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For info on the few portable Mini Disc portable models that are still made or available see the Minidisks manufacturers page
Aiwa
Has recently rewampet their offerings of portable MD recorders in the form of the NETMD compatiable AM-NX1 and the cheaper AM-NX9. In Japan a plaback only unit called AM-PX1 is also offered by the company.
Denon
Makes 3 standalone full size recorders for home use, the DMD-800, the DMD-1000 which sports Denon's own lambada SLC A/D converters and 20 bit D/A converters, unusual in MD recorders and finally the DMD-1600AL, a high end model with converters similiar to those found in the companys better CD players. The 800 and the 1000 are availeble gold coloured to fit in with Denon's hi-fi seperates line or in a more generic black colour, but the top of the line DMD-1600AL model only comes gold coloured.
For the professional, studio and brodcast markets the company makes the standalone DN-M991R, it has extencive editing, cueing and interfacing capabilities but it's being replaced by an improved version called DN-M991RM, those that already have the older model shuld note that it's upgradable to the current spec. A slightly cheaper version of that model is availeble called DN-990RC, it has a much simpler user interface and lacks most of the editing and cueing functions but is othervise similiarly specified, a playback only version of the 990 is called DN-981F. Slightly more studio & AV oriented is the DN-M1050R, a rack unit similiarly specified as the 991, but trades the keyboard interface and some of the broadcast inspired cueing functions for a more tradidtional intarface, this model will also accept an optional SMPTE and Sony remote protocol card
A couple of years back Denon introduced a DJ oriented MD recorder called DN-M2300, it's a rack mounted dual deck that has much simpler interfacing options than the rest of their pro rage but is easy to use, is schock proof and has features like auto looping that made the unit popular with not just club DJ's but also the radio jocks that work without a technician, this has prompted the company to release a single deck version of it called DN-M200. Denon also has a professional portable recorder, the DM-PR70. In addition to all this Denon's professional division also makes a MD duplicator called DN-045.
HHB
Make a professional MD recorder intended for broadcast and film use called MDP-500. It sports all kinds of advanced functions such as SMPTE timecode reading and genrating, balanced input and outputs with 48 volt panthom power (for powering Microphones with), illuminated meters, lockable level controllers pre record buffers, extencive editing functions, built in mic and speaker, and an USB interface. All in all the unit to get if you are a hardcore MD fan, but note that this recorder is somewhat "less portable" than you are used to with a MD recorder. This model is reviewed here from a filmmakers perspective and herefrom a pro-audio perspective and a review from Electronic Musican can be found here.
Goodmans
Has the GMD18K portable player, I was actually under the impression that this model was no longer being offered but a number of stores in the UK including Amazon.co.uk where offering this model at just under 40£ including a car kit tha includes a cradle, cassette adaptor and a power adapter as late as in December 2005, it is by far the cheapest player available on the market but is nota bene not NetMD compatiable and thus will not play back DRM enabled disks.
Kenwood
For some reason this company apparently only distributes MD based products in Japan, this is slightly odd since they appear to make MD recorders/players for a couple of other brands. The only standalone recorder that I think the company currently makes is the rather oddball DM-1Net, this is a desktop recorder intended to stand vertical or horizontal similiar to a ZIP drive or something other computer drives and is indeed only meant to be used with a computer, you can only record via the built in USB connection, but the company claims their unit betters a normal MD or another type of compressed music formats due to the inclusion of software that uses their Surpreme Sound technology. They have portable models ranging from the DMC-Q33, DMC-Q55, DMC-Q77 and DMC-35 playback only units, all support MDLP and have generous amounts of shock proof memory and the 35, 55 and 77 are available in a variety of finishes, but if you are a heavy metal fan be forewarned that the 33 is only avaiable in radioactive pink which will seriously clash with your leather jacket, furthermore they all have class D PCM amplifiers that improves battery life but do not sound quite as good as normal ones, all the players use a built in NiHM cells have a better than usual battery life and the 55 and 77 have loudspekers built into their charging stands. .
Makes 2 models of MD in-car units, the MD-45Z is a fairly standard in-dash reciever that replaces the cutomary cassette or CD player with a MD player and the MD-95Z is a combination 6 CD changer and an MD player.
Onyx
Not strictly a manufacturer of MD recorders but rather this company takes standard recorders from Sony and adds ruggedised features with radio reporters etc in mind.
Otari
Makes the MR-30 professional MD recorder, it has a wealth of advanced options such as automatic (programmable) playback, AES/EBU digital interface in addition to the usual and also balanced I/O, exhaustive editing options, SCMS defeat, optional sampling convertor, IBM keyboard and RS-232/RS422 interfaces etc. Supports mono mode but not MDLP. This unit is popular in the brodcasting industry for playback of adverts etc due to the easy to use but feature rich editing functions and the low cost of the format.
Sharp
This company is probably the second biggest manufacturer of MD's after Sony. The front loading transport that Sharp uses on all their model is by many considered to be superiour in some respects to the variation that Sony uses. The cheapest portable recorder in their MD-MT lineup is the MD-MT15, it's uses normal battery's and is for that reason slightly bigger than it's more expencive brethern, has only a 10 second anti-skip buffer and no remote but on the other hand does offer a sample rate converter and a synchro/level recording control, unusual for a recorder in this price bracket. You can also purchase this mode in a packet called MD-MT15VQ that includes hardware and software to send and recieve music to your computer and do householding tasks such as converting MP3's etc, those of you interested in that package can read reviews by Consumerguide and ZDnet.. Next in the price range is the slimline MD-MT90 model, it has all the features of the MT 15 model and in addition a 40 second buffer and a remote control built into the headphone. The MD-MT821 model adds a digital bass extender, the battery life is upped to 18 hours and the remote has a backlit LCD screen, the 821 also has a better headphone. Top of the MT-MD range is the MT-MD877 a variant of the MT82 with support for MDLP mode.
