Old MiniDisc Page News 1997

Past News: Recent, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996.

What's Old?

31 Dec:John Small points out the informative Sound Card Performance Benchmarks Site.
30 Dec:Dostick's made a page to collect what little is known about the Sharp MD-R2 deck.
26 Dec:Ralf Kuchenhart finds Sharp's Audiofair Report with pictures and blurbs on the MD-ST501 portable player, the MD-R2 deck and an as yet unnanounced MD/3CD deck (anyone know the model number for it?).
24 Dec:Nick Riley offers some photos and comments on the Sharp MD-ST501 portable player.
J. finds schematics for TTL<->S/PDIF converters on Heiko's DAT Page.
Daryl O. spots a Popular Science article mentioning the prototype Pioneer FX5-DVD deck with an MD recorder built-in, shown at the Japan Electronics Show.
23 Dec:Hue Beavers submits pages one and two of the Sony MDS-JE510 block diagram.
Stephanie Koles notes that SoundCity carries the Sony MDX-C670 car unit and other MD equipment (including the old, relatively unknown Aiwa MD-S50 player).
All of Martin Danek's PC/MD titling software is now available under one ``roof'' at his site http://www.czechin.com/minidisc.
Eric Phan-Kim notes that in Paris you can buy a Sharp Bundle consisting of their MD-R2 deck and MD-SS301 player.
Lars Petter Larsen has a database for keeping track of MDs done with Lotus Approach.
22 Dec:Matt Leipnitz finds that Crutchfield is selling Kenwood MD decks and portables.
17 Dec:A few users find out that magnets can effect MDs.
15 Dec:Daniel Currie finds MD coverage in The New Paper from Singapore.
14 Dec:Max Basile contributes a rather thorough review of the Sony MDS-JA30ES.
11 Dec:Hue Beavers kindly scans the Sony MDS-JE510 user operation manual.
John Hoffman finds user operation manuals for Kenwood's DMC-G3 and DMC-G7R portable MD and KMD-C80 car MD units (unfortunately they're in inconvenient-to-read Adobe PDF format).
9 Dec:George Bagiu spots a Japanese page with a photo of an Onkyo MD portable (apparently a Sharp MD-ST501 clone).
6 Dec:Dito provides schematics and ordering information for an SCMS copybit killer kit.
5 Dec:Jamshid Afshar has written a reasonably balanced FAQ sheet about MD vs alternative recording media.
Hardep finds Sharp's Japanese page for the MD-ST501 that has a few nice images of the unit.
4 Dec:John Hoffman receives word from Kenwood that their 1050MD deck, DMC-G3 portable player, Sharp MD-MS200 clone and Sony MDX-61 clone [correction, the 6 MD changer is not a Sony clone -eaw]are available now (call 1-800 KENWOOD to find your nearest dealer). Kenwood has a brochure with brief MD comments and photos in Adobe Acrobat 3.0 format.
3 Dec:Michael Ramershoven spots Radio Waldecker in Germany, selling lots of MD gear including the RM-D11P titler (has anyone seen this titler on sale in the North America?).
2 Dec:Michael Goolsby has created a page devoted to the Sharp MD-MS701 portable MD recorder.
1 Dec:Daryl O. submits an article from the October issue of Audio Video International discussing Sony's recent US MD marketing campaign.
Patrick Elliot spots brief mention of MD in a NJ Star Ledger article about Sony that leads off with a teaser about a hypothetical portable audio on demand device.
Martin Danek is selling a $50 Windows '95/NT hardware and software kit for titling on modern MD decks via the IR remote interface.
Minidisco and MinidiscNow! push US MD blank prices below $5 incl. shipping, the former accepting credit cards.
29 Nov:Sony Music Europe's www.minidisc.com has been updated and aims to be a springboard for pre-recorded MD.
25 Nov:Diarmuid submits a beautiful, 80 page service manual for the MZ-R30, in multiple resolutions and rotations (there's also the no frames version).
22 Nov:Richard Reid tells about using MiniDisc in college.
Ryan Miller finds another English page for Sharp's PC connectable MD-X8 bookshelf system.
21 Nov:Info on the Aiwa AM-F5 portable recorder and Sharp MD-ST501 portable player spotted at the Japan Audio Fair.
19 Nov: Tom Fisher discovers an English Eclipse page for the Tokyo Motor Show with brief comments about their new MD equipment.
Hardeep spots Japanese info on Yamaha's MDX-9 deck with an S/N of 98dB at JPY75,000. He also uncovers Sony's Japanese announcement of their ZS-D7 boombox that provides MD walkman operation, battery charging, and track/title character display through the main unit when cabled to an MZ-R30 or -R50 (the ``MD-Link Plus'' feature). Not content to rest, he also notes a Sharp page from the Japan Electronics Show '97 showing pictures of their MD boombox and portable prototypes.
DAITEI now list prices for color MD blanks.
18 Nov:Peter Hinterberger finds information and scans a photo of Sharp's MD-R2 fullsize MD deck.
Nic Boyde has extensive pictures and information on Sony's new MZ-R5ST.
17 Nov:Jürgen Zimmermann points out Yamaha's 8-track MD recorder.
Sawada Denki now carries the MZ-R5ST and the international version of the MZ-R50 and allows payment by wire transfer and JPY bank draughts.
16 Nov:Shawn Lin finds good prices for Sony Car MD equipment at CarMedia.
William Woods comes across a Memorex MD Page mentioning that both their CD-R and MD digital media are ``designed specifically to capture the nuances of music''.
