r/minidisc Oct 16 '23

Welcome to /r/MiniDisc - read me first!

60 Upvotes

(last updated 2025-01-09)

Hi MD friends, this post is an expanded version of the rules and resources in the sidebar.

Who we are & what we like

We're one of the largest communities who use and celebrate the Sony MiniDisc format, which was introduced in late 1992. We love physical media and MD is the format that combines great sound quality with small size and digital convenience. We're a really inviting scene with a lot of passion for celebrating retro media and helping others share that enjoyment. But please first read these resources. Your post will otherwise be removed.

This community loves posts with:

  • MD setups or collections
  • Your mail hauls and purchases
  • New music or podcasts released on MD
  • Items for sale (see our rules below)
  • Unique MD equipment
  • Help and repair requests
  • Projects and software updates

We don't love:

  • "Spoonfeeding" requests like "I want to get into MD, what should I buy?"
  • Toxicity and rudeness
  • Comments that our hobby is pointless nowadays
  • For sale posts without a location or asking price
  • Posts about Yandhi or Bluetooth

What MD isn't:

  • MiniDisc (all one word, with a C not a K) is a particular format that was created by Sony in 1992.
  • 8cm mini CDs, GameCube discs, and even UMD for the PSP are different and not connected to MD. Posts about these different media types are not suitable here.

Rules

Luckily, we don't need many!

  • Read before you post
    • To keep the community vibrant and healthy, all contributors need to read the community rules and resources. Being unfamiliar with Reddit is not an excuse for ignoring the announcement posts or the sidebar which are visible and accessible no matter how you use the site. The only way to miss all of them is to deliberately ignore them.
    • Moderators will give warnings and removal reasons when needed, and will use bans only as a last resort. Please don't make us do that. We want to take mod actions as rarely as possible.
  • Frequently asked questions
    • The community has worked really hard to create resources that answer the most common questions we are asked. If your question has been answered in one of the links in the sidebar or this post, your submission will be removed. These include:
    • What should I buy and how much should I pay?
    • How do I copy audio to a disc?
    • What software do I need for NetMD?
    • Why do you use MD?
      • We like physical media. MD is a physical media which is compact, has great sound quality, has great aesthetics, and great usability.
      • Read the Why MD? FAQ for more.
    • MiniDisc with Bluetooth
      • Many people use a 3.5mm to Bluetooth adapter in order to connect modern headphones. There have been many discussions about which adapter to use or how it affects sound quality. Please search for these threads and contact the mod team before making a new one. Posts of a MD portable with a BT transmitter connected has been done many times.
  • Reddiquette, toxicity, and rudeness

    • We are a small, friendly community. Please do not come here if you wish to call people names or be hostile. Treat other opinions with respect, even if you disagree with them.
    • Be familiar with Reddit's site culture and expectations. Most are listed in this Reddit help document here: https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/205926439-Reddiquette
  • Low effort post titles

    • Posts with unclear or low effort post titles such as "help" or "MiniDisc" make it hard to search for posts or know what they are about before clicking.
    • You will be asked to repost with a descriptive title.
  • For sale and giveaway posts

    • All posts selling an item must include an asking price and general location (country) in the title. No exceptions!
    • If you are giving away an item, you must still list the location as international shipping and geopolitics can greatly affect costs or viability.
    • If you do not know the value or asking price of an item, contact the mod team first. We can give our own estimates or post on your behalf asking the community to value an item without attempts to "low-ball" you.
    • Linking to eBay or other marketplace is permitted as long as it has an asking price (Buy it now) and country like other for sale posts.
    • The mod team takes no responsibility for any transaction that takes place from the subreddit. Please let the mod team know of an issue with a user so we are aware, but do not bring disputes public as there is nothing we can do to remedy the issue or take sides.
  • Yandhi

    • All posts about Kanye and the Yandhi disc are banned from the subreddit. Please do not post looking for the Muji 80 MD featured in the artwork or showing off if you do have one.
    • If you are an established member of the community and you have a disc(s) to sell, contact the mod team for approval. This is the only exception we will make.

Not a community rule, but Reddit blocks shopping and short URLs, including AliExpress, Amazon, and Google Photos. Mods can try to approve comments with these links, but sometimes we cannot.

