Arr-Nine-Hundred

I record mp3s to my minidisc using playlists with Rhythmbox on Ubuntu Linux. Up till now I have not able to get reliable trackmarks when the tracks change - I have just rustled up a perl program that does it pretty reliably. In case anyone is interested it can be found here: http://opticalgarbage.com/minidisc/two-second-pause.perl

Has anyone got any recommended minidisc players? My requirements are - player only - type-s support - metal case (ideally all parts, but just upper ok) - released in the UK - looks cool I recently bought a E909 (looks cool, metal, but no type-s, lovely remote) and E510 (type-s but horrible, horrible plastic case) which each have their pro's and con's but don't quite satisfy all my criterea. I could browser the equipment browser but that doesn't give you the whole picture that an actual owner can provide. If there isn't anything forthcoming then I'll prolly hunt down a nice blue N910. The E510 almost works perfectly with the E909 silver remote (Rm-MC11EL) except that the "sound" button toggles between none and sound2. I like having sound1 on, is there any fix for this other than using the original black e510 remote?

I read the lifetime warranty on the discs as: These discs will be free forever from any defect that is NOT a result of normal wear and tear. If there is then you can claim under the warranty. Exactly what Sony will give you is another matter!

This sounds like a great idea. I'm game!

I recently decided to look at the latest Sony MP3 players again and I compared someones Sony NWZ-S6393 player with my Sony N510. I listened to several MP3's at approx 160kbs quality. While the MP3 player certainly sounded better than my 4th Gen iPod Nano it fell short enough of the minidisc for me to still be satisfied with the format. Both SP and LP2 tracks in my minidisc sounded more "spacious" and more "stereo", just more livelier and less dull than the MP3 player. I'd like to compare against the new Sony X-series mp3 players as they claim to have a lot of sound enhancement stuff built-in.

Wow, interesting stuff. I have not seen those in the UK yet. We do have the generic iTunes "Gift card" things, pretty much every supermarket has them on display at the checkout counters. That said, WalMart has bought one of the big 5 UK supermarket brands called Asda so who knows what Stateside wares we will see in them soon.

On the "death of CD", while it is true that sales are slowing I think it will be a LOOOOONG time before music is not available on standard CD audio. Unlike cassette tape (of which here in the UK, many high street retailers have officially announced retirement), CDs offer much more convenience and demonstrably better sound plus almost everywhere you go there will be at least SOME device that will play it - be it fixed hi-fi, portable deck, in-car, laptop or a PC. Long live the CD! All my 2p worth of course! I'm curious about what my fellow MD'ers think and if any of you also use stuff like Super Audio CD.

I don't know, it might suprise us. No expensive and fiddly net connection needed, no time needed to be spent downloading - just bung the card in and you have tunes there ready to play. Convenience is a BIG plus in todays world. No DRM is a suprise. The only downside is the tiny size, easy to lose! I wonder if the cards can be wiped and used again? I have visions of high street kiosks where you can insert one of these cards and fill it with music.

There is definitely a "Familiarity breeds contempt." thing about iPods. Apart from the tinny sound, I do not think they are bad, just mediocre, bland and not very interesting anymore... When I had my blue N910, everyone showed interest in what it was (this was when the multi-coloured iPod Mini was in vogue). Then again, in the alternate universe where MD became the dominant format and iPods were the niche... http://transom.org/tools/recording_intervi...0502.tcd5m.html I like this: "All metal, reliable, simple, and fixable, it runs on two D-cells, not Satan's Rechargeables." Satans Rechargables -- thats excellent! My father told me years back about how these days things are not built to last - they are disposable plastic. I have to agree and it makes me sick to be honest. I still have my metal cassette Walkman, its a treasure that I will never sell. I did have a high-quality Sony cassette deck (the kind with digital recording level meters) up until about 2005. I had some great compilations that I recorded on Metal (Type 4) cassettes that I preferred listening to over the CD originals. It's just something about that analogue sound. I cannot think of anything these days that will get a legendary status like the Nakamichi Dragon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakamichi#The_Dragon_and_Special_Products)

Argh! None of the big stores around me (Southampton, Hampshire) have any left. I've tried phoning at least 3 big Sainsburys to no avail. One Sainsburys store near me that does just furniture and electrical goods told me they did have them but had sold out. Damn! I'm up towards Slough in a weeks time and will try some of the stores around there.

I had an N910 agggeeeess ago which I'm now trying to source again - they look great and the volume/cue controls were pretty easy to operate (they are the compass points on a good size circular plastic control on the front of the player). The menu joystick though was very fiddly, especially as the stick had to be depressed to indicate selection. Sometimes this causes the stick to register up or down instead (had this problem with certain Sony TV/DVD remotes too). If you need just MDLP though and you do not mind recording in realtime then you could save some money by going for an earlier model like the R900. If you buying to keep though the N910 is a great choice.