15 Nov:Paul Allton spots (provokes, actually) the iMVS Prerecorded MiniDisc Page in U.K., where you can order MD titles for as low as GBP 7.56
14 Nov:A review of an article from the Nikkei Business Weekly sheds light on how Sony's MZ-E50 MD player was created.
12 Nov:A reader submits information on adjusting the MDX-C150's focus bias.
11 Nov:Matt Savard contributes brief MD comments from this month's Rolling Stone.
Dan Kamiya points out a Marantz (Philips) page extolling the virtues of MD and giving info on their CM635 CD/MD deck, an additional pointer to Marantz's CM1040 ``slim series'' CD/MD unit was forwarded from Marco Rossen.
Jamshid spots a Philips page with details about the CD-TEXT format.
10 Nov:Tired of downloading half a meg just to ogle the latest portable? Try the new MD equipment browser.
Hardeep finds English information on Pioneer's NS-7MD mini-compact system, and a Japanese Marantz page with a blurb about their CM1040 CD/MD deck.
9 Nov:Robert B. has information about Kenwood's US MD units.
Michael Goolsby contributes comments about using the Sony MDM-X4 multitracker.
Malaysian AudioFile has a review of the MDS-JE510, which they mostly like, except for the sound of the TOSlink connectors.
Michael Stouffs points out the new TwinVQ audio compression format from Yamaha (based upon work at NTT), that is said to give near CD quality audio at 20:1 compression ratios.
7 Nov:Marc Tsai contributes a nice set of MZ-R50 Surface Scannings.
5 Nov:Daniel Currie notes that the Malaysian AudioFile & AV homepage has started a series of articles on MD.
Matt Sephton has a page devoted to the MZ-R50.
Servired now offers an MD add on pack for their leather MD portable cases.
3 Nov:Chiho Chan offers free custom MDs from his 650 song MP3 collection, just send him an MD blank, a note, and a self-addressed stamped envelope.
The Enigmatic EE leaves instructions on how to cheaply convert 120VAC to 100VAC for running Japanese MD gear in the US.
1 Nov:Hardeep comes across Japanese info on Kenwood's new MD boombox, with 3CD changer, world tuner, and 20bit A/D and D/A. He also finds a Panasonic Japanese page and picture of the SJ-M7 portable player.
31 Oct:Matt Saunders graciously provides a complete scan of the Sharp MD-MS200 service manual (there's also a no frames version).
30 Oct:Karsten finds Japanese info on Onkyo's new JPY75,000 high end home deck with 20bit A/D and D/A.
And Hardeep brings news of Kenwood's latest DM-3090 and DM-5090 MD decks.
Matt Saunders brings word of the MD Traders mailing list.
29 Oct:George Bagiu spots more Japanese information on Sony's PC connectable MD deck, including some interesting screen shots of the GUI editor (check out the ``divide'' and ``A-B'' erase windows).
Havard further decodes the signals sent to an MD portable remote's LCD.
28 Oct:Hardeep finds Sharp's English page for their new portables and MD-X5 mini-compo system. In it they comment ``Sharp offers the compact, user-friendly MD-X5 especially for single women and young music lovers who would own an MD component stereo system to enjoy the music of MDs and CDs.''
Oscar's got a Gallery of MiniDisc blanks.
27 Oct:Sony announces (in Japanese) their MD still camera (DSC-MD1), on sale from Dec 1st, for JPY125,000. It stores up to 2000 images (fewer if audio narrations are also recorded) in ``Picture MD format'' (using MD Data discs), it can also function as an MD audio format recorder/player (no digital audio i/o though).
26 Oct:Christian Malcolm makes a mini-review of the MZ-R50.
25 Oct:A snapshot and Japanese information from a PC Watch report on the October Tokyo Electronics Show indicates that Sony's concept model ``MD-Cybershot'' digital camera is nearly production ready and is expected to be formally announced shortly (they note however that if a 330,000 pixel class camera is not available in time for the year end shopping season, things may be rather tough).
Michael Goolsby reviews the Sharp MD-MS701.
George B. finds JPC, a German language site selling pre-recorded MDs.
Servired adds a secure form for ordering their leather MD portable cases.
MiniDisc Now has an updated web page and is carrying the new Sharp and Sony portables.
24 Oct:Bigger than MD: In an interesting LA Times interview, Geffen Records' Jim Griffin discusses intellectual property rights, and surprisingly feels copy protection would be ``a tragic mistake.'' (original version, for those with good eyesight)
23 Oct:Nic Boyde takes some snapshots of the Sony MZ-E35 and MZ-E25, the Sharp MD-MS702 and its Kenwood DMC-J7R clone.
22 Oct:Janik Joire finds a very interesting technical paper discussing the creation of Sharp's ATRAC LSIs.
George discovers pictures and Japanese info on a new Panasonic bookshelf system (more info) which can change Alphabetic CD-Text information to Katakana for titling the MD. He also locates a picture and Japanese blurb on Kenwood's latest MD boombox, the MDX-E7, second generation in their Rampage line.
Martin Borus spots a German contest to win a Sharp MD recorder, open until Oct 31. (Martin thinks the correct answer is ``9'').
21 Oct:Nic Boyde posts several snapshots of the MZ-R50.
20 Oct:George B. finds a picture and information on Panasonic's SJ-MJ7 portable player (He also spots Panasonic's Japanese page for the unit).
Daniel Currie submits an MD article from Singapore Airlines inflight magazine.
Shane Haveron submits an October Hi-Fi World article with kind words about the MD page (Thank you Mr. Price!)
Phil Millard contributes a comparison test of the Denon DMD-1300 and the Sony MDS-JE510 from the October issue of What Hi*Fi?.
