Sharp MD-MT20H. Welcome me, minidisc!

Makymak

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#1
Never was interested to use a minidisc. I have used the atrac format (my Sony discman can use it) and I found it just OK. At low bit rates, it introduces some artifacts but at MD bit rate it's decent enough. Well, as decent as a 44k digital audio can sound.

In comparison with mp3, I found that atrac does sound more vivid. I guess it's the more aggressive compression it does but I'm not sure enough.

Back to the story! I was searching for a second Walkman at ebay and in the suggested items a minidisc popped up. It was the Sharp MD-MT20H. To tell the truth, I liked the way it looked. But wasn't in the mood for spending some 100€ for a working one. Then I saw that a lot non-working were advertised, all with the same problem (reading error). I searched the net and found that this error was common among these series that share the same transport. But never found a solution.

Anyway, I found a broken one, locally at a good price and I bought it. Just for my collection. It proved to be a one-hour job to fix it. A tiny gear at the pickup assembly was cracked. With some improvising, it was fixed. Now, I have a working minidisc.

I used it with a commercial playback-only disc I have in hand, at the moment. It can sound really good. I was impressed how that entry-level portable can sound. I was also impressed with the building quality. Very limited use of plastic. The most part is metal, including the shell.

I don't intend to make heavy use. In absolute terms, I don't need it. But I don't regret buying it.
 

krellmk

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#2
I was a big fan and still today of minidisk i have more than a 1000 disk scattered over my living room my favorite was the Sony MZ-RH10 they got problems with the display , they not cheap on fleebay
 

8991XJ

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Oct 8, 2011
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1,122
#3
Tom unloaded his MD gear on me when he moved. I have one prerecorded MD and over 50 others some unopened blanks, a worn-out Sony mini, a working Sony mini and 2 Sony MD-CD player recorders with remotes, the MXD-D3. Need to sell one of these.
 

J!m

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#4
I have a very low-hours Sony one around somewhere. I may have posted about it here.

You need drivers to record to it from a computer and Sony does not support it any longer.

If you have another means to make the recordings (such as a Tascam deck), then you are fine.

If I can locate it again, I'd trade it for... something.
 

Makymak

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#5
Jim, you made a good point. One of the drawbacks the earlier decks have is the absence of the ability to connect with a pc. My Sharp can't. The later formats can but arrived quite late. So, anything written on the disk, even if on digital form can't been transferred as is. I would prefer a more versatile form, like an mp3 player is.
 

krellmk

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#7
Those gumstick batteries was terrible i used the external battery mount with a AA battery big drawback with minidisk was the awful sonic stage software Sony made it a Proprietary software. The drivers still available on the net i still use mine in windows 10 you got to load the driver a finicky way in windows 10
 
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