Tascam Rack Mount Decks in stock at Minidisco

[Webmaster]

The Tascam MD-CD1 ($700) and MD-350 ($460) rack mount decks are again available from Minidisco. The MD-CD1 is unique in that it can dub from MP3-CDs to MDs (at 1x speed); CD-DA dubbing is at 4x (SP mode) or 2x (Mono, LP2 and LP4).

[raintheory]

I owned the MD-350 previously, and have regretted selling it on a number of occasions.

Great unit.

[rayzray]

this is very good news for me (rayzray) as many of my decks are showing sighns of "Age",, some dying a slow death;; and i reayy wanna keep up with these MD decks a bit more.. (till the end) i.e. "my end"..!!

without looking up the specs;; i kinda remember the Tascam rack mounts;; i think;; there were some neat features about them NOT found on the Sonys..

*as i look for the MISSING clicker of my wonderful Yamaha MD deck*!!!!!!

[UMWOOFWOOFF]

I reviewed the Tascam MD-CD1 on this site. It is nearly worthless as a dubber, as it inserts gaps between the songs regardless of how you dub or what speed you dub at. Here is a link to the review posting (since it has negative points in it I'm surprised it wasn't locked or removed from the site):

http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=19099

If you don't want to cut and paste, here is a copy of the review itself:

Hi there...

I bought a new Tascam MD-CD1 off eBay for about half list price. The unit LOOKS nice, and feels decently built. It appears as a decent quality home deck with a rack adapter. I basically got the unit as it's probably going to be the last CD/MD deck ever made, as well as to augment my MXD-D400 deck when I need to do fast Atrac-R high speed digital dubs (I almost always record analog through a Carver tube CD player, but that takes a bit of time to do it to perfection). So, basically, the Tascam's point is to be a dubber; everything else is just lagniappe. However, there are some strange quirks with the unit, and one completely unforgivable idiotic JOKE of a design flaw disaster that makes the unit useless.

The first thing you notice is that the manual is not clear nor specific regarding features such as record levels, why there are two ways to set the analog record level, why there are two ways to set the dubbing digital level, why high speed dubbing ignores these settings, etc. There is only ONE display on the unit; you have to toggle between the two sides to read the display for either the CD or the MD. Annoying. Same goes for the output; you have to select which one you want, even if you just hit "play" on the MD side. Annoying. The menus are not user friendly or intuitive to use in any way. When you adjust one parameter, you have to start from scratch and enter the menu every time you want to adjust something. And, the knob is ABOVE the display, so you can't read the display when you adjust the dial; you have to hold your arm consciously out of the way. Ergonomically, the deck looks good, but it's not user-friendly.

The CD player side has its own playback volume adjustment buried in a menu, and it is performed in the digital domain. What they don't tell you however is that this changes the record volume on the MD side but only in regular speed dubbing. This, however, turns out to be a GREAT thing (see below), since when you DO wish to adjust the recording level when dubbing from CD to MD, you CAN adjust the record level under the MD menu, however you canNOT monitor the level in ANY way! There is NO record/pause function when dubbing that also allows you to enter the menu to even set the record level. Going by logical protocol, a user would enter the recording mode menu on the MD side, select "Rec Level" and be able to see the levels while in dubbing standby mode and adjust them accordingly. No can do. There is no way to send the CD player signal to the MD side and thus see the record levels if you do not have the recorder in "dubbing" mode. But, once you enter dubbing mode, you can't access the menu to adjust anything. If you adjust the record level beforehand, your recordings WILL reflect how you set that level, but there is no way to tell how to set them in this method, since you'd have to do as you would with a 2 head cassette deck and literally play back what you just recorded to see if the levels are clipped. BUT, with MD, you CANNOT SEE a clipped/over indication once recorded. Adjusting the dubbing record volume is seemingly hit-or-miss when set by the conventional method that most people would ever THINK to use. Absolutely useless design. This is ABSURD that this is designed by such idiots...

Now, to the aforementioned CD side playback volume adjustment. Since this adjustment is in the digital domain, and this adjustment affects the level that the MD records at, the way around the ridiculous problem mentioned above is to simply adjust the CD playback volume as if you are adjusting record levels and leave the MD record level side at 0.0db. This way, before you dub, you can actually SEE the CD's actual levels while playing (the clipping/over indicator does work when adjusting the CD playback output) and your MD's will be recorded at the proper volume. I have no clue what complete idiot designed this thing. Tascam has truly lost it.

The MD's analog input level control can be both controlled by the "Rec Level" adjustment in the menu and ALSO by the input knobs on the front panel. Makes no sense. If the input volume knobs are all the way down, you still get signal recorded. Idiotic. Why did they think they had to re-design and complicate such a simple thing as record level control? There are 5 ways to adjust it on this unit depending on what you are recording. And, the analog inputs are NOISY AS HELL. Not as bad as my Onkyo MD-133 deck (only the input monitoring stage works on that, the mechanism to play discs doesn't...thanks Craig's List ****) but nowhere near the quietness of Sony ES decks by ANY means. It's ok for casual recording, but I would NEVER use it to record anything of importance through it's own noisy analog circuits.

