| 12/31: | Pyo points out
Martin's snapshots of CEBIT '99. |
| 12/29: | Richard Reid
suggests using MiniDisc to archive
family recordings.
|
| ¶ |
Tony Wang contributes a helpful Panasonic SJ-MJ75 player review.
|
| ¶ |
Justin Ramell explores the Sharp MD-MT16 service mode and finds an interesting
optical input monitor function.
|
| ¶ |
Chris Gerrist kindly sends in a JVC
XM-R70 manual (pdf format).
|
| ¶ |
Pyo spots a box shot of the Sony Memory Stick walkman, available on
store shelves in Japan (note optional ~$200/hour memory card beside it).
|
| 12/26: | Pierre spots the first CD/MD receiver, from Onkyo.
|
| ¶ |
Thomas James notes word (and photos) of Minidisc.com's stylish, upcoming MD retail shop in London, slated to be
carrying the entire line of pre-recorded MD titles available in
Europe.
|
| 12/22: | The Korean
MiniDisc page posts several Sharp
MD-ST531 snapshots. |
| 12/21: | Matthew Hunt
finds the Sanyo
MDR-4 in-dash AM/FM/MD reciever for $70 at the Wal-Mart in LaVale,
MD (we'd be happy to get confirmation from readers of the price and
availability at other Wal-Marts). [A few readers have now confirmed
finding it at stores in Paso Robles CA, Conway AR, and Longview TX,
metro Atlanta GA, Pensacola FL]
|
| ¶ |
MiniDisc Switzerland has MiniDisc Winamp Skins to make the player look like
a Sony MZ-R30 or Pioneer unit.
|
| ¶ |
The Korean MD page has several snapshots of the Kenwood DMC-L7R (Sharp MD-MT831 clone).
|
| 12/20: | Jim Van Donsel
notes that Wired News recommends the Sony MXD-D3 CD/MD deck among the gifts Santa never thought of (under ``cut the tape'', about halfway down the
page).
|
| ¶ |
The little company that could dept: Minidisco offers their own little robot blanks(!).
|
| 12/19: | Ian McFarlane and
Marc Kieley find news that the Candian Copyright Board has imposed a
60 cent tax on every MD blank sold in Canada.
Thomas James finds further word on this in the National Post, and the Globe and Mail.
|
| 12/18: | David Boulet recently contributed a
thorough review of the Sony MDS-JB930.
|
| ¶ |
Smalldisc.com opens
shop, specializing in Minidisc gear for musicians and composers.
|
| ¶ |
Oade Brothers Audio offers a variety of microphones,
including some excellent for stealth work.
|
| ¶ |
The Sound
Professionals points out a clear and comprehensive description of how microphones work.
|
| ¶ |
Robert Berardino spots Sony's Memory Stick
Walkman page, the unit supports ATRAC3 and MP3.
|
| 12/17: | We're collecting
signals that trip up ATRAC, have
you got a contribution?
|
| ¶ |
Tascam has
upgraded their two professional MD decks to ATRAC 4.5 and offers
pdf manuals for the MD-301mkII and MD-801RmkII
units.
|
| ¶ |
Peter Westt spots the Terrac MP3 HiFi component, it plays MP3 CDs as well
as normal ones and can be fitted with a hard drive for amassing huge
music collections.
|
| ¶ |
Top (Tower Records
Magazine UK) wrote enthusiastically about Pre-recorded MD in an article
last year.
|
| ¶ |
Weibel HiFi in Switzerland offers a selection of MD gear.
|
| ¶ |
The Robb Report wrote briefly about Minidisc's Revival back in Feb '98.
|
| 12/15: | Graham Baker
points out a positive viewpoint towards Sony's MiniDisc Camcorder
in Adobe Premier World.
|
| ¶ |
In a May press release from Sony's European Business
Products Group they mention that the MiniDisc market is expected to
exceed 20 million units worldwide in the year 2001.
|
| 12/13: | William
Hollingworth has updated his MiniDisc Manager freeware (for Sony decks with
S-Link ports) to allow automated recording and track titling of MP3
and CD tracks through an interface with Nirvis' CDJ Music Library
software. |
| 12/11: | Several readers
point out Memorex blanks for $1.50 at Circuit City
(search on "memtek"). |
| 12/10: | Christopher Vallo
kindly sends along further info and a brief review of the Casio XG-3 player.
|
| ¶ |
Alexey Lavrovsky shows how to connect a Soundblaster Live to MiniDisc for 250 Rubles or
less.
|
| ¶ |
Japanese retailer
Mydo now carries Sony equipment. |
| 12/9: | Christopher Vallo
spots the Casio XG-3 MD player at Circuit City (search for "casio xg3"). |
| 12/8: | A reader points
out detailed English information covering the Digicube MD Kiosk trial, set to debut today at 40 locations in
Japan.
|
| ¶ |
A friend sends in a spy shot of a Sony 5 MD changer home deck, shown in mockup form at
IFA in August.
|
| ¶ |
Richard notes that Voquette offers a free Beta version download of their Internet music player
(the software component of Sharp's Internet MiniDisc package).
|
| 12/7: | Jake Hamby points
out LAME, a
open-source patch for creating a high quality MP3 encoder from the
original reference code. Linked from there is a set of EBU
SQAM recordings representing particularly difficult audio signals
for perceptual coders (you can torture-test your MD with these).
|
| ¶ |
Damian Norton kindly
scans in the 90 page Alpine MDA 7755 user manual, featuring English, French, and Spanish sections.
|
| ¶ |
Before ordering an Opcode Sonicport, Rob cautions you to read about
Opcode's financial status.
|
| 12/6: | Bill Jackson notes
Kenneth Lee's instructions for making an
optical I/O daughter board for an SBLive Value audio card, useful
for passing digital audio between PC and MD.
|
| ¶ |
Pyo Ilwoong (Korean
MD page editor) points out photos, a Japanese press release and product page for the Toshiba MM-300 SmartMedia
player. The SDMI compliant JPY29,800 unit plays MP3 as well as Twin-VQ
formats. Specs: 86x52x10mm, 54g, 5.5hr battery life. |
| 12/5: | Yoon Dae-Hee points out
the MiniDisc page for Saehan, a Korean blanks manufacturer that supplies
Sony, Alpine, Aiwa, Clarion, JVC and Yamaha. |
| 12/4: | Tim Boswell's
TradeCheck site is
designed to foster MD trading and features a trader ratings
database. |
| 12/3: | Gerald Tomyn aka Mike Rofone sends
in a nicely scanned Sony MZ-R37
User Manual.
|
| ¶ |
Keith Wilson spots an odd duck: the Amstrad MCR2500MD, a bookshelf system replete with
60 CD changer, qwerty keyboard, and dockable Sharp MD-MS701 portable
recorder.
|
| 12/2: | Bruno Guers points
out the proMD1 professional audio adapter they have designed (and its insides), it is available from
Marenius in Sweden (price?).
|
| ¶ |
MiniDisc
Switzerland offers DB generated top-10 lists (e.g. lightest, cheapest,
etc.) of MD equipment.
|
| ¶ |
Pyo Ilwoong finds Tagram's Mambo-X P300
portable MP3 CD/CD-RW player. Available in December, it also plays
regular CDs and runs for 14 hours on two AA cells (price: $175 Thanks Thomas!).
|
| 12/1: | Robert Berardino
spots Sharp USA's Internet MiniDisc page, covering their hardware/software
package for recording Internet audio to portables with analog synchro-start. He notes
that it's available for $70 from Shopping.com.
|
| ¶ |
Charles Snider
creates an exemplary JVC
XM-R70 page that includes the unit's user manual.
|
| ¶ |
Mathew Caughron finds N2MP3 encoder documentation covering MP3 to MD recording on the Macintosh.
|
| ¶ |
On January 1st Minimaniax will
open shop and become the first German Internet MD retailer. You can
sign up now to receive special offers.
|
| ¶ |
Hussain Sekha
gives tips for recording movie soundtracks to MD. |
| 11/30: | Peter Ravn points
out a press release for C-3D, a company boasting
technology for storing 140GB on a CD-size carrier, using multiple
storage layers.
|
| ¶ |
Charles Snider submits a helpful article on MD shopping in Hong
Kong.
|
| ¶ |
Garth Colasurdo spots Opcode's SONICport Optical, a USB to TOSlink I/O interface.
|
| ¶ |
The T-Station updates its MD-Blanks gallery.
|
| 11/27: | Kenneth
Barsocchini points out Sony USA's MD Discam page.
|
| ¶ |
Steven Winters
suggests using
MiniDisc to record videogame sounds.
|
| ¶ |
Steffen Hung has freshened up his MiniDisc Switzerland site.
|
| ¶ |
Michael Petnuch offers a review of Hyperjack, a Japanese MD retailer.
|
| ¶ |
Hammond Music Entertainment in Australia sells
pre-recorded MDs.
|
| 11/26: | David Cohen
describes his success using MiniDisc for theatre special effects.
|
| ¶ |
Heber Acquafreda has a freeware program for making song compilations and
optimizing media usage.
|
| ¶ |
MD-like video: Ary Marcoschamer points out Pioneer's announcement of the
first home DVD recorder, bringing MD-like editing features to
video recordings. (Does it have an audio-only mode?).
|
| 11/25: | Peter Ravn notes
a German page for the Sanyo MDG-P3 player. |
| 11/23: | Mike Ward
contributes an interesting article about MiniDisc use in radio news reporting. |
| 11/22: | Thomas James and
Darrin report that Minidisc-Canada is now online, supplying portables,
blanks and accessories to the North American market.
|
| ¶ |
Spencer Pablo has
some snapshots from Comdex that include MD offerings from
Sony and Sharp.
|
| ¶ |
Jason Livingston points out Leon Kuo's favorable Panasonic
SJ-MJ75 review.
|
| ¶ |
Daryl Fletcher notes that Borders Books sells MDs online.
|
| 11/19: | Mark Canada
describes how he uses MiniDiscs for
enjoying movie soundtracks.
|
| ¶ |
Calum Tsang submits a review of the Zoltrix
sound card, a inexpensive board with S/PDIF coax output.
|
| ¶ |
Peter Ravn notes Morten's page for making a recording volume control, useful even if your
portable already has an online-adjustable recording level.
|
| ¶ |
Mikhail Grigoriev kindly points out Sony's Tourist (English) pages for their
MZ-R90,
MZ-R91,
MZ-E90,
MZ-E75,
and
DHC-MD373 units, as well as
the
D-E01 and
D-E990 CD-TEXT compatible CD-players.
