Almost every single UK HiFi 'journalist' disparaged this wonderfully versatile recording format back in the day. There has never been a better sounding format for compiling your own 'mix tapes'.
I never disparaged it, I actually bought my MDS-JA555ES review sample from Sony! But I agree that it wasn't a good look for a hi-fi hack to support MiniDisc, back in the day. And yes, they're brilliant for compilations, recording off air, off TH-cam, transcribing old tapes and cassettes, etc. Still really handy, even today, if you've got a lot of legacy media.
@@MrVinylista An excellent point! There are a lot of benefits to using MD. You can buy preowned discs, erase them and reuse them without any quality loss or compatibility concerns. Also, home decks, particularly Sony ones, had a magnificent user interface, both powerful and elegant, obviously drawing inspiration from the professional segment. I wouldn't have let that -555ES out of my hands either!
What did you both think about the quality of original artist record shop brought MiniDisc do you think they sounded better than a CD equivalent and in comparison to the same album recorded onto a black MiniDisc even a jvc pro MiniDisc
I still love MD. It's a shame the British hifi media didn't want to promote it. Still looks futuristic to me and am patiently waiting for its return. 😊😂
I used to buy HiFi for a retailer and on one of the Sony "Jan Trips" I got talking to one of their product managers, Atrac was apparently not only designed to sound good and give MP3 a run for it's money, but they also designed to codec to be efficient from a battery use perspective. MD was the perfect portable format, really tough, great sound and very small. In my grumpy old man opinion Sony were their worst enemy by not making it easier and cheaper for manufacturers to licence the technology, more brands would have made it more widespread (and cheaper). And, they didn't do a mark 2 (HI-MD) until it was too late, Apple had already launched the iPod so the writing was on the wall. Sony didn't think that anyone would buy an expensive portable player with a delicate HDD in it..... and as they say, the rest is history.
Ditto. I have sold a deck a few years ago that was in the fire, it basically just needs some caps as there's a recording issue (one channel is out). Otherwise still works to this day. I have had a USB drive fail after a few months, which was looked after very carefully. It just quit on me😢
Man, I had that same MZ-R55 player as my first MD player. I loved it and recorded a lot of MDs using my PlayStation as the source for music recording from the component output on the back. I remember buying MDs knowing that it doesn't matter if it never catches on. My music is what I want to record and not something that the music industry decides for me. It makes it a lot more personal like the Mix tapes people used to make, but it is digital and didn't wear out or get chewed up by the player. Truly a great medium!
Thoroughly entertaining Riff, chaps: thank you. I still have my Technics SJ-MD100 Minidisc Deck hooked up to my second system and use it to record entire Radio 3 concerts in its Long Play mode. Loved the MD format back in the day and still do.
Whether these two knock the figures from the top of their heads, or they do homework before, they get the details spot on. Always a pleasure watching this channel. It's edutainment. Love from Bangladesh.
Hi boys Love watching and all the chat. Used to have Sony minidisc and I do miss it. Wanted to ask you Years ago you talked about having a riff on David’s Sony Amp TA-F 70 which he had in his kitchen ? Another great Sony amp which I had but gave up the gost. Keep up the good work
Thanks for the info Yes I found it to be a one of the best sounding amps that I have ever had great dynamics and high power delivery Also good quality construction Thanks again for all the great shows
Being entrusted with the responsibility of holding David’s TDK XA Pro 74 was an honour of such magnitude, eclipsed only by the sheer colossal bulk of Mike’s Tascam MD-801R (though I suspect the TDK may actually weigh more) 😀
Ah, thanks for this! I was trying to talk about those just the other day and couldn't even remember what they were called. I was describing them as floppy disc with a laser disc inside lol. Not a single soul knew what I was talking about. Had a Sony Minidisc small player like that walkman you showed and that came as part of a deal. But I never had a single mini disc to play with it. I don't even remember them being available in record stores around here, just 7 or 8 choices in hifi stores that carried the players.
