any HiMD player that has optical output?

[Happy Hopping]

I am looking for portable HiMD player of any brand that has an Optical output.  Is there such a thing?  If not, is there a way to use the head phone out as co-ax output by chance?

 

Likewise, I am also looking for desk model of HiMD player / recorder that has Optical output or Diigtal co-ax output.  Is there any brand name that makes that?

[trott3r]

The only desktop Hi-MD player was by Onkyo for the Japanese domestic market.

[sfbp]

Absolutely no on all counts. The HiMD decks don't have optical or coax output. The HiMD portables do not have digital output of any kind.

However, you don't need a HiMD device to get digital playback of ATRAC3+, the codec used in HiMD format.

1. You can hook the device to Sonic Stage and play it back through your PC using all-digital means

2. You can upload the tracks on your HiMD disks into the Sonic Stage library and play them on PC with no device connected.

3. Once you have the computer files on your PC, you can play them anywhere with VLC which understands the format perfectly. There are a few limitations, and some copy protection stuff but most of it you don't need to worry about.

4. You can load your ATRAC3+ files into some Sony devices with NO CONVERSION required and experience direct playback of the files. Examples, NW-ZX1, NW-F887, NW-S756. Even your LP4 files laboriously compiled on a standard MD can be played back this way, I do it every day with Bluetooth in my car.

[PhilippeC]

That is right, no Hi-MD with an optical output. BUT I have read somewhere that somebody (was that you Stephen ?) hacked is MZ-RH1 and made an optical out.

 

 

[Happy Hopping]

I did see Onkyo seems to have a desk model that support HiMD and has optical output.  Personally, I prefer Co Ax output.

I did see Tascam TEAC has an optical output on their deck, but they don't play HiMD, just MD

see, I bought a Sony portable DAC, and I connect my portable CD player to it as I do my workout.  The sound is great.  So by listening to just the mini disc player to headphone, the sound is noticeably not as good.

 

So I can't get all these files to my PC, as I mostly listen to these at the gym.  As to the home use, I don't know how to play all these files eventhough if I copied them to the PC, at my DAC / speaker set

[sfbp]

What is the model number of the Onkyo with optical out? It's trivial to get Coax instead of optical, either by hacking or by an external converter for $20.

Try the NW-S75x you will like them. They have noise cancelling built in.

You can play using VLC or Sonic Stage or Windows media player or ......

Kind regards

[BearBoy]

There are a couple listed here: http://www.minidisc.org/part_Hi-MD_Onkyo.html

But they only seem to provide optical out for CD, not MD, playback (assuming the information posted is correct). 

[Happy Hopping]

On 9/18/2017 at 1:18 PM, sfbp said:

What is the model number of the Onkyo with optical out? It's trivial to get Coax instead of optical, either by hacking or by an external converter for $20.

Try the NW-S75x you will like them. They have noise cancelling built in.

You can play using VLC or Sonic Stage or Windows media player or ......

Kind regards

when you said NW-S75x, are you talking about these:

https://www44.atwiki.jp/sonynw/pages/40.html

If we get an external converter that the source is optical, and the output is digital co-ax, don't we lost all the original quality of digital co-ax?  meaning we are not getting the sound quality of digital co-ax because the source is optical?

 

[Happy Hopping]

I solved the problem.  It's not the best solution, but it's the best I can do.  I connect 1 RCA jack cable to the remote, and connects the other end to the input of my Sony portable DAC.  It's not a digital signal out, but until there is such a thing as optical out for MD portable, there is nothing further I can do to make sure of this DAC

[sfbp]

10 hours ago, Happy Hopping said:

when you said NW-S75x, are you talking about these:

https://www44.atwiki.jp/sonynw/pages/40.html

If we get an external converter that the source is optical, and the output is digital co-ax, don't we lost all the original quality of digital co-ax?  meaning we are not getting the sound quality of digital co-ax because the source is optical?

 

That's the range. It has very nice headphones that come with it. I use it on planes as the noise cancelling works better than anything else I've tried. There's even an analog INPUT adapter if you want to hear the output from the plane's audio (analog of course), though you'd have to buy that.

There's no difference in signal format of SPDIF between Optical and Coax. S/PDIF is S/PDIF (as I am sure you know S stands for Sony and P for Philips).

[Happy Hopping]

someone just told me the mz-n1 head phone out, can be inserted by a mini toslink, and it HAS optical out.  He said he's sure there is a red beam shining out from that hole.

However, even if it's true, it's no good to me, as N1 is not Hi MD

 

[PhilippeC]

21 hours ago, Happy Hopping said:

someone just told me the mz-n1 head phone out, can be inserted by a mini toslink, and it HAS optical out.  He said he's sure there is a red beam shining out from that hole.

However, even if it's true, it's no good to me, as N1 is not Hi MD

 

Complete test would be to connect the toslink cable to an optical in of a PC or a receiver.

[ohmrah]

It's a pity that no manufacturer made a Hi-MD with digital out as it would make it so much easy to use an external DAC for processing which can be upgraded.

sfbp solution can do that if you want to.

Maybe someone with right know-how could do a crowdfunding campaign for just a Hi-MD transport only with digital out so you could use your own preferred external DAC.

Wishful thinking?

 

 

[sfbp]

IT CANNOT BE DONE. The HiMD chip doesn't have the outputs.

It doesn't need to be done, either. Simply play back the files with a nice computer (the player is little more than a fancy D-to-A) either where they sit (on the HiMD) or after they've been uploaded to the PC. There's no data conversion, therefore no data loss. If your MD data is legacy, then use one of the older decks to get S/PDIF out.