|
| ¶ |
The T-Station gets the skinny on Aiwa's XR-MDS7 bookshelf system and JVC's RC-MD33 ``skeleton'' boombox.
|
| 11/18: | Ken Wheeler finds
mention of MiniDisc use in recording ghosts' voices.
|
| ¶ |
Tom Chmielinski contributes a nice Sony MZ-E90 review, saying the unit's nearly too tiny!
|
| ¶ |
Zachary St. Martin notes Etown coverage of Sharp's Internet MD Kit, a $250 package that bundles their
MD-MT15 recorder with Voquette's NetLink software.
|
| ¶ |
James Torsen
spots an Anchorage Daily News article covering the slew of MP3 players at Comdex.
|
| ¶ |
Jackerman in the UK sells
MD blanks, with good prices on their Samsungs.
|
| 11/16: | Drew Hilling
notes a brief ZDNet article about Sharp's Internet MiniDisc package launched at
Comdex.
|
| 11/15: | Valery Tsyplenkov finds
that Sony has joined the MP3 crowd, releasing MusicClip, a solid state MP3/ATRAC3 player.
|
| ¶ |
A group of students at Oklahoma State University are running a MiniDisc
Questionnaire aimed at analyzing the success of the MiniDisc
format.
|
| ¶ |
Jerremy Holland points out the page for Kenwood's MD1050 deck.
|
| 11/14: | Michael Petnuch
writes a Sony MZ-E90 review.
|
| ¶ |
KVE finds a blurb about Sharp's
MP3 to MD solution.
|
| ¶ |
Nicolas Stizza comes across Sony's MDX-C5970 page, said to be nearly the same unit as
last year's MDX-C7900.
|
| ¶ |
Ian McFarlane writes an MZ-R90 review.
|
| ¶ |
Fabian has made an MD Fan page.
|
| 11/13: | Mo Jaquith finds
the Sony MZ-E25 for $100 at Costco (membership not
required). |
| 11/12: | Mark Derricutt
points out the Compaq/HanGo Personal Jukebox, a hard disk based
portable MP3 player with 80 hour music capacity and 10 hour battery
life, due out in December for about $800. (MP3FactoryDirect has a few
further details).
|
| ¶ |
Last year Frank Beacham reviewed
the MD-Report.
|
| 11/11: | Matthew Shillaber
notes an MD Discam mention in the Telegraph (UK).
|
| ¶ |
Sverre Briseid
finds Etown repents, declares Sharp MD-MT15 MD product of the year.
|
| ¶ |
Peter Ravn spots: A & A music in the UK, selling pre-recorded MDs,
Yalplay's note that Warner has just released a
great deal of back catalog material on MD,
and
German MD equipment tests in the consumer magazine
Test. |
| 11/10: | Emanuele has an
Italian MD trading page. |
| 11/9: | Bryan Mo notes
MD Discam coverage from ZDNet.
|
| ¶ |
At the risk of becoming the MiniDisc Camcorder page, we note
Bryan Hengels sighting of a Newsweek(!) blurb on Sony's DCM-M1.
|
| 11/5: | Aaron points out
MD retailers MiniDisc HK and Hat-In.
|
| ¶ |
Paul Knight finds a slew of MD blank dealers in Europe:
Brinkmann,
Musik Produktiv,
Music City,
Music Store Professional,
Reichelt Elektronik,
and
Conrad Electronic.
|
| 11/4: | Hardeep finds more
MD Discam doubts from Etown (is it
keeping them awake at night or what?) |
| 11/3: | Joseph McLean
spots a further MD Discam article, in TWICE.
|
| ¶ |
Hardeep finds
Etown right on top of things, dissing Sony's Discam within a day of its
announcement (I find this oddly reassuring, given their clairvoyance
with MD).
|
| ¶ |
Marc Wielage has made
a careful review of Sony's MZ-R90.
|
| ¶ |
Ian McFarlane adds
a review of Sharp's MD-MT831 PC-Link kit (using Japanese software
minus the fonts(!)).
|
| ¶ |
MiniDiscNow scans a Japanese Panasonic catalog that gives details of their
MD-Network system. With it an MD portable, DVC camcorder, and label
printer can be connected to make full color MD labels that include photos.
|
| 11/2: | Hardeep spots a
Newswire report of Sony's US introduction of the MD-Discam (with a huge photo). Available in January, unit
will also record up to 260 minutes of audio.
|
| ¶ |
MiniDisco has a
3-D Gallery of rotatable, zoomable, 3D pictures
of popular MD portables and blanks.
|
| ¶ |
Robert Nguyen has written a detailed Aiwa AM-F80 review.
|
| ¶ |
Robert Lindemann notes Sony's Japanese MD portable products page, which Jonathan Schwartz
pointed out has links to further photos of Sony's MZ-R90 and MZ-R91.
|
| ¶ |
Ian McFarlane makes a review of Servired's leather MD cases.
|
| 11/1: | MD Data2
arrives! Hardeep Bhogal spots a Japanese product
page for the Sony DCM-M1 MD Discam, available Dec. 3. (Previously seen in prototype form).
|
| ¶ |
We begin our own Email News Subscription Service, available
in daily and weekly intervals. |
| 10/31: | Marc Wielage
kindly scans the MZ-R90 user manual
(pdf). Did you know track naming from CDs (aka ``Joint-Text'')
requires a button push per track, during recording?
|
| ¶ |
Patrik Hall points out photos and Japanese info for Kenwood's MDX-F3 AM/ FM/ CD/ MD/ Cass boombox featuring
high speed CD->MD dubbing, microphone input, and AC or dry cell
battery operation.
|
| ¶ |
Ian McFarlane has made a review of the Aiwa AM-HX50 player.
|
| 10/30: | Gen Li gives some
advice about shopping for MD gear in NYC. |
| 10/29: | Japan-Direct
posts clear snapshots of Aiwa's AM-F80. |
| 10/28: | Cellini and Youn
spot seasonal naysaying about MP3's threat to MD at etown, mistaking their
inherent synergy for competition.
|
| ¶ |
The Korean MD
page shows details and snapshots of Sharp's PC-Link kit for the
MD-MT831.
|
| ¶ |
Pyoilwoong sights a Japanese news release for Kenwood's DMC-L5 and DMC-L3 portables, (Sharp
MD-ST531/631 variants?). L5: 22hr playback on NiMH (63hr together
w/AAx1) 79.4x14.5x71.7mm, 96.4g, MSRP: JPY30,000, L3: AA shaped
rechargeable allows normal AA cell to be used when NiMH quits.
|
| ¶ |
Mikhail Grigoriev notes T-Station's coverage of
Panasonic's SC-PM70MD
[Japanese page]
(5CD+5MD mini-system using 24 bit H.D.E.S [High Density Encoding System] ATRAC version,
CD-TEXT to MD title dubbing and "MD Network" for connection to portable),
SC-HD615MD [Japanese page]
(5-CD and 5-MD 4 piece mini-system with slim speakers and "MD Network" for
connection to portable),
and
SC-NS77MD [Japanese page] (5-CD, 1-MD, 1 Cassette (?) mini-system),
Kenwood's Avino SG-7MD
(1 CD, 1 MD, 1Cass. 24 bit Fine D.R.I.V.E CD decoder and 20 Rec D.R.I.V.E MD
recorder)
and
VH-7MD
(the latter most likely a Japanese version of their
VH-800MD),
Aiwa's XR-H770MD
[English page]
(3-CD, 5-MD, 1 cassette bookshelf system),
and
JVC's MX-S7WMD [Japanese page] (2-MD, 3-CD compact mini-system with
2X CD-MD dubbing speed). (Phew! Maybe etown's just got a feeling of
sour grapes about MD's success in Japan?)
|
| 10/26: |
Stephen Shores kindly scans in the Sony MDS-JB920 user
manual.
|
| ¶ |
Mikhail Grigoriev finds several Japanese Kenwood pages for their Allora XT-7MD, Avino SG-7MD, and Avino VH-7MD systems.
|
| ¶ |
Jason Smith notes the Marantz PMD650 pro-MD portable
at Martel Electronics.
|
| 10/25: | Robert Nguyen
also contributes a detailed comparison of the Sony MZ-R90 and Sharp MD-MT831 portables.
|
| ¶ |
Todd Lynch spots Sony's MDS-PC2 for sale at Crutchfield.
|
| ¶ |
Matt Charman points out SureThing CD/MD labeling software.
|
| 10/21: | Brian Youn has
made an excellent, meticulously detailed comparison of the Sony MZ-R90 and Sharp MD-MT831
portables.
|
| ¶ |
Jason Kwan spots a Japanese announcement for Sony's PC-AV computer, featuring an FM tuner, TV
out, TOSLink optical in/out, IEEE1394 (i.LINK), USB, and integral MD
drive.
|
| ¶ |
Jeffrey Held's company Minimic will be making small microphones for
portable MD use.
|
| 10/20: | Pyoilwoong, Ravn
and Lui spot the Japanese announcement for Sony's MZ-E95 MD player, it uses a newly developed
low power LSI, ``laser coupler'' optical pickup, and built-in LiIon Polymer
battery to provide 45(!) hour playback (77hr together w/AAx1).