19 Oct:The Sound Professionals now offer a commercial version of Lafferty's Headphone Amplifier.
18 Oct:Peter Ravn finds an abstract on NewsPage stating: ``Casio Computer To Enter MiniDisc Market. (TOKYO) Tossing its hat into the MiniDisc ring, Casio Computer Co. next month will introduce a low-priced MiniDisc player.''
15 Oct:Hardeep finds Japanese pages, with pictures, of Kenwood's DMC-J7R and Pioneer's PMD-R3 (they're Sharp MS701 clones), the Pioneer in particular looking quite refined. He also spots Pioneer's X-RMX9MD DJ-Remix system (in English).
Peter Ravn discovers this on NewsPage (searching for ``minidisc''): ``Victor Co. of Japan has developed the world's first car audio system that can play both MiniDiscs and compact discs in a single unit, making it significantly smaller than existing systems that can play both types of discs.''
Oscar Fowler comes across more car MD information (searching for ``minidisc'' articles from the last 5 days on NewsPage): ``Alpine Electronics Inc. will market 15 new car audio products from mid-October, emphasizing MiniDisc/compact disc players equipped with digital harmonics enhancers, company officials said.''
12 Oct:Andy's still at it, finding an announcement that the Cerberus Internet Audio Player is being bundled with the Sharp MD-X8H Network Audio Hi-Fi System, within it is a reference to a hands on article about buying and recording music off the 'net, which is in turn part of a Webnoize special report on CD-R, in which they note ``Keep in mind that moving into the realm of CD-R to preserve or master your music amounts to becoming an amateur audio engineer''.
E. discovers Best Buy's Aiwa XR-H3MD page.
11 Oct:Andy Hof spots a Nikkei English News brief stating ``Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. will from Dec. 1 start selling the world's smallest portable MiniDisc player. The SJ-MJ7 is the same size as a MiniDisc case but twice as thick.'' (Found by searching here on ``minidisc'')
10 Oct:Dirk and Andrew Tonner delve into the Sharp MS100 and MS200 test modes.
8 Oct:Hardeep finds Sony's Japanese announcement of their wide bit stream MDS-PC1 MD Deck that can be connected to a Mac or PC with Japanese software. When used with the included ``MD Editor'' software, provides a GUI interface for playback, pause, track selection, editing, etc. as well as allowing disc and track names can be entered in Kanji, Hiragana, Katakana and alphanumeric characters. (A Sony survey showed that 60% of MD deck owners had personal computers, and that there was a strong desire for controlling MD decks with them). Computer interface via ``A1'' control terminal. MSRP JPY 54,000.
1 Oct:Dostick's MiniDisc page sports a review of the Sharp SS302.
30 Sep:Peter Ravn comes across a news abstract stating that MiniDisc hardware penetration will mushroom to 25% in U.S. and Europe by 2005, compared with less than 1% at present, on NewsPage (search for ``minidisc'').
More from Hardeep: JVC's 3CD/3MD/Radio/Cassette boombox announcement (Japanese original or English summary).
Nic Boyde has some snapshots of Sharp's MD-701 portable MD recorder.
ServiRED makes leather cases for MD portables.
29 Sep:Hardeep spots Kenwood's announcement of a dual drive MD recorder.
26 Sep:A Washington Post story talks about MiniDisc's Second Coming, mentioning its Internet presence as well.
Peter Ravn spots a Sony/Philips `Super Audio CD' proposal that would provide backward compatibity with existing CD players.
Sawada Denki's prices have dropped a bit and they have a new (valid!) Post Giro Account for payment from Europe.
Patrick contributes a mention of MiniDisc from Time Magazine (Time's Tech Watch section carries it too).
24 Sep: George Bulumase finds an MZ-R30 illustration from Germany. He also discovers a Japanese page on Sony's Digital Picture Album, a Picture MD editing deck that records still images from video, S-video and cordless IR inputs, allows you to add audio clips and compile them into albums, then displays them on a TV or through cordless IR to a Sony video printer. It can also be used as a normal Audio MD recording and playback deck, but has no digital audio connectors. Price: JPY 118,000.
23 Sep: Wolfgang Hees has made a nice chart and graph of worldwide MD blank prices.
The MD mailing list archive is now rendered into HTML 4 times a day. (We're working on making the indicies a bit more modem friendly.)
Supervideo has [slightly dated] commentary about the MZ-R2 and its use in portable video studio.
22 Sep:Peter Ravn spots Denon's new high end DMD-1800 MD deck.
19 Sep:Dirk discovers a super undo function available on modern Sony decks that cancels a pending TOC update.
John Jones has begun an MD page that includes an MD portables comparison chart.
18 Sep:Lo Fan spots Sony's announcement of their new docking portable, the MZ-R5ST, in Japanese (or peek at the hasty English summary).
16 Sep:Duncan Chisholm contributes a fine set of photos and commentary about the insides of a Sharp MS200.
Alex Reinelt spots Sony's Japanese MDS-JA30ES page.
Warren Johnson points out a Ziff-Davis article about DVD-RAM's standardization problems.
13 Sep:Sony announces (in Japanese) their MZ-R50, E35 and E25 MD portables (with the salient points covered in an English translation).
Marco Rossen spots an MD Commercial on Sony Netherland's MD Page.
Haemish Edgerton finds Sony US's MDS-JA50ES page.
Peter Ravn notes excerpts from a book chapter on MiniDisc.
Higashi finds brief MD comments in an E-town page on home audio recording.
9 Sep:Michael Stouffs forwards word of Sapphires Sound and Light's page on Denon's New DN-M2000R Professional Unit that was shown at London's PLASA '97 show.
Mads spots further, more comprehensive information from Harmony Central on the Denon DN-M2000R.
