Lieven’s thoughts on Minidisc
When Nathan told me he was planning on doing a series on Old School audio devices, it didn’t come to me at all he was going to write about the (in)famous Minidisc system Sony developed in the early 90s. Being born in the seventies, I spent most of my teen years in the nineties. In my opinion, your musical style and preference are determined in your teen years. To make a long story short when Nathan said he was going to write about the Minidisc, he actually reminded me I actually owned one all these years ago.
When I finally found my MD-player in the attic (thanks to my lovely girlfriend) it turned out to be the good old Sony MZ-R70 recorder. With it were a whole bunch of Minidiscs, some of them even unopened. I have to admit I got as happy as a little kid getting candy for the first time. Ten minutes later, that all changed. It turned out the rechargeable battery had leaked all over. Mea Culpa.
Aesthetically speaking, the player looked like almost new. Sure, there were some scratches, but after cleaning it up, it looked just fine. I combed the battery compartment for leakage and then dropped a brand new AA battery into the external battery compartment and was greeted by the familiar kzzz zz zzzzzz, kzzz zz zzzzzz.
It was alive!
And all the memories flooded back. If you ever owned a Minidisc player you will never forget the turning sound those MDs made. Oh yes kids, back in the days our digital players made noise! And one AA battery gave you 17 hours of musical pleasure from a device that actually fit in your pocket. No looking like Spinal Tap at the airport.
My MD-player was now working again but what were all those buttons and connections for again? One MIC in, one optical Line in, two 3.5mm headphone jacks and a whole bunch more for menu items, track marks, recording- and that was just the top.
Here’s a guilty admission: after all these years I had no longer had a clue how to work one of these devices. Thankfully, the manual was still in the box. It’s actually pretty spectacular what Minidiscs could do back in the days. In general they had excellent DAC sections because the technology back then was still too expensive to develop great amp stages. Lots of MDs were actually used to as recording devices at concerts and a lot of bootlegs from those days were recorded on Minidiscs. (Nathan will talk more on the success and failure of the Minidisc system so I won’t go into any detail about this.)
My Sony MD apparently wasn’t the best player on the market but it did have 40 seconds of memory so you would never hear bleeps whilst walking. It also had a cabled remote control and I remember the more expensive units even had screens in their remote units. Count me among the jealous of the day. But I just couldn’t afford those versions. One of the good thing about the remote was that it allowed connecting a different headphone to it so you could always keep using your remote. I put in the MD that said “Last compilation” and was greeted with Linkin Park’s “In the End”. I guess the last time I used the MZR70 was around 2000.
I don’t think my MD-player was equipped to copy the song titles. That meant titling them manually. It seems that I was lazy, though; lots of my disks have no track names on them at all. Also, I noticed that I had the MEGA BASS set to maximum. Maximum bass? Oh yes, I always loved my bass but I have to say that the extra bass setting here sounds like many new/actual DAPs with the EQ set to zero and bass boost off, I guess people over the years learned to love bass more and more.
The original 15 year old earbuds were still working and I before I put them into my ears I was afraid of the sound quality they were going to unleash to my spoiled eardrums. But hello! There are a lot of modern technology earbuds and IEMs on the market now I wouldn’t even rate as good sounding as these standard Sony earphones.
Well, it was time to test the recording capabilities. I put in a blank disk and hooked it up to the Line Out of my AK240 and recorded Michael Jackson and Pink Floyd. The source files? DSD, of course. The process involved playing back the source material and recording the analogue output wave in real time. It’s a pretty time-consuming process.
A lot of people nowadays are still using Minidiscs and most of them do it because of the DAC units inside. The Sony automatically recognises a new song and inserts track marks. So, how did my DSD files make the transition from digital to analogue to digital? Suffice it to say that I wasn’t disappointed. On the contrary, the sound was great: linear with a slightly elevated bass (see above). Mids were musical and there was with heaps and nice, sparkling treble.
If all the review samples I received sounded like this I would be a very happy guy. I’m kidding, I’m quite happy as it is thank you, but I’m just trying to say that the SQ of this 15 year old device beats a lot of players out there. Sony did that good of a job and I’m lucky to own one of these classic units. I actually saw new old stock versions of my exact unit being offered online for over $500 USD. (Back in the day, the MZR70 sold for around $250 USD.)