Ok hear me out here.. what if we take a minidisc deck, open it up, and replace the laser with a Blu-ray laser! Then update the dac to handle HD audio formats! A regular bluray cd can hold 25gb in a single layer.. if shrunken down to the MD size it would still have a capacity of around 5gb in a single layer.. thats enough for a full album in HD PCM or DSD
What did you both think about the quality of original artist record shop brought MiniDisc do you think they sounded better than a CD equivalent and in comparison to the same album recorded onto a black MiniDisc
Great video as always and a great pair of machines, however, I have to question it's validity next to CD. A good idea but it was always doomed for failure as you can only have so many formats. As for beer, try Triple Karmeliet! 👍
MiniDisc wasn't a failure though, it was fairly successful in the UK in the late 90's and was a success in Asia (esp. Japan.) It only really failed in the US. Sony also developed "Hi-MD" capable of storing 1GB and fully uncompressed CD quality PCM audio
@@davidp3096 That's the case with one of them the other one has a bad screen and a loading issue (that one was sent back to me not repaired due to lack of parts). I will have to pull them from the closet and get the full model numbers.
Bad screen is a tough as u will need a donor deck. As for loading issue, did u do the micro switch fix? The 1st one can be belts or same switch, sad fate for them tho. If I were near u I glad would have at least attempted to repair them😢😢
I love my pioneer MD player the D707 I discovered alot of music through that device, friends would record there CD's for me and vis versa, we would share/trade MD's around like they where Pokemon card's at high school. I think if it was more of a success Hi MD may have actually replaced CD and was probably the intent of that iteration. Imagine an unfolding protocol like MQA packaged onto future discs and hardware or simply even denser dual layer discs.
You forgot about the short lived “elcaset” guys! The “mix tape” reveal certainly brings a whole new insight into your early relationship🤣🤣, I guess I was one of three (as opposed to seven of nine)!
I got a Sharp MT-81 portable in an Argos sale, and was an instant convert - more so than with CD. My favourite though, was a Sharp MT-DR7. A 1 Bit item and really solid construction. After that was the Sony MZ-R55. I remember DP's reviews of Sony personals in Hi-Fi World.
That has to be the most wonderfully meandering waffle-Riff yet! Love it! I have a Yamaha MDX9 recorder - picked it up in a charity shop for £20 15 years ago or more. I've really loved it although I currently don't have space for it in my setup. Of course, I rushed to check out the age and discovered on 'MiniDisc Wiki' (😅) that it's a 1997 model using 'ATRAC Sharp 7' gubbins. IMHO it makes great recordings from vinyl played back through an external DAC and is very sweet indeed to operate. Must make space and hook it up again. Cheers!
Thanks for the trip down memory lane, gents. I still have my full size MD player, plus a rather smart MZ-R55 in gold. Haven't used them for years. I originally bought the full size one to master stuff onto from my Portastudio (remember those?). At the time, it was much better than my cassette player. I'll have to dig them out and have a listen.
Ooh! You swines! I saw that Tascam, searched, found and ordered one! Then looked a bit further and realised that like my Sony MDS JB930QS it hasn't got MDLP modes. So once it replaces the Sony (if it sounds as good or better) I will still need the more humble JE480 to play the many LP2 mode discs I have. Anyway, it certainly looks the part and I can't wait for it to arrive! Nice show, I enjoyed that but really would like to see the machines in action as well as the discussions.
I haven't even started watching this Riff, but knowing your enthusiasm for acronyms, I can tell you that ATRAC stanfds for adaptive transform acoustic coding. There you go, Riffers, put that in your pint and swallow it.
Mini Disc was a great format have you guys been watching Simon at real ale craft beer channel he's always exposing the beer companies for rebranding beers to make them look like drinks from other countries so the can charge us more money for sub-standard drinks
Ok, so last time you went down to the pub before recording and @MrVinylista lamented they were not there “long enough”. This time it’s apparent that to right a wrong the guys returned and then… never left!!
Absolutely a tip top hi-fi rift going back memory lane in 1999 i purchased my last MiniDisc player/Recorder the Sony (MZ-R50/S) with clip on AA battery pack which cost me £199.99 It sounded fantastic and I sold it in 2001 to a band who were going to record their songs and send MiniDisc demo discs to record companies 😀 I also owed the poor cousin to mikes beast of a full size unit i had as part of an excellent mini hi-fi system my 2nd system a TEAC 500i system and the MiniDisc Recorder/Player was the TEAC MD-H500i what a machine, 😂😊 amazing quality back in the day, many thanks to you both for a highly enjoyable rift and I'm looking forward to your Christmas 2024 special show or shows and finally dave is pronounced SO- KNEE 😂😂😂
They got better as they progressed. 1992 to 1995 was rubbish, 1996 to 1998 pretty good, 1999 to 2005 great - for a compressed format. The later the ATRAC, the better.
well I didn't get a reply to my last comment on your last show disappointed why is that😮 come on guys it's Christmas a bit of entertainment for us poor mortals, see some of your hidden talents you might not know.
