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As many of you know already, MiniDisc was at its most popular in Japan, in fact music in that format (Pre-recorded MDs) have been released and sold there as recent as 2010 (!) So not surprisingly, Japan has PLENTY of nice units that play and record MDs. I've been a regular user of an auction deputy service that allows you to bid on Japanese auction sites (most commonly Yahoo!). Recently I have won a bookshelf MD Unit made by Aiwa in 2003 - and I am in LOVE with it! Take a look: Here are some of its awesome features: the display changes colors (511 according to its manual!) Its FM covers the world spectrum (76-108), though the AM tuning is in japanese steps (9 khz starting from 531 - I don't use AM) You can record in different ways - from Radio to MD,CD, or Cassette, from AUX to MD,CD, or cassette, From CD to MD or Cassette, From Cassette to MD or CD The bass on this (called i-bass) is UNBELIEVABLE and comes in two modes, iBass1 or iBass2. The Cassette deck is right on the top of the unit (that little slot at the top) This thing also has a mode where it will tell you what day it is when you turn it on - it notes important birthdays as well as Japanese holidays. On a humorous note, yesterday, it mentioned that it was Greenery Day, though that was actually changed to Showa Day in 2007 (this thing was made in 2003). More about Greenery Day in Japan (it's like our Earth Day): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenery_Day Minidisc.org has a little section on this unit here: http://www.minidisc.org/part_Aiwa_XR-MJ1.html So this is a pretty sweet unit, and the sound is just awesome. It was also cheaper than I thought. When I won it at an auction, it was about 6000 Yen (around 60 bucks or so), though the shipping (from Japan, remember)...yikes. So, have any of you thought about getting any MD units from Japan? Have there been a few you've been drooling over, like I did over this one? If you did manage to get one, please show it off here!