Legacy Digital Playback

Back in the 80's , the media of Compact Disc (CD) are introduced. It has large influence over the technology world and pretty much everyone would probably own some CD in the life. That is how popular CD as a media is to world until the 90's when Sony came out with a small version of the disc which is know as Minidisc (MD). The media is pretty much the same but smaller in size and still hold the same among of information. In the audio world is the standard 70 mins play time on the CD. MD is not just smaller in size but also encase in a shell not like CD which is a plastic disc expose and can be damage. Sony being known in the audio world has large customer based which is almost a guarantee for success. Unfortunately , despite all the fact MD did not really get popular. It was use mainly in Asia and some part of Europe and not so popular in the States. Ironically during the 90's hard disk and other media like Ipod is getting popular. Not a good timing for the MD and with 2 - 3 years after MD was launch it also quickly died out. 

Myself being the kids from the 70's, I have my fair share of cassette, tapes, and CD. When MD was around, I am pretty fascinated by it. Although very much into but is still not kind of affordable to own a MD player and getting the disc is not also not as much as CD back then. Honestly, for the beginning of the journey was much into movies and therefore Home Theater is the thing for me starting around 2007. Along the journey, kind of switch things towards music. By now, digital is the most common playback for music. With streaming of music it has now become the main stream. The old school head of me still very much into physical media. Even in Home Theater I will prefer the Bluray Disc than streaming. Naturally, I have been playing with CD mostly and some Vinyl along the way. I have always been eyeing for MD which is hard to come by this days. One fine day, out the blue I have chanced a upon a seller of pre-loved item to be selling this TASCAM MD player. The brand itself is well known during its day. With RM700 price tag, I am more than willing to jump into. The downside is the unit doesn't come with a remote control. Quite a bummer but, I thinking I will be able to find a replacement remote.

From the front look is kind of like a CD player except the loader is size is smaller. The front panel consist of quite many controls. Remote can be really optional. The usual button for play, stop, search and eject. The other control is for selection of input which is not quite common for player which usually has output. One key feature of MD player is the ability to record. On the left side of the player has a big knob to set the input volume. This is use to control the volume during record. On the right side of the player has a smaller knob which is selector where the knob can be press to "select". This is to control the function of deleting the disc, labelling the content of the disc. 

On the bottom right corner has a keyboard input. Of course this is the old fashion P/S2 keyboard which doesn't exist anymore. The purpose of this is to connect a keyboard to the player so is easier to type in the name of the song or album for each track. Is far easier than using the knob or even remote control. Very thoughtful design considering back in the 90's there is no touch screen.

Taking a look at the back of the player is the usual power cable which is not detachable. It uses a 2 pin plug. On the far left is the analog (RCA) input and output. Than follow by the optical output and optical input. Next is the analog (XLR) input and analogu (XLR) output. This unit can be switch between 120V and 240V. Is a good feature to have. I have to say this player has all the necessary input and output. What I think is nice to have is the Coaxial connection. That will be really a complete package. Is really nice to have output for both balanced and unbalanced.

The standard MD is 72x68x5mm. The typical disc store about 70 min of music. The one I have is the 80 min. In term of quality both 70 min and 80 min disc has no difference. Surprisingly the disc can still be purchase from online platform like Lazada. The price is about RM30 a piece. Is exactly like a re-writable CD. It comes with cover like a CD case. 

As this unit doesn't comes with a remote, I have search for it online for after market remote. Is really not hard to find one online to be purchase but it costed quite a pretty penny. Is roughly about USD20 + USD5 for shipping. That comes to about RM130 for this remote. Considering the player only cost RM700, I was pretty doubtful to get it but without a remote can be annoying if you want to select next song while seated. After some contemplating, decided to go with it. I am really I have got it. The after market remote works perfectly, almost like the original remote.

The player itself is pretty simple, just plug it in and pretty can start playing like a CD player. Of course what I have is just blank disc. I will have to record some songs / music to start listening to it. The nice thing about the player, it has various input of RCA, XLR and optical. It can pretty much record from any sources that can output with RCA, XLR and optical. For my setup, I have connected it from the preamp RCA output to the input of the MD player. This makes is easy to play any kind of source and able to record to the MD player. With the connection setup, firstly tested to record from a CD player. It work flawlessly. Pretty easy with just a push of the record button while the CD is playing to record. After that also tried recording from my Volumio player running on Asus Tinker board. WAV, FLAC and DSD is able to record flawlessly. One last thing, was recording from the Rega turntable. It works as well without a hitch. The only downside of this all is the time need to spend. Is old school, for 80mins disc will need to play 80 mins of songs / music to record. Is time consuming but I guess the positive side is you are able to select anything you want to be recorded to make your favourite playlist.

For playback, the MD output from optical to Wadia DAC. I have this connection, it sounded more natural to me than output from the RCA or XLR. The output of the RCA is quite reasonable but the sound is a bit lean. Whereas, the XLR is a lot more punchy but is also with its harshness. I will assume the DAC inside the player is pretty outdated. With the optical to bypass the internal DAC, the outcome is more natural and smooth sounding with the Wadia DAC. 

Among all the different format being recorded to the Minidisc, the one that sounded neutral and more musical is from the recording of the DSD file. Is a bit surprising as I might initial thought will be it will work better with older tech like the CD player. If I have to rank it for all the format, this is how I will put it:

1. DSD

2. LP

3. CD

4. WAV

5. FLAC

6. Streaming

On and all the outcome from playback on the MD is really enjoyable. Is really comparable with current quality of audio. With the 80 mins disc, approximately able to store about 20 songs / music. Is a good amount without having to change the disc as often. Overall my experience with MD is a pleasant one. I will recommend this to anyone who are looking into MD.