Can't go wrong with MD for mastering CD compilations. The editing is so good!!!
@@domfjbrown75 agreed. I play a "game" with mine: try to label a track with the title & artist before the track ends 🤭
Almost every single UK HiFi 'journalist' disparaged this wonderfully versatile recording format back in the day.
There has never been a better sounding format for compiling your own 'mix tapes'.
I never disparaged it, I actually bought my MDS-JA555ES review sample from Sony! But I agree that it wasn't a good look for a hi-fi hack to support MiniDisc, back in the day. And yes, they're brilliant for compilations, recording off air, off TH-cam, transcribing old tapes and cassettes, etc. Still really handy, even today, if you've got a lot of legacy media.
@@MrVinylista An excellent point! There are a lot of benefits to using MD. You can buy preowned discs, erase them and reuse them without any quality loss or compatibility concerns. Also, home decks, particularly Sony ones, had a magnificent user interface, both powerful and elegant, obviously drawing inspiration from the professional segment. I wouldn't have let that -555ES out of my hands either!
Sony did bring out towards the end of the MiniDisc lifespan a Sony premium 80min blank discs
What did you both think about the quality of original artist record shop brought MiniDisc do you think they sounded better than a CD equivalent and in comparison to the same album recorded onto a black MiniDisc even a jvc pro MiniDisc
Surely CD-R sounds better?
I still love MD. It's a shame the British hifi media didn't want to promote it.
Still looks futuristic to me and am patiently waiting for its return. 😊😂
Because they're all divs lol
I used to buy HiFi for a retailer and on one of the Sony "Jan Trips" I got talking to one of their product managers, Atrac was apparently not only designed to sound good and give MP3 a run for it's money, but they also designed to codec to be efficient from a battery use perspective. MD was the perfect portable format, really tough, great sound and very small. In my grumpy old man opinion Sony were their worst enemy by not making it easier and cheaper for manufacturers to licence the technology, more brands would have made it more widespread (and cheaper). And, they didn't do a mark 2 (HI-MD) until it was too late, Apple had already launched the iPod so the writing was on the wall. Sony didn't think that anyone would buy an expensive portable player with a delicate HDD in it..... and as they say, the rest is history.
WAS NOT, NEVER WAS AND IS NOT A FAILURE! I STILL USE MINIDISC TO THIS DAY.
Me too.
No need to shout.
Ditto. I have sold a deck a few years ago that was in the fire, it basically just needs some caps as there's a recording issue (one channel is out). Otherwise still works to this day. I have had a USB drive fail after a few months, which was looked after very carefully. It just quit on me😢
I own a Pioneer MJ-D707 minidisk deck. It's totally awesome.
If we’re asking for specials……….. : would love to see Mike’s Isobariks Saras and associated mountain of Exposure in a bit more detail
Exposure rather than Naim? Awesome kit on both counts!
Yes - The MZR-55!!! I had to have mine surgically removed from my ears as I always had it on. Still have it - in the box. Lovely piece of kit!!!
Amazing, I can never hv anything on or in my ears for long periods 😢
Man, I had that same MZ-R55 player as my first MD player. I loved it and recorded a lot of MDs using my PlayStation as the source for music recording from the component output on the back. I remember buying MDs knowing that it doesn't matter if it never catches on. My music is what I want to record and not something that the music industry decides for me. It makes it a lot more personal like the Mix tapes people used to make, but it is digital and didn't wear out or get chewed up by the player. Truly a great medium!
I'm one of the three......who made it to the end! Good stuff as always guys.
number 2 here !
Thoroughly entertaining Riff, chaps: thank you. I still have my Technics SJ-MD100 Minidisc Deck hooked up to my second system and use it to record entire Radio 3 concerts in its Long Play mode. Loved the MD format back in the day and still do.
Sony did bring out towards the end of the MiniDisc lifespan a Sony premium 80min blank disc
Whether these two knock the figures from the top of their heads, or they do homework before, they get the details spot on. Always a pleasure watching this channel. It's edutainment. Love from Bangladesh.
Sharp had their own attrac which for me was far better soundwise than Sony
Sharp MD R2H player is fabulous
Mike's Tascam... I want one! That Rush Special is long overdue🧐Great riff, as ever.
Do I win a prize for watching the whole thing? And I didn’t even have a beer.