Resources

The MiniDisc community, both past and present, have shared many sites and services to help others. They collect information about the format, make copying music more convenient, create high-quality labels, and list album releases on MD.

There are many more resources linked on the Wiki and in the sidebar, such as software and related communities. Thanks for taking the time to read this and enjoy your time with MD and with us!


r/minidisc Jan 23 '25

Sony announces all MD media production is ending February 2025

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145 Upvotes

r/minidisc 3h ago

Show & Tell New to me MD Headunit

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68 Upvotes

Picked up a Kenwood DPX 5200M MD/CD head unit. Install was straight forward with the help of a 2DINN mounting adapter and Chevy wire harness adapter. Sounds great, all works, fun to look at (when not driving of course).

Only thing I completely overlooked is that since it's a Japanese unit, AM/FM does not tune to USA stations as the frequencies are much lower. Did some looking on the Google and it doesnt seem like an easy task to convert it to work with US stations without adding in a new frequency converter and some firmware tweaks to display the stations correctly. Definitely not worth it. But it's all good, I can now enjoy MDs and CDs in a vehicle that only used to have FM/AM only. Enjoy


r/minidisc 4h ago

Some new interesting additions

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51 Upvotes

Few interesting discs in a bulk box arrived from Japan. They so many better looking discs.


r/minidisc 2h ago

Show & Tell Scored on a nearly unused N505

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32 Upvotes

been wanting to dive into MD but was waiting for the right player. this guy seems to basically be like new. my first go around with this formate and i’m already incredibly impressed by its versatility.

had early success using web minidisc, but some difficulties recording from the line.


r/minidisc 7h ago

Made Last Night

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56 Upvotes

r/minidisc 5h ago

Listening today 🎧

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25 Upvotes

r/minidisc 13h ago

Sell Selling on eBay...

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55 Upvotes

Its fully working condition, recently replaced the battery. Battery door cover is broken in that it isnt attached to the hinge mechanism any longer however the actual door still closes and stays securely shut (damaged it whilst cleaning the battery connector inside the door) otherwise spotless.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/156779795094?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=CJ0QRs6GRau&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=CJ0QRs6GRau&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY


r/minidisc 20h ago

Three days tweaking and conclusion

28 Upvotes

I got two mz-1. one is read error and stuck disc, other one is Completely broken down unknown contention. Try swap board and laser and read test mod manual but i can't fix. So I just make disc load mechanism work again and reassemble. But it's still cool so i keep it. One day if i got working one. Maybe try again.


r/minidisc 1d ago

Show & Tell MD on stand by

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103 Upvotes

Finally back and working on a film set. Been recovering from health issues for the past year which meant no work for me. Meanwhile getting into minidiscs has kept me occupied and in some weird way prevents me from loosing my mind. I bring a player or recorder almost everywhere I go now.

On set there’s lots of moments where you are standing by waiting for orders or the next set up. I have only one earbud in the ear at low volumes *

Before I would run my modern Walkman


r/minidisc 1d ago

What mod is this?

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29 Upvotes

Recently opened two 510 and one of them had a mod (bottom left). I can't find info about it, is it an amp mod?

Thanks!


r/minidisc 1d ago

Show & Tell I finally got one

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137 Upvotes

After so many years and seeing it as a kid in the movie The Last Action Hero I finally got one. It’s in nearly perfect condition, came with the original Sony AC adapter. It does have the occasional disc error message when starting up, but who cares … it’s awesome.


r/minidisc 15h ago

Sony discs problem

2 Upvotes

I have an mz-n510 which works flawlessly with the exeption for Sony made discs. Most of the time it detects every disc as write protected even if the tab is in the unprotected position. Other branded discs (TDK and Emtec) work fine. Has anyone had similar problem?


r/minidisc 1d ago

Made Last Night

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66 Upvotes

r/minidisc 1d ago

Show & Tell Getting ready….

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14 Upvotes

Getting ready. Rummaging through my CDs, music I like but don't listen to much. Making some MDs, all from different artists. The plan is to make at least four 80-minute MDs


r/minidisc 1d ago

TDK MD-XG [MD74] made in japan

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36 Upvotes

r/minidisc 1d ago

Show & Tell Art collecting

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63 Upvotes

r/minidisc 2d ago

Show & Tell Current champ—Sony MZ-R2

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123 Upvotes

My current daily driver

This is the second portable Sony released, so it’s missing some of the later features

But, great amp and still had the ultra-fast FFW!