Features battery LED indicator, recharging stand, bass and treble
controls (with two user presets), 84x75x19.5mm, 122g. (Korean MD
page info).
|
| ¶ |
Niels Linneberg describes a nice DIY microphone for MiniDisc.
|
| ¶ |
Christo van
Rensburg notes Yamaha's MDX-595 MD deck (seemingly almost identical in function and performance to
their previous MDX-793). |
| 10/19: | Garth Colasurdo spots a CNN
article stating Sony is licensing their Memory Stick and anticipates offering a 256MB unit by 2001. |
| 10/18: | Tommy finds a brief CNET review of the Sharp MD-MT15.
|
| ¶ |
Jens Lungstad spots an MZ-R35 in an interview on a Norwegian Formula One page .
|
| 10/17: | I offer some suggestions to MD Webmasters.
|
| ¶ |
Lee has made a page about recording MP3 to MiniDisc.
|
| ¶ |
Leon Out provides detailed coverage of Sharp's
MD-MT821.
|
| ¶ |
The Korean Minidisc Page editor spots the Czerny 744XG,
a Korean soundcard with optical and coaxial digital audio I/O.
|
| 10/16: | The T-Station
reports on JVC's MX-S7WMD bookshelf system (with 2X CD/MD
dubbing), and Panasonic's SJ-MJ35 portable player.
|
| 10/15: | James Ward hacks
his way into the Aiwa AM-F65 remote and reports his findings.
|
| ¶ |
Ian McFarlane posts a review of the Sony MZ-E75 player.
|
| ¶ |
Tim Stockman says a few words about recording vinyl LPs to MD.
|
| ¶ |
Pieter Bison sends a (large) scan of the inexpensive (~US$136) Lenco
MD-3760 portable player, another Kenwood DMC-J3 variant.
|
| ¶ |
Zachary St. Martin finds Sharp's Japanese MD-MT831 PC Link page, with downloads and screen
shots of the software available for PC and Zaurus platforms.
|
| 10/14: | Huang Bao Lin
spots further Japanese info and photos from Japan Electronics Show '99 covering Sony's MD DISCAM and the tiny Hitachi/Sanyo/Olympus
iD Photo 730MB MO disc mechanism.
|
| ¶ |
Max Basile snaps
a shot of Sony's WX-C88REC (and a closeup), their (older) double DIN CD/MD in dash
recording receiver. |
| 10/13: |
James King points
out Robert's detailed Sony MZ-R90 review.
|
| ¶ |
Ipinge Agapitus
notes Minidisc product listings on CNNfn's Power
Shopper. The site provides direct links to suppliers of specific
equipment. |
| 10/12: | Ronald Molier
points out an audiophile oriented review of Sony's MDS-JA555ES in HIFI Choice
(UK).
|
| ¶ |
Peter Vos kindly submits scans of the Sony MXD-D3 user
manual. |
| 10/8: | Kim S. Andreasen
provides an interesting review of Sony's
MDS-DRE1, discussing its application to square-dance calling.
|
| ¶ |
Peter Ravn notes revealing articles at EmediaLive covering digital audio watermarking,
CD audio extraction details,
and the trials and tribulations of using Home CD recorders.
|
| ¶ |
The Korean Minidisc Page has snapshots from the Korean Electronics Show
showing Samsung's MD bookshelf system and the latest Yepp solid state players.
|
| 10/7: | Jimmy Kim points
out Sony's photo and Japanese announcement of their MDX-G77REC MD receiver, world's first single DIN
in-dash MD recorder, featuring "jog-roller" control and 10 second time-machine recording. (As
expected: Japanese FM band only).
|
| ¶ |
The T-Station scoops
us on a photo and Japanese announcement for Sony's MDS-JA555ES deck (ATRAC Type-R DSP and first
MD deck with SNR and Dynamic Range of >108dB).
|
| ¶ |
Aiwa has an English page for their
CSD-MD70 boombox, the unit features a world-band FM tuner. |
| 10/6: | Robert and Lucien Wells point out
the English page for Aiwa's AM-F80 portable recorder.
|
| ¶ |
The Korean Minidisc
Page editor spots Samsung's MAX 934MD, a CD/MD bookshelf system.
|
| ¶ |
Minidisco has information on Sharp's MD-M3 bookshelf system, with 4x CD to MD
dubbing.
|
| 10/5: | YiuKuen Yuen and a
friend spot a photo and Japanese announcement for the Aiwa AM-F80, featuring title input during recording,
digital and analog synchro start, and backlit LCD on body and remote. Dim: 78.8
x 86.8 x 18.8mm, 163g, MSRP JPY37,800. |
| 10/4: | For those with
equipment capable of TOC cloning, Peter Ravn describes several TOC tricks, including a
way of defeating SCMS by faking an analog recording. |
| 10/3: | Spencer Pablo
passes along the sad news that Sony's founder Akio Morita
has died today. CNN carries a brief biography of Morita.
|
| 10/2: | Japan-Direct finds
the Sony MZ-R90 on sale in Japan and posts several snapshots
of it.
|
| ¶ |
We give a few further details on Sony's MD-Discam.
|
| 10/1: | Adam Turner finds
photos and Japanese information for JVC's ``Cute, Colorful, Skeleton!
Fashionable teen's MD'' XM-PX3 player in pop candy colors. 18 hour NiMH
battery life, 76x17.5x80.5mm, 74g w/o batt, MSRP: JPY28,000. |
| 9/30: | An MD enthusiast
has created surprisingly complete comparison tables for modern portable MD recorders and players.
|
| ¶ |
The T-station
covers Panasonic's MD labeler (for their "MD Network"
equipped gear). Kohn also points out Panasonic's Japanese page for the unit.
|
| ¶ |
KVE notes the unusual Kenwood DMVH7 MD deck at 800.com. It can be placed
horizontally or vertically and will self-orient its display. He also
spots mention of Sony's recent MD announcements at eTown.
|
| ¶ |
Todd Owyoung finds an Aiwa AM-F70 and Sharp MD-MT15 review at eTown.
|
| 9/29: | Peter Ravn notes
Ogormans in the UK, selling MD portables.
|
| ¶ |
Paul Bigelow comes across Harmony Central's page for the Denon DN-M991R professional MD deck.
|
| ¶ |
Tim Stockman finds Superfi in the UK selling the Sony MDS-PC2 deck.
|
| ¶ |
A friend spots a [pdf] JVC brochure with photos for their MD portables
(XM-R70, XM-PX5, etc).
|
| 9/27: | Dave Willis points
out a Newswire report covering Sony USA's announcement of
their MZ-R90/E90, MXD-D3, PMC-MD55 (2x CD/MD bookshelf system) and
SDMI compliant PC to MD audio link (a $50 hardware & software package
that connects via USB or parallel port).
|
| ¶ |
R.M.Morrien has started an Aiwa AM-HX55 page, with some good photos of the
unit.
|
| ¶ |
Clover Systems has good information on the CD (and hence MD) standard's
error
correction methods.
|
| ¶ |
Patrik Hall notes Japanese info for Kenwood's DPX-9000MJ car MD receiver, double DIN
size with 4 MD and 1 CD capacity. |
| 9/24: | Art Simon
describes a stealth microphone that you can make
from an old pair of headphones for $4. |
| 9/23: | Klaus Pellinka
points out Sony's English announcement of their NW-MS7 Memory Stick
Walkman.
|
| ¶ |
Keith Lee spots a
favorable Sound on Sound review of the Sony MDS-JE520 from a pro-audio
perspective. Within it is reference to a good article on audio coding (data reduction) that
even covers the binaural masking level difference phenomenon.
|
| ¶ |
Klaus Pellinka notes a MacCentral Online comment that an ATRAC3 player for the Macintosh is lacking.
|
| 9/22: | Aaron Satz
forwards Leon's news of Panasonic's SJ-MJ75 portable player, at 61 grams
(86g w/batt) it is the world's lightest, sporting 21 hours playback
time on its rechargeable and 57 hours with an added AA cell. Allows
title information to be copied from it when coupled to an "MD Network"
equipped Panasonic MD deck.
|
| ¶ |
Peter Ravn and a
friend note the formal Japanese announcement of Sony's NW-MS7 Memory Stick Walkman and 32 & 64MB memory sticks (at JPY13,500 &
JPY22,000 resp.) that go in it. The Walkman stores up to 120 minutes
of ATRAC3 solid state audio, plays 4 hours on a charge, comes equipped
with a USB port, and sells for MSRP JPY45,000. A Sony Memory Stick press release gives further
information in Japanese.
|
| ¶ |
The T-Station covers Pioneer's Mickey-Mouse Edition MD walkman.
|
| ¶ |
Tim Chapel finds Japanese coverage of Sony's mockups of future Memory Stick Walkmans shown at IFA99, Berlin. He notes
1
2
3
4 good photos.
|
| ¶ |
Remco Poelstra has made a site offering his 6 MD labels,
with tools and templates for making and uploading your own.
|
| 9/21: | A friend points
out Japanese information and several good photos covering Sony's MD-Data2 DisCam, a prototype camcorder based
upon the new 650MB MD. Reportedly close to production, the unit was
demoed at IFA99 in Germany. Capacity is 20 minutes of MPEG video (10 minutes in high-quality mode).
|
| ¶ |
Kevin McIntyre spots good coverage of the Sony MDX-C8970 Car MD receiver at Crutchfield.com.
|
| 9/20: | Cevan Twilley
spots word that Warner
will release back-catalog material on MD (click "MiniDisc" after
the page loads).
|
| ¶ |
Dave Cruz
kindly sends in further information on the Audiophase MDP-1 player,
including a scan of its user
manual.
|
| ¶ |
Oscar Fowler sent us a clear scan (back in April!) of the Sony MDH-10 MD Data Drive
operating instructions.
|
| ¶ | Ian Horsey illustrates the Sharp MD-MS701 disassembly procedure.
|
| 9/16: | Peter Ravn finds
photos and a Japanese announcement for Sony's ZS-M35 boombox, with "10 Key" titling (akin
to alphanumeric entry on mobile phones), CD-Text transfer, World-band
FM tuner(!), and available in 4 colors. AC power only.
|
| ¶ |
Hue Beavers gives his comments on the Fisher PHMD-100 boombox.
|
| ¶ |
Helge Böhme shows an improved, removable Sharp TOC-cloning clamp.
|
| ¶ |
Ian McFarlane points out several MiniDisc
equipment reviews at Erzone.net.
|
| 9/15: | David Tamkin
passes along Helge Böhme's TOC-cloning procedure for Sharp MD-MS701 units (and
others?). All you need is some carefully placed adhesive tape.
|
| ¶ |
Carl Tsai spots the Alpine MDA-7755 car MD unit.
|
| 9/14: | Jason Kwan finds
an English description of Sony's MD equipped VAIO.
|
| ¶ |
Peter Ravn notes German MD coverage by the consumer review magazine
``TEST''. They give a table comparing several MD decks.
|
| ¶ |
Diesel spots fsn.net, selling JVC blanks cheaply in the U.K.
|
| ¶ |
Tom Fallows points out the Epinions.com MD pages, with a host of MD reviews and information.
|
| ¶ |
Aaron Satz snoops out photos and a Japanese announcement for the Kenwood DMC-L7R, a Sharp MD-MT831 clone.
|
| ¶ |
Bruce Mcmahan submits a detailed review of the Aiwa AM-F70.
|
| ¶ |
Dave Bell has made a Aiwa AM-HX50 review.
|
| ¶ |
Willy Nielsen
scans a clear photo of the Sony MZ-R90, from a Danish brochure.