Hi boys
Love watching and all the chat.
Used to have Sony minidisc and I do miss it.
Wanted to ask you
Years ago you talked about having a riff on David’s Sony Amp TA-F 70 which he had in his kitchen ?
Another great Sony amp which I had but gave up the gost.
Keep up the good work
Yes, the TA-F70 is on our to do list. I think it's one of the best Sony integrateds ever - and almost completely unknown in the UK. Coming soon...
Thanks for the info
Yes I found it to be a one of the best sounding amps that I have ever had great dynamics and high power delivery
Also good quality construction
Thanks again for all the great shows
Being entrusted with the responsibility of holding David’s TDK XA Pro 74 was an honour of such magnitude, eclipsed only by the sheer colossal bulk of Mike’s Tascam MD-801R (though I suspect the TDK may actually weigh more) 😀
Thank you Jes. As a great philosopher once wrote, "there are people who you'd entrust a TDK MD-RXG XA Pro with, and people you wouldn't..."
@@MrVinylista LOLs!!
Dave and mike yous are the the most Hifi people I’ve ever seen 😊 class
I wouldn't give Black Label to my worst enemy, World's worst beer. In fact it's not beer, it's swill.
Ah, thanks for this! I was trying to talk about those just the other day and couldn't even remember what they were called. I was describing them as floppy disc with a laser disc inside lol. Not a single soul knew what I was talking about. Had a Sony Minidisc small player like that walkman you showed and that came as part of a deal. But I never had a single mini disc to play with it. I don't even remember them being available in record stores around here, just 7 or 8 choices in hifi stores that carried the players.
Ok hear me out here.. what if we take a minidisc deck, open it up, and replace the laser with a Blu-ray laser! Then update the dac to handle HD audio formats! A regular bluray cd can hold 25gb in a single layer.. if shrunken down to the MD size it would still have a capacity of around 5gb in a single layer.. thats enough for a full album in HD PCM or DSD
What did you both think about the quality of original artist record shop brought MiniDisc do you think they sounded better than a CD equivalent and in comparison to the same album recorded onto a black MiniDisc
Great video as always and a great pair of machines, however, I have to question it's validity next to CD. A good idea but it was always doomed for failure as you can only have so many formats. As for beer, try Triple Karmeliet! 👍
MiniDisc wasn't a failure though, it was fairly successful in the UK in the late 90's and was a success in Asia (esp. Japan.) It only really failed in the US.
Sony also developed "Hi-MD" capable of storing 1GB and fully uncompressed CD quality PCM audio
@@mrglasses8953 correct. I was looking for a comment of this sorts. Thanks
Sadly both my Minidisc decks have given up the ghost so I moved on. Maybe someday I will attempt to repair them.
If yours are not loading or ejecting discs then I can help
@@davidp3096 That's the case with one of them the other one has a bad screen and a loading issue (that one was sent back to me not repaired due to lack of parts). I will have to pull them from the closet and get the full model numbers.
Bad screen is a tough as u will need a donor deck. As for loading issue, did u do the micro switch fix?
The 1st one can be belts or same switch, sad fate for them tho. If I were near u I glad would have at least attempted to repair them😢😢
I love my pioneer MD player the D707 I discovered alot of music through that device, friends would record there CD's for me and vis versa, we would share/trade MD's around like they where Pokemon card's at high school. I think if it was more of a success Hi MD may have actually replaced CD and was probably the intent of that iteration. Imagine an unfolding protocol like MQA packaged onto future discs and hardware or simply even denser dual layer discs.
Bring back the MD. Love it.
A thoroughly entertaining riff! I remember seeing a mini disc once and thinking, “what’s that, when did they come out?”. Now I know!
You forgot about the short lived “elcaset” guys! The “mix tape” reveal certainly brings a whole new insight into your early relationship🤣🤣, I guess I was one of three (as opposed to seven of nine)!
mini blueray disc will be amazing sir
Throughly enjoyed this Riff as usual gents.
I got a Sharp MT-81 portable in an Argos sale, and was an instant convert - more so than with CD. My favourite though, was a Sharp MT-DR7. A 1 Bit item and really solid construction. After that was the Sony MZ-R55. I remember DP's reviews of Sony personals in Hi-Fi World.
Don’t forget hiMD had around 1Gb of storage so could make cd quality recordings.
That has to be the most wonderfully meandering waffle-Riff yet! Love it!