6 Sep:Hardeep scouts mildly technical MD coverage from Sony Japan, including a small animation of the EP11's head loading mechanism.
5 Sep:Martin Borus takes some snapshots at I-Funk-A, Berlin.
Mads finds Sharp Deutschland's MD pages, giving specs (including ATRAC versions) of much of their equipment.
David and John note Philips' IFA page on their CDR870 CD-R/CD-RW recorder and a TWICE article stating that the music industry isn't too fond of the CD-RW format. SRTL's preliminary product info on the Philips CDR870 CD-RW recorder indicates that only erase last track and erase all editing operations are possible.
4 Sep:Running on reserve: Wolfgang Buresch punches through the 74:59 barrier, packing up to 80m16s of audio on an MD! He also has further information on creating virtual MD tracks.
Graham Baker provides some snapshots of the JA3ES optical assembly.
The Sony Europe MD FAQ is fished from the cache and now makes a local appearance.
3 Sep:A viewable image of the MDS-JA30ES from Sony Deutschland indicates it looks very much like the JA50ES, tray loader and all.
Sony Europe's MD pages (take 2) have good capsule feature summaries for current MD equipment as well as links to MiniDisc pages from Sony France and Sony Italy (the latter apparently offering only the MZ-R30).
Keith Lau spots Sony Hong Kong's MD pages, containing good snapshots and summary information on current consumer MD gear.
Michael Stouffs points out Sony Deutschland's MDS-JE510 page (indicating the unit has coax digital input).
1 Sep:Terje Flaaronning has kindly provided space for the HTML version of the 1993-1997 MD mailing list archives.
Hardeep snoops out Sony Europe's MD pages, containing brief info and corrected picture for the MDS-JA30ES and their complete MD systems, as well as a trimmed down MD FAQ that may look familiar. [Apparently too familiar, all the pages have been taken down]
30 Aug:Freak finds Sony Deutschland's JA30ES page, and notes that it has basically the same features as the JA50ES.
Sebastian Zug kindly types in the whole Sharp MD-S50 Manual.
Alex has a page that enthusiastically supports the MD format.
29 Aug:Larry Chen spots Japanese language information on Sony's DHC-MD717 system, incorporating a 3-CD and 3-MD changer. An optional full featured pen-touch 256x200 dot LCD remote is available that can display system information as well as MD/CD-TEXT tracks and titles. The remote displays a "soft keyboard" for titling by stylus. (No world tuner on this unit).
Sawada Denki and Nic Boyde now carry the Sharp MD-SS301/SS302 players.
28 Aug:Lo Fan spots a black and white page (!?) on Sony's ``Sparkling MD'', their latest MD packaging spin.
Hardeep finds Axia also believes in ``better sound through cooler wrappers'' and is showing a cute animation of their ``oyster case'' MD jacket with labels on the inside surface.
27 Aug:Nick Loscalzo spots Jstation in Tokyo, offering Japanese Pop music MDs by mail order.
25 Aug:Nick Loscalzo has started the voting for the MD Page Banner.
Nic Boyde has a page of snapshots of the Sharp MD-SS302 player, it's a spiffy looking unit.
24 Aug:A report by Iconocast about Music on the Internet (pdf format or extensive html excerpts) sees music on demand as the wave of the future, but puzzlingly fails to mention the likelihood of downloading to MD.
Kyle Schmitt submits an MZ-E30 review.
22 Aug:BPS' Spring 1997 Layers magazine has articles about MiniDisc's bright future and how MD growth represents opportunites for disc manufacturers.
Nick Loscalzo spots Jamiroquai in a Sony MD ad wearing an MZ-EP11 on his head.
21 Aug:MD History: a 1993 Studio Sound and Broadcast Engineering article discusses the fledgling MD, DCC nascent CD-E formats.
Fast forward to 1996: an article in CD-ROM Professional gives a detailed look at the CD-E (CD-RW) format's technology, problems, and chances for success.
20 Aug:Steve Proctor finds Victor Electronics, who claim to be the UK's largest MD supplier.
19 Aug:Gary sends in the lastest MD equipment prices from The DAT Store in California.
16 Aug:Peter Hinterberger submits an excellent, full translation, of the Sony R30 vs. Sharp MS200 test from the German Stereo magazine. (Stand back, they like the Sharp better).
Nic Boyde has scanned in pictures of the new Sharp portables from a Sharp brochure.
14 Aug:Sony US has information on the MDS-B5 studio recorder, two of which in tandem can clone MDs at 4X realtime without ATRAC generational loss (evidenced by the back panel's direct duplication link connectors)
13 Aug:The ATRAC version table has been updated with information from the August issue of the German Stereo magazine.
12 Aug:Hardeep finds Japanese info on: Kenwood's DM9090 deck equipped with ATRAC 4.5, digital input fader and CD text recording, JVC's UX-E3 Q-bric look MD deck, and Aiwa's AM-F3 portable and AM-X1 deck.
11 Aug:Mario Shu and Hardeep find pictures and Japanese information on Sharp's new ``Jacket Size'' MD portables.
Daryl O. points out a TWICE article stating that Sony's MD promos are building momentum, he also describes Best Buy's new MD promotion.
Leon Woestenberg shows the intrepid how to enter the Sony MZ-R30's test mode.
Lo Fan spots Sony's announcement of the world's first MD `single' (with 7 tracks on it!?).
7 Aug:Thor-Bjorn Bladh submits a short article with informative graphs from the Swedish Electronic World magazine on distortion with respect to ATRAC generation.
Nick Loscalzo is running an MD Banner Competition, the winning entry will become the web's marker for the MD page.
