Victor MD | Victor XM-B22P (Silver)

[Richard]

Victor MD | Victor XM-B22P (Silver)

 

A great little player only unit. MDLP, with wonderful sound quality and outstanding battery life. One small detail that I like is that the traditional furry pouch has a separate internal pocket to hold the remote when it's connected to the unit. 

 

The standard accessories included are:

• 1-Line, blue backlit remote
• Charging Stand
• Carrying pouch
• Earbuds
• Gumstick battery (I use a Vapex instead of the now dead original Victor one)
• AA Battery Attachment (sidecar)
• AC Adaptor (100v) - this unit like many Victors has a quick charge feature, (a full charge takes around 3 hours)
• Simple fold out manual and guarantee information

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BearBoy]

That's a lovely looking machine @Richard 

 

Is the casing aluminum or plastic? Or a mixture of both?

[Richard]

2 minutes ago, BearBoy said:

That's a lovely looking machine @Richard 

 

Is the casing aluminum or plastic? Or a mixture of both?

 

Thanks! Bit of both! The front plate is metal (I presume aluminium), the rest is plastic

[BearBoy]

Are they very rare @Richard? I can't find any reference to them on either MiniDisc.org or the MiniDisc Wiki.

 

Do they have the Group function that many of the Sony MDLP portables have?

[Richard]

10 minutes ago, BearBoy said:

Are they very rare @Richard? I can't find any reference to them on either MiniDisc.org or the MiniDisc Wiki.

 

Do they have the Group function that many of the Sony MDLP portables have?

 

They were relatively common in Japan - there were a whole bunch that came out at the same time in the later years of MD (2004/05). I can't remember in what order exactly:

 

The XM-B22P / XM-C11 / XM-C17 are all pretty similar - the rear of the units is identical. There are some differences in the supplied remotes, the C-17 has the one with a slightly larger display. Not 100% sure on the internals. Then there was the XM-C31 which has a kind of ceramic patterned tiled lid. The XM-S51 from 2004 has a built in speaker on the back. Plus there was a similar era Hello Kitty variant as well I seem to recall. I think the C17 and the C31, and the S51 as well all have the "Karaoke" function that supposedly blocks out the vocals during playback so that you can sing along.. I'll test that when I get my C-17.  

 

The Group function is present. That's standard in MDLP across all manufacturers I think. The rest of the functionaliy is fairly basic, random play, single track repeat, group repeat, random, random shuffle inside a group. It has a sleep timer / alarm function as well. 

[BearBoy]

16 minutes ago, Richard said:

The Group function is present. That's standard in MDLP across all manufacturers I think.

 

I am sure that is probably true for the most part but sadly not in the case of my MDS-JB940 🙁

[kgallen]

14 minutes ago, BearBoy said:

 

I am sure that is probably true for the most part but sadly not in the case of my MDS-JB940 🙁

I think group came in on the x70 decks like my MDS-JE770. I think it’s the only thing that differentiates the x40 and x70 families! Type S didn’t come in until the x80 family. 

[BearBoy]

30 minutes ago, Richard said:

They were relatively common in Japan - there were a whole bunch that came out at the same time in the later years of MD (2004/05). I can't remember in what order exactly:

 

The XM-B22P / XM-C11 / XM-C17 are all pretty similar - the rear of the units is identical. There are some differences in the supplied remotes, the C-17 has the one with a slightly larger display. Not 100% sure on the internals. Then there was the XM-C31 which has a kind of ceramic patterned tiled lid. The XM-S51 from 2004 has a built in speaker on the back. Plus there was a similar era Hello Kitty variant as well I seem to recall. I think the C17 and the C31, and the S51 as well all have the "Karaoke" function that supposedly blocks out the vocals during playback so that you can sing along.. I'll test that when I get my C-17. 

 

I cannot find any of those on MiniDisc.org either but the C17 and C31 are on the MiniDisc Wiki (although the picture they have of the C31 is a "Cinnamoroll" special edition). Having googled the "normal" C31, it's a very distinctive looking machine. I really like the look of the C17.

 

I take it these players would most likely need to be imported from Japan?

[BearBoy]

5 minutes ago, kgallen said:

I think group came in on the x70 decks like my MDS-JE770. I think it’s the only thing that differentiates the x40 and x70 families! Type S didn’t come in until the x80 family. 

 

Yeah, when I bought my MDS-JB940 I didn't do my research fully and had assumed that MDLP automatically meant the inclusion of the Group functionality. I thought I was getting a back up/partner to my MDS-JB980 minus the NetMD (which I had no interest in at the time tbh) and Type S but with better connectivity (coax digital output and dual optical inputs).

 

I use the Group function a lot these days so it's a pity the 940 isn't compatible.

[kgallen]

Group function is just firmware on the microcontroller. They use the track name to carry group information. I think if you put a disc with groups into a non-group machine and scroll the title you will find more text that relates to the grouping. 
 

i.e. it’s not related to the ATRAC chipset it just happens to be something Sony introduced late on and MDLP was well established by then. 

[BearBoy]

3 minutes ago, kgallen said:

I think if you put a disc with groups into a non-group machine and scroll the title you will find more text that relates to the grouping. 

 

That's correct, you do. The disc title shows up as something like:

 

0;Disc Name//1-4;Group 1 Name//5-8;Group 2 Name//9-12;Group 3 Name//

 

The discs will still play without any issues in my MDS-JB940, it's just that the grouping disappears. i.e. it's not like trying to play an LP2 disc in an SP only machine.