HI-MD my take.

[doomlordis]

I have used Minidisc for a little while now , i started with Net-MD , i had a lot of vinyl i wanted to back up before storing or selling. I bought a N1 model, it is an attractive , well built device that felt expensive in the hand.

My friends bought minidiscs after playing with mine, they also were either in bands and wanted to record to Minidisc or had cassettes or Vinyl to back up also. The Playing of MP3 files on the device to me was a welcome bonus , not a deal breaker at all.

I then went on to buy a few different units , Aiwa NX1, N910 and last year bought my first HI-MD the NH700.

I liked it but wanted a better built unit so got the NH900 - big mistake.

Unlike many here i think the NH900 is the worst minidisc player i had ever had, i couldnt read the screen even in daylight, the battery life was rubbish (i replaced the supplied battery with a nh14wm and that nearly broke my unit by expanding indide it) the build quality was poor for a minidisc in the price range , the back should have been metal. THe digital amp sounded a bit harsh also.

The NH1 was a far prettier device but also had enough issues to keep me away - charger stand, no jog dial (best thing about NH700/900), 1 line display etc.

So the 1st generation of Hi-MD in my opinion was flawed, i think the NH700 was probably the best unit, missing only a line out.

I sold my NH900 last year and bought a Iriver H320 for its recording abilities - not a great unit for recording as it happens, limited codecs etc.

I noticed that Sony had released a new generation of Minidisc only a couple of months ago, Sonys usual promotional activities failing to capture my attention!.

I spent a couple of weeks reading reviews , going into Sony Centre and listening to units to see if it was for me, the news that Sonicstage supported unlimited uploads was the clincher, so i decided to go to and buy one.

I think the second generation is also flawed, its so frustrating!

I think the three units all look really good but the build quality is very questionable. NO line out!!! Why? Remotes are crap and battery life is awful (RH710s is best by far).

On paper HI-MD is fantastic , when i explain what i can do with my unit, how cheap the media is etc people are sold, then they see the new units and say wow nice screen etc, then they hold them, they frown , then they leave the shop.

The 2nd generation feel like they would smash into a million pieces if you dropped them , My old aluminium n910 was dropped several times and lived to play another day , i think all the HI-MD except the NH1 would be lucky to survive.

Why has Sonys build quality on Minidiscs taken a nose dive? are the internals so expensive that they cant afford nice exteriors? The HD1/3/5 prove they can still make well build/designed players.

Anyway i bought a RH710 in the end, i got it cheap and it does everything i need. It has optical/analogue in and plays my old and new MDs. Battery life is also good (compared to RH910/RH10) , I always wanted a black minidisc player and the RH710 looks really good in person.

I wont be upgrading to another 2nd generation and the 3rd will have to see a big improvement in build quality to tempt me.

As for the future my prediction is this:

3rd Generation will have only two units, a cheap one and an expensive one.

MP3 playback will be improved - i think it was an afterthought in 2nd gen.

The HI-MD market will get smaller.

Sony will market the devices on recording abilities - if they have any sense.

I think eventually only one unit will appear every so often, maybe annually.

I think it will be around for a few more years, until it develops again into something else - recordable UMD maybe.

Edited August 25, 2005 by doomlordis

[jonny mac]

I fear that most of what you've written is true

The 2nd gen are poor quality, and some of the first too. Sony decided to go with cost cutting rather than good quality and that has let them, and us, down. MD has so much potential left in it, especially with HiMD, but Sony seem unwilling to realise this.

What format can do everything that MD can? None.

Are there any alternatives on the horizon? No.

So what will happen if MD disappears...??? Everything will be poorer quality.

Personal audio has come of age: it's cool, it's affordable, it's skip-proof, it sounds good and it's easy to use. So, in order to appeal to the masses who now clamour for fashionable ear-gear, standards have fallen in order to reduce prices. And those of us who want something not just cheap but GOOD will have to make do with whatever we can find amongst the too-small flash players and the unreliable HD players.

What a waste.

[banjo]

I would agree. I cannot see a positive future.

My local outlets have cleared their MD stocks. The are clearing their stocks of disks. For example: my local Currys now has three lonely boxes of MD blanks left on the shelf and I feel like I have bought most of its other stock.

I am totally depressed by 'death' of MD as an accessible consumer option.

I am stock piling disks but every so often I realise that MD will not be available forever. Absurd, of course.

But that seems to be the funny attraction of MD: technology evolves and the evolution is good. I embrace the evolution. It brings better things. But I cannot part with my MD, even though I see the writing on the wall.