|
| 9/10: | A friend kindly
renders an English translation of JVC's XM-PX5
player announcement, currently the longest running (60 hours) and
lightest (63 grams) player in the world (for one day, before Sony's
Aug. 24 MZ-E90 announcement, it was also world's smallest). |
| 9/9: | Bryan Mo discovers
Sony's ATRAC3 page featuring a downloadable
player and song clips encoded at various bit rates (you can also
register to get an encoder). ATRAC3, the audio coding for Sony's
upcoming Memorystick Walkman, gives MD equivalent quality at
128kbps (cf. MD at 292kbps) and can be easily transcoded into
standard ATRAC1.
|
| ¶ |
Busy Peter Ravn finds: Sony Deutschland's MDS-JA555ES page, with photo;
further technical info on the 730MB iD MO disc;
Traxdata's 80 minute MD;
and the German cybershop CarStereoCompionents, selling car audio, CD and MD equipment.
|
| ¶ |
Adam Lindsay notes a 1394 (a.k.a Firwire) Trade Association documentation
page containing the AV/C Disk Media Type Specification MD - audio (pdf) with many
technical details about the MD-clip format.
|
| ¶ |
Jesse McNew provides further information and a photo of the Audiophase
MDP-1 player.
|
| 9/8: | Damian Anzelmo
finds a brief Sony Europe announcement for the MXD-D3 CD/MD 4X speed dubbing deck.
|
| ¶ |
Katami spots a Japanese PC Watch article and photos for Tokyo's PC
EXPO that covers Sony's VAIO prototype with built in audio MD drive. The
drive connects through a control A1 port, audio I/O is via
uncompressed S/PDIF.
|
| ¶ |
Marco Rossen points out a good comparison of modern Sony decks at Video-Direct.
|
| 9/7: | Dave Cruz scans a
Best Buy flyer showing the Audiophase MDP1, an "off brand" MD player for $100.
|
| ¶ |
Priit Varik finds
an English press release for the Sony MDS-DL1 downloading MD deck, with firewire
interface.
|
| ¶ |
MDCity (Australia)
offers MD equipment at competitive prices.
|
| 9/5: | Ian Heitmans puts
together a preliminary page for the Blaupunkt Dallas RMD 169 car MD deck.
|
| ¶ |
Mini Disc Web
(Hong Kong) and MinidiscDirect.net (Australia) open for business. |
| 9/3: | A friend kindly
translates Sony's MZ-R90/R91/E90
announcement into English.
|
| ¶ |
Aaron Satz finds photos and Japanese announcement for Sharp's MD-ST531/631 MD players as well as their index page for the units. Units feature docking
station, world's longest battery life on rechargeable cell (27 hr),
first MD players with kanji title display, dim: 71.7 x 14.2 x 79.5mm, 115g (w/batt).
|
| ¶ |
Peter Ravn notes Sony's Walkman Anniversary Contest, tell an early Walkman
story and win an MZ-R55.
|
| ¶ |
Mark Miller points out a handy URL: Ebay's MD auctions.
|
| 9/1: | Peter De Bonte
notes that "9Alm@", a battery wholesaler (not line noise!), is offering
MiniDisc
LiION batteries. |
| 8/31: | Mike Gerber points
out Sony Europe's MZ-R90 announcement, the unit is due
out at the end of November in Germany.
|
| ¶ |
Peter Ravn notes Sharp USA's MD-MT15 announcement that states they'll have the
world's first MD portable recorder available for under $200.
|
| ¶ |
Peter has also made a page describing how to clone a 74' disc into an 80' one.
|
| ¶ |
Brian Beyer catches us napping, mentioning Sony's WX-C100REC and WX-C88REC (see also the Japanese announcement) double-DIN in-dash units with
MD editing and CD/AM/FM recording capability, including 10 second time
machine recording (sadly, Japanese FM band only).
|
| ¶ |
J. Kirk mentions Midiman's CO3 format converter that translates digital audio
between AES/EBU, S/PDIF coax, and TOSlink formats, as well as allowing
you to set the SCMS bits to your liking. Yih-Chun Hu then finds it at
Zzounds.com for US$170.
|
| ¶ |
Bazza sketches out a PC
link interface for an MZ-R55, he also offers a free winamp titling
plug-in to go with it.
|
| ¶ |
Mark Bausch points out a 200GB optical disc that Sharp and the Japanese
Science and Technology Agency say is in the lab.
|
| 8/30: | Mario Beichel
spots a German article on the IFA (broadcast exhibition) covering Sony's demonstration of an MD Camcorder that
uses MiniDisc2 to store 20 minutes of MPEG2 video on a 650MB
disc. Recorder size is comparable to the small DV camcorders, but
recording quality is closer to Hi8. Video can be played back on
built-in LCD. Unit incorporates video editing functions similar to
those available on audio MD equipment. (Laser wavelength: MD2: 650nm,
cf. MD: 780nm). |
| 8/26: | Terje Lassen
describes how to build an IR remote interface for a Sony MZ-R50.
|
| ¶ |
Urs Naef introduces CompilationMaker, add-on software for CATraxx, a
music library management package. He also describes how
he makes MD covers.
|
| 8/25: | Pototo plucks
another porti: photos and Japanese info for the JVC XM-PX5, 21hr playback on NiMH (30 on AA, 55 on
both), 71 x 14.4 x 78mm, 88g w/batt, 63g neat.
|
| ¶ |
Chris Stanley
encounters MD based audio
tours at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology.
|
| ¶ |
Robert has made a close and careful Sharp MD-MT831 review.
|
| ¶ |
Peter Ravn points out Sanyo's announcement of the first SDMI-compliant,
secure, portable digital music player based on Liquid Audio software
and Texas Instruments digital signal processors.
|
| 8/24: | Pototo Piperrak
and Peter Ravn point out photos and Japanese information for the Sony MZ-R90, -R91, and -E90 portables. Units feature
newly designed optical pickup (50% smaller and 43% lighter than
previous model), new LSI, and ``one-touch'' disc eject. MZ-R90: world's
smallest recorder (78.9 x 17.3 x 72mm, 105 g [148 g w/batt],
MZ-R91: 78.9 x 18 x 72mm, 110 g [153 g w/batt]), both with 14.5hr record /
29hr playback time (NiMH+AA), ``jog lever'' for
editing and titling, ``name bank'' function to store up to 600
characters of frequently used title and artist name information
in the unit for easier titling, digital record level control,
and a unique ``joint text'' recording function that copies audio and
text data digitally from similarly equipped CD players (e.g. Sony
D-E01). E90: world's smallest player (78.4 x 13.5 x 71.5mm, 70 g [113
g w/batt]), world's longest battery life (56hr playback [NiMH+AA]),
magnesium alloy body.
|
| 8/23: | Damian uncovers
Sony's MXD-D3 at Crutchfield, a CD/MD deck featuring high
speed (4X) dubbing of CD to MD.
|
| ¶ |
Colin Deng spots a
photo and Japanese info for Denon's
DMD-S10, an audiophile class MD deck with 110dB SNR, 4 digital
inputs (2 coax, 2 optical) and keyboard input terminal. MSRP:
JPY230,000.
|
| ¶ |
Dave Bell posts a review of the Sharp MD-X8 bookshelf system.
|
| ¶ |
Graham Baker points out Sony
headphones incorporating a memorystick player (scroll to the bottom of the
page).
|
| ¶ |
Peter Ravn finds
Pricelick.com, selling MD portables, including the
Sony MZ-R33 (apparent rebadged MZ-R30).
|
| 8/20: | The MD Cave has
conducted an interview with Minidisco, one of our sponsors. |
| 8/19: | Fung, Tsang, and Stenberg
spot the Aiwa AM-HX55 MD player, sporting groovy colors, a 50
hour battery life (NiMH+AA) and 25 track program play mode.
|
| ¶ |
Heiko Debschitz notes photos and German pages for Aiwa's AM-F65/70 series in
silver,
blue,
green and
champagne.
|
| ¶ |
John Chrapowicki discovers on Pioneer UK's car audio page that any P-series MD
player unit can control a DAB tuner. He also finds Panasonic's CQ-MRX777 in dash AM/FM/CD/MD page.
|
| ¶ |
Pototo Piperrak points proudly to Sony's photos and Japanese
announcement of the CMT-J3MD bookshelf MD system.
|
| ¶ |
Starmount (UK) is now selling HiSpace 80 minute blanks, you can get 5p off
any blank if you mention the MDCP.
|
| 8/18: | Matthew Charman
has made a page useful to folks recording MP3s on MD. |
| 8/17: | Simon Barker
spots further word that Sony will begin selling audio over the Web by year's
end.
|
| ¶ |
Charlie Jones stumbles across a box of Yamaha manuals: ones for the MD8 and MD4s multitrackers, as well as
a colorful MD8 brochure.
|
| ¶ |
Ron LaPedis notes Sharp's World Wide repair center listing.
|
| 8/16: | Aaron Satz finds
Onkyo's photos and Japanese announcement of the MD-P30 portable player (thought to be a clone of the
shortly available Sharp MD-MT531/631 units). Unit features 26 hr
playback on LiIon battery (24 on AA, 50 on both), aluminum body, MD
jacket size (79.5w x 14.2h x 71.7d mm, 115g w/bat).
|
| ¶ |
Peter Ravn points out TechnikDirekt in Germany, selling a variety of MiniDisc equipment.
|
| ¶ |
Pete Williams has made a small MD Trading
Site.
|
| 8/13: | Marco Rossen spots
another MDS-JA20ES review, this one at Hifichoice.co.uk,
where they have reviews of a dozen various MD recorders. |
| 8/12: | Mark Corner has
made a Kenwood MD titling program that uses the $180 Slinke IR
interface from Nirvus.
|
| ¶ |
Steve Jess notes a generally positive Sony MDS-JA20ES review by Michael Fremer
(Analog and LP advocate).
|
| ¶ |
Scott Legg finds a CD/MD/DAT format comparison on Compare.net.
|
| ¶ |
The T-Station has assembled several images of
blank MDs.
|
| 8/11: | Aaron Satz points
out Sony's photos and Japanese announcement of the MZ-E75 MD player with ``one-touch eject'' (disc pops
out with a single button push), dual headphone jacks, 8-step bass and
treble controls (with two remembered settings) and 42 hour battery
life (16 on NiMH alone).
|
| ¶ |
Japan-Direct posts several clear
snapshots of the Sharp MD-MT831.
|
| ¶ |
Nigel Pond has made a detailed review of several digital format
converters.
