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Comment by LiquidPolymer | Hacker News Reader

I'm a minidisc collector and continue to make mix tapes and copy CD's, records, etc. The cases are about 1/3 the size of CD yet big enough to make great art. Despite the appearance of the disc, it is a very different technology from CD and a single minidisc can be erased and re-recorded multiple times. I can re-arrange tracks with little effort, or add/eliminate single tracks. I'm making a Louis Prima mix tape as I type this.

I also have multiple recording decks from pro to esoteric. I have a lot of portables including field recorders.

In the age of streaming and digital players why do I do this? Joy. It's just fun and I enjoy very much listening to the final product. I love the thoughtful hardware and beautiful art that can be made to go with the discs.

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Can we even still find minidisc and players new?

You can import discs from Japan for about $1.50 a piece. Players/recorders aren't that hard to find on Ebay, I even found one at a local "reuse center" but I did have the laser burn out on my NetMD recorde, tried to get another on Ebay, and the laser was burned out on that one.

You can buy new discs on Amazon. While there are many minidisc players on eBay, my best finds are on Craigslist. Why? Demographics. The old guys who find them in a shoebox in their closet think they might be worth $20. I’m not exaggerating- I travel a bit and in large or small towns I’ll scan local CR for “minidisc”, “mini disc”, “minidisk”, etc. I recently acquired five players from a single seller in Bend, OR for $50. All in nearly pristine condition.

I buy empty minidisc clear cases from Japan (similar to CD jewel cases) on eBay. I have a photoshop template for printing card stock on my Epson that allows me to create art and graphics that fits perfectly in the case. Once the completed minidisc is placed inside it fits like a glove. I find it all very satisfying.

I also bought a Sony MXD-D3 ( hard to find and expensive on eBay) so I can quickly rip an entire CD. Or I can use the “Rec-it” button and just capture a single track.

One of my other decks is a Tascam MD-301 MK II which has a keyboard port so I can easily tag albums and tracks with text that dances across the player screen on most playback devices.

All of this is so cool. I’m in Australia so minidisc gear is still damn expensive here. Having said that I have a marantz cm6000 that can auto rip a CD.

Sadly the minidisc half doesn’t record anymore :(

I have to put in the metadata on my other Sony deck using the rotary encoder :)

You should put this on a blog. Would be cool to see

This miniaturization and attention to detail is reminding me a lot of model trains and the model building hobby in general. Sounds fun.

Discs? Yes. Still made in Japan.

Players, no. But MiniDisc was ubiquitous in almost every country except the USA, so they're still relatively easy to find.

> MiniDisc was ubiquitous in almost every country except the USA

Definitely not in the former USSR. We skipped MiniDisc entirely, going from cassettes to CDs to MP3 players.

Definitely not in the UK either

What! I grew up in the UK and it was everywhere. For years you couldn't get on a bus or a train without seeing someone listening to MiniDisc. The little inline remotes were very obvious.

They stuck around for a long time, only finally being killed by the iPod.

Indeed.

I even had a MiniDisc car stereo. So much better than CDs, you could just let them rattle around in the glove box and they didn't get scratched.

And it wasn't the first iPod that ended up killing it. Circa 2004->2006 minidiscs were still super common.

Around 2001 pretty much all my friends had one. I owned 3 over that period (a friend destroyed one, the other me: skating falls were tough on them!)

They were easily the best format for portable music until mp3 players got their capacity problems sorted out.

They were amazing for copying music and making mixes. No one ever bought a new release on MD to my knowledge. You bought the CD and copied it onto MD. We also used them to record our band practise sessions.

What about portable CD players that could play MP3s connected to a car via a cassette adapter? :D

MP3 CDs were definitely a thing, including ones people burned themselves, but I don't think I've seen anyone use a cassette adapter. Most people put aftermarket CD stereos into their cars.

American-designed cars often had nonstandard sizes for car audio even before fully integrated entertainment systems became common. My 2001 Chevrolet has an odd, not-quite-double-DIN-sized space. If I wanted a screen for it, I would have to do some physical modifications to the dash or buy one that has a smaller main unit and a screen that sticks out from the unit (to avoid other overhanging things near it). For now, I'm happy to keep using the Bluetooth unit I put in it fifteen years ago.

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