Love my MZ-RH1! The Hi-Md format was/is wonderful. I agree about the general sturdiness of int all the Sony minidisc players. I think I have about 20 different models, and not a single one has ever broken!?!?! Now, if someone here can point me to a place to buy Hi-Md blanks, I would be eternally grateful!
I still have a new in the box MD-RH1, a older net MD player and the last home unit. I have a couple of new boxes of himd's and regular md's. At one time I had about 700 pre recorded md's all I have left is about 100 pre recorded.
I still have three working Sony table models and four portables. When a minidisc is not loaded, the larger models can also be used as a DAC, and I have a couple of really old CD players connected to them by their optical and coaxial outputs and it improves the sound over their built-in converters.
Facts, the best Sony portable MD recorders were the MZ-R5o, the MZ-R30 and the MZ-R37. The smaller size recorders were less reliable as a rule. The HHb PortaDisc was the king of Portable MD, if you find one working, they were the best portable recorders made.
eBay has em for $46 on average: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.Xhi-md blank&_nkw=hi-md blank&_sacat=0&_from=R40 or $77 for 1 disc (!!) from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Hi-md-Minidisc-Blank-Hmd1ga/dp/B000BK6ED6
Yeah, and the price of portable players has gone through the roof in the past 18 months. I bought five new Sony players when warehouses were clearing them out for $40 each. But now those same "new old stock" units sell for $200 or more. Wish I had bought more of them back when they were $40. You can still get regular blanks (not Hi-MD) for around $2 each, with shipping, if you look around. Not long ago, some wholsesaler must have dumped a truckload of JVC-brand 74-minute blanks. I puchased about 50 of them on ebay for just over $1 each. A good deal. (I even found a bunch of low-priced Sony 60-minute blanks -- remmeber those?! -- and bought a bunch.)
I still have a Marantz portable MD recorder (virtually identical to the HHB), which I keep as a double-secret emergency backup for location sound recording. I think I sold about 300 blank Minidiscs used on eBay for about 50 cents each some years ago, in packs of 50 or something. The damned things still worked fine -- it was an almost indestructible format, though I do have concern about the longevity of the mechanisms and transports.
My MZ-R30 is still going strong after all these years. Some of the micro screws have worked themselves loose but it holds together OK.
Vidiot, I regarded the Marantz Pro MD recorder as an equal to the HHb PortaDisc. Less common but as fine and reliable as the HHb.
The part that worried me was the metal shutter on the minidisc itself but I discovered by accident some years ago that the discs play and record perfectly even with this shutter removed. Of course the recording surface is exposed but so is a CD-R.
I first used the sharp 701 mini disc portable in 1998 to record a concert, the battery fell out before i could finalise the recording so i lost the music. I got used to it in the end and have 8 sony portables 6 bought cheaply when they were going out of fashion and now in a draw. I also have the monster Sony JA 555ES which sounds superb. These days I use a tascam DRo7 II as my portable for record concerts and for listening on the go (in WAV format not mp3.)
May be saving my MD players for a rainy day or that $500 ebay buyer A buddy gave up on the format some time back and gave me what he said is a killer Sony model but I can't recall the model # off the top of my head. My main rig still has my Yamaha MDX993 in it and I play some of my old mini's every now and then.
I still watch my HD DVD version of The Song Remains The Same, from time to time. The HD DVD player is fantastic with CDs.
I was over at a friend's place today, he was clearing stuff out. He had a small box of pre-recorded MDs pictured below. The Springsteen through Cohen discs are still sealed. Are these worth popping on eBay as a lot? I realize these are common titles. Are the entry-level players worth trying to sell online?
The sealed Springsteen disc might fetch $25 or $30 on ebay, just by itself. The others would likely sell for much less. If the players are in great shape and they work, and they're Sharp brand, rather than the more common Sony models, they could go for $150 or more. An entry-level used Sony player would go of much less, I think.
Can someone remind me how these were marketed? As a replacement for the cassette Walkman? For cars? I assume the portable cd discman is what killed this format?
Marketed as a cassette replacement. MD went head to head with Philips' DCC technology. They both failed due to the impact of MP3 and easy/cheap computer storage of songs. Plus, CD-R prices came down in the early 2000s, so that negated the MD's recording flexibility.
Thanks - I recall seeing these in the late 90s at places like Sam Goody but never knew much about them.
That's when I first got one. I was making Community TV. I made my own sound effects. I bought my first one to have random access, rather that zip back and forth through tapes. I liked it so much that I got a nicer model and started recording my LP's and various compilations. I still make an MD or Hi-MD from time to time. I usually digitize anything I bring home from the used record stores, unless it sucks for some reason....the ole snap, crackle, and pop thing-y. I won't stop using MD completely till I'm dead or out of players.... They'll have to wrench the MD's from my cold, dead hands!
I honestly recommend selling them separately. I've sold MD albums and have gotten around $20-$25 for each one.
I had a Sony MD deck in my car at the time also, It was nice because you could usually fit 2 cd's on a single minidisk and they were a lot easier to handle in the car and you didnt have to worry about getting them scratched up. Ahhhh but then came the Ipod