Im starting to think that I would be better off, psychologically, to accept its demise now, and move on with enjoying it simply for what it is, without worrying about its competitors and its future any more.

[doomlordis]

I wouldnt get the black armband out yet, i am simply saying that i think that fewer units will appear in the future , they may be great units , they may not.

I think Hi-MD will be around for at least another 3 years.

[banjo]

No. I haven't got the black armband on just yet. But I think that your three year horizon is probably realistic.

[lamewing]

The quality of the HiMD units also forced me away from them. My first experience was the 600 model. Ick. Next came the NH900. I wasn't impressed with this one either. The half plastic unit reminded me of the R700 from a few years back. The solid metal bodies of the DR7/DR77/R70/R900/R910/N910/N920 always impressed me. The NH1 looks good, but I haven't taken the plunge. I do say that the cheap, plastic MD units sold today cannot compare with the build quality of "competitors". The iPod mini, for example, is VERY WELL built and you don't have to use the silly white earbuds. Why couldn't Sony make a HiMD with that build quality. I am also curious as to what happened to the battery life when compared to the MDLP and NetMD units.

Currently I have no minidisc units, just an iPod nano (scratches like crazy - Apple should have kept the aluminum case design from the mini) and a Cowon X5L for voice recordings and long trips. The 35 hours of battery life is pretty impressive. The nano sounds nice for listening at the university (no white buds for me!) and the Cowon is great for quite listening. The nano's 4GB of (USB 2.0) flash memory is fantastic; no moving parts and fast transfers. This unit is practically indestructible as well.

Now that I have watched two generations of HiMD come and go, with only Sony making units (where is Sharp?) I have pretty much given up on HiMD. BUT, it looks like I will go and buy a few "old" MDLP units for recording and "old school" listening.

If only Sony had understood the idea of quality...

[banjo]

I'm just back from a short trip to Japan.

I had a few hours, on a couple of days, to tour the electronics shops and shopping districts. I hit Bic Camera (in Nagoya and Osaka), the discount zone in Nagoya and the big discount zone in Osaka (Den Den Town).

From what I could see there, MD isn't really at the races any more. The flash and HDD competition gets 3 or 4 times more shelf space and all the attention from customers. Even in many of the discount stores, where they are clearing units out a low prices, MD was not well represented. I really felt like a straggler as I stood alone at the MD shelf.

My main impression from the Japan visit was that the market there moves with the times. Flash and HDD units are the rage, last years technology and stock is being cleared if it isn't gone already and anything older isn't really in prominence. Makes sense.

After my trip, I wouldn't hold out much hope for continued MD development: from what I could see, it isn't selling at all any more so why would it be developed?

[Richard]

Why couldn't Sony make a HiMD with that build quality.

If only Sony had understood the idea of quality...

Well, I guess you haven't seen any of these HI-MD models - all top quality builds...

mz-dh10p, mz-eh1, mz-nh1, mz-eh930, mz-nh3d

Can't remember the eh1, but the rest are either all aluminum or magnesium casings.

[Sparky191]

Well worldwide Sony still sell a signifcant number of MD units. So I think we'll see a smaller range of one or two units, probably more focused on the recording user. At the moment theres alternatives for playback, but not for recording, at the same price point and with similar feature set, removable media, replaceble batteries, mic, line in etc.

[Alexx]

I think an ATRAC4 (or some new version) will appear.

I mean they are not far off it:

Atrac 64 is really listnable

MP3 64 is not, although i would say WMA is for certain music.

if 48 or under can be perfected to be as good as the current 64 ATRAC will really take off.

I would also hope for other things: either larger capacity disks: or preferably make the current ones much cheaper.

oh and a genre search would be better than a grouping function!!

[AMPlitude]

i have to agreed with you guys on that, as the 2nd gen. hi-md units abused the use of plastic, even in the high dollar dh10...

[Richard]

i have to agreed with you guys on that, as the 2nd gen. hi-md units abused the use of plastic, even in the high dollar dh10...

I'll assume you mean the RH10 because as I said earlier in the topic the DH10P is pretty much all metal apart from the lens cover and the side panel battery cover

[mdmania]

I'll assume you mean the RH10 because as I said earlier in the topic the DH10P is pretty much all metal apart from the lens cover and the side panel battery cover

As far as cosmetics goes I don't care as long the unit works like its supposed to. I like the M10 even though

is made out of plastic. I think if this is would have been made out of magnesium, the price will then have to go up. So why would I want that. I just want something that works.

[Dimitri]

The RH10 is not made out of plastic, it just has a plastic coating for the mirror finish. The plastic is covering metal.