When Sony introduced a format upgrade to the MiniDisc format in 2004, the NH1 was the flagship unit. I missed the chance to get one at the time, and they’ve been hard to find as of late. I lucked into one only recently.
Minidisc
15 posts
I must have missed the memo. Back in February, Sony announced that they were shipping the last of their MiniDisc-based home stereo systems. The media proceeded to claim, yet again, that this was the death knell for the format.
Let’s see, when have we heard this before?
- 2011, when Sony stopped producing portable units
- 2007, when they dumped the SonicStage software
- 2004, when Sharp and Aiwa stopped producing units
- 1998, when Sony cut prices by 2/3 to entice the American market
Nobody’s accusing MiniDisc of commercial viability anymore, but that doesn’t mean it’s dead. It’s still active in the Japanese market, and among radio producers stateside. A healthy supply of blank media and replacement batteries remains available. Despite the lack of software support from Sony, there’s an open-source initiative that’s already working.
It’s no more mainstream than Amiga or BeOS, but it’s not going away any time soon.
A group of German programmers has figured out the MiniDisc communication protocols, and they’ve written software that allows certain units to communicate with computers without the SonicStage software layer. The nuts-and-bolts are here, and a streamlined installation for Ubuntu is available here.
Here’s one from the vaults. These are the HiSpace iMac blank minidiscs, produced between 2000 and 2001. With the exception of TDK, they were the only company making interesting blank media at that point. I have no idea what relation these have to the Apple computer of the same name, which was introduced two years earlier.
As of 2003, the HiSpace brand has ceased to exist, though parent company MPO still operates out of France.
They made a series of custom discs for Minidisco (who sadly sell very few minidisc-related products now) with a neat cartoon robot motif, and I’m still searching for a set of their Tribal series discs.
Well, it’s been a good fifteen years.Sony has officially cut off support for SonicStage. It’s been over a year since the introduction of their flagship (and evidently, last) unit, the MZ-RH1. They’ve also abandoned the ATRAC format in their newer flash units.
Over the last year, most brick-and-mortar retailers have stopped carrying blank media for the format, and companies like TDK and Maxell have stopped making them altogether.
Lower the flags to half-mast, gang: this really is it.
Here’s the obscure but lovely Sony MZ-E630. This is an older MDLP (ie. legacy) MiniDisc player. For some reason, it’s not listed in the MDCF equipment browser, but it does in fact exist. Just like Bigfoot.
These are 2005 Special Edition MiniDiscs from TDK:
Here they are with my trusty DR7:
They’re a slight variation on the HO series. The bottom two discs are the standard TDK “Fine” series. They’re good workhorse discs as they’re somewhat inexpensive, and I can write directly on the colored surface. The TDK’s are my first choice for field recording since they’re the most durable and least error-prone brand I’ve come across.
The one on the top right is an old HiSpace disc. Pretty as they are, the HiSpace discs (which are generally very cheap) can be hit-or-miss; the good ones last forever, while the bad ones die almost immediately.
The ã‚ series are TDK’s flagship minidisc blanks for 2006. The word “sublime” comes to mind…
(Bottom two rows. From top left, L-R: 2003 HO series yellow, 2004 XS-iV 80, 2002 Bit Club, XS-iV “Ministry of Sound” Series, ã‚ in various colors.)
They’re only available in Japan, and at the moment, it appears that none of the usual importers plan on carrying them. I got my set from a friend at T-Board who lives there. Let me know if you need a set, and I can get ahold of him.
There seems to be a sad trend forming in this. TDK and Maxell appear to be the only companies making any sort of custom discs. Sony’s still churning out the generic Color series as well as the plain-blue Hi-MD blanks, which are the only ones in production. No local retailers carry blanks of any stripe anymore, and the number of online sources is dwindling. Continued...
On to the torture test: the local shooting range. I’ve found that this is the absolute worst acoustic environment I’ve ever run across. The average gunshot is ~155db at ten feet. You’ve got a situation where the ambient sound level goes from 10db to 155db and back in less than a second, and since you’re in a concrete building, there are echoes and splashes everywhere.
I set up with an AT9841 single-point and started recording. The automatic level control obviously struggled with the dynamic changes, but still did much better than expected. I made a second recording by attenutating to a specific source and lowering the level manually.
One thing Sony finally fixed was the ability to adjust recording-levels on the fly, something only the Sharps could do previously. I can’t really think of any features they’ve omitted on this unit.