So should we all go back to Minidiscs and forget about our expensive Hi-Fi Digital Audio players? I would say “yes” if you need something small and good to do recordings. And, of course, you have to still be living in the past. I would say “no” if you just use it to listen to music. Making a disk is extremely time consuming. And it takes a lot of time to get everything right. What it does right is good sound quality.
Preparing for this article was a trip down memory lane. It was fun. But I don’t think you’ll find me leaving the house with the MD-Player instead of my AK240 or Cypher Labs rig. But if I saw you with one, know that you have my respect and understanding.
Before you ask, no, I am not selling you my awesome MD-Player. This one will stick with me for as long as I live, or longer. Sorry.
Dave Ulrich
I never did the MD thing, so this was an interesting history lesson for me. By the by, can you give a sneak peek on the DX90? I saw that it uses the same chip as the Concero HD and got excited.
ohm image
MD was huge where I used to live: Sweden, and as big or bigger in Japan. When I went back to Canada, almost no one had it. Getting service (as you would need it eventually) was difficult, but staying the course was what I did.
It was a matter of pride.
Dave Ulrich
DX90?
ohm image
Will be reviewing that in a few weeks. Till then, stay on topic 😉
(It’s pretty good, btw.)
It’s output is at least as good as the AK240 (http://ohm-image.net/opinion/audiophile/rmaa-summary-ak240-dx90-md-dr7-ipod-shuffle) but output quality isn’t everything.
Dave Ulrich
I was thinking about going for that review. You beat me to it.
I remember when MD was a thing here in the US… for a few months maybe. A few were heralding it as the replacement to CDs, but most people just weren’t having it. I remember some albums came out for it. I might have had a friend who had one.
Staying the course for pride. Sounds like the people who refused to abandon laser-discs in favor of DVD.
ohm image
Dave VS Nathan DX90 review, I can see it coming. I’m obliged.
I lived in the USA when I first heard about MD. I was twelve or something. We moved to Canada when I was fifteen and I had forgotten all about it. Then I went back to Sweden for a bit and bought my first unit. I was a changed man- at least until I discovered that he iPod wasn’t as bad as all the MD people were saying it was.
The next thing to change me is the Mezzo Hifi modification of the AK100. (Oh, and we’ll get that bad boy up, too.)
Dave Ulrich
Naw that’s ok. At this point, I am stoked to read your review.
kris
I had myriad of MP3 players from back in the days, i never looked at MD because as much as i like them they were to expensive for me to buy, but those desires to own one sticks with me.
I always thought they as an older generation technology, would sound worse than the newer more technically advanced specification.
But oh boy was i surprised, i had my first HiMD units its MZ RH910 and i used sonic stage to transfer my MP3s to that thing…
pairing it with my old AKG 242HD, after just few minutes of head scratching in disbelief… enough to say that i put my brand new Sony NWA-45 along with my Cowon D2 back to the display box i have made for them… its not they sounded inferior or anything, but i just fell in love with the sound characteristic that MD unit delivers.
and soon enough over the span of 1 year i own 7 units of player & recorder and 2 desktop units. i noticed each have their own color and character in sound… some i like more than the others.
My friends calls em poison…
ohm image
Thanks for the comment, Kris. One thing very few, to no MD players aimed for was linear or neutral sound character. Many had slow roll offs up top to keep tizzy out of the treble, and about 75-90% of portable MD players bump up bass by at least 2dB, as much as 4dB, probably to offset the sound of earphones, which were horrible back when MD debuted. For this reason, there is an incredible idiosyncratic stage to deal with and players with sounds ranging from smooth, to ones with almost no stereo separation at all. For people that don’t care about ultimate fidelity, I think MD has a LOT to offer. I’m in that camp as a listener, but as a reviewer, I have a lot of problems with my position.
George Lai
Like Dave, I never did the MD thing, nor in fact the DAT thing. Somehow the recordable formats for me jumped from cassette to CD-R.
ohm image
I started with DAT, did DCC, and ended up with MD. It was smaller, less prone to stretch errors, and the disks were indestructable. Totally worth it.
ohm image
BTW, George, the MD-DR7 had a balanced headphone output. I need to add that to the review. It was the first mass-produced portable to do balanced. All Sharp ‘Auvi’ players came with re-badged, balanced Sennheiser MX300 earphones. Awesome.