I was going to suggest these great guys from whom I have bought ES in the past but they are out http://www.attrill.com/d-e/products.pl I have come back to MD after a few years going through several digital players. Luckily I saved 1 cherished ES disc which I couldn't bear to part with. :-) It really stands out with its almost-German build quality, white casing and gold trim.

Wow - thats quite a collection of digital players you have been through :-) I've owned an iRiver H10, Sandisk Sansa and a iPod Nano 2nd Gen. I too am happier now, not only because the sound quality is lots better but there is something else... "less is more" perhaps. I have used the money I saved to buy CDs and I budget myself to 1 or 2 CDs per month so I am forced by my own restrictions to choose carefully. I like this way better. I'm still on the lookout for a mint condition blue N910 on eBay. I have been tracking R50 auctions too and have been shocked at the high prices these fetch, almost £70 (approx US$130). Bidding is also fierce. There is definitely a retro collector movement going on. I think it is good that I ditched the Nano when I did: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7569922.stm

I must admit, I turn my nose up a bit at all the pre-R900 MDs. Not sure why but I guess the R900 marked a turning point as it was my first MD unit ever, it had MDLP, Type-R and looked better IMHO! But - I have been reading about the reliability and love for the R50 and I'm re-appraising my attitude :-)

I decided to cater for that by stating in the Playback column: "Yes, but Type-R SP only." but on reading it a few times it is maybe not clear. I have replaced it with just "No.".

Shania, of course. I sit corrected sir! I am using the version downloaded from the Sony website as of say two weeks ago. The Import file/folder dialog did not have an entry for "Network" so I perhaps incorrectly assumed local storage only. I am sharing all my media via Samba (essentially the same as Windows File Sharing/CIFS) from a Debian Linux server running on one of these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSLU2 Please tell me how you enable remote shares to be used? Thank you. Luckily the MZ-N707 does have Type-R though.

Versions?! Sorry, I don't have a clue. That might complicate the handy-dandy chart I whipped to help clear some of the confusion about the "Types". I used the material from this thread and what I found on minidisc.org: http://opticalgarbage.com/minidisc/type-sr.html It's just a first draft, please give me some constructive feedback. Maybe it can get included in the Official FAQ if we refine it further.

Interesting stuff! The 640 does not have Type-S according to this http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MDS-JE640.html so this probably signals to the community that Type-S is not gimmick. I had a 980 back when I had my full MD kit. Lovely piece of kit and I got a kick out of plugging a PS2 keyboard into it so I could title discs and include smileys and stuff. I bought a silver UK model in perfect condition from a guy who was transferring all his music to iPod. Eventually I did the same but am now back to good ol' MD. How ironic.

Thanks for the info and sadly nope, I'm keeping it :-) Easy to press volume up down buttons and takes AA's so I can use a high capacity 2600mah NiMH to make it last aaages. Lack of microphone-in is the only snag. I've seen them go for as low as £11 on eBay. It's my "take anywhere" player to be thrown in a bag, taken to the office etc. Thanks for the link and your recommendations for DAPs. As for the rest - what I was getting at is that SP mode MD is really a replacement for a CD which I can keep safely away. Even in minutes, I can set synchrorecord on the MD and play on the CD with no fear about recording space. I have good ears and SP mode is pretty transparant compared to CD. I like creating disc compilations. I listen mainly to free electronic music which I source legitimately so the MP3 to LP2 is a good compromise because a ) I build compilations of MP3s into a "mix" lasting 2h 30mins and can fit that on one LP2 MD b ) While MP3 can be good if encoded properly, most of my stuff is 128 or 160kbps encoded by musicians who probably use the defaults - SP is overkill IMHO c ) With Type-S decoding the quality of LP2 is actually pretty good! (check another thread on the first page about it) Do you have a MD device with Type-S? If not, I recommend you evaluate it. It will pleasantly suprise you. Thanks.

Hi all, just wanted to drop a note here because I was curious if anyone has gone back to the MD fold after using digital players like the iPod. I recently sold my iPod Nano as I was fed up with the sound quality. And even trialling the 6th gen iPods didn't impress me much (as Alanis used to say). No doubt people think I am mad for abandoning the ultra-covenience of the iPod. Ironically I still use iTunes as a way to record to my MD in realtime. SonicStage sadly is not network aware as far as I can tell and all my music is on a remote share. Anyhow, now I am regretting selling all my MD gear back in 2005. I had a ton of great mixes on TDK XSiV discs. I have an N510 but want to gradually build up my collection of players/recorders. I hunt them down on eBay these days. My wishlist is a N910 and R900 (my favorite from back in 2000). I'm not interested in NetMD much or Hi-MD. I use SP for CD to MD recordings using optical cable with a Slimline PS2. SP is very transparent and theres just something very warm about the ATRAC encoding versus others. My rule is to use SP for CD and LP2 when recording realtime MP3s from my PC to MD. Question: Is there any advantage other than speed in using SonicStage to transcode MP3 to LP2 versus recording realtime using the recorders encoder. My recorder has the Type-S feature. I heard somewhere the SonicStage LP2 encoder is not as good.