theblueraja

I was hanging out with a friend who has a DJ setup in his house, and we were commenting how there is such an art and "tactile experience" in putting on a record, dropping the needle and watching it spin while the sound comes out. All of this is lost in today's pc-playlist, or iPod shuffle action. I used to collect techno vinyl records until I discovered MD back in 2004. Then I concentrated my $$ in buying MD units, and ended up selling my vinyl to support my new habit. Anyway, I'm just wondering if anyone else here agrees that there is another whole level of enjoyment when playing music on a minidisc player strictly because of the tactile experience. HOLDING the physical disc, perhaps with artwork you designed, popping it in as you even hear & feel the disc spin inside your unit. One could easily argue that non flash-based mp3 players have a hard drive drum spinning, but I think you can understand the difference here. I also enjoy some of the LABOR in getting this great audio quality into my ears. Much like setting up a record on a turntable, calibrating, leveling, adjusting things... here I sit in my office with my MZ-E10 and I've got lots of wire, a remote that then triggers the unit that I can even hear firing up... I even LIKE the delayed response between when I hit play and the anticipation for the audio to kick in (using battery conserve mode - which on LP2 discs is much faster than on HiMD units). On a side note I think its great that one of Sony's new Walkmans actually has some physical controls for stop/skip/play even though its digital... I'm sure its for the blind in-pocket moments, but its still a nice touch. We now live in a virtual music society where nothing is tangible anymore, and people seem to treat music like its disposable; you have it for a week, enjoy it, then maybe you can download it again sometime as you're not really sure where it is anymore. Minidisc is the happy medium, offering digital compression in a compact form, but still having a warm output (especially with units with built in HD amps), and finally offering the PHYSICAL removable media. Youth today certainly don't care because they've grown up on Napster, etc so they don't know a difference. But for us older folk who remember what its like to buy a new record or dare I say compact disc (remember those?... not long before these are forgotten as well), I think we enjoy having our high quality trophies. Just sharing some thoughts.

I'm not sure why you threw the PSP into the equation... yes it plays ATRAC, and I've tried mine and while it sounds nice, its not on par with any of MD units. It COULD be a limitation of the EQ, however...

This is such a common scenario, yet many people will still claim they don't notice a difference, or they simply don't care as they'll opt for convenience. Hence the success of iPod. Thanks for sharing though, its always fun to read such threads.

If I knew HOW I would have done it myself... its a guy from Australia that I knew from the Audio T-Board... can't remember if he ever visited this forum or not. Either way, I haven't seen his presence in a while... so basically we know its possible, just not exactly how. Just as with the DH10P, I'm sure any professional engineer could open the NH900 up and take care of it as well.

The NH900 has almost an inner shadow cast inside... something perhaps about the distance between the actual LCD and the outer plastic "screen" that causes a dimming effect. Trust me, I've owned MANY NH900s, and the LCD on the 710 is a LOT clearer and easier to read.

I have a feeling it would take a true engineer to really get to the bottom of this issue, no offense. Maybe you are one, for all I know. Anyway, let me know if you venture into an NH900 and fix the sticky-button issue. I know of one person who did that with success.

Lol okay, thanks... for a moment I thought the forum was hacked lol.

Very slick indeed... sighhh... I remember like it was yesterday when new HiMD units were coming out sighhhh.... Afros LOL - nice.

As mine has been reduced to a camera. Sad, sad thing about this unit... it had SO much potential.

We should let the dude who recorded the NIN concert know about HiMD.. I can see him frantically swapping out discs during the concert. Then again, with HiMD he'd probably be doing the same with the batteries, unless he had a AA pack

I used to own one of these. There are actually a lot of PROs for getting this unit. I only parted with it to give it to a family member. Here's the pros: 1) BLACK, shiny black (though plastic) 2) LCD screen - CLEAR & EASY to read... SO much better than the more expensive NH900. 3) Budget price for HiMD 4) AA Battery. Never know when this could end up being your LAST working portable MD player in the future. 5) Beats the pants off of the NH600D any day to me... the jog wheel feels sturdier than the NH600 and slightly easier to use Pics of the one I used to own:

...wtf?

Is this for real?? It seems like a joke to me. With iTunes success and the download generation, why on Earth would they invest in an optical DISC?

... WHAT?

Those aren't the ones the thread-starter was asking for. The original MD album cases were tall, long-box style, where the disc fit inside an inner square, as seen pictured below. The jewel case link you provided would not fit the artwork.

Well I guess I'm glad I didn't get around to opening mine yet... I have a feeling this unit is destined to fail. Such a shame, as it was truly the pinnacle of MD player-only units. I guess like any electronic device that tries to cram too many functions into one thing its going to have issues. Well, as far as more mechanical devices go (DVD/VHS combo units, etc.). Keep us posted, nevertheless.

I HOPE to be a 'lifer', but you never know... but I'm pretty well stocked, and still very much in love with MD.

Are those Victor POLKA-DOT AR's still available?

Holy THREAD REVIVALS, Batman!! Very glad you chimed in! And I'm so surprised by your "cured" story ... makes me totally regret selling off all of my DH10Ps I only have 1 left, and I use it primarily as a camera. I'd like to know EXACTLY how much of it you took apart, how hard it was, and exactly what you did.... it may be worth trying on mine, since it has the issues mentioned above.

A M E N. Unfortunately, I've turned away from HiMD due to the scarcity of units. Since I used to use 132k HiMD bitrate anyway, switching to LP2 was no big deal at all. Now I have many more units, and even decks, to choose from on Ebay, while HiMD is virtually gone.

That's a REALLY cool article... just the points alone about advertising trends in audio, etc. Very neat, thanks for sharing.

GOOD NEWS, they DO still have them... they just reorganized their web site. NEW LINK to 1 1/2 x 2 Glossy label sheets I'll update the head of this thread. As far as the labels sfbp asked about, 1) they are LASER printer labels... I don't have a laser printer and 2) they are not glossy.

Glad to see I'm not the ONLY one who chooses a particular remote to keep a color theme going

Interesting, BIGHMW, I didn't know there was really any difference between all 3 of those remotes... and just looking at some online shots, I see there is a "SEARCH" button on the 35ELK? :-O Do explain how that works!! Does that mean you can actually look/skip around track titles WHILE the unit is still playing by chance?? I'm also assuming if that's the case, your MDs would have to be HiMD-formatted. I make all my MDs now in MDLP/LP2 mode now so that I can use older units. Still, I'd love to hear how it works. Thanks.

Yes, "better" is certainly subjective. My favorite remote is still the MC33EL "stick" remote. It's SLENDER, almost like a simple extention to your headphone cable, VERY easy to navigate blind, and has a very BRIGHT and easy-to-read display. Where it lacks versus the 40ELK is the ability to scroll through tracks, etc. I find this feature very important when you have a HiMD disc with a lot of content, but since I stick to Standard MDs, it's not a problem. Plus if you create groups on your HiMD's it makes things easier since with the stick remote you can skip from group to group with ease as well. Here it is with matching color scheme: