Is Sony Giving Up On Home & Car Md Formats?

[Guest hair old]

I have been using MD since 1998 and I LOVE it...its the ONLY home recording where you can get your editing near perfect, and NOT have to use a computer. As a reel-to-reel devotee from WAY back, I couldn't believe minidisc took me over...but it pretty much has.

That said, is Sony giving up on the home and car MD market? Not just Hi-MD, but ALL formats for home and car use?

What makes me VERY suspicious (apart from NO Hi-MD home or car units virtually...yeah I know there's some obscure bookshelfs and an Onkyo) is the fact that blank MD's-just plain old MD's-say "for walkman use" on them now...why would Sony back unknowing customers into a corner and make them think this is the only use you can use MD's for? Sure, we all know you can use them anywhere...but what is the logic to putting this on the packaging??? I think its a hint to us all...MD is going to be a portable format and that's it.

There are no more professional MD Sony products, and that seems completely UNREAL! Tascam is the lone one left...and its not Hi-MD.

I hate feeling that I may be pursuing with lifelong ambitions a dying product...I just spent $1800 for two gold MDS-JA333ES's...but I hope to god I'm wrong. But I think Sony might be giving up on anything besides the portable market.

Please someone tell me with concrete evidence that this is NOT the case!

Edited May 5, 2005 by hair old

[bjsilva]

I have been using MD since 1998 and I LOVE it...its the ONLY home recording where you can get your editing near perfect, and NOT have to use a computer.  As a reel-to-reel devotee from WAY back, I couldn't believe minidisc took me over...but it pretty much has.

That said, is Sony giving up on the home and car MD market?  Not just Hi-MD, but ALL formats for home and car use?

<snip>

Please someone tell me with concrete evidence that this is NOT the case! 

Like you, one of the main reasons I like and use MD is that I can do decent quality recording without a computer. In fact, I am one of the rare folks who despises using the computer to even transfer CDs to MDs (I actually enjoy the real-time experience!).

I don't know if anyone can give you concrete evidence that Sony will be making a HiMD deck, but I think I'm not going out on a limb in saying that I'm sure *someone* will. There is a market for it, however small, perhaps Sony wants to leave it to 3rd party?

[zerodB]

Hi-MD is still in it's early days. Sony are probably just concentrating on portables perhaps to test the waters a little...

Hi-MD has HUGE potential, and we may see decks from Sony later on in the piece.

[Guest hair old]

Actually, I wasn't even specifically thinking HI md...though that would be great! I'm talking MD in general...plain old standard MD format. Are they giving up the home and car market on STANDARD md???

Again, the reason I state this...blank standard MD's now state "for walkman use" on the package...implying that Sony isn't making anything else to use them on.

God I hope this isn't the case...

And I've never used the computer to do ANY md recording...I use a Carver Tube CD player with the "soft eq" circuit activated. The analog output of this goes into a Sony MDS-JA555ES for the A/D conversion (man talk about the absolute QUIETEST converter EVER) then to the 333...I could use the 555 for recording of course, but its just too damn beautiful, and I don't want to have anything happen to it!

Anyway, all my recordings capture the amazing warm sound of the tubed Carver, which is very colored, thick, warm, and punchy...similar to tape. Once recorded to MD (in good old Type R SP) its perfect. I divide all the quiet silence between the songs as separate tracks, use Scale Factor Edit to reduce the volume of the silence 4 times (12 db each time) then I combine the silence back to the original song endings...resulting in digital absolute quietness (no analog hint of hiss, which is completely negligible anyway). I know its overkill and a bit of a chore, but in this way I have perfectly silent analog thick warm recordings with absolute silence between songs. I love it! If only there were a HiMD home deck on par with either the 333 or 555 with scale factor edit...wow!!! I guess no one really cares about home recording though, or getting the editing and recording "perfect". But for me, minidisc is PERFECT for this. I just hope its not dead!

[MDGB2]

You can still get new Sony MD decks, and the MDS-JB980 is a decent top-budget model.

(Although I still won't replace my JB-920!

Edited May 6, 2005 by MDGB2

[zerodB]

I do believe Sony will eventually phase out old-skool MD, at least as far as portable recorders and decks go. I hope old-skool MDPs will be continued to be manufactured, but there are no guarantees.

We may still get MD playback on the new units as we currently do. Note that all current HiMD bookshelf and deck units do support old-skool MD recording and playback.

I'm sticking with old-skool MD, for most of the reasons you have described above, hair_old.

[Guest hair old]

I'm not specifically concerned about phasing out "old school" MD decks only...JUST ALL MD DECKS IN GENERAL! What I would LOVE is a Hi-MD home deck comparable to a 333 or 555es...You can do EVERYTHING on a hi-md deck that you can a standard MD deck (with the possible exception of Scale Factor Edit, which would totally suck).

I'm just concerned that Sony is developing NO MD/HI-MD decks, car decks, professional decks, or ANYTHING besides portables!

I wanna cry.

[zerodB]

Well you're not the only one in wait for Hi-MD decks/car units. Though we do have a couple of great decks and a bookshelf from ONKYO, and a fantastic bookshelf unit just realeased from SONY.

I'm not sure if Scale Factor Edit is a thing that will appear on Hi-MD decks - as far as I know, for technical reasons SF edit can only be performed with ATRAC recordings, and not ATRAC3/ATRAC3plus.

Edited May 8, 2005 by zerodB

[bobt]

Hi Hair Old,

Nice to see someone from reel to reel days, still have my Teac and a couple of hundred reels back in Canada, maybe some day I'll try to bring them and the couple of thousand albums down here to the tropics. Heat being the killer it is down here will have to get a climate controlled room, not impossible, do miss a lot of the albums, nothing beats the feeling of taking a record out of the jacket, putting it on the turntable swinging the tone arm on (A ReVox turntable), and letting the music play.

Must be why I love the minidisc system, it gives you a feeling of being part of the music.

Welcome to the community,

Bob

[Guest hair old]

Actually to clarify things...

I usually (if I'm recording CD's) use the Carver tube CD player through the tube "soft eq'd" analog outputs to the analog inputs on my 555ES, out of the analog outputs with the Sony's filter set to "analog" to fatten it up even more...then I go into the reel to reel (Teac X-2000R) using 3.75ips (I know...but it is SO fat and thick and yummy!!!) with dbx type 1 noise reduction and Emtec 468 tape. This is utmost PERFECTION short of recording off of LP's...colored??? You bet your ass!!!! Warm??? Gotcha. Thick??? Ditto. Full??? Like Michael Moore's bank account. Fat??? Well, you get the picture. It's PERFECT.

Then, I play the recorded tape once again through the 555ES to use the "analog" filter setting, and feed this analog output signal into the 333ES for actual minidisc recording. Then, afterward, I use divide/combine/scale factor edit to absolutely silence the spots between songs. I don't care what ANYONE says about Type R SP...I can NOT hear any artifacts on ANYTHING...and I my main system consists of a Sunfire Classic Tube Preamp, 4 Mesa Baron tube power amps, 4 Klipsch Belle Klipsches, 4 Klipsch KLF-30's, and 4 Klipsch Heresy-II's. If THIS system doesn't reveal artifacts, NOTHING will!!!!

But the remarkable thing is how PERFECTLY minidisc fits in an analog world!!!! Now I can virtually "hear" my home system's recording fat/thick/warm/beautiful coloration in my car and on all my other smaller systems!!!

Wow, I love it!