Minidisk Recorder - inexpensive solution for TT with beresford

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Mooching on ebay the other day found a guy selling a sony QS range md recorder

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sony-MDS-JB920-Minidisc-Player-Recorder-DAC-Mint_W0QQitemZ220560418691QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_CE _Cassette_RL?hash=item335a6ce783

(there is more info in the contained link to av forums http://www.avforums.com/forums/hi-fi-systems-separates/968523-cheap-dac-50-100-have-you-ever-considered-using-minidisc-deck-dac.html )

he says about it being usfull as an ADC, i seem to remeber stan talking about using an ADC in his set up so he can use his dac as his pre.

obviously £91 isnt exactly pocket change, but i would guess there are other md recorders that would do similar job... and i gave my yamaha away a couple of years back so i would have thought there are ways and means of getting them pretty cheaply

would cd recorders have similar features? if so maybe thats another option?

also, a portable md recorder might make a nice compact solution, and they can be had really cheaply

... this is of course all pointed out with no knowledge of how much adc's cost


........


the other thing that this chap points out that md players also have dacs in them... but how true his claims toquality are i have no idea... any one have any thoughts

[The Vinyl Adventure]

i guess a dat machine could also be used to similar effect

[Rare Bird]

I've recently started using my portable Mini disc on the go again as i find MP-3 sounds shit in comparison..The great thing about Mini-disc is (as you just found out) you can record on the disc in Analogue or Digital.Sony actually make great sounding DAC's..I archived all my bootlegs from tape through MD

If your serious about Mini Disc the Sony JA series machines are beauties

[ReachtheSky]

Hamish,

If all you are after is a good inexpensive ADC I would recommend considering a Behringer SRC2496. It is a DAC, ADC, sample rate converter (up sampler) & switch box all in one! A very handy versatile little box to have about to solve all sorts of unexpected incompatible issues! I have been very happy with the SRC2496 sonics. It would probably cost less new than you are considering for the second hand old equipment.

I temporarily used my SRC2496 as a DAC before I bought Stan’s 7520 pre/dac. I now use Stan’s 7520 as the dac and pre-amp straight into mono-block power amps. And like Stan I now use the SRC2496 in ADC mode from non digital sources into the 7520 pre. I’m very happy with sound from this configuration.

Hope this might help,
Granville

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Cheers Granville
it's not a problem I have my self, but not knowing much about adc's I thought it might be worth pointing out if someone is in the situation I mentioned ...
that behringer thing does indeed look like a very interesting but of kit!

[The Vinyl Adventure]

I've recently started using my portable Mini disc on the go again as i find MP-3 sounds shit in comparison..The great thing about Mini-disc is (as you just found out) you can record on the disc in Analogue or Digital.Sony actually make great sounding DAC's..I archived all my bootlegs from tape through MD

If your serious about Mini Disc the Sony JA series machines are beauties

I'm pretty certain it was dimitri who suggested I switch from mp3 to aac for my portable audio ... That was a fairly sound bit of advice, with my Sony earbuds and iPhone I get a pretty satisfactory sound quality
I have always thought it a shame that mini disk died, I always liked the format.... And the disks were somehow quite cool looking in a geeky way - I think it's the bit a the begining of the matrix that makes me think that ;)

[lovejoy]

I have always thought it a shame that mini disk died, I always liked the format.... And the disks were somehow quite cool looking in a geeky way - I think it's the bit a the begining of the matrix that makes me think that ;)

Agreed, I loved minidisc and I stuck with it for years. Both the Sony 920 and 930 models were marvellous bits of kit. They were built very nicely and sounded great. A bit of a bargain for £250 as they were new. I made some seriously good recordings from vinyl with them too, so the ADC quality is rather good.

I used a couple of the Hi-MD Walkmans too which I thought were a fantastic idea. The 1GB discs would store hours of music and you could reformat all of your existing discs to double the capacity on them AND get higher quality. ATRAC to me was a better format than MP3.

The thing that killed MD for me was SonicStage. Without doubt the worst piece of music management software I've ever used. To anyone who thinks iTunes is bad - you ain't seen nuthin! SonicStage would bring your PC to its knees at a whim. It ran dog slow, any database manipulation would take an age, transfers between PC and minidisc were painful and prone to failing or for some arbitary reason SonicStage would decide that you weren't allowed to transfer certain tracks - oh yes and you were limited to transferring each track 3 times to a minidisc player, so each track had to be 'checked out' and 'checked in' again. Then its crowning glory - loading SonicStage you were on the edge of your chair each time because at random intervals it would just completely hose your database and even kindly remove your music files too if you were really lucky.

Gives me the shivers just thinking about it. I ended up going back to recording things in real time. If SonicStage had ever worked as it should, then I'd have never wanted an iPod.

[Rare Bird]

I use one of these pictured below for on the go now after a long period stuck in the drawer, been a couple years.I paid an absolute fortune for the 900 potable new, was Sony top model back then, all metal construction..Sadly due to the log stay unused the Bubble gum battery won't hold it's charge no more. ten flaming quid for a new battery :steam:

I like to record on the full size machine & just pop the finish product in this & go.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2023/1914066598_729812b326.jpg

[twelvebears]

I once bought a Sony MZ-R30 (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Minidisc2.jpg) which cost rather a lot at the time.

Plus blank 1hr minidiscs were about £7 each back then!