BigSkyAudio

Sony MDS-JA555ES listed on eBay. Auction #230762180988.

My vote for top MD home deck is the Sony MDS-JA555ES. I have experience with the ES series decks and have used just about all of them: JA3, JA20, JA30, JA33, JA50 but the JA555 is tops. It offers the closest reproduction to CD quality although the Denon DMD-S10 (Sharp ATRAC ver 6) is a very close competitor. The S10 was a Japanese market model only and is rarely seen for sale here in the states. It offers a slightly more forward and lively sound than the Sony which some listeners may prefer. As good as both Sony and Sharp ATRAC perform, all lossy perceptual encoders can introduce artifacts such as hissing and warbling with some especially taxing music containing brass instruments (sax, trumpet, trombone), acoustic instruments (cello, guitar, violin, piano). I listen mainly to blues and blues rock and there is only one recording I have where ATRAC caused hiss is introduced into the recording (about 5 seconds worth). For my purposes, minidisc works extremely well and these 2 decks sit along side my Yamaha digital audio music server in my home audio system.