Nick Perry graciously donates space for a U.K. MiniDisc Mirror at www.amulation.com.
6 Aug:Robert B. points out that Best Buy is holding a sweepstakes to win an Aiwa or Sony MD system, you can enroll through their web page, but only if you live in America.
Ico Doornekamp has made a Sony MZ-R30 FAQ.
5 Aug:Tom Chmielinski contributes some comments about the Sony EP11 portable.
Nic Boyde and MiniDiscNow have dropped prices on MD portables from Japan.
4 Aug:Nick Perry kindly hosts the New MiniDisc Mailing List at Amulation.com.
3 Aug:Larry Chen finds news in Japanese on Sony's FH-MD11 system and DHC-MD515 mini system, the latter equipped with 3MD and 3CD changers (sadly, no world tuner on either model). These articles note that in 1996, 30% of the ``set stereos'' sold in Japan were MD equipped, this is expected to increase to 50% this year, during which they anticipate 4.5 million MD machines and 50 million blanks will be sold within Japan.
Minidisco has dropped their prices on JVC blanks to $5 each, plus shipping.
DAITEI now lists prices for bulk purchases of MD blanks.
2 Aug:Sony's music software site will have their entire MD software catalog available for sale in the US by the end of the year. (Thanks for the tip Sony!) [purchasing]
Nikkei English News reports that Sharp will introduce 2 new MD recorders at the end of August, the MD-MS701 @ 47,000 yen and MD-MS702 @ 48,000 yen, both powered by Lithium Ion batteries giving 5 hours operation. They also report that Sharp will begin marketing two new players next month that offer up to 6 hours of continuous play.
1 Aug:Peter Ravn has cleaned up the page top logo, and Dostick has contributed a shiny new logo for minidisc.org.
31 Jul:Chris Carfagno's Sound Professionals has a new URL and a page of useful MD related accessories [purchasing section, accessories table].
The Microphone FAQ is back, hosted by Harmony Central [FAQs section].
Sony has a National Direct Response Center at 800-222-7669, representatives there can help you troubleshoot problems with Sony equipment[Repair section and MD FAQ].
30 Jul:Minor reorganization of the top level page to help pare down its size.
Pat Harrisworth points out the Guillemot sound cards, with full digital i/o[in DSP section].
Elon Brisola spots CI-Electronics in Holland which sells a kit (item # E970031) for building an optical to coaxial digital signal converter, they also sell the TOSLink transmitter and receiver modules separately[in hacking section].
27 Jul:Peter Hinterberger kindly translates and contributes an article from the August German Stereo magazine discussing the current status of MD in Europe. Synchronicity: Thor-Bjorn Bladh kindly submits his translation of the same article on the same day.[in press section]
26 Jul:Nick Winkworth points up Tracer's Digital Audio Restoration (DART) Software (and a capsule summary of it) that allows you to clean up analog recordings on a Windows machine before recording them to MD, CD, or DAT. He also mentions the Terratec Soundcard, providing analog and digital audio I/O for PCs.[all in Digital I/O section]
25 Jul:Daitei's new MD blank prices better reflect current street prices.
Kyle Schmitt has a new MiniDisc page.[in home pages]
24 Jul:Nick Winkworth finds Sharp's 1997 Winter CES MiniDisc booth[in portables table].
Erhard Schreck describes how to make a homebuilt optical miniplug[in hacking].
The MiniDisc Community Pages now have a domain name of their own, have a look at the URL http://www.minidisc.org.
Frank Bishop's MiniDisc Now! also gets its own domain name, at http://www.minidiscnow.com[in purchasing].
23 Jul:MD Deputy Ravn finds a Norwegian language test and review of the Tascam, Sony, and Yamaha multi trackers [in foreign section], as well as a short blurb from 8th Street Music calling 1997 the year of the [multitrack] MiniDisc [in pro use table].
He also spots Hitachi's annoucement of a DVD-RAM drive.
Finally, he discovers some enigmatic MD Secrets from J.W. Buresch discussing the ability to permanently mark your favorite MD tracks for playback [in hacking].
Dirk Vael contributes installation comments and a review of the Sony MDX-670 car MD player [in car section].
Luis has a brief MD page with drawings of the Sharp MS200 and its Denon equivalent [in home pages and portables table] .
And finally, Keith Chan has written a review of the Sony MZ-EP11 portable player[in portables table].
22 Jul:Peter Ravn spots recordable CD mastering software from Adaptec, with it, a Windows 95 machine, a gigabyte of spare disk space and a recordable CD drive and you can get MD like flexibility (once!) when recording to a CD.
18 Jul:Emanuel Borsboom has made a handy table comparing the Sony MZ-R30 and Sharp MD-MS200.[in portables table]
17 Jul:Peter Ravn spots Music Boulevard's E_mod system, offering online music delivery to Windows 95 users. He also finds Liquid Audio, [in future section]the audio delivery system that Music Boulevard uses.
Alexander Shapiro notes that Crutchfield carries the Sony MDX-C670 car MD player[in purchasing], and Robert Steuer has found the unit at Speed and Sound Electronics in NY (1-800-647-6863 or 718 531-1300). [in purchasing]
14 Jul:Teun van Hoesel has a nice MiniDisc Page in Dutch [in foreign section].
Nick Winkworth passes on some of his experiences buying an MD portable in Tokyo [in tales/stories].
13 Jul:Nic Boyde has taken a set of snapshots of the Sony MZ-EP11 portable player [in portables table] that clarify how the unit's ``head loading'' mechanism works.
Phil Millard sends excerpts from a What Hi*Fi? article on personal stereos [in press section]that mentions the Sharp MD-S50 and Sony MZ-R30.