|
| 8/10: | Andreas Fässler of Balzers Process
Systems describes their Multi Sprinter inline sputtering system, capable of
producing 1500 MiniDiscs per hour (twice their previous record). A product page shows photos of the unit. |
| 8/6: | Edward Neth points
out Aiwa's photos and English page for their CSD-MD50 boombox.
|
| ¶ |
Seamus Dunphy and James Cohen note a Sunday Times (UK) review of Panasonic's SJ-MJ70 MD player.
|
| ¶ |
Hynek Syrovatka has made EasyTitle Version
2, an adapter for Sony deck titling on a PS/2 keyboard. This
version sports several new features, including an optional serial port,
for PC controlled titling.
|
| 8/4: | Sony's Japanese DHC-MD575 bookshelf system announcement touts the unit's
"Scale Factor Edit" function. With it, MD recording levels can be
changed after recordings are made (by adjusting the ATRAC data's scale
factors), allowing track volumes to be matched and abrupt track
endpoints to be smoothly faded. Unit incorporates 5MD/5CD changer,
MSRP: JPY 81,000.
|
| ¶ |
MTT and a friend spot Sharp's photos and Japanese announcement of
their MD-F200
boombox, sporting two MD drives, CD and cassette. Unit features
high speed (2X) CD->MD and MD->MD copying and world band FM
tuner. MSRP: JPY 68,000.
|
| ¶ |
Kohn Liu has started The T-Station with MD product information and
news. He conveniently allows you to add comments about
equipment and retailers. |
| 8/3: | Several readers and
MTT scout Sharp's pictures and Japanese announcement of their MD-MT831 and MD-MT832 portable recorders, Sharp claims
7 World's First's for the
unit.
|
| ¶ |
Deja.com is holding
an MD
equipment rating poll. |
| 8/2: | Huang Bao Lin
finds further info on Olympus, Sanyo and Hitachi's 730MB, 50mm mini-MO. It's expected to see a 2X
capacity increase using Hitachi's MAMMOS, and a 5X increase through
use of a blue laser.
|
| ¶ |
Joseph McLean spots
a TWICE article stating Sony is ``surprised and dismayed'' about online
retail sales at Amazon.com. Sony is reportedly announcing an online
sales policy within 30 days.
|
| 8/1: | Nick Paul kindly
provides a Sharp MD-MT821 user manual in
PDF format.
|
| ¶ |
Chris Gori points out Sony's XA-107 aux input adapter for Unilink car stereos
allowing perfect connection of MD portables to a Sony car stereo.
|
| 7/30: | Eric Whitney scans
in the Sony MDS-JE630 user manual.
|
| 7/29: | MD Data is still
kicking: Brian Wiklem spots a photo and Japanese announcement of
Sony's PDF-W77 ``Data Eata'' document storage and retrieval
PDA featuring twin MD-Data drives, built-in scanner, and backlit
screen. It will store up to 1000 A4 (i.e. letter size) documents, can
scan B4 size documents, and links to a PC with the PDL-K77 kit. MSRP:
JPY180,000.
|
| ¶ |
Larry McMorrn at MaxFire kindly submits a scan of the Sony MZ-E55 manual.
|
| ¶ |
Jim Coon notes a TDK blurb stating that MD has been accepted as a
recording medium and that 125 million MD blanks were sold in 1998.
|
| ¶ |
Mystic Minidisc offers MD blanks at low prices.
|
| 7/28: | Albert Khakshour
spots Olympus and Sanyo's announcement and photo of their tiny (50mm) 730MB MO disc, intended for digital
movie and still cameras. Charles Ratcliffe also passes along a Yahoo
Finance news brief about it.
|
| ¶ |
Gabriel White contributes a handsome JVC XM-R70 review.
|
| ¶ |
Jan Lindstrom reports that Stromson
Trading in Sweden sells Hi-Space and JVC blanks.
|
| 7/26: | Spencer Pablo
finds a short Walkman retrospective article mentioning MiniDisc at
MSNBC. |
| 7/24: | Bob Berardino
spots a new price point for MD recorders, Shopping.com's Sharp MD-MS702 is US$130(!) after
rebate.
|
| ¶ |
Axel Stenberg has a stylish MD page at bounce.to/md.
|
| 7/23: | Joseph McLean finds a
TWICE article covering Sony's Voice Activated MDX-C8970 car MD deck, you train it
by saying the names of your FM stations. He also sends in the Sony MZ-R5ST exploded views and parts
list, snarfed from the 1999 Service Manual CD (sadly no longer accessable,
but on which we also found the MZ-R50 views and parts
list). To readers who managed to find a service manual I missed,
I'd be delighted to receive a copy! |
| 7/22: | Adam Turner spots
Aiwa's AM-HX50 MD player, with 50 hours battery life
it is the smallest, lightest and longest running unit yet made.
|
| ¶ |
Louis has made an enthusiastic MD page with several equipment
reviews.
|
| ¶ |
Toshi is 13 today!
|
| ¶ |
Dave Chambers shares his experiences with his Sony MDS-JB930 MD
deck.
|
| ¶ |
Ross Harmes has made a site for his 17 labels,
one for each of his MD recordings.
|
| ¶ |
Aaron Satz spots low cost MD portable sales, via credit card, and with
post paid 1 year warranty coverage at HyperJack, in Osaka. He also finds VIP, a Russian MD dealer
and information page.
|
| 7/15: | Robert contributes a
careful review of the Panasonic SJ-MR100 portable MD recorder. |
| 7/14: | Dito finds Sony
Deutschland's MDH-10 drivers page.
|
| ¶ |
Davin Patton
reports that Amazon's Electronics Site is selling Sharp MD
portables. Davin has also started MiniDisc Technology Today, featuring MD news and
articles. |
| 7/13: | Jackpot! A
reader points out gorgeous PDF service manuals for the Sony MZ-E44/45, MZ-E33,
and MZ-R55 (with service mode and self
diagnostics, accessed via a magic front panel sequence), the MDX-7970, MDX-5970 and MDX-65, and a new machine, the
MDS-SD1 (an MDS-JE520 class machine that
mates to an HCD-SD1 CD/Receiver to form
the CMT-SD1 bookshelf system). Sony Europe's CMT-SD1 press release explains
further. The service manuals were found on Sony's 1999 Service Manual CD.
|
| ¶ |
We freshen our look into the future (comments welcome).
|
| ¶ |
Peter Ravn finds photos and German information for the Sony DKR-700P, an MD data system for still video
image storage. The text includes mention of the MDH-10 data drive, as
an accessory.
|
| ¶ |
Peter also spots the Technics SJMD100 home MD deck.
|
| 7/12: | Thomas Meier
describes how to build a PC interface for a Sharp MD-MS70x machine, allowing
you to title (mostly) from your PC. |
| 7/10: | Zachary St. Martin
finds Aiwa's XR-MD110 bookshelf system, with world-band FM
tuner. |
| 7/9: | Tao Pan and Adam
Turner spot a photo and Japanese info for Sony's DHC-MD888W bookshelf system with two 5 MD changers
and a 5 CD changer, it also features a PCLK-PX1 PC interface
connector.
|
| ¶ |
Ben has made a page for the Sharp MD-MS722 that includes information
about getting into its service mode.
|
| 7/8: | Wes Tewksbury
points out the JVC XM-448 MD Deck and notes that it is available
for under $200 at Wholesaleproducts.com. The unit includes a full QWERTY
remote.
|
| ¶ | Simon Gardner notes a Telegraph (UK) MD article that states ``the MiniDisc
audio format has finally managed to establish itself as the portable
digital audio recording format of choice.'' Within the article are
capsule reviews of recent portables.
|
| 7/7: | Peter Ravn spots
word of a joint venture by Lucent and Lydstrom to introduce a
high quality home audio archiving system for under $1000
this year, based upon ePAC (dubbed the SongBank MZ3-5000, they've chosen an interesting
nomenclature!).
|
| ¶ |
Jari Yli-Hietanen has a summary page highlighting modern audio coder technical points, he includes
info on PAC and ATRAC.
|
| ¶ |
Dan Frakes points out the $150 portable MD recorder at Shopping.com (Sharp
MD-MS702, after rebate).
|
| 7/6: | Rodney Atkins
contributes the Canadian JVC XU301BK user
manual, in French and English.
|
| ¶ |
Adam Turner finds Sony's Japanese DHC-MD373 and DHC-MDX10 bookshelf systems
announcement and photos. The units sport improved usability and
digital rec. level control (and 76-90MHz FM tuner, sadly).
|
| 7/5: | A brief
Kenwood brochure (pdf) from Comdex
gives preliminary info for their IEEE 1394 fitted DM-9090 MD deck. |
| 7/4: | Tom Daniels gives a
pictoral description of how to add 4 minutes capacity
to a 74' blank. |
| 7/2: | The Sony MZ-E80 MD
Walkman is part of the Sony Walkman's 20th anniversary, even Megumi Okina (who will also be 20 next month) is
helping celebrate. |
| 6/30: | G.E.B. week: Articles from ABC News and Apple cover Minidisco, our sponsor.
|
| 6/29: | Casio's MDH-505
CD/MD/Cass/Radio mini-boombox will also run up to 11 hours on
batteries.
|
| ¶ |
A friend spots Kosa-P's thorough Japanese MD pages listing current portables and decks (within which is a photo-filled MDS-JA22ES review).
|
| ¶ |
Matthew Dolan has a page covering the MZ-R30/35's test mode in detail.
|
| ¶ |
Katie DeYoung spots one of Memorex's first MD units.
|
| ¶ |
Jeff Heffernan finds pre-recorded MDs being sold at Townsend Records (UK).
|
| 6/26: | Katie DeYoung
finds the Memorex MDX3800, a CD/MD deck.
|
| ¶ |
Jim Coon finds a
BE Radio Field Report for the Denon DN995R.
|
| 6/25: | Peter Ravn spots
MusicOnMiniDisc.com (US),
selling MD portables.
|
| ¶ |
Ted Ching finds that Creative Labs' Livewire
2.0 includes direct support for digital MD recording.
|
| 6/22: | Canford Audio (UK) sells
individual MD
jewel cases which match the dimensions of standard CD cases.
|
| ¶ |
Florian Rist contributes the EEPROM settings for modern
Sharp portables.
|
| ¶ |
Alan Berger finds TDK USA's introduction
to MD recording. (Page takes over screen on Netscape/Macintosh!)
|
| ¶ |
Jay comes across an ASCII Corp. (Japanese) page showing the Bose MDW-1 MD deck.
