MINIDISC quality recordings

[SAK24]

Do others use Minidisc for recording and playback? I have 5 separate Minidisc machines, two being Tascam, the rest are Sony recorders. With care, one can obtain excellent recordings from analogue or digital on this format. It helps to use ATRAC3 firmware, and when using digital recordings and playback to use a separate external DAC. I use an Audiolab M DAC Plus on one system, and an ifi DAC on another. I picked up an ex recording studio Tascam MD 350 which had almost no use for a really good price, it still had the rack 'ears' on it. A beautifully designed machine with superb smooth controls making it easy to adjust fine recording levels. A more modern machine combines Minidisc with CD, again another Tascam, and that even has balanced inputs. The headphone amplifier built in is superb, and puts to shame the headphone amps of some of my audio amplifiers.

I used to have several Reel to Reel recorders, good makes, and would overhaul them, tweak them but they were a real pain in the backside, as soon as one problem was sorted, another one materialised. In comparison, Minidisc has been very reliable. One Sony machine I had for years then refused to eject the Minidisc. I opened it up and made a manual pull cord to lift the disc up and eject it ! It worked well for another few years. The Tascams seem to be better made depending upon model. A Portable recorder made by Sony is tiny, and the single AA battery lasts for ages. It's just the controls are tiny.

I have used TOSLINK optical cables for recording from Apple Computers, USB cables from both Apple and Windows, and of course analogue RCA cables from vinyl preamps, etc. All work faultlessly. I managed to pick up about fifty or sixty new old stock sealed Minidisc blanks from a Vinyl shop, TDK, Maxell, and Sony, and they were a fraction of the prices charged on Ebay. Enough to last me for a long time. To be honest, on a good recording, most audio enthusiasts would really struggle to tell the difference between Minidisc and Compact Disc recordings. I have done experiments with comparing Professional CD recorders and Minidiscs on the same source, and the differences are virtually imperceptible ! I had more duff blank CD's and problems with recording, than I ever had with Minidiscs. Some websites are realising that good Minidisc models are in demand and prices have increased. But you can still get bargains out there. I have been surprised at how good the Ifi range of DACS are, and their phono preamps are great value for money too. And the Bluetooth works without problems. Really low noise floors, much lower than many competitors who charge thousands for their models.

[hatehifi]

Fwiw I have always been impressed by ATRAC3. I had a portable TEAC (? - many moons ago), with Soundman (soundman.de), Pro in-ear microphones. Back then I wanted to record incognito live venues without breaking the law. Gave the minidisc up after a few years as music cassettes had such a dominating place in my system. My cassette deck was the harman CD491 which made world class quality analogue recordings with Maxell XL II-S chrome tapes.

Had the minidisc became a more seriously accepted medium, I too could happily live with ATRAC3 today. I‘ve posted this opinion earlier here many years ago iirc.

Cheers!