MiniDisc Addiction. Do you have one?

[bluecrab]

Blue Crab , You will find no judgement here , your safe , and we understand . You just need to follow these simple 12 steps that we all learn and they will help you tremendously

just repeat them to your self out loud every day

#1 : I am Good , I really Am !

#2 : I dont need to overcome this , I really dont !

#3 : My Batteries Charge Just fine thank you , They really do !

#4 : I Need more discs , I Really Do !!

#5 : I Need more discs , I Really Do !!

#6 : I Need more discs , I Really Do !!

#7 : I Need more discs , I Really Do !!

#8 : I Need more discs , I Really Do !!

#9 : I Need more discs , I Really Do !!

# 10 : The MZ- R 50 is soooo Pretty

# 11 : The MZ RH1 is Soooo Pretty

and last but not least Number 12 which is so very important to remember

#12 I NEED MoRE diSCS , I REALLLy DoOoOo!

Just say these things 3 times a day , and you will feel MUCH Better .

Got back from short vacation and took your advice, sir.

Ordered 20 new 80-min. Sony Premium Golds off Ebay for USD 32.95 incl. shipping.

I feel.....better now! ;-)

[Mista Bumpy]

Aloha!

Yes. I have 10-12 units I have purchased thru the years, mainly from ebay, and mainly Sony units. This also goes for old minidisc collections sold there. You know the ones - loose bundles of discs, often beat up and scuffed, sometimes pre-recorded, sometimes dubs, but always sold by people who have abandoned the format and are selling the old discs usually to be reused. Not me, bradda. I treat these things like the treasures that they are and play them often. (If I want recoedable discs, I buy them, period.) Of course, I use my old Ebay machines.

Aloha!

Bumpy

Edited June 27, 2009 by mistabumpy

[bridb]

Wow that's a lot of units, I am just collecting Hi-Md models.

JUST AQUIRED A 4TH HI-MD UNIT [RH10] sound great! I am now pretty much prepared for a long life with MiniDisc.Here are my purchases of the last year and prices (all were bought on ebay)

1. MZ-RH1 [black] - The Ultimate.Stays at home, used with PC for recording and uploading. £130

2. MZ-RH10 [black] - Lovely for playback at home, beautiful sound and just the nicest screen ever.£60

3. MZ-NH600 [blue] - For Playback, where I want to take a unit where I don't want to lose/damage the others, ie beach,biking £20

4. MZ-NH1 [silver] - A thing of beauty, terrific build quality, great sound, for portable use where I know it won't get damaged. £20

NH600 I actually got for £10 by buying 2 for £40 and selling one for £30

NH1 I got for nothing by buying 3 for £60 and selling 2 for £120 - £60 profit& free NH1

So, £140 in total for 4 great Hi-Md units, not bad eh?

Another one I might want is an EH1, but that'll be hard (and expensive), will probably be a MZ-DH10P next, or another RH1 if I see a cheap one.For some reason, the NH700,800 or 900 don't really apeal to me, since I have a 600, that seems ok to me.

Such fun buying them off ebay. Only one I got was new&boxed (refurbished,like new) which was the NH1. They were practically giving them away at £20 each.

Check out my minidisc tower I built under Sami's MyRack320 [in pictorials/reviews]

Edited July 1, 2009 by bridb

[whatsleftofj]

I can't believe you found an NH-1 so cheap! I'm extremely jealous.

[Thorgal]

Hi,

Glad I found this thread. Seems I am not the only one with an addiction.

Sometimes it's away for months or years, but than suddenly it's back like it's never been gone.

I am already a proud owner of

two (just in case one gets broken) MZ-NH1

one MZ-NH600

But this didn't stop my from bying a MZ-RH1 yesterday.

Also have an Onkyo hi-md deck (105) and an old Sony 510

At this moment I am bying lots of discs on ebay and one or two more decks. Also I want the Onkyo Hi-md deck (133). I am collecting because I think it''s now or never. Supply will drop the coming years. I hope I will have enough equipment that will keep me going for 30 years.....

I am very interested in sound quality and I am always comparing teh different codecs. Yesterday I listend to the same cd on both HI-SP (352 kb) and normal SP.

SP sounded better to my ears.