|
| 6/21: | A friend spots a
photo and Japanese info for JVC's Windows CE connectable XM-R70 portable (and their press release, including a clear picture of the display). The display shows
their MD controller software, which allows titling (in
Roman/Kanji/Kana), track editing, and label printing.
|
| ¶ |
Ron Betcher kindly scans and OCR's the entire Sharp MD-MT821 user manual
into .pdf format (individual pages are also available).
|
| ¶ |
Dylan Ponath comes across
yamp3, the I-Jam
portable MP3 player, it sports a built-in FM radio and is fully
Macintosh compatable.
|
| ¶ |
Bill Sturrock points out a relatively objective Gadget News
article on MD and the Sony MZ-E40.
|
| ¶ |
Peter Wood has made a nice Sharp MD-MS701/702 page.
|
| 6/18: | John B. and Hans
Frey point out JVC America's MD page featuring all their modern
portables.
|
| 6/17: | Peter Ravn notes
today's Court ruling that okays Internet MP3 music
recorders.
|
| ¶ |
MiniDisc Now registers two new websites: Minidiscchat.com and Minidisctoday.com.
|
| ¶ |
Starmount (UK) is now selling Samsung blank MiniDiscs.
|
| 6/16: | Luis finds a Sharp MD-MS722 review on CNET.
|
| ¶ |
Mike Lambert
points out Audio ReQuest a home HiFi MP3 player that's AHRA
compliant (Zdnet also gives it brief mention). Due this fall for $600. |
| 6/14: | Cevan Twilley
finds two music-on-demand developments: Virgin plans to offer downloading to MD, CD and DVD
at in-store kiosks beginning next month in Colombus OH, and Sony will begin a similar kiosk system in NY and LA
in September. |
| 6/13: | Ralf Kuchenhart
points out Kenwood Deutschland's page for their KMD-PS970R car MD deck (aka KMD-X91 in the US).
|
| ¶ |
Richard Anderson spots the Alesis MasterLink ML9600, a CD-R unit with built in
hard drive, allowing MD like editing operations before the CD is
recorded (MSRP $1700).
|
| 6/11: | Simon Lapointe
spots Kenwood Japan's English pages, giving good coverage of
their MD product line.
|
| ¶ |
Mo Jaquith contributes an extensive
review of the Sony MZ-EP11.
|
| 6/10: | Damian D. Anzelmo
notes Sony USA now has information on their 1999 products.
|
| ¶ |
Heiko Debschitz finds further details and a photo for Sharp's
MD-MT20.
|
| 6/9: | Zachary St. Martin
finds Aiwa USA's 1999 MD products.
|
| ¶ |
Rob spots mention of the MDCP in The Wire (UK).
|
| ¶ |
Damian Norton
points out the Kenwood MD-203 home MD deck. |
| 6/8: | Audio-Design (UK)
offers the Digimate S/PDIF <-> Optical format converter. |
| 6/7: | Anton van Kinderen
has spotted a Dutch advertisement for the Sharp
MD-MT15 portable recorder and is seeking further information.
|
| ¶ |
Peter Reeves points out
the new site for Sony Disc
Manufacturing, which has a good deal of technical information for artists producing MiniDiscs.
|
| ¶ |
Peter Quodling notes that CDNow lists MDs in their own category (and Jeff
Heffernan provides links to 8 genres
of pre-rec MDs at CDNow).
|
| 6/6: | Japan Direct posts
clear
photos and English information for Panasonic's SJ-MR100 portable
recorder. |
| 6/4: | Ken Chan spots a
photo and further Japanese info for Panasonic's SJ-SW90MD portable MD player (16h
playback on rechargeable, headphone amp: 13mw+13mw). |
| 6/3: | Peter Ravn spots
Sony DADC's MiniDisc Handbook
(in PDF format), a technical guide for pre-recorded MD producers (tidbit:
a pre-recorded MD can be up to 78m16s long).
|
| ¶ |
Amerinet Electronics sells modern
portable MD gear and accepts credit cards.
|
| ¶ |
John Sim points out AV-Store.co.uk, selling a good collection of Sony MD
gear (use search, product "minidisc").
|
| 6/1: | A.J. Aylestock
describes how to add digital coax input
to Sony MDS-JE510 units. |
| 5/31: | Mark Bausch finds
the MD
Report Junior, for professionals using MD portables. He also comes
across a brief blurb on Sony's IEEE 1394 chip with data encryption (Sony's
description of the LSI chip)
|
| ¶ |
Jens Lungstad spots CNET's Sony MZ-R55 review
|
| ¶ |
Thabenksta has started a MiniDisc
page for newcomers to the format.
|
| ¶ |
Geoffrey Bakker notes Micmic.com in Hong Kong, selling MD
portables at good prices.
|
| 5/27: | Hugh McGuiness
finds Prerecorded Classical
MDs from Naxos.
|
| ¶ |
Kevin Turner comes across Lou Moore's MD Trading site, giving
surprisingly good coverage of Sony's 1999 MD product line. |
| 5/26: | Mark Bausch spots
the Voquette Netlink, a software package for recording
Internet audio content to MiniDisc. |
| 5/25: | Mark Mattson
writes an interesting Yamaha MD-8 review with a perspective from the trenches.
|
| ¶ |
A CNN article concludes that Portable MP3 is not ready for prime
time.
|
| ¶ |
Mark Agrusti spots
Tapewarehouse.com, selling various brand MD blanks
and cases at reasonable prices. |
| 5/20: | J.J. finds
information on the Onkyo
FR-V5 bookshelf system. |
| 5/19: | Ira Schwartz and
friends find Japanese info and photos and Sony's announcement of their MZ-E80 portable player: 81 x
18.7 x 83.5mm, 100grams (body only) and 42 hours playback on AA +
gumpack rechargeable. |
| 5/18: | A friend spots photos and Japanese info for
JVC's XM-R70 portable recorder, RC-MD33 CD/MD boombox, and MX-S5MD 3CD/MD bookshelf system. |
| 5/16: | Max spots a Sony Europe announcement of the MDS-PC2 that briefly
mentions the MDS-JA555ES and MDS-JB730QS machines. |
| 5/16: | Desmond Ng spots a
photo and Japanese information for Sony's modern MD decks, including
the MDS-PC2, which has a PC component form
factor. |
| 5/13: | Peter Hull reports
a Wall Street Journal article
stating that Sony Music will sell `Virtual Singles' using technology
from Microsoft. |
| 5/12: | Dave Helgerson
finds a brief Electronic News article discussing MP3's threat to MiniDisc. |
| 5/11: | Oscar Setiawan
spots a photo and Japanese info for Panasonic's SJ-MR100, world's smallest (84x77x18.9mm,
136g) and longest running (NiMH+AAx1: rec: 12h, pb: 25h) portable
recorder employing a newly developed single beam type optical
pickup. And Iein (via Grega Simenc) spots Panasonic's Japanese page for the unit, due out in
June. MSRP: JPY 46,000. |
| 5/9: | Ian McFarlane
keeps at it, making a review of the Aiwa AM-ST40 portable MD player.
|
| ¶ |
Zachary St. Martin finds Aiwa's XR-MD500 3CD/3MD bookshelf system.
|
| 5/8: | Adam Turner spots
photos and Japanese info for Sanyo's MD-U4 Dachshund inspired AM/FM/MD
boombox with PC-link connector that operates on AC or AAx6. (Sadly,
Japanese FM band only).
|
| ¶ |
Ian McFarlane reviews the Sony MZ-E70 portable MD player.
|
| ¶ |
Eric Whitney spots MD blanks for US$2 at Best Buy. |
| 5/7: | John Martinko spots
Pioneer's Happy Tune MD system, ``for boys and girls
in their teens''. |
| 5/6: | Aaron Thieme spots
news of RCA's
(!) Lyra MP3 portable, which will accept CompactFlash or an IBM 340MB
Microdrive. |
| 5/4: | Zachary St. Martin
finds English info on Aiwa's XR-MD100 bookshelf system.
|
| ¶ |
Chris Marcoux finds
further format conversion from Hosa
Technology. |
| 5/3: | Ian Scott spots a
digital
audio signal format converter from Hoontech. |
| 5/2: | David Hawkins
reports that Neato Corp has released MiniDisc Templates for their MediaFace
software. |
| 5/1: | Mike Blossom spots
a Mac Central article on Minidisco (Apple's follow up to
the New Media News piece on them).
|
| ¶ |
Lawrence Gough
describes how to modify a Sony CDP-CX200 CD jukebox to provide
TOSlink optical output. |
| 4/30: | Solid State audio
heats up: Alan Hughes sends in a newspaper clipping of the Solid Audio Player from NTT and Kobe Steel,
due to debut in Japan for $250. (Lance Allen points out a detailed article on SolidAudio).
|
| ¶ |
Servired adds a leather pouch for 10 MDs to their line.
|
| 4/29: | Chris Cooper has
created a MiniDisc jacket label template for use with Filemaker Pro,
it prints 4 labels at a time on Avery label sheets. |
| 4/28: | Peter Ravn spots a
slew of goodies: Denon's pro DN-M991R
[pdf brochure]
and home DMD-800
[pdf brochure]
decks, Maxell's web-based MD label maker (also spotted by Kevin Turner),
and MDImport,
selling Sony blanks in Denmark.
|
| ¶ |
Aaron Thieme finds
further word on Samsung's Yepp MP3 portables, one model provides
speech recording capability. |
| 4/26: | Kelvin Raharja
spots a photo and Japanese info for Panasonic's SJ-SW90MD portable player featuring
``clip on headphones'' and titanium body (81.9 x 90 x 20.2mm, 118g).
|
| ¶ |
Chu Moy hosts a good headphone site at headwize.com.
|
| ¶ |
Thomas Phan finds
JVC's CES announcement stating that their 3 latest
portables are headed for the US. |
| 4/25: | Russ 'n Stuff in
North Wales (UK) offers blank and prerecorded MDs. |
| 4/22: | e.Digital, Lucent
and TI announce secure Internet audio downloading based upon Bell Lab's
EPAC audio coder (which gives CD transparent quality at 11:1 compression).
|
| ¶ |
Larry McMorrn points out Sony Japan's MZ-R37 tourist model page.
|
| 4/21: | Servired MD Cases gets a new URL and
redesigned home page. |
| 4/20: | Al Jones spots an
interesting New Media News article on Minidisco, our sponsor. |
| 4/17: | Shan Wei Goh spots
news that Sharp will be the first to produce portable MiniDisc
recorders outside Japan when it begins production of the MD-MT20 and MD-MT15 series in Malaysia next month.