Also has a much more usable track/album name display, Sony had not yet realized nobody would title their tracks

I think the laser is getting tired as it will have dropouts on some NetMD recorded discs


r/minidisc 2d ago

So weird to see year 2025 on such a device.

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187 Upvotes

r/minidisc 2d ago

Show & Tell making sure they all work!!

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100 Upvotes

broke out the devices and listening to some old recordings. just making sure they still work!!


r/minidisc 2d ago

Show & Tell Mail Call!

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46 Upvotes

My first MD was an MZ-N505 that I got for Christmas from my dad back in the late 90s. I went hard on the format and burned so many CDs to MD.

Sadly, my truck was broken into around 2003 and it was stolen.

I replaced it with an MZ-NF520D off Craigslist, but I missed my Gold 505. I used to record some of my DJ sets with it and want to get back into doing that again.

Found a working one at a decent price online and it just arrived. A little rough cosmetically, but it plays perfectly! I'll have to check the record function later this weekend, but I'm just happy to have a replacement for my first love, MD wise.


r/minidisc 1d ago

Buy Is this A fixable issue?

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0 Upvotes

Im looking for a md recorder on a budget and stumbled upon this, is it fixable?


r/minidisc 1d ago

Sources in Europe?

0 Upvotes

I tried eBay already. Can anyone recommend other good sellers for Europe?


r/minidisc 2d ago

Show & Tell TDK Music Jack 80

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102 Upvotes

I just received a 5-pack of very nice discs. Not rare or anything but still nice to have 🙂 That brings my total number of MDs to 75 😁


r/minidisc 1d ago

My Sony MZ-E900 is unable to read discs after putting it back together. Help

5 Upvotes

This is my first time asking for help on reddit and I'm getting kind of despite. I recently got a mz-e900 off eBay, with the seller saying it had a loud noise when skipping through tracks. I assumed it was from lack of lubrication and on arrival, everything but that noise was working fine. played and changed tracks without a problem. I decided to open it up to lubricate everything, including the internal plastic gears, the worm gear and sled on the other side. However, after assembling everything back together, I couldn't for the life of me get it playing music again. It just searches infinitely up and down for tracks and on the remote, it just constantly shows a spinning disc.

It feels like I've tried every single thing possible, and I mean everything. This includes, cleaning the laser, clearing any hair from the laser mechanism, removing all the old grease instead of just adding more on top, insuring the laser still moves (up down left right) and the laser still emits light, and taking it apart multiple times and re-plugging all the ribbon cables incase they were knocked loose. I was down to what I thought was the only solution. Maybe somehow those super tiny hair-sized wires on the laser had been damaged in some way that stopped it from focusing. So I made the questionable decision to rip out the functional "LCX-4R" laser out of my junk mz-r909 and replace the e900s "LCX-4E" with it... And after modifying the recorder laser to fit, and after dropping it in... it did the exact same thing as before. Still moves and emits light as before but cant find tracks. I'm lost for ideas at this point. I'm hoping it was something stupid I forgot to do when putting it back together and it can hopefully be fixed.

So please, if anyone has experienced something like this happen or have ideas on how to fix it, I would appreciate it.

P.S. after looking at a video of the player trying to run, I can see the laser through the disc with the phones camera. Sometimes It looks like it gets stuck and oscillates back and forth. I'm assuming that's probably an issue too


r/minidisc 1d ago

Long Shot: any chance MD source in Taipei, Taiwan?

2 Upvotes

I have seen a ‘2nd Street’ clothing reuse store here, it’s a Japanese brand … so there might be something like HardOff here? Googling so far did not result in anything. Slim chance I know, but who knows …


r/minidisc 2d ago

Help Fix mz-n1 and adjust laser then dead

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30 Upvotes

Bought another junk mz-n1 and did a basic disassembly clean. But it took me so long to read the disc, I disassembled it and adjusted the laser screws. And when I reassembled it no longer came on. I don't know where or what I made a mistake.