Best MD Player Today?
Oct 24, 2003 at 6:36 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 34

Bird Brain

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I want to know from the experts (That would be all you folks here at the Head-Fi forum) what's the best Mini-Disc player available in the US to use with an Airhead. My current Sharp S301 does not have an amp jack and I think it would be redundant to run an Airhead thru the headphone jack in my unit besides deteriating the sound.
 
Oct 24, 2003 at 8:13 PM Post #2 of 34
No unit has a dedicated line out anymore. The last one was the R50 from 1997 or so. The newer Sharp units have a kind of ghetto line out through the headphone out when you max the volume and turn the bass boost off and it supposedly recognizes the impedance load, but I can't see that working too well myself. The newer Sony units have an option in the menu system where you select line out, and it automatically turns the headphone out into a kind of line out, but I doubt it's any better than the Sharp.

Basically you're kind of screwed for a real line out
smily_headphones1.gif
 
Oct 24, 2003 at 8:43 PM Post #3 of 34
Thanx DLP, I really like making Mini-Disc for my auto and Sharp and was wanting to se if I could get a little more out of my portable rig. I'm running the Sharp strait into a pair of PX-100's and it sounds as if that's as good as it's going to get for my portable listening. I fear that the Mini-Disc format is going to go by way of the DoDo bird but I absolutely love the format. I wish that they made SAMD. When I bought my auto player (Blaukpunt) I bought two for the price of one while they were closing out all MD decks alltogether. You can buy my MD recorder Yamaha MDX793 for peanuts out at Audiogon but I love the size of MD. Guess I'll just have to be happy with what I have. I appreciate your candor
 
Oct 25, 2003 at 5:35 AM Post #4 of 34
You could try the ghetto line out anyway with a portable amp if you have one, it'd probably be an improvement nonetheless. I found the PX100s like a little more juice (old Total Airhead amp I had added a bit of detail and soundstage to the PX100). That is the SS301 unit, right? Player only unit? It has the same kind of line out as the new units, so it'd work the same.
 
Oct 25, 2003 at 10:43 AM Post #5 of 34
It's a shame there's no 'true' line out on any portable MD unit. For space-saving reasons, the feature has disappeared.

I think the MD format is still very strong and should be around for many years; it will continue to be big in places like Asia and Europe but hasn't become the darling in North America that it could have. Citizens in the Western world like the convenience and perceived speed of getting pirated and poor-sounding downloaded mp3's over the sonic superiority of MiniDisc. Go figure.
 
Oct 25, 2003 at 3:02 PM Post #6 of 34
Quote:

Originally posted by DLP
You could try the ghetto line out anyway with a portable amp if you have one, it'd probably be an improvement nonetheless.


Yes, I think portable amps will improve the sound even if you're forced to use phones out
smily_headphones1.gif
 
Oct 25, 2003 at 6:11 PM Post #8 of 34
can anyone reccomend me a relatively new one under $200 that have a line out?
are there even any at that price?

and whe the hell do i see this when i look at their specs:
Headphone output level 3mW+3mW
 
Oct 25, 2003 at 8:14 PM Post #10 of 34
i have the mz-r50. if i were you i would hold out for a used r50 (i got mine for $75 a few years ago on ebay). the line out is phenomenal paired with a portable amp like the jmt meta42--an amped headphone jack doesn't some close.

good luck.
 
Oct 25, 2003 at 10:49 PM Post #11 of 34
Quote:

Originally posted by DLP
The newer Sharp units have a kind of ghetto line out through the headphone out when you max the volume and turn the bass boost off and it supposedly recognizes the impedance load


There's nobody here able to make measurements (impedance etc.) of a "ghetto line-out", to check if it is or not identical to a *classical* line-out?

This would be really interesting to know!
 
Oct 25, 2003 at 10:57 PM Post #12 of 34
well i was doing research and the olders unit like the sharp mt831 and sony r900 (old but still some of the best ever made) uses headphone out as line out. and you can switch between them in the menu. they say sharp made the function better than sony too. the problem is i dont have a credit card so i can't sign up for ebay and buy one of those. and the sony mz-n1 is $270.
mad.gif

but i will look into the r50 as redshifter mention.
 
Oct 26, 2003 at 1:07 AM Post #13 of 34
The R50's line out is mint, making that old MDR worth its weight in gold.
wink.gif
 
Oct 26, 2003 at 7:03 PM Post #14 of 34
IMHO, R900 is good but not spectacular. It doesn't have the tank-like build quality of R50 and sounds worse than later models to my ears. Also its buttons half-died on me and the line-out setting doesn't "stick." Meaning if you're using it with an amp all the time, you'll have to change the line-out setting everytime you play an MD. (ARG!)

R50 is very very solid and has a nice interface as well as that famous lineout but I do not use it much as I'd like to since I have a bunch of LP2 recordings which are really indistinguishable from SP's outdoors. However if you don't mind its size and the lack of MDLP it indeed is a very nice player and probably the best one to hook up with an amp. but don't overpay for it.

I cannot tell how good its lineout sounds compare to R50 since I haven't done any A/B testing, but my Sharp DS8 does set the lineout mode automatically when I hook it up to an amplifier regardless of the bass setting.

Will a portable amplifier improve the sound? I did a blind test with the R50 and a Meta42 and the difference was easy to tell. The biggest changes were the low bass and general fullness of the sound although the later aspect was harder to tell in the blind test.

Even tho' I've heavily invested in MD stuff, I personally don't see it overcoming the MP3s in the mainstream market. The inconvinience of real time recording, mp3->ATRAC conversion, etc is just way too much for the general public. However Sony should've seen it coming ever since the Napster fiasco. I wonder if MD would be more popular had MD compo/decks with high speed CD-dubbing been more prevalent in North America?
 
Oct 27, 2003 at 12:38 AM Post #15 of 34
Quote:

Originally posted by D-EJ915
I think the N510 has a fake one, I'm not sure, but it's about 150 bucks (it's a recorder)

If you can get an old N707, it is a good unit, apparently, neither has one...

The N10 has one, and one's on the FS/T forum right now.


I have an N510 and unfortunately there is no line out.
 

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