Both recordings surprised me. The first seemed to fluctuate a bit, meaning the reports were a bit garbled and intervening sounds like feet shuffling and people talking were muffled, but the soundstage was well-preserved, and everything was right where it was supposed to be. Continued...
I’ve been a fan of MiniDisc for awhile. My primary recording unit is my DR7, bought back in 2003, and as is typical, it still serves me fine to this day.
I had a Nomad Jukebox 3 that worked well as a recorder, but it didn’t have the onboard editing features of MiniDisc, and let’s face it, plastic HDD-based players just don’t stand up to abuse. Aluminum and magnesium MiniDiscs do, and it’s not uncommon to see people using 10-year-old units at shows.
The only real hassle with MD has been the issue of how to get the recordings onto a computer from the disc. Traditionally, MD units have no sort of computer connectivity, so the only way to upload recordings was to do so in real-time through a line-out/line-in recording, therefore losing one of the most important aspects: the fact that the MD original was a digital recording.
Sony came out with a stopgap solution called NetMD, which appeared to create more problems than it solved. Continued...
Not many folks noticed Sony’s announcement earlier this year that they’d be phasing out the Minidisc format. In fact, most people were unaware that it was even still alive in the 21st century.
As it turns out, Sony was still churning out models in the new Hi-Md format, and they continue to do so.
In the era of high-capacity mp3 players, Minidisc seems something of a throwback. Originally designed as a replacement for CDs, the format was soundly rejected by a public already feeling burned by the forced obsolesence of vinyl. It gained a second life (and a fervent cult following) as a recording medium, and as a replacement for analog tape.
The discs were rugged and the units made pristine digital recordings with no audible artifacts. The format quietly improved to the point that the ATRAC3 recordings were virtually indistinguishable from CDs in terms of sound quality. Pre-recorded discs met with apathy in the American market, but in Japan they were plentiful and could even be purchased at convenience stores. Continued...
This is the second-generation Hi-MD playback unit. Notice the similarities to last year’s MZ-E630 MDLP player. This unit has the HD amp as well as a connexion for an external battery pack. The internal battery is still the old NiMH one they’ve been using for the last few generations, but I’m not complaining as it’s interchangeable with all the old ones I have floating around.
As you can see, it’s only slightly larger than the discs themselves, but it’s still a bit thicker than the EH1.
I haven’t had a chance to compare battery life between the NH-14WM and the newer LIP-4WM, but the newer ones do appear to last a bit longer.
Like most MD players, this unit is meant to be used with a remote. As such, the button layout on the unit itself is somewhat sparse, and not quite as intuitive as the EH1.
Still, quite a nice unit, and one I was able to get very cheaply second-hand. Continued...
Sony is finally phasing out the DAT medium (Babelfish translation and community reaction). To be honest, I thought this happened years ago. There are no plans to cease production on the blank tapes themselves, but recording/playback equipment will no longer be made.
Why is this important? Well, it goes a long way towards showing that “obsolete” formats still have some life left as long as a) there’s a dedicated user-base, and b) blank media are still available. Take Minidisc, for example: the format was written off as a failure outside of Japan back around 1998, but Sharp and Sony still make recorders for it, and you can still get media at the local Megalomart.
Minidisc still has a fervent following as a reliable and worthy medium for portable recording. It “failed” because Sony hyped it (along with Phillips’ lamented DCC) as a “replacement” for pre-recorded commercial CDs. This was 1994-1995, when the cassette was being (thank God) phased out of production. Continued...
Here’s the 2005 flagship playback unit. The NH1 is the recorder, and the NH3D (which is very rare) is the downloader. Still waiting for word on the next-gen units, which should have full mp3 compatibility as well as uploading capacity.
The new Hi-MD units do support uncompressed PCM, as well as the new 256 and 352kb/s bitrates. The Hi-MD amp sounds clean and clear, though I can’t distinguish any difference between the Class D amps they were using in the last series.
With Sony’s newer EX90 headphones. These are getting warmer as they break in, and I’m enjoying them greatly. Far more emphatic and less “shrouded” in terms of sound quality than the Shure E3’s, which I’ve always thought of as expensive and over-rated.
With my old fallbacks, the Grado SR60. If you don’t have a set, you don’t know what you’re missing. Some criticize them for being a bit “shouty,” but they’re fun and vibrant, and very faithful to source material. Continued...
TDK still make the most gorgeous discs out there. These are the 2002 Special Edition Bit Club series:
