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The new blank disc from Sony. Is it the last?

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Jimma

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I've just received some of the brand new Sony blank MiniDiscs through the post and the packaging bears a striking resemblence to the very first blanks from back in 1992.  This makes me wonder if they are finishing in the same fashion as they started and that this is the last new blank we will see from Sony.  I certainly hope not but I have included a few photos of the 1992 and 2015 discs together for comparison.

 

http://www.sony.jp/rec-media/products/MDW80T/

IMG_0667.JPG

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I got them from a Japanese seller on eBay. 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/m.html?_odkw=&_ssn=u-japan&_armrs=1&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2046732.m570.l1313.TR12.TRC2.A0.H0.Xminidisc.TRS0&_nkw=minidisc&_sacat=0

This new model was released in November as far as I can tell.  The five packs even come in an old school cardboard box with five individually wrapped discs inside which is a nice touch.  Sony still manufacture the Neige discs as well unbelievably.  I picked up a few of those in their new 2015 individual packaging a couple of months ago.

Neige.JPG

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So I got an e-mail a day or two ago from a company in the UK who sell blank media, including MiniDiscs:

"We are being told that Sony has moved it's MiniDisc manufacturing from Japan to China. As such they will be producing less discs in the future.
 
So for the short term there may be some supply issues. Therefore if you need some MiniDiscs, i would recommend that you get these now whilst we still have stock available.

We don't have the Neige MD's in stock, but we do have Sony MDW80T, which are exactly the same Sony branded discs made to the same quality. We think that moving forward, Sony will just make these discs and all other sub brands such as Neige, Basic, Premium etc will no longer exist."

They're still showing the Neige MiniDiscs on their website (www.tapecity.co.uk) at the moment but it looks like they've actually got the discs Jimma posted instead.

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6 hours ago, PhilippeC said:

Yeah they're definitely not the cheapest place. It's considerably cheaper to buy those discs Jimma posted from Japan via eBay than it is to buy them here in the UK.

It was more the news about availability and the relocation of production I thought people might be interested in.

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Interesting find Jimma, I take it the new discs are the 80 min ones?

I saw Niege discs being sold on Amazon, I think £35 for 10 discs which is a bit steep!

I think sometimes looking for a second hand sales is the cheapest way to stockpile MDs.

Also, noticed you are in Winchester, I'm down near Eastleigh. Maybe we can start a Hampshire Minidisc users group/meetup - ha ha :) "Minidiscs Anonymous"

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On 15/02/2016 at 7:03 PM, k-spin said:

Definitely looks very similar. TBH I'm a bit surprised they are still making them. I thought they'd stopped a few years back. 

Where did you get the new discs from?

I think the last MD hardware was made in March 2013 by Sony but there is still a HUGE amout of MD equipment out there that needs to be fed MD discs. They will still be producing MD media for a some time yet I think.

Hope the move to China doesn't mean a drop in quality. In my mind "Made in Japan" still stands for a lot.

Edited by Arr-Nine-Hundred
Added BBC link/citation
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