Also I was listening to some 4 years old downloads on Hi-LP. Those seemed of worse quality than recent ones (also Hi-LP made with Sonicstage 4.3. Has the codec improved over the last years? Don't get me wrong: it's not the codec I use frequently.

[kino170878]

I am very interested in sound quality and I am always comparing teh different codecs. Yesterday I listend to the same cd on both HI-SP (352 kb) and normal SP.

SP sounded better to my ears.

It's very interesting you would say that because there are some forum members here who say the opposite i.e. that it is Atrac3+ 352 which is better than SP 292. There is a frequency analysis thread by Avrin for example which demonstrates that the 352 rate is able to capture some of the very high frequencies better than SP can.

I think one reason which could explain why SP may in fact sound better is that Atrac SP uses true stereo (co-designed with Dolby) whereas the new Atrac uses 'joint stereo'. At high rates supposedly joint stereo works just as good if not better but your result shows that this may not always be the case.

Edited August 12, 2009 by kino170878

[pr0metheu5]

Hi all, Just joined.

I had a Sharp MD several years ago. It did me well until it got dropped (they dont like that do they?) and then I found myself alone, and depressed...

then I saw IT - the MZ-RH1

I had to have it.

I had the money (very reasonable given the spec)

I could not get one *anywhere* in the UK

it took at least 6 months to get one.

that was 2 years ago.

I got a hard case for it.

I love it. I can take it or leave it... but I usually take it.

I play in a band and run a PA. we just had a 13-hour festival and I just plugged it in and away it went and aside from a few pauses to save space, it recorded the lot.

I could probably do without it, but it is the one for me!

its media requirements are so low - I record the disk, empty it onto the PC, reformat and away I go for another 11 hours.

I have plenty of spare disks.

I would seriously cry if i dropped it or it broke in some other way.

Is that addiction, or just attachment, or just care of a tremendous tiny machine..?

[Levanel]

Blank addiction here.

It's like a pokemon frenzy or something.. gotta' have 'em all. Erm.

[Thorgal]

It's very interesting you would say that because there are some forum members here who say the opposite i.e. that it is Atrac3+ 352 which is better than SP 292. There is a frequency analysis thread by Avrin for example which demonstrates that the 352 rate is able to capture some of the very high frequencies better than SP can.

I think one reason which could explain why SP may in fact sound better is that Atrac SP uses true stereo (co-designed with Dolby) whereas the new Atrac uses 'joint stereo'. At high rates supposedly joint stereo works just as good if not better but your result shows that this may not always be the case.

I just think that frequency analysis is more reliable than my ears......

on the other hand, not everyting can be measured by words and figures....

[cynisterious]

Blank addiction here.

It's like a pokemon frenzy or something.. gotta' have 'em all. Erm.

Yes, we have the same addiction...i keep my blanks sealed

Yes gotta have em all..we at least all the pretty ones

[heathenmagic]

I am addicted to minidisc to. Wish they would still support it and bring out new models, but thats probably not going to happen. I love the sound quality and customising each disc. And I don't have to worry about a 60 GB mp3 player suddenly conking out. Love it.

[Giant_Rick]

I have bought my first Hi-MD a month and a few weeks ago; now I've just bought my second one, a Sony MZ N505 for 10£.

I have 29 blanks, 3 Hi-MD sealed and 6 'normal' sealed. The rest has music on.

I'll buy blanks and devices everytime I see a nice price.. I have no frenzy

[chadergeist]

I have one Sony deck model, One Sharp portable model, One Sony Car Audio Model and two dresser drawers filled with MDs! Even to mention a plastic carry case with MDs in it for the road with a black TDK zipper soft fabric case for the road as well.

[darrencouch]

I can't help myself. At some point I think I may break into HiMD, but at the moment I am sitting pretty with a slew of portables, some NetMD some Not. Some Type R some Type S and some without both. A nice JE780 deck for the HiFi moments and for SPing all my vinyl. I just won another N510 with a bid on a third still holding. I tried collecting blanks but I just can't help myself and have to use em. DEfinitely an obsession! I am currently looking for a resonably priced SACD deck to use for optical out recording. I figure if Im going to buy a deck, may as well play any quality format (CD, Vinyl or SACD).

[TypeR]

First post here, I used to use the Minidisc.org forums like nearly ten years ago!

Recently got back into it from my iPod (because it sounds atrocious!).

