Sony Minidisc Players - another type of signal source but what do you think of it?

[Us-&-Them]

Hi all

Just purchased a nice (and cheap) Sony Mini-Disc Player (MDS-JE530) for the grand total of a Tenner. I thought to myself, for that money, who cares!! What's the consensus of opinion on these things (apart from being another type of signal source) ? Has anyone got one and, are they worthwhile etc.? Any problems that are common to them (I know they're a dated format) or are they pretty robust and solid etc.?

[struth]

Very good buy. the 530 is a good machine...I just sold my mini disc player recently, but they are super things.

[walpurgis]

I love my Pioneer MiniDisc recorder. Don't do a lot of recording these days, bit it's there when I need it. Superb sound quality. If I make a recording via my Meridian 507 CD player and Monarchy Audio DAC, the MD results are more or less indistinguishable from the original. Fantastic!

I sold all my cassette gear as soon as I found out how good MD was.

The Sharp MD MT80 and MD MT88 personal units are excellent too.

[Us-&-Them]

OK thanks guys. I dont know too much about this format and I did a quick search on here but it didn't bring any results ???? I thought I'd ask and see what came back. I cant complain for what I paid really :eyebrows: but I sort of took a chance considering the price. I look forward to any other comments and/or info on this format.

Cheers.

[surv1v0r]

I have Sony and Aiwa portable MiniDisk players and shedloads of disks sitting unused on a shelf; I haven't used them for years.

Why on earth would anyone want a MiniDisk player/recorder in a domestic environment - at ANY price?

[walpurgis]

Why not?

They work well for the intended purpose.

[agk]

I had a Sony one in use as a dac for a brief period and it was bloody good.

[Yomanze]

I loved Minidisc, was such a great format.

It should have replaced the floppy disk as the ideal portable computer storage. Smaller than CD-ROM, more durable...

[Gordon Steadman]

I enjoyed mine whilst I had it. I thought it sounded pretty good and it was certainly rather more convenient than the cassette as a medium. In ultimate fidelity terms I still preferred cassette but that's another argument and it needed a top notch machine to do cassette justice whereas the Sony minidisc machine was cheapish.

The Mac has taken over the role of recorder these days for me (external DAC and drive) so I don't really miss either cassette or minidisc.

[Rothchild]

Minidisk is already probably more niche than R2R.

It's not (IMO) a hifi source as it uses a lossy codec (ATRAC) - I'm sure there are great machines and it was a mighty fine replacement for cassette when it came out but I think the digital bus rolled past too quickly for it to gain any real longevity (it was very well used by radio stations though as I understand it as it was non-linear and a good replacement for a 'cart wall' for jingles and the like).