Gryyphyn
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2016
- Posts
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MiniDisc, one of my favorite physical formats, celebrates it's 25th anniversary this year! So Head-Fi, how do you remember MD?
I got my first player, the Sony MZ-R70 in 1998 (I didn't have money for it before then) from Circuit City. Oh those halcyon days of yore when stores were packed with CDs and cassettes, headphones were all wired, everyone had AA batteries with them at all times, phones were attached to walls for talking not power and music was a tactile experience as much as auditory. No hi-res, uncompressed files. No USB connections to micro devices with thousands of songs. Sony was still a respected company and the world didn't have Apple products in it's pockets ruining it's music.
The MiniDisc was the last physical media released intended to be portable and it was the first to launch hi-resolution music, if not headphones, in to people's pockets. MiniDiscs encased their sensitive magneto-optical media inside a hard polycarbonate shell with a locking slide that protected it from all but the most persistent dust and holy crap were they strong! I sent a couple discs through the clothes washer one day when I forgot they were in a shirt pocket. When I removed them from the wash after a full cycle (thankfully I noticed them before they hit the dryer) the labels were gone but the discs were still closed if a bit moist. I left them out to dry for a couple days with the slides open and wrapped in a dust-free cloth then threw them in a player and hit the go button. Would you believe they survived? No damage, no issues with playback! I stuck on a new label and those discs still work today.
The MiniDisc was a fantastic format that combined all the great things about CDs and cassettes in a format many times smaller. Some of the best dedicated players (no record capabilities), particularly the MZ-EH1, were the size of an MD slip case but could play back for hours and hours. The discs could hold a minimum of 60 minutes of music with the oldest discs in full stereo up to a (claimed) 34 hours on a 1GB Hi-MD disc. As with any format that compresses music the loss of quality goes downhill quickly but it seemed to drop off much less slowly than with more popular formats like mp3. While I have a few Hi-MD discs around they were all 256bit which seemed to be the acceptable ceiling of quality vs quantity.
There's something awesome about physically handling your music. Whether you prefer CDs or vinyl, cassettes or reel to reel, the actual process of browsing your selection with your hands and inserting it in a player provides a more visceral experience that draws you in to the listening experience. It's a physical queue to your body and your brain that prepares it for focusing on the experience and listening to music. In my opinion MiniDisc made that process a bit fun in the same way cassette players did. When you slide that disc out of it's case, slide it in to the player and, in the case of the portables, close the door it's hard not to be just a bit excited. The same is true of removing the disc and returning it to it's protective sleeve or case (some of the official label releases used re-purposed cassette-style cases for storage with extended album art). When that door popped open it wasn't subtle. It came flinging open like some of the older low-quality cassette decks (we used to judge the quality of a deck by how dampened the cassette carriage door action was). The disc popped up slightly so you could grab it. It sort of jumped up and said "HI!"
Dealing with recording tabs, writing MIXTAPE on something physical, building a mix in the first place, all of these things are what made MiniDisc great. Sharing with your friends, collecting cool looking discs, recording your own music, handling physical media, these are the things that made it an experience and it's one I still enjoy today. I'm quite proud of my selection of players and discs. I really love the sound even if it's not quite accurate. I love the oh-so-90's aesthetics of it all. And I really do love the headphones. Some of the best headphones available at the time without dropping hundreds of dollars I didn't have were the MDR-W034 and they still sound fantastic today. Punchy but not overblown bass, clear if slightly withdrawn mids and crisp but non-fatiguing highs still make them very enjoyable to listen to. I think they look cool to boot with their over-the-head-in-the-ear design that lays super flat against your collar when resting on your neck.
So while I may prefer my DAP for it's improved selection or a streaming service if I just don't have room to pack it along I will always love MiniDisc. Long live Plato!
How about the rest of Head-Fi? Anyone still rockin' it old school on occasion with some 90's tech from Sony's heyday?
Gryyphyn
I got my first player, the Sony MZ-R70 in 1998 (I didn't have money for it before then) from Circuit City. Oh those halcyon days of yore when stores were packed with CDs and cassettes, headphones were all wired, everyone had AA batteries with them at all times, phones were attached to walls for talking not power and music was a tactile experience as much as auditory. No hi-res, uncompressed files. No USB connections to micro devices with thousands of songs. Sony was still a respected company and the world didn't have Apple products in it's pockets ruining it's music.
The MiniDisc was the last physical media released intended to be portable and it was the first to launch hi-resolution music, if not headphones, in to people's pockets. MiniDiscs encased their sensitive magneto-optical media inside a hard polycarbonate shell with a locking slide that protected it from all but the most persistent dust and holy crap were they strong! I sent a couple discs through the clothes washer one day when I forgot they were in a shirt pocket. When I removed them from the wash after a full cycle (thankfully I noticed them before they hit the dryer) the labels were gone but the discs were still closed if a bit moist. I left them out to dry for a couple days with the slides open and wrapped in a dust-free cloth then threw them in a player and hit the go button. Would you believe they survived? No damage, no issues with playback! I stuck on a new label and those discs still work today.
The MiniDisc was a fantastic format that combined all the great things about CDs and cassettes in a format many times smaller. Some of the best dedicated players (no record capabilities), particularly the MZ-EH1, were the size of an MD slip case but could play back for hours and hours. The discs could hold a minimum of 60 minutes of music with the oldest discs in full stereo up to a (claimed) 34 hours on a 1GB Hi-MD disc. As with any format that compresses music the loss of quality goes downhill quickly but it seemed to drop off much less slowly than with more popular formats like mp3. While I have a few Hi-MD discs around they were all 256bit which seemed to be the acceptable ceiling of quality vs quantity.
There's something awesome about physically handling your music. Whether you prefer CDs or vinyl, cassettes or reel to reel, the actual process of browsing your selection with your hands and inserting it in a player provides a more visceral experience that draws you in to the listening experience. It's a physical queue to your body and your brain that prepares it for focusing on the experience and listening to music. In my opinion MiniDisc made that process a bit fun in the same way cassette players did. When you slide that disc out of it's case, slide it in to the player and, in the case of the portables, close the door it's hard not to be just a bit excited. The same is true of removing the disc and returning it to it's protective sleeve or case (some of the official label releases used re-purposed cassette-style cases for storage with extended album art). When that door popped open it wasn't subtle. It came flinging open like some of the older low-quality cassette decks (we used to judge the quality of a deck by how dampened the cassette carriage door action was). The disc popped up slightly so you could grab it. It sort of jumped up and said "HI!"
Dealing with recording tabs, writing MIXTAPE on something physical, building a mix in the first place, all of these things are what made MiniDisc great. Sharing with your friends, collecting cool looking discs, recording your own music, handling physical media, these are the things that made it an experience and it's one I still enjoy today. I'm quite proud of my selection of players and discs. I really love the sound even if it's not quite accurate. I love the oh-so-90's aesthetics of it all. And I really do love the headphones. Some of the best headphones available at the time without dropping hundreds of dollars I didn't have were the MDR-W034 and they still sound fantastic today. Punchy but not overblown bass, clear if slightly withdrawn mids and crisp but non-fatiguing highs still make them very enjoyable to listen to. I think they look cool to boot with their over-the-head-in-the-ear design that lays super flat against your collar when resting on your neck.
So while I may prefer my DAP for it's improved selection or a streaming service if I just don't have room to pack it along I will always love MiniDisc. Long live Plato!
How about the rest of Head-Fi? Anyone still rockin' it old school on occasion with some 90's tech from Sony's heyday?
Gryyphyn