11 Jul:Chris Carfagno's Sound Professionals now offers their own binaural microphones in two versions[in purchasing section].
10 Jul:Eddie Lee announces a new MD equipment mail order service ``MiniDisc Express''[in purchasing section] in Hong Kong.
Peter does it again, finding Sony Europe's Professional Audio Division's MD technical overview [in links related to MD] and their information on the Sony B5 and B6 professional MD machines[in pro table].
Stouffs and Hardeep find Sharp's product page for their Networking MD component Stereo that can record audio from a PC and the Internet. [on MD systems page]
And Sharp has a new thin profile optical mini-jack, having originally introduced this connector format in 1992.
9 Jul:Peter Ravn spots a patent announcement from Norris Communications for CD quality audio storage on a postage stamp-size flash memory card.
EDL in Britain has a very spiffy MD TOC Editor for folks with MD data drives and Windows machines. It even allows control of the SCMS bits.
8 Jul:Martin Danek supplies a nice homebrew MD titling system for DOS machines.
Bob Luckin spots Sharp's Entire MD Lineup and finds the MD-X3 on sale at Best Buy in Dallas.
7 Jul:MiniDisc mailing list subscribers: The listserver seems to have stumbled. To restart it, send mail to ``[email protected]'', the body of the mail should be the line: ``set MD-L mail digest'' (without quotes).
3 Jul:Helmut Lucke submits an excellent, full featured MD database and labeller program for the HP100/200LX.
2 Jul:PoliticsOnline's has a brief note about Sharp's MiniDisc system that records music off the Internet (it seems like a normal MD system with a PCMCIA card and cable added).
Mother's Music sells the Yamaha MD4.
Suburban Audio in Pennsylvania sells the Sony MDX-400 car MD unit.
Smokey's Aiwa AM-F3 Page gives good coverage of the Aiwa portable in German, he even has a few pictures of the inside.
A Portuguese MD Page has some brief MD commentary.
The Chatswood Sony Centre's MD page in Australia points back at us!
Discount Warehouse in New York City sells a few Sony portable MD units.
1 Jul:John Erik Riley catches an interview with a blind person who uses MiniDisc as an audio ``camera'' when travelling.
Peter Ravn spots a review of the MDS-302 from Malaysia.
29 Jun:Conrad Sanderson spots an educational Motorola Page on LiIon Cells and Battery Management Techniques.
Tidmarsh Major has a page describing how to build a set of binaural microphones for about $20 in parts.
28 Jun:Doug Von Gausig has made an interesting page of field recordings using his MZ-R30
Robert B. has a freshly born MD page that includes a discussion bulletin board.
27 Jun:With help from Hardeep's Gallery the MD Boombox Table has been considerably updated.
26 Jun:MD's new competition from Philips: Al Jones submits news of Philips' Introduction of an Audio CD Recorder late this year.
Nicholas Riley's MD Page has a audio clip of Sony's North American MD commercial.
Peter Ravn spots a store in Belgium selling Maxell MD blanks.
25 Jun:Dostick's MiniDisc Page contains a fully scanned Sharp MD-MS200 manual.
Dealerscope makes brief mention of recent Sharp, Kenwood and Pioneer MD equipment. (Their newsbrief also mentions a broadcast quality disc video camera from NEC that incorporates a 4.1 gigabyte optical medium).
That Brazilian Audio page has an editorial about MiniDisc in Portuguese.
Erin sends in a nice scan of all the surfaces of an MZ-E50.
24 Jun:For quicker downloads, an automatically generated What's New? Page has been added that mirrors this section.
Daniel Matos contributes instructions on how to use Key Check mode on the MDS-JE500/S37.
19 Jun:Peter Hinterberger contributes an outstanding, fully illustrated MZ-R30 Operating Manual.
18 Jun:Luk Van Loock contributes Diomidis Spinellis' HP100/200LX MD IR remote titling program, adapted for the MDS-303.
Shawn Lin sends in the MDS-JE500 IR remote codes.
Janik Joire contributes information on the MZ-R2 test mode.
Esin Darici Haritaoglu has written a nice paper on Wideband Speech and Audio Coding that touches on the fundamentals of all audio coding, including ATRAC.
15 Jun:Lo Fan spots Sony's new MZ-EP10/EP11 player, with which they follow Sharp's lead into the Slot-In era. (Thanks to Keiko Nagano for translation assitance.)
Frank Bishop is promoting MiniDisc Now by offering the Denon DMP-R50 (a.k.a. Sharp MD-MS100) and Sharp MD-MS200 direct from Japan, he even provides a one year warranty.
14 Jun: Leon Woestenberg reverse engineers the MZ-R30's remote.
Al Jones finds Sharp's annoucement of an MD system for recording audio off the internet.
13 Jun:Phil Millard contributes excerpts from a What HiFi article dicussing the relative merits of the Kenwood DM-7090 and Sony MDS-JE500.
An MD page search capability (using AltaVista) has been added.
Guido has a cute MiniDisc page auf Deutsch.
Looking to do a little techno or dance music studio work in Novosibirsk, Russia? DM Records can help out, they do their mastering with an MDS-JE500.
11 Jun:Scott Sincavage submits a Washington Post article about Sony's recent profitability in which they note that MiniDisc sales have soared.
Erik Loman points out a battery information page and a battery charging page.
10 Jun:Peter Hinterberger translates and contributes the German Stereo Magazine's review of Denon's DMD-1300, their latest high-end home recorder, equipped with Sharp's ATRAC 4.0.
