BearBoy

A brave new frontier! I've never used Ali Express personally but know people who have without any issues. I suspect that, like eBay, it depends on the seller but you should be protected if everything goes pear-shaped. Any idea when it's likely to arrive?

The ultimate streamlined "pairing" in one box 🙂

You're quite correct, of course. I remember being pretty excited about the prospect of Hi-MD back in the day but was holding on for Sony to release a Hi-MD compatible deck (MiniDisc was never just a portable format for me). Unfortunately that never came. I did look at getting an imported Onkyo one (I seem to recall they weren't officially available in the UK?), either the one you have or the slightly wider one (MD-133?), but in the end I turned to the dark side and opted for an iPod. I seem to recall part of the reason I didn't get an Onkyo deck back then, aside from complications of step down transformers/lack of guarantees etc, was that I wanted one in black 🤦‍♂️😆 Being able to put multiple albums (didn't Sony's advertising say 50 or something?) or a single disc would have been pretty mind blowing to me back in the mid 2000s and the ability to record "full fat" PCM would have appealed from a home recording perspective. In 2022, however, I'm not sure what real benefit it would bring me as a new adopter. I spend more time listening to my MiniDiscs via my decks than any of my portables so the ability to have more capacity than LP2 provides isn't really that vital and if I was really bothered about the extra quality of PCM on physical media, especially if I wanted more than 26 minutes of it, I could just plump for CD-R/CD-RW. It's obviously a very different scenario if you've already bought in to the format like many of you have.

Actually this one doesn't look too bad: Hi-Fi Engine Sony CDP-XE Players That link will take you to the search results for CDP-XE models but you can search for CDP-XB, SCD-XB etc

Ha. Was wondering the same thing earlier but I've never come across one. There are "hi-fi museum" type sites but they rarely seem exhaustive.

Yeah, I think the CD player naming convention works the same way as for MiniDiscs: XE/JE - entry level models XB/JB - QS models XA/JA - ES models The ES models follow a different pattern but for XE/JE and XB/JB the following applies: 9X0 is higher in the range than 8X0, which is higher in the range than 7X0, which is higher in the range than 6X0 > 5X0 > 4X0 > 3X0 > 2X0 etc X80 is newer than X70, which is newer than X40, which is newer than X30, which is newer than X20 etc Amplifiers of the same era were TA-FE / TA-FB / TA-FA. Cassette decks were TC-KE / TC-KB / TC-KA. Analogue tuners were ST-SE / ST-SB / ST-SA. CD players are CDP / Super Audio CD players are SCD.

Oops. Sorry 😬

You're on the wrong forum, @Richard. You should be on OnkyoInsider 😉 Is that PCM to ATRAC conversion done on the MD-105FX or via SonicStage? Does the Onkyo connect to a PC or is the recording just via digital/analogue inputs? I completely missed the boat on Hi-MD and the cost of the (actual Hi-MD) blanks means it's a boat I am highly unlikely to ever catch up with...

I've posted this in the thread about spare cases for pre-recorded Minidiscs, but as it's a Techmoan video I thought I'd drop it here as well:

Maybe despite being part of the same pro range they weren't actually intended to be used as a pair? Seems a really odd omission though. You'd have thought pro machines would have had the full range of connectivity.

Said it before but there's something I really like about those grey pro machines. Really stylish in a sort of utilitarian way.

I've got a soft spot for those Sony machines with the beveled front plates. My first MD setup was an MDS-JE500 paired with a CDP-XE500 (I also had a matching VHS machine) in that style.

Quite a bit of difference compared to your previous CD player? Or using analogue/optical? I remember those Marantz CD63 KI's being very highly thought of.

Wow. Tascam really didn't think that through, did they? Or were there matching pairs (e.g. MD-350 with CD-350 and MD-450 with CD-450) that had the correct corresponding connections?

Following on from some discussion in @kgallen's thread about his lovely new MDS-JB940, I said I'd start a new thread to discuss what CD players people have paired up with their MiniDisc decks. After some initial messing about with a couple of random players (documented here) I've ended up with two set ups: Office setup: Sony SCD-XB790 > MDS-JB980/940 Living room setup: Marantz SA8005 > MDS-JB980 The office set up is the one that gets by far the most use (the joys of working from home...) and everything works well without any issues. I am, however, interested in some of the interoperability that Sony introduced between my original set up from 1997 (Sony CDP-XE500 > Sony MDS-JE500) and what I have now. i.e. Control A1 / A1(II) etc (I appreciate it's pretty limited, but....) The only deck I currently have with this functionality is my MDS-JB940, which has Control A1(II), so I've had half an eye open for a "matching" CD player for a while now but never get around to taking the plunge. The two CD players I've been mostly keeping an eye open for are the CDP-XB930 and the CDP-XB740. These were, afaik, the last Sony QS decks made in the XB9XX / XB7XX series that had Control A1(II). I'd mainly be interested in a QS deck so they match my MiniDisc decks from an aesthetic perspective. Has anyone get any experience with using Control A1 / A1(II) or either of the decks I mentioned? Or, any other Sony decks from that era? What have you got in your set up and how does it all function? Interested in any CD/MD related discussion really so feel free to go as "off topic" as you like 🙂

Doh. I didn't realise I'd made a typo 🤦‍♂️ Sorry, was referring to the MDS-JB730, not the CDP-XB730 or XE730 (if such a thing exists).

What are you insinuating @kgallen 😂

I was talking about the only non "9" series QS MiniDisc deck: Sony MDS-JB730 I think it's basically a cut down MDS-JB930 but that's really just an assumption based on the aesthetics and naming convention. Good idea re a CD player thread. I'll start one so as not to drag this one (any further) off topic 🙂

Ooh. Would be interested in hearing about that if you get a chance to post some notes. I've got half an eye open for an old Sony CD player with Control A(II) to link up with my 940 but not really sure it's worth it.

Haha 🤣

I did have thoughts of going down that route at one point (and an MDS-JB730 too, for the sake of completeness) but talked myself out of it. I decided I wouldn't really use the non-MDLP machines that much so it would really just be collecting for collecting's sake. I still get twinges though if I see a nice looking MDS-JB930 on eBay for a reasonable price... 😲

You finally got your 940! 🙂 How are you finding it @kgallen?

Having just posted that, I took another look at the Retro Style Media site and they have some template links for the larger cases:

Hello Vax4. That's a good question. I've seen templates for the smaller jewel cases (like this one: LINK or this one: LINK) but I've not come across one for the larger cases that came with the pre-recorded MiniDiscs. Maybe now that the cases are available someone will make one?