George Lai
That’s interesting to know. Mind you, I’m not sure my ears are even balanced 😉
ohm image
That’s right, your ears are magnum…
spencer_chan
Man I remember saving like crazy as kid to buy my mzr55.
I went digging for it at my parents house and never did find it….
ohm image
You had the MZR55? I had the MZR37, which looked like a 1970’s deck. They shared the same internal hardware.
spencer_chan
Oh Jesus I found my mzr55!
Now to find the power charger and the gumstick battery or the external pack….
ohm image
Time to MD party. I had the MZ-R37, which internally was the same as the 55, but had noticeably worse sound in a few areas, though was a bit more dynamic in stereo separation.
Peter Janušič
This was my first MD player which was also a recorder with digital output:
https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7059/7154371090_eafcb5e1bc_z.jpg
Unfortunately my sister threw it aways about 10 years ago. So much for lending audio devices to women…
I later got the slimmest MD player in the world, a Panasonic player, of which model name I can’t remember. It was just slightly bigger than the MD itself with optional external battery.
Had some good nineties rap music on dozens of MDs and dance music as well.
Still have this Original MD.
ohm image
Shucks, that image is awesome. Did you take that?
Peter Janušič
I found it on the web. I don’t think I had a digital camera back then. Mine was the same, cost a fortune.
ohm image
Thanks. I don’t think this was taken with a digital camera. The lighting and processing screams 90’s LF.
Peter Janušič
So hard to put images to this site, it boggles my mind on how to do it.
There should be another image in this post which I cannot see….
Edit: after edit its there now…
ohm image
It’s been yonks since I’ve seen one of htese pre-recorded MDs. I had Simon & Garfunkel: Bridge Over Troubled Water.
Newob86
There was so much promise in the MD system back in 90s and early 00s. It was small and packed with high sound quality (at that time). However, as the competition famed out from MP3, MD fell just in couple of years. I own about 4 MD players include the last Hi-MD model from Sony. As a MD lover I am, I could say MD brought me more excitement than any other portable audio players I have ever owned. I cannot agree more with all the disadvantages this platform has in your review. But back in that time, MD is just simply fun to me. I won’t forget that kind of enjoyment that I had the first time I listen to this level of sound from a gadget inside the pocket of my chino pans. Thanks you guys for bringing back all those good memories.
ohm image
Not to mention that recording an MD in real time, titling it, and then listening got you closer to your music than ever. Today we download and may listen to our music. But back then, we knew our music inside and out, even which title letters were capitalised or not.
Newob86
Agreed, it was a lot effort to keep all the tracks in all the MD disks to be correct. Hell lots of works to manage tracks back then. But as you indicated, this is how MD made us attached to those music.
ohm image
I used to know every word of every song I listened to. It just took so long to do everything that I was so passionate about knowing my music.
heatofamatch
I was heavily involved in MD (and minidisc.org etc) at the time. Now I look back and it’s all just a heavily romanticized dream. Even for nostalgia’s sake, cassette portables beat MD hands down.
ohm image
So, we’re brothers. I wasn’t an active poster at minidisc.org, but I spend hours poring over new information, comparing battery life, hoping one unit (that I was about to purchase) sounded better than another. Back in those days, we didn’t have knowledgeable websites or reviewers to compare and give feedback, which is a shame.
Anthony O'Brien
I have a Sony MZR35 and a JE440 deck hooked to my hifi. I like to occasionally play around with MD. I also still own a perfect Sony WM DC-2 cassette Walkman which I still use. Sad eh!
L.
not sad, cool 😉
ohm image
MZR35 was a great recording deck, bested in build quality only by the MZR50 (expensive now), but not in sound quality. Hold onto that bad boy.
SallyMaeSusan
Great article.
I never had a MD player but this was very enjoyable.
The Sony Walkman (original) was my first portable and I loved it. Now, I have a Classic 160 and an iPhone and I love the musical performance of these devices – almost everything in ALAC and with Ety’s and Shures to listen with.