8 Jun:Chris Bell contributes a Vertical Menu Bar mode.
Paul Kowtiuk finds a Detroit Free Press article mentioning MD use for the music at the Detroit Red Wings games.
7 Jun: The comprehensive audio site Sonic State has kindly agreed to provide a MiniDisc specific classified advertising section, you can post ads for free (make sure to select the "Mini-Disc" category).
5 Jun: Christoph Gommel sends in a snapshot of the inside of a Sony MDS-JE500 (prepare to see some air).
Chris Bell spots: Tanone's MD encomium, and an unusual inside look at how marketeers go about positioning Sony's MiniDisc as a hot product.
3 Jun: Havard Torring hacks the MZ-R3 remote's digital interface.
2 Jun: Matt Saunders spots Supreme Audio, a dance and fitness audio supplier selling a variable speed MDS-S37 (the JE500 in mini-compo guise) and other MD equipment.
Larry Bell has a page devoted to recording with the Tascam Portastudio.
OMNA, in Ohio, sells Sony MD Data blanks for less than $18 each.
31 May:The MD Page has been updated to use frames, the noframes version is still available though.
27 May:Hardeep finds Denon's DMD-1300 product page.
26 May: Information on Kenwood's DMC-G3 mystery portable player has been placed on the MD portables page.
24 May: Alan Jaffray contributes a review of the Sharp MD-SS70 portable player.
A table showing all the Sharp Portable MD accessories has been added.
22 May: On the cover of their April issue, the German Stereo Magazine wrote ``MD now definitely better than DAT'', they discuss the relative standing of both formats in their review of Sony's top of the line MDS-JA50ES MD deck. Thanks go to Mike Schuster for the translation and Ernst Naef for mailing in the article.
Reg spots emagic, a music media mastering service for MDs, CDs, etc. They charge $1.93 an MD in production runs of 500 pieces (a bit of a gulf from the $14 we pay retail).
20 May: Kevin Yu compares ATRAC and MPEG Layer 3.
Not new, but better late than never: Sony's Oct. 1996 MD press release.
16 May: Rodus sells a Macintosh DB package for keeping track of MDs, CDs, etc.
13 May: CD and MD convergence? Daewoo has a patent on a Disc player for reproducing both MiniDisc and a Compact Disc. The IBM Patent Server has complete patent text and figures from 1971 to present, here's the Sony MZ-R2 Patent for instance.
12 May: A Brazilian Audio page has a bit of MiniDisc information in Portuguese.
The Songsearch Music Site has many pre-recorded MD titles (search for "MD" to get a complete listing).
Link Communications in Britain repairs and rents pro-use MD equipment.
A place called mwes in the U.K. repairs MD equipment.
11 May: Tristan Hau contributes an an interview with Sony that appeared in What HiFi? magazine.
Ashok contributes excerpts from John Borwick's Grammaphone review of the MDS-JE500.
Minidisco offers good prices on imported JVC MD blanks.
Sawada Denki now accepts payment in cash and by Post Giro transfers (useful for Europeans) and offers world wide power adapters and car mount kits for Sony and Sharp units.
6 May: Hardeep finds Sony Europe's Mobile Electronics Page, featuring the MDX-C670 auto MD player. He also discovers Denon's new DN-M1050R professional recorder.
26 Apr: Ary Marcoschamer reports that Sony Mexico announced the MDX-C670 car audio MD player, identical to the European version. A US release cannot be far behind.
24 Apr: Paco Ojeda finds a Crutchfield page showing the Sony MDS-JE510 selling for ~$300 (starting in June) and the 'JE700 for ~$700.
20 Apr: Nic Boyde has an article describing a fix for the Sharp MS-200 power problem, his MD Page is also sporting new equipment, prices, and information.
16 Apr: Max spots a Nikkei article stating that a surge in MD player demand is expected.
9 Apr: JTGroup in Hong Kong sells MD equipment internationally.
8 Apr: Sound Supplies in the U.K. sells MD blanks.
6 Apr: Further dissent: Ken Polmann's March Stereo Review article rates the audio quality of Dolby S above Minidisc, though he rates both equivalent to CD for casual listening. (Thanks to Daryl O. for sending the article and Leland McArthy for the sonograms)
5 Apr: In a March article on the recording industry Forbes Magazine mentions that MiniDisc is starting to catch on, showing a chart indicating that worldwide sales of MiniDisc hardware tripled last year.
4 Apr: An artsy French MD site has good coverage of MD information and equipment en Francais.
A brief interview (read sales pitch) with Mark Viken of Sony Personal Electronics appeared last November on KRON-TV.
Entertainment Radio Networks has a page where you can register to win a Sony MD walkman, no telling which model though. // AMSYS has a brief news story mentioning the Sony 650 MB MD, the same story also appears on TechWire. // Rowtex in England offers Sony MD portables for promotions and incentive plans.
3 Apr: Jay Schimmel points out Sony's business to business personal audio and home audio pages, giving information about the new MDBUNDLE4 (MDS-JE510 and MZ-E40).
Christoph Gommel kindly donates space for the German mirror site.
1 Apr: Voices of dissent: Ken Pohlmann's Signals article in Stereo Review does not smack of MD boosterism (included after the article is a rebuttal).
Mads supplies the March Sound On Sound interview with one of the Sony MDM-X4 designers, in it he brings up the idea of using ATRAC on the internet. (p.s. nice formatting Mads!)
Romain spots a Japanese page giving chart based listings of MD equipment.
30 Mar: A new table covers MiniDisc accessories. // A place called HeadRoom provides comprehensive coverage and sales of headphone gear.