I have the addiction big time, got maybe 20 units right now (favourite being the MZ-R55 for its great looks, nice sound but shitty battery

I just broke into Hi-MD with the NH700 and now want a deck that can do Hi-MD (Onkyo is too much for me right now) although HiMD blanks are stupidly expensive (Im still buying them though....).

Is there a cure? I dont think there is...Long live the minidisc!

I think the need to acquire blanks and units stems from the fact that they arent in production any more (actually some blanks seem to be..), and we want to stick with the format.

[chadbh74]

Well, Let's see.. I have 20 portables plus 3 Sony Decks, almost 200 media, about half still sealed.  Does that qualify?

(Photo) My portable MD Collection.

Edited September 6, 2015 by chadbh74
Attached images appear broken, not being displayed

[SileEeles]

I wouldnt say I have an addiction per sé, certainly not compared to many of the people here, I just like the idea of the format more than anything, and feel like it was such a waste.

 

I only have two units now ( technically three since I have two Sharp MD-MT80's and a Sony MZ-N710) plus my deck (MDS-JE440).

 

I have plenty of discs full of music, and I loved doing it, but I'd love to explore more of the data side of the format. I know Hi-MD allows data storage but is prohibitivley expensive, and I'd love to see MD-DATA, which seems to have all but dissapeared (apart from the discs, which are fairly common on eBay).

 

I'm keeping my eyes out at work, since we recieve older systems from schools and stuff wishing to get recycle or get rid of thier old equipment, but the oldest we get really is DAT back up drives and tapes. Although we did get a still working (with working RiscOS and everything) Acorn A5000

[PsychoPimpKiller]

I just like the idea of the format more than anything, and feel like it was such a waste.

 

I agree. I'm in the USA where minidisc wasn't popular at all. I wanted one when I first saw them in the early-mid 90's. I have about 9 MDLP units and 3 Hi-MD units plus a Sony MDLP deck with my home stereo system. I also have about 300 or so blanks. It's been a while since I last counted them so that is just an estimate. I still have the addiction but it isn't as strong as it was a few years ago.

[freddyjollo]

I used to be  an addict  looking for bargain  Sony 940 decks in particular. I now think some time  oh I should get rid of some but then I think  once gone not likely to be ever replaced and I 'll regret it - interests come  and go and ... come back  & they are such nice  machines? Now mini disc addiction is quite low  in the scheme of things - Now consider Record Nuts, I mean the LP  type. Some real lunatics have rooms of the things, the  floor boards creaking under the weight and god nows what would happen if there was a fire......So  take comfort and if you are nagged by a partner  tell them that it could be worse, far far worse.....

[Boomchild]

I would have to say for me an interst turned into an addiction. My experience with MD started at the beginning with the first MD unit, the Sony MZ-1. I was an early adopter and bought mine when it was launched. I became so facinated and excited about the format and it's capabilities. A few years passed before I bought another unit which ended up being the Sony MZ-R30. Another great MD unit. For a long period I was only picking up Sony units since that was mainly what I found being sold where I lived with the exception of Aiwa units.  For some reason at the time, I never came arcoss units from other mfg. such as Sharp, Panasonic, JVC and Kenwood. It wasn't until I discovered MD units for sale on eBay that I started to build a collection of the other brands. Since that point I have built a sizable collection. My collection has focused mainly on portable units but, I do have a few decks as well. My first deck was the Sony MDS-JE700. I also have the MDS-JB920, Yamaha MDX-793 and a Onkyo MD-2321. Up unitl recently I never really got inot collecting MD discs. I've started to collect some of the more unique discs. I love discs with cool grahpics. So my obbession with MD continues to this very day.

[otogidemon]

Perfect and I just spotted my 900 in all that.

[damnspynovels]

Probably - i do sort of keep panic buying 80 minute Neige discs. What's the deal with those anyway, are they old stock or are they still being manufactured? 

[kgallen]

Oh heck, it's 2018 and I've (re)joined this strangely addictive club. Can I hold back at 5 machines (4 of which I use, 1 I'm trying my best to repair)? Now I'm panic buying new blanks.

There's no hope.

How many addicted members are still active in this area in 2018? I see from eBay today that full-size machines are still selling well - lots of bids and pretty decent prices on the good-condition machines. I must stop looking...must stop...must stop...!

