[Sparky191]

I still use a MD portable. But often see MD decks, come up cheap 2nd hand these days. I wonder is there any point in picking up one of these decks, considering the availablity of cheap discs, and their decent SQ.

 

[noiseunit]

Picked up a Sony JB920 a few years ago. Used it in D/A mode (pressed record with no disc)and fed it with an AV710 and a decent glass toslink. Unfortunately, the deck resampled all input to 48000 Hz, but it did have a 24bit DAC - sounded pretty damn good for what it was, very similar to the Rotel RCD-950 I used to own. Well, maybe just a smidge better. Headphone jack on it sucked, though.

Getting to the point, the older higher end decks (JB and ES series) can make a great, cheap DA converter. As for the disks themselves, I used to use them, but mp3 players are so damn small now.

 

[Geoff Rymer]

Damn right they do. I use mine (930) for both DA and AD conversion. Sounds awesome for (effectively, since I've had it kicking around for years) free. Damn useful bits of kit.

 

[Sparky191]

Quote:

Originally Posted by noiseunit P..Headphone jack on it sucked, though...

Sorry for the dumb ques, but did you just use it with speakers then? I like my MP3's. But I'm finding the whole taggings and managing Mp3's thing a pain. I have MD and HiMD portables, mainly for recording. Pity theres no HiMD deck.

 

[Geoff Rymer]

Think he was talking about the headphone jack on the deck rather than on a portable. I tend to agree (though the CDP930 cd player was worse).

 

[Sparky191]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Geoff Rymer Think he was talking about the headphone jack on the deck rather than on a portable. I tend to agree (though the CDP930 cd player was worse).

I assumed the deck. Don't get what you mean about the CD player though. The headphone jack on the CD player? Why are all these headphone jacks so bad??

 

[Geoff Rymer]

I guess they aren't 'so bad', just not that great. The headphone socket in the 930 amp (yep, bought the whole set in one go) is much better, though still not reaching dedicated headamp levels.

 

[noiseunit]

Yeah, I was talking about the built-in headphone output on the deck - it had this horrible bass bloat...

Nope, used it exclusively with headphones. I paired it with an older maxed Meta42 - while the headphone out may have sucked, the analog output from the DAC sounded quite good, and with a little opamp rolling the Meta became an excellent match. Threw in an AKG 240S and the sound took on this groovy, relaxed character - it was pleasing enough to get me away from this board for a year or so

Edit - dumb typos

 

[cannedheat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sparky191 Sorry for the dumb ques, but did you just use it with speakers then? I like my MP3's. But I'm finding the whole taggings and managing Mp3's thing a pain. I have MD and HiMD portables, mainly for recording. Pity theres no HiMD deck.

There are a couple of HiMD decks available from Japan. Check Audiocubes. They have at least 2 that I remember. Unfortunately, the cost is too high for me.

 

[Sparky191]

You mean this. Its not a true seperates deck though.

http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=7920

 

[cannedheat]

http://www.audiocubes.com/category/H...Disc_Deck.html

http://www.audiocubes.com/category/H...Disc_Deck.html

 

[Sparky191]

I forgot my link. $469 though....

 

[cannedheat]

It amazes me that Sony had not released an HiMD deck (as well as Sharp and Denon), as a separate, true deck component. I have basically given up on MD now, in part because of this omission. No way I am going to pay over $450 USD for a format that has so little support in the States, and appears to be forgotten by Sony from time to time.