[Tomkat85]

I've been a proud owner / part-past owners of those Sharp MD MT series (so old I couldn't remember the model#), then the newer Sony MZNH700 and since 2008 the MZ-RH1. This is indeed a thing of past and forgotten beauty. I was once recording to this an almost six hour session of DJ'ing on a single HiMD 1gb. Never let me down since then.  

 

[kugino]

hey, just found this thread. my kenwood minidisc player from 1995 finally gave out on me and i have dozens of minidiscs that i still want to play. any decent used players (small, portable ones) i should be looking for? i don't need/want any recording features, just the ability to play what i have and, ideally, optical out would be preferable. thanks!

 

[Sparky191]

Might be an idea to pick up a couple as spares. They seem to be getting harder to find.

I loved MD/HiMD. Not sure Id go back to it now.

 

[vapman]

  hey, just found this thread. my kenwood minidisc player from 1995 finally gave out on me and i have dozens of minidiscs that i still want to play. any decent used players (small, portable ones) i should be looking for? i don't need/want any recording features, just the ability to play what i have and, ideally, optical out would be preferable. thanks!

many of the sony pro rackmount units have digital out for not a lot of money.
 
also if you are handy, it is extremely easy to add optical out to many lower end minidisc decks (Sony ones at least) without much effort. it's all been documented online i grabbed a non-digital deck at a flea sale for $5 and added digi coax out to it.
 
edit: oh, portable. plenty of sony and non sony have optical out!

 

[kugino]

 
many of the sony pro rackmount units have digital out for not a lot of money.
 
also if you are handy, it is extremely easy to add optical out to many lower end minidisc decks (Sony ones at least) without much effort. it's all been documented online i grabbed a non-digital deck at a flea sale for $5 and added digi coax out to it.
 
edit: oh, portable. plenty of sony and non sony have optical out!

thanks. so do none of the portables have optical out? my kenwood that died on me had optical out, which i used to feed my DAC...i'll look on fleabay and see what's around.

 

[yakkosmurf]

That's probably the best bet.

 

[vapman]

  thanks. so do none of the portables have optical out? my kenwood that died on me had optical out, which i used to feed my DAC...i'll look on fleabay and see what's around.

There are many portables with optical out. i have a mid-hi range sony portable and a budget sony portable. both have optical out. there are plenty.

 

[BadReligionPunk]

Thanks thread for popping up and reminding me about my old MD player in the basement. Bought mine in 2002 as I found myself in Japan, and well, everything was MD or CD. All my friends had MD so...peer pressure y'all!

NetMD still work or are there workarounds now? Don't exactly know where the installation disc is, but I'm interested in making some disc to take with me to work. I still have 3 unopened MDs that I found.

 

[gikigill]

Use Sonicstage to copy songs via NetMD. Still using all my HI-MD and MD units and Sonicstage works perfectly.

 

[vapman]

Not many models have the right compatibility with SonicStage to transfer songs off the MD, some also have copy protection which is why optical out is usually the safest bet. Only a few select models are capable of tranferring songs off the MD at higher than playback speed.
 
I always wished I could have a HiMD... then I got a pro series 24-bit MD player and the ability to eject broke, so now I have one disc stuck in there forever.

 

[gikigill]

Only the RH1 can copy tracks off a minidisc The later models such as the N920, R910 could do 64x transfer if I'm correct.

 

[KantoLiving]

I just randomly stumbled into this thread and got a wave of nostalgia as I remembered all the fond times I had with my blue Sony MZ-N510. Having an actual EQ to play with rather than a rudimentary bass boost was pretty magical at the time. I think I was using Sony MDR-P80 headphones with them, needless to say all the other high schoolers were quite impressed with my gear (not at all).

 

[Noslack]

I also stumbled into this thread. My Minidisc MZ-R55 was bought new around 1999 (I guess) when working for Sony Music. Inside Sony Music, of course, near everybody had one. Used it ever since. Last years it faded a bit because of the use of an Ipod. But recently I rediscovered my R55 and all my old discs. Magic. Fun is when young people ask what this cool piece of equipment is. Minidisc?.....What is that?  
Will it ever be possible that Sony will do a limited production batch of the RH1? I am in for such a collectors item.
 
Really weird is that the Sony CAV-U5 converter, bought around 2000, never worked on my XP computer. Last weekend i plugged it into a Windows 8.1 computer and to my surprise it began installing itself and worked straight away. Digital recording from a USB-port. For the first time in 15 years!
 
Hope to read more about the "weird people" still using Minidisc and their gear.

 

[gikigill]

Just pulled out my RH1 and burning a Hi-MD optical.

 

[vapman]

@Noslack digital recording to or from the MD? either way that's awesome to know - might have to get myself one of those!