The deck does have a neat gimmicky "key change" feature for CD playback, and in normal speed dubbing mode, however you set the "key" or the "pitch" of the CD is how the MD gets recorded. The pitch control could at least be useful in some cases, so I guess the unit has a plus.

Now, for the clincher...NO MATTER HOW YOU DUB (NORMAL OR HIGH SPEED) THE *** UNIT INSERTS BLANK SPACES BETWEEN DUBBED TRACKS!!!?!??!?!?!?!!?!!!!!!!!!!!! There is NO setting to change this. I dubbed a few CD's both regular speed and high speed, and sure enough, this damn thing adds a second or so of SILENCE between songs!!! This has nothing to do with any Auto Cue settings, Auto Space settings, dubbing modes, or settings of ANY kind. ABSURD! AGAIN! IDIOTIC! AGAIN! I thought something might be wrong...then looked in the manual. This is NORMAL operation for this unit! The manual states to physically connect the CD digital output to the MD input with an optical cable to avoid this! WHY????? WTH????!?!?!?!?!?! If I'm going to do that, then WHY HAVE AN "ALL IN ONE" MD/CD UNIT??? If you connect the unit in this way as instructed by the manual, you lose ALL the benefits of a dubber...no high speed, no quick EASY dubs, no lack of hassle...this is the POINT of a dubber! To dub the EXACT CD as easily and quickly as possible! The fact that this unit inserts blank spaces basically makes this unit USELESS for anything unless you KNOW beforehand that the spaces will be acceptable on a particular CD that you may happen to be dubbing! Needless to say, I'm appalled by the absolute incompetence in designing this thing. Tascam, you're officially in a coma. The plug's about to be pulled. Your time has passed.

Oh why oh why Sony did you have to abandon minidisc? NO ONE seems to know how to make these things work intuitively and sensibly as you once did...the Onkyo's leave out important features and editing precision, Tascam is run by a bunch of clueless designers who never USED a physical recording device in their lives, and everyone else gave up years ago.

Sorry, everybody...but the last bastion of a decent quality near hi-end home MD deck/dubber turned out to be a major dud that's pretty much useless in its desired purpose. It always made me feel better about MD that "at least you can still get a hi-end quality deck from Tascam since Sony gave up" but I've sadly been ripped for a very expensive deck that doesn't properly do what it was designed for. But, it looks good. Oh well.

Edited June 2, 2007 by UMWOOFWOOFF

[rayzray]

i assumed ALL the MD decks from ALL the manufacturers were basically the same;; just stick on a different name..

i wonder if my Sonys leave a gap too..

oh,, well;; i haven't got time in my hectic life to read all the specs;; i'll leave that up to youzz..

i know i use my Sonys a lot and transfer a LOT of CD's to MD;; i guess i never transferred a seamless CD ..

i would still buy a Tascam if needed;; cause 80% of something that is the greatest media in the world is still better than nothing..

i am of the school of hard knocks;; and hard work;; and problem solving and if it doesn't quite work;; i MAKE it work another way..

thanks for the warning;; i'll keep it in mind;; but like an old person that collects stray cats;; i collect stray MD decks;; a nice Tiger-Tascam would look nice amongst my 27 units..

is there ANY unit out there that actually works 100%?? that's why God invented collectivity;; sometimes it takes a collective aray of units to do one job..

gee,, where is that clicker again from my Yamaha MD deck??

Edited June 2, 2007 by rayzray

[UMWOOFWOOFF]

Hi Ray...

I'm like you! I collect decks as well...currently have too many to count (close to 50 or 60, not sure lol). I bought the MD-CD1 as a collector of sorts, but DID want an easy way to make exact CD copies editing-wise. But, it doesn't deliver on its most tauted purpose. Bad design. The MD and CD drives in these units are both Sony, however the control logic is by Tascam's incompetent children that probably design computer recording, not hands-on old school recording done WITHOUT a computer monitor.

To answer your question, the Sony dubbers do NOT insert any glitches or gaps.

You know what? On a related note...the Sony MDS-W1 dual minidisc dubber works SO well making direct lossless Atrac copies that the edit marks/track marks are IDENTICAL to the source disc. There is absolutely NO overlap. It not only clones the audio data, but the TOC data as well (no CD to MD dubbers do this in this manner). On the MDS-W1 you can even divide a track into 20 pieces, scattered throughout the disc (literally, not just the TOC data scattered), transfer all 20 pieces individually to the copy disc, and they will play seemlessly. This is one piece of machinery that Sony got PERFECT. I'm enamored at how well it perfectly clones discs with NO problems. Eliminating the SCMS "erasure of source disc" is simple via a 3 button service mode process, which is so simple it's almost as if Sony DESIGNED it to be bypassed so that you CAN save your original disc. I have three MDS-W1's, and wouldn't be caught dead without them. I use them while making discs to defragment recordings and gain maximum recording time on mix discs. And, I can actually copy lossless ATRAC perfectly edited discs for my friends with no Atrac generational loss and the resulting "flutter" sound.