28 Mar: Hardeep finds Denon's DMD-1300 MiniDisc Deck news release, announcing its May introduction in the US.
27 Mar: Tek Gallery sells the Sony 'R3 and 'E40, but not at bargain prices.
25 Mar: Christopher Owen spots KNG Market in Japan, with ``street'' MD equipment prices. They don't ship internationally though.
22 Mar: Behnam Tony points out Frederic's Homepage which has an MD titling program for the HP 48. // Mr. Ebert tells where to get portable MD cases. // Hardeep spots Sony's JA50ES annoucement at CeBIT.
20 Mar: Bala Swaminathan has contributed a review of the Aiwa AM-F3.
19 Mar: Tapeweb sells MDs, but at last year's prices.
18 Mar: MD's next competition? Martin spots Philips' CD ReWritable drive that will be available in June '97 (though the discs won't play in a normal CD player).
11 Mar: Shawn Lin contributes a Home Furnishing Network article on Sony's MD marketing push.
10 Mar: Sawada Denki in Osaka, Japan offers international mail order sales of MD portables.
7 Mar: Michael Ramershov contributes information about the new Sony MDX-C670RDS auto MD unit. // Martin Borus has a picture of that Ferrero Rocher chocolate box, useful for storing MDs.
6 Mar: Daniel Kao writes a nice review of the new Sharp MD-MS200 portable.
4 Mar: That brief French MD site has a Sony MD commercial in GIF animation (the text of which says It's MD). // Sony Disc Manufacturing has information on master tape, label, and package art preparation for artists making MiniDiscs with them. //
2 Mar: Conrad Sanderson has scanned all the surfaces of a Sharp MD-MS200.
1 Mar: Jan Panoch has kindly donated space for an MD Page Mirror in the Czech Republic. // D.G. Noise in Switzerland imports MiniDisc portables from Japan. // Ashok Dhareshwar has contributed HiFi World magazine's nice review of the JE500.
28 Feb: Peter Link makes and sells Wooden MiniDisc Racks.
21 Feb: The Melting Pot direct ships Japanese MD equipment from Hong Kong. // George finds low prices on the Sony and Tascam multi-trackers at Musician's Friend (they also carry MD Data Blanks).
19 Feb: Chris Long finds a supplier for MD printer labels
18 Feb: More images of new Pioneer (thumbnail) and Kenwood (thumbnail) MD gear from that alert reader. Thanks!
16 Feb: Hans Huter contributes his impressions of the Sony MZ-R30 portable recorder and Bob Irons does likewise for the Sony MDM-X4 multitracker.
15 Feb: Skala spots: Car Audio Heaven, selling Sony car MD units (MDX-400, 'C150) in So. Calif.
14 Feb: 8th Street Music in Philidelphia sells the Yamaha MD 4-track.
13 Feb: A picture of the Konica portable Picture MD viewer (thumbnail) was scanned by an alert reader.
12 Feb: Konica's Picture MD products (in Japanese) show a 35mm film and flatbed scanner (storing on MD), MD picture editor, a handheld Picture MD viewer, and Picture MD viewing station (using 2 together MD discs can be copied). // Eikaiwa Visa has a page concerning the use of MiniDisc in the classroom. // Oceans Away in Holland has an extensive pre-recorded MD catalog, and Peterka in Rapperswil Switzerland sells MD equipment and has some MD info in German.
10 Feb: Skala finds BASF's MD blanks page.
6 Feb: Balzers Process Systems makes machines that make blank MiniDiscs (try the local copy if you can't access it). // George spots Sound Conceptions car audio MD equipment (Sony MDX-C150, '400, & '60).
4 Feb: MusicZone in Sweden hosts a Sony promotion in which they give away an 'R3 each month. // Nic Boyde provides a Japanese MiniDisc equipment export service.
31 Jan: Sony's 1996 Annual report says a few warm and fuzzy words about MD.
30 Jan: Shawn Lin reveals his secret MD page that, amidst other useful information, has an excellent list of the best prices for MD equipment . // Bruce Winegar has contributed a nice review of the MD Bundle3. // Behnam Tony has a French/English MD page with several MD equipment pictures, including a nice shot of the new Sony MDS-JA50ES and its Wide Bit Stream block diagram (showing a 24 bit data path from the ADC to the ATRAC chip!).
29 Jan: George spots Interstudio Limited's new and used pro audio equipment (which includes some MD gear). // Martin Borus scanned all the surfaces of an 'R30. Among other things, the jog thumbwheel can be clearly seen.
28 Jan: Not MD, but cool: Hitachi introduces a hard disc based camcorder (costing $2500 according to Hyperstand). Now all we need is an MD version. (Thanks George!)
27 Jan: Conrad Sanderson kindly donates space for the Australian Mirror Site. // George spots Markertek, selling the Sony MDM-X4 multi-tracker.
25 Jan: Graham Baker contributes comments from MD users on the UK Radio mailing list. // Ron LaPedis contributes Koji Sato's translation of the TDK head and lens cleaner disc instructions.
19 Jan: Sony announces a Solid State Voice Recorder. // Hardeep finds a set of swells: Sony's announcement of their US MZ-R30 intro, Sharp's CES '97 exhibit, and MD technology announcement (which mentions the ``Optional Internet Digital Recording Capability'' (!?) of their MD-X8 system), Pioneer's Japanese portable , mini-component , and X-MDJ7 MD pages (the X-MDJ7 having a CD tempo control that allows the creation of seamless digital mixes to MD), Tascam's 801R/P page, their Portastudio 564 announcement at AES '96, and a Denon page entitled ``What's MD?'' // DCC: ``I'm not quite dead yet!'' -- Marantz shows a new pro model portable DCC recorder (from DCC-L).

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