc never gained much traction among consumers but was able to carve a niche with people into music recording and production. Artists even used them on stage for high quality playback.
That's sad. In the UK MiniDisc was rather popular. We could buy discs and machines in every store that sold music and music systems. It was not in the same league as it was in Japan but it was rather popular.
Contrary to the intro, MD was quite successful in the UK - most of my friends had one.
Olá, porque foi que o Mini Disc Não teve continuidade??? Tenho um MDLP da Sony MDS JE 640 e mais de 50 MD Gravados, estão todos impecáveis e tem aquele som Maravilhoso...
Can you add music from audio files to minidisc using sony sonicstage software?
I guess but I've never used that software so it's tough to know.
Yes you can (WAV files work, maybe others, but I doubt MP3), but SonicStage is hard to install on recent versions of Windows 10. There's actually an alternative to SonicStage now that uses the Chrome browser (or recent, Chromium-based) Microsoft Edge browser. I can't remember the name of it at the moment, but search RUclips for 'alternative to MiniDisc'.
Still have a Sony NetMD player, I just need to find if the software works on WIn10... and a Cable for it. I love how these things sound. I wish the caught on here.
Yeah, sadly the software isn't that good. It was never that good when it was new on Windows XP.
use the platinum md program
look for stefano brilli video
If you have optical out on your PC and can record to "Line In (Optical)" on your NetMD in real time, that will give the best results.
Over 20 million in jp
The wikipedia page with a little article saying it was sold about 50,000 units
I will ignore it
Hi, is there some good auction sites than ebay in japan for md players? thank you.
We only really use Yahoo Auctions over here. There are a few others but I don't use them or know what they are called.
@@retrocoreav7025 Thank you. I have just ordered a MZ-NH1 without any accesory, hope it will arrive soon. The seller stated it was tested could play disks, but didn't test recording due to no data cable, I hope it could work, and, it would be some time to buy(or DIY) a data cable, and battery, still i like it.
can you find those in hardoffs?
Yep, you can.
FYI your pink one is also Hi-MD (player only, no record)
This is true. Also, one of the most cheap feeling of the set.
Do they make recorders just as small?
I like tapes because I can record analog and the player fits in my pocket. I make a lot of tapes from youtube and when you download the files they are horrific because of the digital generation of compress/recompress. I have yet to find a way around this problem. But simply playing the yt video into the tape deck yields very nice sounding tapes. These discs seem like they might be a better solution because the player is so much smaller and can fit in the pocket without tape hiss.
Because these discs are compressing, is this going to cause problems? Compressing already compressed music yields HORRIBLE results. Bit rate does not matter. 320 mp3 of already compressed (but in a different format to mp3) music does not compress well. Does this problem extend to MD? Also, do these players come with am/fm tuners? Because that is another reason I like to use a walkman. I don't even know of a single decent mp3 player that has a good am/fm tuner. I listen to both AM and FM.
So, the last 4 machines I showed are all Mini Disc recorders and players. Those machines will be able to record from RUclips or anything else just like a tape recorder.
Mini Discs do compress the audio but it isn't like a poorly compressed MP3. You won't be able to tell the difference. The Hi-MD recorders use the best compression which is also compatible with even the very first Mini Disc players. But as I said, even the first gen Mini Disc recorders have a compression technique that won't change the music in any way you'll be able to notice.
As for them having radio receivers, I've never come across a machine with one.
@@retrocoreav7025 Yeah, I saw they were recorders, but I didn't know about analog recording. Thanks. If I can get into it for a reasonable amount of money, I'm probably going to check them out.
Just buy a standard multi format charger with contacts on spring loaded "sleds" and you will be able to charge those gumstick batteries. They will be probably all gone bad, because of many years of no use, by the way they are still produced by other (chinese) companies.
Nice collection! Shame the E900 doesn't work.
I hate to be one of those commenters, but what I've heard is that writing to a disc is not how you describe. The laser heats the disc from the bottom, which allows the magnetic head at the top to write the data.
Hmm, I don't recall but I'm sure the heating process is for erasing the disc. I could be wrong though.
@@retrocoreav7025 I'm going down a rabbit-hole now :)
Wikipedia says "Recordable MiniDiscs use a magneto-optical system to record data. A laser heats one side of the disc to its Curie point, making the material in the disc susceptible to a magnetic field. A magnetic head on the other side of the disc alters the polarity of the heated area, recording the digital data onto the disk. Playback is accomplished with the laser alone: taking advantage of the Faraday effect; the player senses the polarization of the reflected light and thus interprets a 1 or a 0."
I'm off to watch an A-Level physics video now on the The Curie Point. Probability of understanding, 40% :(
Now I see. So heating is used to record a disc. I guess that is also how a disc is erased though. So it would record nothing so to say.
@@retrocoreav7025 I think erasing a disk would just be editing the TOC (Table of Contents) so that no tracks are listed.
What amazes me is that the laser can heat up the surface to that temperature.
The best for my old cassette collection that truly saved the actual quality of my cassettes.The were a hit in Japan but here in the US did not get a real chance.They were on their last legs. Its true audio quality proves to this day its possible future that never was. To many competitors with multiple cheaper products. One lesser known story is DAT the Predator of all Media.
So many companies said. The reality was really fear 😨 and we have seen what false fear is beyond disastrous. And MiniDisc suffered from this false label. Its struggle was picked of not by DATs quality but it perceived danger to the to the cd world.
The hate for DAT was at the forefront of this claim and MiniDisc on life support anyway was lumped in with this controversy and held and also blamed for Media and Copyright issues of the day. The final blow to finish MiniDisc as an option. But years later the disc has its fans like me.The disc are still recordable and the quality is still comparable and even better . I used the discs for backup and stored in safe deposit box when worry of the being tossed during a health issue in 2005.
I have about 100 discs and I also have cassette tapes to back the backup. Luckily for me the danger passed and they are still here.
A great product but came at a bad time that ended it short life.
Watch the Videos on DAT by TECHMOAN.😁.
DAT is one I always get confused with DCC. They're basically the same thing.
do you own gamecube discs? :)
Yes, I have 2 which I play on a Wii.
I used to own MZ-NH1, but it felt too delicate for me. The odd battery is another reason not to buy one today.
So is a yen worth about a penny?
Hmm, yes and no. So 1 yen is 1 pence but 500 yen is about 3 pounds 70 pence or around 4 dollars 50 cents.
@@retrocoreav7025 Thanks.
can use forever that bold statement there, its not like i dont hate that claim but that kind claim full with lies sometime.
Well, I guess it's technically true because it's very unlikely anyone would write to a MD enough times to kill it. So yeah, technically it is true but also unlikely anyone would do it.