BTW...the perfect DUBBING deck? The Sony MXD-D400...has everything you could EVER want in ANY MD deck if you want total capability but don't require technically amazing (but probably can't hear) sonic specs. It's only drawback is that the analog input is a little noisy...but not moreso than any other non-ES Sony stand-alone deck (even the fabled 930, 940, and 980 have noisy analog to digital converters). The 400 has dig in's and out's, scale factor edit, full editing precision (regarding "divide"), a great full display, and copies CD's perfectly. A great deck.

BTW...I have a couple Yamaha's. Great player decks. The older Atrac sounds bad to me for recording, which is a shame...the analog inputs are decent on this deck. I'd like to find out what Sony MD mechanism the Yamaha's have so that I can swap them out with a compatible unit that uses at least Atrac 4.5 or R. I've done this on a few older Sony decks (such as my MDS-W1's and 920's).

A side note...regarding noisy analog inputs (the worst is the Pioneer Elite...unusable), the Sony ES decks in particular the MDS-JA555ES is untouchable. As quiet as digital to the ears. The 333ES is close behind. Great converters...I actually use these decks sometimes JUST to convert analog to digital for other projects to send a digital signal to the computer or what-have-you. But, another wolf in sheep's clothing regarding absolutely quiet analog to digital input converters is the Kenwood MD-2070. This deck is AMAZING for analog recording. Not quite the level of the highest of the high Sony's listed above, but a deck better than you would believe. It's in the top 5 for analog input noise. And, it's fader is seemless...the Sony's faders are "notchy" and you have to really tweak and test EVERY fraction of a second to hear one that sounds smooth to the ears before you settle on one. The Kenwood gets this right.

Edited June 3, 2007 by UMWOOFWOOFF

[rayzray]

i am amazed there is someone out there with MORE decks than me;; i relinquish my "Crown" to you,, UMWOOFWOOFF..

burnt out from about 20 years of synths and tech from them;; i avoid techs;; specs;; figures..

i go with instinct and ears;; but admire your knowledge about the units..

i LOVE all mine;; but,, now it's time to move on to DVD'ing and A/V editing;; which i will pick-up and learn by myself;; as i did everything i ever did in my life..

my GOAL in life is to make as many CD-R's and DVD's as i can to saturate into my family and grandchildren (and piano students);; that they will never forget me;; ever..

i make unusual family DVD's and CD re-mixes all using MD-decks and other stuff.. money is no object;; as long as i can afford it;; and my wife won't notice..

there IS a purpose for my insanity here;; i don't care what ppl think of me;; but like a cock-a-roach lives on;; i (rayzray) minidisks on to infamousitivity.. ??!!

if you add my 27 MD units and my 22 DVD recorders;; does that qualify me for anything??

like David Banner / lil Flip sings "like a Pimp";; i would like to be know as the "pimp of minidiskism";; but admit;; there are a LOT of youzz guyzz out there more worthy of my titles..

Edited June 3, 2007 by rayzray

[MikeRofone]

It seems a shame that these decks are never added to the Equipment Browser

[philippeb]

I own two Sony MDS-W1, and cannot imagine life without them. I would like to mention another rare feature of this perfect machine: the unlimited DIVIDE and COMBINE. When an edit operation fails and returns IMPOSSIBLE, a simple defrag suppresses the problem (possibly with the help of a temporary track, for DIVIDE).

[sallymae_hogsby]

Can you imagine a Hi-MD version of it?!

I can easily imagine it, but I'd rather own it!

These models are essentially pro/semi-pro. Does anyone know why companies like Tascam haven't gone Hi-MD? The ability to record PCM should be enough of a reason in the pro/semi-pro area, no matter what the state of MD as a consumer item. Has Sony made it difficult for other companies to license Hi-MD technology?

[bluecrab]

I have three MDS-W1's, and wouldn't be caught dead without them.

BTW...the perfect DUBBING deck? The Sony MXD-D400...has everything you could EVER want in ANY MD deck if you want total capability but don't require technically amazing (but probably can't hear) sonic specs. It's only drawback is that the analog input is a little noisy...but not moreso than any other non-ES Sony stand-alone deck (even the fabled 930, 940, and 980 have noisy analog to digital converters). The 400 has dig in's and out's, scale factor edit, full editing precision (regarding "divide"), a great full display, and copies CD's perfectly. A great deck.

THREE MDS-W1s? By the time I realized I should buy one, it was too late. I almost got one from the UK, but they would not ship to US, despite my abject pleas. Then I tried get one from Denmark. There was a bit of a language problem, until I put a Danish-speaking colleague on the phone. The seller didn't actually have the unit, it turned out, but if I'd be good enough to send him the $$, he'd get me one. I declined.

I do though have two MXD-D400s. They are my two best friends of the non-human persuasion. A truly outstanding unit...and I love the gold finish of the Japanese model - it looks great and helps me tell them apart easily. I have found on a couple of occasions that, oddly enough, a really bad CD track that won't copy correctly 1x can be copied by using 4x - the reverse of what you'd expect.

The MXD-D400 is hard to find and expensive when you do find a good one. The MDS-W1...don't hold your breath.