MiniDisc? Oh yeah, I've always been a fan of this awesome format…

In the 80's I was fascinated by tape decks, because a Reel2Reel machine from Akai, Revox or ASC was simply too expensive for my tight budget. In 1990 I bought a VHS recorder with a hi-fi stereo option - the Philips VR6585. A marvellous machine, even with LP mode (8 hours of music on a rather bulky VHS cassette). However, faults such as kinks in the VHS tapes were were audible as annoying crackling, sometimes as dropouts.

What to do? DAT was on everyone's lips at the time. After some savings I got my Sony DTC-57ES in 1993. “That should have been it for now,” I thought. A little later I read about the MiniDisc in HiFi magazines. I realized that this (!) was the medium I had been looking for for so long. There was only one disadvantage, the first generation of recorders was almost impossible to get in Germany. It wasn't until the end of 1994 / beginning of 1995 that MiniDisc recorders were regularly offered in our town. Actually lucky for me, because the first recorders with ATRAC-1 were not yet mature in terms of sound. In June 1995 the time had come. I traded in my Sony DAT to our hi-fi dealer and got the long-awaited Sony MDS-302 with ATRAC-3 (price at that time was 1,200 German marks). A proud price for a great device. Mono only worked as a playback, but otherwise I really didn't miss anything. Edit functions, sound quality, feel - everything was perfect and seemed tailor-made for me. Back then, the discs still cost 20 DM as a 60Min, a 74Min was about 25 DM. In these days, there was only money left over for a few discs here and there.

The MiniDisc format fascinates me just as much today as it did then. For me there is no better way to enjoy music and put together my own samplers.

My disc for the “30th Anniversary Disc Swap”

All tracks on my disc were recorded from vinyl, you'll find tracks from the 50s to the 80s. The transfer from HD to MD was via Platinum MD on a Sharp IM-DR410H. A nice cover, based on one of the classics on the disc, had to be included (if you look closely, you will quickly recognize the original cover).

Attached are photos from my own edition. The tracklist has been blurred for “anti spoiler” reasons :-)

The disc started its journey on October 1st and hopefully will arrive soon.

Have fun

Alf

  • community/disc-swaps/30th-anniversary/alf.txt
  • Last modified: 18 months ago
  • by alf