I have a Yamaha MDX9 recorder - picked it up in a charity shop for £20 15 years ago or more. I've really loved it although I currently don't have space for it in my setup. Of course, I rushed to check out the age and discovered on 'MiniDisc Wiki' (😅) that it's a 1997 model using 'ATRAC Sharp 7' gubbins.
IMHO it makes great recordings from vinyl played back through an external DAC and is very sweet indeed to operate. Must make space and hook it up again. Cheers!
Thanks for the trip down memory lane, gents. I still have my full size MD player, plus a rather smart MZ-R55 in gold. Haven't used them for years. I originally bought the full size one to master stuff onto from my Portastudio (remember those?). At the time, it was much better than my cassette player. I'll have to dig them out and have a listen.
Does the Tascam have the horrible SCMS?
Yes, but you can switch it off via the menu.
@@MrVinylista cool
Silly buggers you owe me half an hour 😂
Ooh! You swines! I saw that Tascam, searched, found and ordered one! Then looked a bit further and realised that like my Sony MDS JB930QS it hasn't got MDLP modes. So once it replaces the Sony (if it sounds as good or better) I will still need the more humble JE480 to play the many LP2 mode discs I have. Anyway, it certainly looks the part and I can't wait for it to arrive! Nice show, I enjoyed that but really would like to see the machines in action as well as the discussions.
Afternoon gents👍
How many cars (Volvos?) does David own? I'm not from Swindon and I like XTC!😊
Watched a second time. This episode is superb.
I haven't even started watching this Riff, but knowing your enthusiasm for acronyms, I can tell you that ATRAC stanfds for adaptive transform acoustic coding.
There you go, Riffers, put that in your pint and swallow it.
Mini Disc was a great format have you guys been watching Simon at real ale craft beer channel he's always exposing the beer companies for rebranding beers to make them look like drinks from other countries so the can charge us more money for sub-standard drinks
Ok, so last time you went down to the pub before recording and @MrVinylista lamented they were not there “long enough”. This time it’s apparent that to right a wrong the guys returned and then… never left!!
I recently listed a load of used minidiscs on the bay. I feel somewhat guilty. Am I redeemed for watching to the end?
Yes, all is forgiven!
As far as I am aware, Minidisc is Magneto Optical media 😊
I hope you do not consider it bad manners if I pop a question: Is the TASCAM case able to support a Sugden A21SE on top of it?
I'll tell you one thing: Don't put anything on top of a lightweight MDS JB 470 - the mechanism will hunt!
Easily. You could probably sit on it and use it as a chair!
Bush first thing in mind alt rock and razorble suitcase
Suuper …who‘s the BIGGER one …😂❤️
Nice quick turnaround😂now whens thexmas edition
Xmas day.
Absolutely a tip top hi-fi rift going back memory lane in 1999 i purchased my last MiniDisc player/Recorder the Sony (MZ-R50/S) with clip on AA battery pack which cost me £199.99 It sounded fantastic and I sold it in 2001 to a band who were going to record their songs and send MiniDisc demo discs to record companies 😀 I also owed the poor cousin to mikes beast of a full size unit i had as part of an excellent mini hi-fi system my 2nd system a TEAC 500i system and the MiniDisc Recorder/Player was the TEAC MD-H500i what a machine, 😂😊 amazing quality back in the day, many thanks to you both for a highly enjoyable rift and I'm looking forward to your Christmas 2024 special show or shows and finally dave is pronounced SO- KNEE 😂😂😂
I'm one of the last 3 viewers , I'm s sad :D
Mike was 'Biden' his time, before he made his Trump joke! 😉 Thoroughly enjoyed that, Gents...thank you👍
I wasn't a big fan of the Sony MD sound and found the Technics machines (SJ MD100 and SJ MD150) smoother and more like a good analogue tape recording.
They got better as they progressed. 1992 to 1995 was rubbish, 1996 to 1998 pretty good, 1999 to 2005 great - for a compressed format. The later the ATRAC, the better.
I really like dat.
well I didn't get a reply to my last comment on your last show disappointed why is that😮 come on guys it's Christmas a bit of entertainment for us poor mortals, see some of your hidden talents you might not know.
So sorry about that... I'll have a search through now and see if I can find it.
Mike
@Hi-FiRiff ok Mike! I wonder if it didn't show up a lot of my comments don't seem to not show up for no reason.
Fire Mike. He's horrible.
unsubscribe
I admired MiniDisc from SONY and still. 💎🫡🇯🇵👹