[BearBoy]

I started messing about with MiniDisc again about 2-3 years ago after a break of 10ish years. Since then I've somehow bought three Sony QS decks and three Sony MD Walkmans, to go with my original deck and Walkman.

I've also been picking up blanks. Luckily Sony is still making them, for now at least, so the prices haven't gone crazy and it's relatively easy to pick up new sealed blanks. Assuming you are not after HiMD ones that is.

[bluecrab]

This thread has been going on for a dozen years! I currently have 9 decks, with most of them in some kind of active use. An MXD-D400 is in a box and there were prior decks I no longer have—perhaps another six?  Although I'm not actually planning on acquiring any more...never say never. Have a few portables, too...rarely used. Head units in two cars. On and on it goes :-)

 

[KJ_Palmer]

Well, just to chime in. I've got three MD decks in semi-regular use (JE480, MXD-D40, Onkyo MD-105 Hi-MD deck), NH900 gets an occasional spin (though my little Sansa Clip zip is my portable of choice). Have several Sony portable MD recorders and decks "in storage". My MZ-B10 is in daily use at home. All my new music still gets added to the MD collection: ~250 LP2 discs/~40 Hi-MD  discs. So yes, I guess I'm still an MD addict.

[PhilippeC]

HI everybody, tell me KJ_Palmer, why do you have choosen LP2 instead of SP ?

I have in mind to record >> 500 MD (from Hi-Res music) and for sure LP2 is the easiest (fastest) solution :

SACD/SDS files ---> Flac lossless 24bit/48kHz (not 44,1kHz) ----> WMA lossless 24bit/48kHz (because FLAC is not recognized by SS) --->  Net-MD transfer

I don't know yet if SS accept to recognize 24bit/48kHz files

[KJ_Palmer]

1 hour ago, PhilippeC said:

why do you have choosen LP2 instead of SP ?

Out of laziness mostly. For me LP2 gives a good balance between quality and no. of tracks, and it's easy to get from Sonicstage. For higher quality I've kept most of my CDs/SACDs and have all my high-res downloads on hard drives. Have a few SP (and LP4) discs, but LP2 also saves a lot of shelf space.

 

[PhilippeC]

 

3 hours ago, KJ_Palmer said:

Out of laziness mostly. For me LP2 gives a good balance between quality and no. of tracks, and it's easy to get from Sonicstage. For higher quality I've kept most of my CDs/SACDs and have all my high-res downloads on hard drives. Have a few SP (and LP4) discs, but LP2 also saves a lot of shelf space.

Yes, good philosophy. I think if get a similar one : nowadays you can buy (for a lot of money) Hi-Res players, some even high-end. But is this necessary to have the best sound ever when you travel or when you are outside ? When you know that all those players will get problems after 3-5 years (maybe less) and that the so-called high-end earphones & headphones all get their own problems too, I think that I prefer to listen to music with a MD player which has cost me peanuts and above all with MD discs that I can touch. The only problem is that you cannot bring a wide choice of music with you. LP2 give you more music ;>)

[philippeb]

36 minutes ago, PhilippeC said:

LP2 give you more music ;>)

As does mono

[PhilippeC]

1 hour ago, philippeb said:

As does mono

T'exagères... 

[philippeb]

4 hours ago, PhilippeC said:

T'exagères... 

No I am not. I am serious.

My wife and I are fond of mono ATRAC 4.5. She taught me the art of mono, soon after we met. We are not alone. There is a community of mono lovers (that includes Radio France sound engineers).

We think that stereo is a waste of resource, just like 3D movies. We think that stereo distracts you from listening to music. We know that stereo limits or forbids our freedom of movement.

We love the superior signal/noise ratio of mono FM receivers. We love to service two rooms with one stereo amp and two speakers. We love MD74s that hold one hour and a half of mono recordings.

We enjoy a yes different, but still incredibly rich, md experience.

Just like stereo md lovers do

[sfbp]

Hmm I doubt he's answering. 12 year old thread and author gone from around here since April 2017.

[PhilippeC]

13 hours ago, philippeb said:

No I am not. I am serious.

Sure you are. I knew that. 

Could be THE solution to record 5.000 Hi-Res albums (if LP2 mono allowed 4 x the theorical time of the MD disc).