I won’t, however, be jumping onto the ‘hi-res’ bandwagon; the all pervasive smell of snake-oil and my old ears won’t allow it. My God, we live in a wonderful technological age!
L.
Thanks!
Back Row
One very important thing people seem to forget about; when the battery went dead in your MD portable you could just change it and more often than not it was a common AA cell or two. Let’s see you try that with an MP3 player.
I bought the first generation iPod Nano and returned it within 5 minutes.
“Where’s the battery?” I asked only to be told that it didn’t have one. Not wanting to have an expensive paperweight after it would no longer hold a charge, I got my money back.
L.
So very true
BaasTurbo
I still have my MZ-R90! Oh, the memories! I even bought an MD car headunit when I turned 18 – it was perfect. I could carry dozens of cartridges in the car without the worry of scratching or warping them, nobody could steal my (back then €20 a pop) CD collection and it sounded way better than cassette.
Thank you for making me feel old!
ohm image
The MZ-R90! That was quite late in the MD game. Sony was killing it by then. I was a little ahead of you in years, but lacked a car. Still do.
DeepGroove
Lieven, I am listening to my MZ-R70 right now with the Spiral Ears SE-5. Thought it does not have the accuracy and detail of my AK240, it sounds much more analog and sweet. I enjoy using it and miss sound like that.
ohm image
It was a fun system for sure.
roxics
My only regret when it comes to MD, is that I didn’t stick with the format longer. I bought my first portable player/recorder in 1999 and since I was both a young adult and a truck driver at the time, it was a great way to take downloaded MP3s with me on the road and do some voice memos while driving.
I loved it, but it was quickly overshadowed by CD-Rs and then iPods. So I missed out on those later 80 minutes designer discs which sell now for over $5 a pop on ebay. Plus all those smaller colorful players with USB connections and HI-MD ability.
Wish I would have stocked up on this stuff when it was still readily available at local stores. But I didn’t get back into MD until the after the format was discontinued and the prices of everything went up.
The unfortunate thing about MD is that it came too late. It didn’t hit its price/performance stride until the early 2000s when no one cared anymore. Had it been introduced in 1985 and hit its stride in 1995, I think it would have been a major hit here in the US. The format really should have been the mixtape of the 1990s. In an alternate reality where it had hit its stride mid 90s, I could imagine teenagers passing MDs around to friends and girlfriends and indie grunge bands doing garage recordings on them to sell at local shows. Car decks with them that didn’t skip like crazy like those early CD decks.
But in our reality, in 1995, portable player/recorders were way too expensive for most high school kids or people in general. Nobody wanted to buy just a player because most people had already started collecting prerecorded music on CD at that point. Plus if I remember right, prerecorded MDs were a little more expensive than CDs and they didn’t sound as good. So if you were already collecting CDs, why bother? Unless you could do your own recordings, but again that was too expensive still.
That missed opportunity for the format is really sad in my opinion.
paul packer
Well said. Minidisc is the format that should have taken over the audio world but somehow just missed the boat. I still have 2 full sized decks and several dozen recorded discs, and I intend to keep the format going as long as I can. It’s hard to think of another format more worthy that hit such a brick wall of indifference, but as you suggest it was the manufacturer’s fault with both pricing and timing. However, since we seem to be going back to the future with vinyl, maybe there’s a chance for Minidisc yet.
kris
I had myriad of MP3 players from back in the days, i never looked at MD because as much as i like them they were to expensive for me to buy, but those desires to own one sticks with me.
I always thought they as an older generation technology, would sound worse than the newer more technically advanced specification.
But oh boy was i surprised, i had my first HiMD units its MZ RH910 and i used sonic stage to transfer my MP3s to that thing…
pairing it with my old AKG 242HD, after just few minutes of head scratching in disbelief… enough to say that i put my brand new Sony NWA-45 along with my Cowon D2 back to the display box i have made for them… its not they sounded inferior or anything, but i just fell in love with the sound characteristic that MD unit delivers.
and soon enough over the span of 1 year i own 7 units of player & recorder and 2 desktop units. i noticed each have their own color and character in sound… some i like more than the others.
My friends calls em poison…
frank
just picked up a mint, boxed mz r35. the thing cost me $100 and in the bottom of the box a radiohead album, and looking it’s worth $250.