Adventurasia Community

(Originally posted on adventurasia.freezope.org around 2003~2004)

Before even setting foot in Japan, I had already decided that I would buy myself an MD player. About 6 years ago, a friend of mine who had just returned from a 1-year stint in Japan told me about the MD player and all the neat things it could do. My interest was piqued.

Little did I know that it would take me just over 5 years before finally making the purchase. Admittedly, during the 5 year time span, I never felt that the MD player was a ‘must-have’ as I was placated by other things - cassette walkman / camera / etc. However, recently, in the past year or so, I’ve been looking at the iPod’s with interest (really cool, but expensive at about 60,000 Yen for the 20GB model; but because I also got an iBook recently and use iTunes a fair bit, it seemed like a natural next step). Recently, I saw an advertisement on the train for the Toshiba Gigabeat. Advertisement is a bit of an understatement, if there ever were such a word, trainjack would be better. The entire outside of the train had posters advertising the Gigabeat. The Toshiba machine is nice - thinner than the iPod, but same price for less capacity.
Recently, one of my cousins bought an MD player and started showing me all the neat things it could do. Last week, after spending about a day looking and asking salespeople (as well as my cousin) about the players, I ended up purchasing the exact same model as him, but a different colour.

The reason for his recommendation included:

• it has a kick ass remote control unit
• the rechargeable battery can be removed (as opposed to the slightly more expensive Sony N10 which has a built in battery)
• the main unit has an LCD status panel
• there’s a grouping function
• it’s a Sony!

Until recently, most of these reasons didn’t mean anything to me, although I’m glad that I listened to his recommendation! The criteria that I had included:

• recording function
• LP mode (basically storing 4x as much content on a single MD disc; so with an 80min disc, I can store 320mins of music)
• Net MD - from what I gather, allows you to connect MD to your computer via USB port to transfer/edit songs and playlists
• long battery life (this has upto 114 hours playback when using the rechargeable battery + a single AA alkaline battery)
• not too expensive (this model is about mid-range in terms of price)
• lightweight and compact (this model weighs 120g and measures 80.6mm X 74.2 X 20.3 when coupled with the extra battery)

I was a bit concerned that the manual and software was all in Japanese and Windows only, but it’s quite easy to figure out how to work the unit. Without reading the manual, and having not used an MD before, I’ve been able to record CDs as well as playback MDs. I did find an English version of the manual available on the minidisc.org Web site (this site is quite interesting and informative) which I’ll peruse when I have more time. I’ve also been told that English versions of the software is available for download from the Sony site - if I get a chance, I’ll try and find this, if not, shoganei!

So far I haven’t been disappointed. I don’t know why I waited so long to get this as I’ve been using it 5+ hours everyday — mostly to archive some of the CDs that I have, as well as to listen to it anytime I leave my apartment / take the train. When I’m at home, I sometimes attach my computer speakers to the headphone jack - I’m not sure if there’s a built in amp, but it plays at good volume.

Currently, I’m backing up the CDs directly from my stereo cassette player via an optical cable. I haven’t even begun to take advantage of the Net MD functionality, but will post a followup article once I’ve spent some more time playing with the various features. I also want to try and archive some cassette tapes that I have and will report on how this works as well.

Filed under: Technology