|
| ¶ |
David Jansen reports his experiences with the Prospec MSP730 SCMS stripper.
|
| 4/16: | David scans an
English article on the V-Sync music vending machine that records purchased
tracks onto MD, due out in Tokyo shortly.
|
| ¶ |
John Tocher finds
Hoontech's $40 soundcard with coax and optical
S/PDIF output. |
| 4/15: | Zachary St. Martin
finds a snapshot and info on Sony's Memory Stick portable
audio player.
|
| ¶ |
As previously
anticipated, Phil Hanna notes the availablilty of Neato MiniDisc Labels.
|
| ¶ |
Jaime Balli uses OmniRemote on his
Palm Pilot for titling MDs on an IR compatable deck.
|
| ¶ |
Peter Ravn notes one user's
'conversion' to Minidisk [sic] for dance-calling.
|
| 4/14: | Aaron Thieme has
created interesting auditory
collages from MD field recordings he made during travels in Vietnam. |
| 4/11: | William
Hollingworth has written MiniDisc manager software for PC control of Sony
SLINK equipped MD decks. |
| 4/9: | Robert Nguyen has
made a detailed comparison of the top MD portable recorders.
|
| ¶ |
David Jansen posts some shots of a
range of 80 minutes blanks.
|
| ¶ |
A few readers point out an interesting CNN
article on RIAA's rival to the MP3.
|
| 4/8: | Guy Churchill
submits the results of his serious
listening test comparsion of CD, MD, MP3, VQF and RealAudio. |
| 4/7: | Huynh Chieu Dang
finds word that Sony has a non-MP3 solid state ``NetMan'' due out within a year. |
| 4/6: | Samsung UK (XIOD,
T:0181-2323235, F:0181-2323227) are seeking UK distributors for
their blank MD media, contact Ning
Ning for further information.
|
| ¶ |
Alain Li sends in a clear photo of the Sanyo MDG-R3.
|
| ¶ |
Nick Hammond tells us about his MZ-R50
homepage
|
| ¶ |
Shawn Lin uncovers
Pioneer USA's MEH-P5000 page. |
| 4/5: | Sony reports: Cassette Walkman turns 20, MD walkman is its logical heir.
|
| ¶ |
Ryan Dumlao notes
that Sony's US MD page has been updated to include the
MZ-R37 porti, among others. [While there, note also Sony's abbreviated
version of the MD community's FAQ(!)] |
| ¶ |
Katie DeYoung points out Aiwa's English page for their XR-H550MD 3MD/3CD bookshelf system.
|
| ¶ |
David Patton finds
Sharp's photos and Japanese information for their MD-SS323 player. |
| 4/1: |
Sony gives
up on MD! Pushes MD-CC instead. |
| 3/31: |
David Brock spots a ZDNet article on Sharp's 6GB MD plans.
|
| ¶ |
Peter Ravn finds word of Sharp's MD-SS323 player, in English.
|
| ¶ |
Oscar Fowler comes across a photo and Japanese info for Casio's
MDH-505 boombox, it apparently runs on DC as well.
|
| ¶ |
Tim Silverman as written a brief intro to MD.
|
| 3/30: | David Jansen
spots Japanese info on Sharp's MD-F11 Cassette/MD/CD boombox.
|
| ¶ |
Kristian Widjaja notes an Audio Warehouse page covering Sony's MDX-C5970 and MDX-C7970 car MD units.
|
| ¶ |
Leon (via Satz) comes across Japanese info for Sharp's MD-SS323 player featuring 13 different
equalization curves (POP, ROCK, JAZZ, etc.), bass and treble
adjustment in 7 steps each, plus 3 delay (surround/reverb?)
settings. Large jog dial on body for for mode, tone, and track
selection. Backlight on remote and main unit. New thin style slot in
mechanism. 85.5 x 21.3 x 76.2mm, 182g, JPY40,000.
|
| 3/29: | Serge Schonckert
finds JVC Belgium's page for the XM-R70, XM-P55 and XM-PJ1 portables. |
| 3/28: | William
Dashwood points out USB based digital audio interfaces from Opcode,
shown at NAMM '99.
|
| ¶ |
We add a table entry for the Sony MDS-DL1.
|
| 3/27: | An MD Kiosk
Brad Johnson kindly provides a March '99
Trendy article covering Music Press on
Demand, a system that allows one to create custom MDs in Japanese music shops.
|
| ¶ |
A friend spots further photos and Japanese info on Sony's system for ATRAC
download by satellite. (I would be delighted if someone undertook the
translation of this page [but if so, please let me know before starting]).
|
| 3/26: | Satellite Download Deputy Simenc
finds Japanese news and Sony's announcement of their MDS-DL1 MD deck
that connects with a satellite receiver for direct ATRAC download and
recording of selected tracks at 4X realtime. Features: 2 FireWire
(IEEE1394) Ports, ATRAC Type-R, Dim: 150 x 65 x 245mm, 1.3 kg JPY
59,000, (Satellite receiver system: JPY62,000 (DST-MS9 + SAS-MS9SET)).
Available from 6/21, for satellite service in Japan only. |
| 3/25: | Kohn Liu spots
photos and Japanese info for the novel MDG-P3
player from Sanyo, 21 hr playback on dual
NiMH gumpacks (31 hr with add'l AA cell). Unit allows you to
permanently set its greeting and power off messages using a titled
disc and special button presses. |
| 3/24: | Ron points out a
Sony Shockwave Flash demo of their DigitalMediaPark
software that allows you to organize tracks of CD, MP3, MIDI,
etc. audio and record them to MD.
|
| ¶ |
Planetclick asks you to rate us: 
|
| 3/23: | A Korean company
has produced a custom CD vending machine. (Will the West ever catch up?)
|
| ¶ |
Planet Click rates us most
techy site (look near the bottom of the left hand column).
|
| 3/21: |
Chris Domenghino
spots a Swiss-German Page for Technics' SJ-MD100 MD deck and some of their other MD
units.
|
| ¶ |
Jeff Heffernan has started a page for the non-technical pursuit of minidisc purchasing.
|
| ¶ |
We add an entry for Sharp's
MD-SS321, et al.
|
| 3/19: |
David Jansen notes Axia joins in the 80
minute blanks market.
|
| 3/15: | Vernon Royale
locates the Yamaha WF192D soundcard with optical S/PDIF out.
|
| ¶ |
Several readers note the imminent release of the previously announced
Creative Digital
I/O Card for the SB Live (incl. Value) soundcards.
|
| 3/12: | For MP3 fans, Ted
Rees notes a player
for Windows CE devices.
|
| ¶ |
Eirik spots an Aiwa AM-F70 review at md.stomped.com.
|
| 3/11: | Peter Ravn notes TDK's English
80
min MD announcement that also mentions MD market figures.
|
| ¶ |
Mike Moore has discovered the Xitel
Storm Platinum, a US$79.00 sound card with TOSlink outputs.
|
| 3/10: | Jim Smith points
out a Sharp MD-MS702 vs. Rio comparison in which the Rio
suffers, principally for its sound quality.
|
| ¶ |
Shawn Lin spots a photo and info on Panasonic's CQ-MRX777, a single DIN, in-dash, CD/MD receiver.
|
| 3/9: | Elliot Bancroft
notes Aiwa's English AM-ST40 page. |
| 3/8: | Jonathan Rice
finds Sony Europe's 80 min MD blank announcement.
|
| ¶ | Mark Bausch spots word that Sony will cut 10% of its work force. |
| 3/7: |
On the alternative MP3 front, a reader finds an interesting article from Wired Online on the new
VQF compression format, plus a pic of the
SolidAudio
player which is based on this 18:1 compression system.
|
| ¶ |
Rudi spots the new Yamaha MD4S multitrack on the
Yamaha
Germany MD4S page. The English
MD4S page on the Yamaha Japan site list features such as non-linear
editing, a jog/shuttle infinite-turn dial, ATRAC 4.5, and
degredation-less digital ping-pong/bounce-down.
|
| 3/6: | Iein (via Simenc)
spots a photo and Japanese info for Aiwa's AM-ST40 ``Outdoor type'' MD player, featuring
corner protection, handstrap, 40 sec ESP, backlit remote, 8 hr play on
rechargeable, 21 hr play w/AAx1, program play, 90.1 x 89.1 x 21.7mm,
136g, JPY32,000, intro: 3/21.
|
| ¶ |
Tapeworld.com
offers Sony, Maxell, JVC and HHB blanks.
|
| 3/5: | Anvil spots Sound
on Sound's argument for sonic differences among blank discs
(upshot: "better" sound only occurs in MD equipment with marginal analog sections). |
| 3/4: | Peter Ravn finds
Sony's 1999 home MD products announcement. |
| 3/3: | Einar Floystad
Dorum spots Sharp's English MD-MT821 page. |
| 3/1: | Nick Perry joins
as MDCP Co-editor.
|
| ¶ |
We find ourselves rated by Planetclick.com (look in the
lefthand column).
|
| 2/28: | A friend provides
quality PDF versions of three Sony user manuals:
MZ-R55,
MZ-E44/E45,
MDS-JE500.
|
| ¶ |
Howard Jow compares the Sony
NH-9WM and 14WM battery packs.
|
| ¶ |
Journalist Gus Silber, alerts Johannesburg to the dawn of MiniDisc.
|
| ¶ |
Michael Fremer advocated MD on
its convenience & quality in the February issue of Stereophile.
|
| ¶ |
Just launched, Stomped.md describes
itself as a "source for the latest information on Minidisc products and
technology on the internet."
|
| ¶ |
Brendan Beck points out Sony Europe's
virtual MD player (requires Shockwave).
|
| 2/26: | Matt Cervi has
made a detailed Sony MZ-E35 Test Mode page.
|
| ¶ |
PrinceGaz contributes a March '99 What HiFi article describing how it is
that MD blanks can sound different. Naturally I make some comments.
|
| 2/23: | Eric Wong spots
Sharp's Japanese announcement of their MD-SS321/322/421 players. |
| 2/21: | With an eye towards
consolidating the many MD discussion boards, the main
MD discussion board will be hosted by Minidiscussion.com.
|
| ¶ |
A reader spots
photos and Japanese info for Kenwood's DMC-K9R, their Sharp MD-ST821 clone.
|
| ¶ |
Peter Ravn scans the Danish Kenwood DM-5090 user manual.
|
| 2/19: | Derek Streeter
scans the inside of a Sony MZ-R50, and shows how to add a
test mode switch (useful for the older, SCMS defeatable models).