Far away from the 28 mn on 305Mb Hi-MD formatted minidisc, using the Linear PCM 1.4mbps recorded in real time  :>(   : perfect 24 bit /48 kHz, but but costly in recording time and above all no way to bring a 10kg MD discs case each travel !

Finally, Atrac3 LP2 132 kbps or Atrac3plus 256 kbps dowloadable from PC, that is the question.

 

[Matt C]

It’s February 2018, and I just spent last weekend converting my car to take an 18 year old Pioneer MiniDisc head-unit. I still make up ‘mixtape’ discs on my hifi to listen to when out driving, or walking the dog.

Ive lost count, but I’ve got something like 1000+ discs, several hifi separates and over a dozen portable units. I record all my music in Type-R SP so that it is compatible across the range.

MiniDisc never ‘crashes’, mixes up my tracks or loses the album artwork. It never requires ‘sync resets’ to a PC, and can go on endlessly on AA batteries which can be easily swapped out. It is dirt-cheap to buy second-hand, requires no ‘updates’ and if the worst happens, you only lose one single disc. I have absolutely no intention of ‘upgrading’ to anything else in the near future.

[kieronkirk]

44 minutes ago, Matt C said:

 

44 minutes ago, Matt C said:

MiniDisc never ‘crashes’, mixes up my tracks or loses the album artwork. It never requires ‘sync resets’ to a PC, and can go on endlessly on AA batteries which can be easily swapped out. It is dirt-cheap to buy second-hand, requires no ‘updates’ and if the worst happens, you only lose one single disc. I have absolutely no intention of ‘upgrading’ to anything else in the near future.

I could not have said it more cogently than the above.

20 years on, I have 4 full size decks, 4 portables, 350 + recorded discs and 650+ blank discs.

I would not let any of my MD units within a million miles of a PC.

Addict ?

Kieron.

[PhilippeC]

I am an addict too (I just order 1500 MD blanks...). BUT computers (or expansive portable units) are the only ones which can read Hi-Res music. So I am in both world.

portable units Sony 2 MZ-RH1, 1 MZ-NH900, 1 MZ-NH700, 1 MZ-N710, 1 MZ-N510 , 1 MZ-R55, 1 MZ-R30,

decks Sony 1 MDS-B5, 1 MDS-JB980, 1 MDS-JB930

bookshelves Onkyo FR-SX7, Panasonic SC-HD615MD

On my PC, I store > 10 To of music (only Hi-Res music downloaded from rutracker.org). I can do that because I live in Asia (no copyright control). I read and classified the 4500+ albums with jRiver Media Center.

[tiesto2.0]

Hi, I just bought two good units: a Sony MZ-N1 and a MZ-NE810. And if all goes well, I will soon have a Sharp player ;-)

[Gregory Scott]

Yes me too!!  I got hooked a few months back now I have 5 players and 1 home recording unit and about 45 disks.  These damn things are great I wish I would have known about them long ago real cool!

[kgallen]

On 2/14/2018 at 2:48 PM, kgallen said:

Oh heck, it's 2018 and I've (re)joined this strangely addictive club. Can I hold back at 5 machines (4 of which I use, 1 I'm trying my best to repair)? Now I'm panic buying new blanks.

There's no hope.

There really is no hope. 18 months on from my previous comment in this thread, I "somehow" seem to have 12 machines... one Sony MDS-JE530 and MDS-E10 in the "still trying to repair" category (in theory I'll finally get hold of a suitable Laser Power Meter within the next month or so...), two Tascam MD-CD1 (MkI) in the "repaired and in use" category (for dubbing), two beautiful Sony MDS-E12 and a pristine Tascam MD-350 flightcased for use in theatre sound, plus my trusty original Sony MDS-JE520 in my home-office-cum-sound-studio and portable MZ-R700 at work where it gets pretty much daily use.

An MDS-JE440 and a MDS-JE480 bought as "tatty and broken" donor/investigative machines for the ongoing E10 repair, but both of which are now fully functional too.

Oh and it's 12 machines now (rather than the 11 I mentioned recently in another thread), as I've imposed the format on the rest of the family having picked up (and repaired the CD changer section of) a Sony DHC-NX5MD MD/CD based "mini-hifi" stack which is now in use in the Dining Room...!

As I say... no hope. But honestly, I really don't have (physical) space for any more, even if mentally there's still room for the odd one more...!