A friend very kindly gave me a box of albums yesterday. When I collected them, he had a big bag of minidiscs and a hifi separates style player which he said I could also have. Thinking there might be some classics hidden on the minidiscs, and knowing he was getting rid anyway I took them.I'm a bit lost what to do with a mini-disc player/recorder. I never bothered when they were current technology, using a CD walkman initially and later an MP3 player for portable music. I now listen to CDs and (as of last night) vinyl again when at home, and 320kbps MP3s on the move or for convenience. If I want to record radio, I just set it on the PVR or (more often these days) don't record it and listen on catch-up.Before I retire the Minidisc player to the junk-yard in the sky (loft) I thought I'd check there's not some cunning use I'm missing through lack of experience.As ever, any help appreciated.
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Do you stream hi-res music or download hi-res tracks? We want your opinions!
Minidisc! Huah! What is it good for?
- Thread starter splasher
- Start date
Hi splasher, no, I don't think you're missing some 'cunning use' for MiniDisc. Back in the day I used it quite a lot: the discs, being smaller than CDs, we're easier to carry about and at one point I even had a MD player in the car. I too still have a standalone Sony MiniDisc deck, but to be honest I haven't used it in years.
splasher said:
To be fair to it, it was a good medium in its day. I used it in the studio mixing down to stereo. The one thing everyone moaned about was the compression factor it had. When recording on to it though, you could record +3dB quite happily and on playback it would come out as 0dB. Now, for HiFi at todays standards it doesn't cut it for playback but, to be honest, it was a very useful medium. And a lot more useable than DAT.
chebby said:
I guess it might - it has an optical in and analogue outs - but I'm not sure it would be any better at converting MP3s than the built in DACs of my AV receiver in the living room or my Marantz all-in-one box in the bedroom. Just another dust collector and remote control kicking about.
Do they have holes in the middle?
Shame if they do, you could've used them for speaker spike stands on wooden floors.
Anyone remember the "Private Eye" cartooon series "101 Uses for a Dome"? Post 'em up 🙂
Shame if they do, you could've used them for speaker spike stands on wooden floors.
Anyone remember the "Private Eye" cartooon series "101 Uses for a Dome"? Post 'em up 🙂
steve_1979
Well-known member
- Jul 14, 2010
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steve_1979
Well-known member
- Jul 14, 2010
- 231
- 10
- 18,795
I remember reading a post on a forum somewhere about a bloke who bought a MD deck for a few quid to use as a DAC and he was very impressed. Worth A/Bing against your amp AV amp at least.
I can remember seeing a table of SQ in a mag that suggested MD came between standard MP3 & AAC. They make poor frisbees 'cos they are not bare discs! My Sony MD recorder is jewel-like & still worked OK when I checked it a year ago.
As a format - it's now pointless as you can't convert its digital data to anything useful & I know of not a single player that has a digital out anyway. All you can do is listen to the discs or re-digitise the analogue output if important enough. I still have some new discs but am not sure if any players are still in production.
Mine was great fun to listen to before MP3 players took off & made them rather obsolete. I suspect the DACs in most TVs will out-perform most MDPs!
As a format - it's now pointless as you can't convert its digital data to anything useful & I know of not a single player that has a digital out anyway. All you can do is listen to the discs or re-digitise the analogue output if important enough. I still have some new discs but am not sure if any players are still in production.
Mine was great fun to listen to before MP3 players took off & made them rather obsolete. I suspect the DACs in most TVs will out-perform most MDPs!
It was an excellent format - for its time. I've owned four or five players but only ever bought seven or eight pre-recorded discs. I rememer paying £15 each for a couple in Virgin Megastore on Oxford St.
They are fine as a DAC and the top of the range ones had 24bit DAC chips. Aside from that use I think they're completely redundant.
They are fine as a DAC and the top of the range ones had 24bit DAC chips. Aside from that use I think they're completely redundant.
I remember Yamaha (and possibly Tascam) making consumer multitrack recorders which took minidiscs. These were better than cassette multrackers because they didn't suffer from the practical and sq limitations of Compact Cassettes (even when running at 3 3/4 IPS). I even contemplated buying one once, in the late 1990s. But then I saw the price of the special 'data' Minidiscs you had to use (something like £16-20 for one disc, which back then was even more of a stratospheric price than it would be now) and I decided a cassette-based multitracker and its diet of £4 TDK SA tapes would do me just fine. I still have it (Yamaha MT4X).
mmm I have a Sony 555 ES model iin the store room, in the day it was the dogs whatsits, I know it had a DAC function, might dig it out this afternoon and see if it improves the sonos' output.......
Tommo
Tommo
matt49 said:
There are bands like the Junkies I feel I ought to investigate (and will do) but have not got around due to my prejudice against bands that HiFi journalists go on about 'cos many are cr*p. I try not to choose music based on SQ alone otherwise I would have given up on pop years ago!
busb said:
I feel exactly the same. If you choose your music on the basis of SQ, you're cutting off your nose to spite your face, or throwing out the baby with the bathwater, or some such cliche ... And some of the music they recommend in HFNRR makes me cringe.
I'd recommend giving the Cowboy Junkies a spin. The songwriting is pretty good. That album is great late-night music.
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