|
| ¶ |
Martin Clinton snoops out Sharp's Japanese page for their MD-SS321/322/421 players (showing a clear shot of the remote). These machines run 31
hours (!) when coupled with a single AA cell.
|
| ¶ |
Grega Simenc spots [slightly dated] Sony information about MD
production in Europe and the increasing popularity of MD in Japan.
|
| 2/18: | Minidiscussion.com, a snazzy new MD resource site,
opens its doors.
|
| ¶ |
Kelvin Raharja
points out photos and Japanese info for Sharp's MD-SS321/322/421 slot in players, featuring
19 hours playback on a single LiIon rechargeable cell. Dim: 85.5 x 18.5 x
76.2mm, 170g w/batt, March 5 intro.
|
| ¶ |
Lelan McArthy finds a Japanese Sony page saying that an ATRAC variant,
ATRAC3, could be used in a ``Memorystick Walkman'',
running at a compression ratio of 10:1 (20:1 in long play mode). A
32MB memorystick should be on sale by summertime, and a 256MB version
is in the works.
|
| ¶ |
DubDubb spots Sony and JVC blanks at PlanetUnity for $1.50 each (+shipping).
|
| 2/17: | Fred and David Tamkin
graciously scan the entire Sony MDS-W1
user manual.
|
| ¶ |
Miko spots Sony's MZ-E70 player.
|
| ¶ |
Japan-Direct has made a nice Sony MZ-R55
vs. Sharp MD-ST821 comparison that includes a side by
side shot showing their relative thicknesses.
|
| ¶ |
Felix has made MDgear.com, for turning the masses on to MiniDisc.
|
| 2/15: | In a heroic
Tour de Force, Florian Gotter submits a complete Sony MDS-JB920 Service Manual scan. |
| 2/14: | Hue Beavers
kindly submits a Feb '99 EQ
magazine article on MD ideas for musicians.
|
| ¶ |
A friend spots Aiwa's AM-F70 in black.
|
| 2/12: | John Balint shows
how to provide optical digital connections on a Sound Blaster Live
Value card. |
| 2/11: | Melting Pot is first out
of the blocks with Sony's 80 minute blanks, offering them for about $9
each, including shipping (21 for US$180). |
| 2/10: | Brad McGill
points out Samsung's Yepp, a portable MP3 player with an optional base unit
that allows direct recording from CD and connection to a HiFi system.
|
| ¶ |
Chris Kuethe describes an alternative method to build a simple optical
miniplug. |
| 2/9: |
We scan the MZ-R37's surfaces. |
| 2/8: |
Avery Dennison are "considering"
producing MiniDisc laser-labels but describe the release as "not
imminent". No doubt comments
from customers may help them in their "consideration".
|
| 2/3: | Robert provides a
detailed review and clear photos of the Sharp MD-MT821.
|
| ¶ |
Colin Burchall points out DigitalImports in Melbourne, offering pre-recorded
MDs (search for "MD" in the movie title field).
|
| ¶ |
John Plasket finds
another hint that Sony's Playstation 2 may include an MD drive. |
| 2/2: | Eric Lanier has
made a handsome review of the Panansonic SJ-MJ70 MD player.
|
| ¶ |
Who says MD isn't for pre-schoolers? Dorian discovers Axia's Hello Kitty blanks. Only in Japan.
|
| ¶ |
Brian Youn has a tiny photo of the forthcoming
MZ-R37, which he first alerted us to back in January.
|
| ¶ |
Christoper Lloyd in the UK orders hard-to-find spares for his Sharp MD-MS702
from Willow Vale
Electronics in Reading.
|
| 1/29: | Jeff Eberlin
spots a report stating Sony plans to sell music tracks on the Web, for recording to
MiniDisc. |
| 1/28: | Jim Gray points
out Greg Osby's new release Banned in New York, a Blue Note CD mastered from
a casual MiniDisc recording made at a club in New York City.
|
| ¶ |
Sony's Japanese announcement and photo of their compact (464x160x239mm) ZS-M50 CD/MD boombox, capable
of titling while recording, with motorized slide down panel. JPY57,000.
|
| ¶ |
Tugrul notes a
Japanese announcement that Maxell has joined the 80 minute blank club. MSRP:
JPY650, Intro: 3/25.
|
| ¶ |
Mat Smith scores the relative merits of the Sony MZ-R30 vs. Sharp MD-MS702.
|
| 1/27: |
Adam Heath provides full specs on Sony's new pro MDS-E52 - a replacement for the MDS-E55.
|
| ¶ |
Kenwood have been busy, it seems. Tugrul Tanyol points out four new
full-sized decks from the Japanese manufacturer:
the DMF-7003
& DMF-7003G, the DMF-7020
and the DMF-3020.
There's also a DFM-9020
on the German site, which Tugrul points out appears to be the 7020 with a PC
keyboard link.
|
| ¶ |
Matt Sephton picks up a flyer for Pioneer's MEH-P500R car MD
unit.front back.
|
| ¶ |
Chris McClave tells us about his Costfinder site which will search
selected online stores for the MD equipment you are looking for.
|
| 1/24: |
Friends point Japanese info on two new MD players: Kenwood
DMC-K3 (10s ESP, 99.9x17.4x75mm, 120g, 9hr play on rechargeable,
10hr on AA) (Kenwood page) and the
Victor
XM-P77 (40s ESP, 89.2x19x84.1mm, 131g, 7hr play on NiMH, 16hr w/add'l AA).
|
| ¶ |
The Melting Pot
now sells Sony's MZP-1 MD label printer. |
| 1/23: | Iein comes across
TDK's Japanese announcement of their 80
minute long MD blanks. (Intro: 3/21, MSRP: JPY700)
|
| ¶ |
Minidisco re-starts the MD Discussion Board
|
| ¶ |
Oduvaldo
Pavan completes a general MD web page with a
Brazilian slant, for readers of Portuguese.
|
| 1/22: | Mike Blossom spots
an article in
the Chicago Sun-Times comparing MDs with other media.
Also archived here.
|
| ¶ |
Rob Nguyen adds another comprehensive review, this time of Aiwa's
AM-F70, to his site
|
| 1/19: | Glenn Stasse
comes through again with a Sony MDS-JE320
user manual.
|
| ¶ |
It's user manual week: An Aiwa AM-F70
user manual appears, from scans kindly submitted by Electronic Shopping Mall.
|
| ¶ |
Andy Cheng reviews two recent units from Japan: Sony's MXD-D2 CD/MD deck and the MZ-E55 portable player. |
| 1/18: | Glenn Stasse
submits a nicely formatted Sony MZ-E40
instruction manual.
|
| ¶ |
Grega Simenc finds Japanese info on Sony's New Color Collection series blanks.
|
| ¶ |
Rudy finds an informative
Audio Technica guide to microphones. |
| 1/14: | Leon (via R M Morrien)
spots a photo and Japanese announcement of Sony's 80 minute blanks, created by reducing track pitch to
1.5um (the standard's minimum), MSRP: JPY650, Intro: 2/99. |
| 1/13: | Daniel Currie
argues the Rio vs MD counterpoint.
|
| ¶ |
Aureus has made a page devoted to the Sharp MD-MS722.
|
| ¶ |
English info has been added for the Sharp MD-MT821.
|
| 1/12: | Deputy Tanyol
comes through with photos and Japanese info for Sharp's MD-MT821 portable recorder (8hr rec, 11.5hr
play w/LiIon cell, 3hr rec, 6.5hr play w/AAx1(!), 82.5 x 20.7 x 77.9mm, 177g w/batt).
|
| ¶ |
We review the Sony MZP-1 MD label printer.
|
| ¶ |
Pete De Bonte has made a detailed MD
portables battery page.
|
| ¶ |
Manfred Wegner points out a TDK listening test reporting that their pro
blanks have increased "depth and richness" (gosh, "better" bits,
and from an otherwise serious corporation!).
|
| 1/11: | Shawn Lin points
out an E/Town article about MD at CES '99, with photos and info on several new portables.
|
| ¶ |
Mika Seitsonen notes Alpine's auto MD products announcement at CES'99.
|
| ¶ |
John Lee spots a
photo of the Casio XG-1 player
(107x24.5x82mm, 145g [body only], 40s shock mem [2 step, settable],
7hr play w/NiMH cell, 24 track program play) on Puwa-risu's excellent Japanese MD site.
|
| ¶ |
Bryan Mo points
out a ZDNet CES article mentioning that Sony will release the MZ-R55 at the end of
January.
|
| ¶ |
Brian Youn notes a Sony announcement stating that the MZ-E33 player and the
new [low cost] MZ-R37 recorder will be released in the US in February.
|
| ¶ |
Dan Mowczan and Jason Simcoke bring word of Clarion's auto MD products.
|
| ¶ |
Jordan Schweitzer reports Sharp's announcement of their MD-MS722 US intro.
|
| ¶ |
Grega Simenc forwards Nick's mention of a MD, MPMAN and Rio comparison where MD shows its
merit.
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| ¶ |
James Smith completes his MDdb label
printer program (for Windows machines).
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| ¶ |
Carlos Martinez notes that Ebisu
Audio is offering Sony MZ-R55 and Aiwa AM-F70 portables by mail
order from Japan.
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| 1/8: | Krish submits a
gorgeous, fully HTMLified Sony
MZ-R55 user manual.
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| ¶ |
Peter Ravn points out Fisher/Sanyo's announcement of their portable MDG-R3 recorder with PC based editing
interface and 80 second shock memory.
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| ¶ |
Joe Tymecki shows
how to modify a Teac SP-D1260 5 disc CD changer to provide
TOS-link optical output. |
| 1/7: | Tugrul Tanyol
finds Panasonic's Japanese SJ-MJ70 page.
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| ¶ |
Michael Rofe spots English info on Sony's DHC-MD555 bookshelf system incorporating a 5MD/5CD changer.
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| ¶ |
Jonathan Schwartz comes across modern MD bookshelf systems (including the latest Sonys) and
portables at MaxFire.
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| 1/6: | Woodworks
makes large capacity DJ MD
cases. |
| 1/1: | Happy New Year!
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| ¶ |
Frederic Elene spots Pioneer Europe's MEH-P5000R in dash MD unit [with
optional voice control(!)], and their MD-P100 six MD changer.
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| ¶ |
Tugrul Tanyol finds a photo and Japanese info for Sharp's MD-X75 double MD bookshelf system (with world FM tuner).
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