Sony
As you could expect from the inventor of the format they produce an almost bevildering range of MD recorders, here is a link to their consumer range of MD recorders (ie non Walkman types). ZDNet reviews the MZ-R 500 here and the MZ-R900 also. The MZR410 is doing the rounds in Europe at the least as the cheapest MiniDisc recorder available typically selling at half of its RRP, or around 50 £ locally.
TEAC
Strangely enough while the company makes a MD recorder for all of their Reference mini seperates they do not make a full size MD unit, but their professional division Tascam division has 3 models, the MD-301 MK II a resonably priced rackable unit that sports balanced I/O, built in sample rate converter, ATRAC v.4.5 and optical digital I/O. The MD-801 MKII is siply the best specified and the best sounding MD out there but it's also the most expencive if you do not count the specialiced Otari and Denon broadcast models, the 801 has by far to many features to list here but some of the more notable are : AES/EBU digital intarfaces with wordclock, high end D/A and A/D converters, extencive editing options, balanced analogue I/O etc etc etc. They also supply optional MD units for their Reference series of mini hi-fi seperates namely the MHD-100, the MHD-300 and the MHD-500, these units are all similiarly specified with the exception that the 500 variant has a toslink option, they differ in size also so you cannot mix'n'match them stylewise.
Yamaha Corp.
Apart from the units that are available as a part of their style systems such as the MDX-E100 Pianocraft model and the one built into the GX-900 Mini System the company has 3 full size minidisc units, namely the MDX-595, the MDX-596 and the MDX-793.
Denon
Makes 2 types of MD blanks in the usual lengths, the recently introduced CMD-Z and the CMD-L.
Fuji-Magnetics
Makes a range of MD blanks.
Primedisc
Makes a range of MD discs in 74 and 80 minute sizes.
Quantegy
Makes the MDR blanks minidiscs in a nice looking clear case.
Sony makes 3 types of MD blanks, the ES and Premium range is intended for normal use and the PRMD is intended for professional use (has a longer predicted lifespan)
TDK
Info on discontinued MD recorders
Aiwa
Has had a large range of MD's in the last few years, one particularily interesting model is the AM-HX200E, an ultraportable player with a caseing fabricated out of titanium! Amongst other features it supports LP mode and it was introduced in 199 and discontinued in late 2001/early 2002, at the same time they also made another LP capable portable player that supports LP mode and is called AM-HX70 and a budget model that does not have the LP mode but is othervise mostly identical to the 70 that is called AM-CL33.
Akai Electric Co.
Had the MD-1500 a fairly well specified standalone recorder introduced in the latter half of the 90's and discontinued in 2001/2, it had ATRAC 4.5 and digital I/O. Their PF-P01 portable player is fairly run of the mill, made in a similar timeframe to the above unit it has a 40 sec. buffer. There was also a MD recorder availeble as an option for their QZ-550 micro component system and Akai have a few integrated systems that contain a MD recorder, namely the TX-640MD, the TX-643RMD and the QX-20 microsystem along with the AJ-MO60 boombox (one of the few that contains a recorder, most personal stereos are playback only).
Aiwa
Amongst the more interesting MD players in the second hand market is the AM-F70 model, it has a large backlit LCD on the unit and on the remote control. This model sports some interesting recording functions like synchronistaion and level controlled recording, double speed playback (with pitch correction) to factilate fast review of recorded material and built in sample rate converter plus all the usual editing and marking functions. The unit is too old to support MDLP but it does have mono mode giving you 148 minutes of recording time. And finally a 40 second of anti-shock memory. The unit is a little bigger than the modern recorders thoug.
Denon
Owners of the DN-M991R model shuld note that they can purchase a ROM upgrade from Denon that upgrades the recorder to a DN-M991RM specification.
Denon
Makes 3 standalone full size recorders for home use, the DMD-800, the DMD-1000 which sports Denon's own lambada SLC A/D converters and 20 bit D/A converters, unusual in MD recorders and finally the DMD-1600AL, a high end model with converters similiar to those found in the companys better CD players. The 800 and the 1000 are availeble gold coloured to fit in with Denon's hi-fi seperates line or in a more generic black colour, but the top of the line DMD-1600AL model only comes gold coloured.
For the professional, studio and brodcast markets the company makes the standalone DN-M991R, it has extencive editing, cueing and interfacing capabilities but it's being replaced by an improved version called DN-M991RM, those that already have the older model shuld note that it's upgradable to the current spec. A slightly cheaper version of that model is availeble called DN-990RC, it has a much simpler user interface and lacks most of the editing and cueing functions but is othervise similiarly specified, a playback only version of the 990 is called DN-981F. Slightly more studio & AV oriented is the DN-M1050R, a rack unit similiarly specified as the 991, but trades the keyboard interface and some of the broadcast inspired cueing functions for a more tradidtional intarface, this model will also accept an optional SMPTE and Sony remote protocol card.
A couple of years back Denon introduced a DJ oriented MD recorder called DN-M2300, it's a rack mounted dual deck that has much simpler interfacing options than the rest of their pro rage but is easy to use, is schock proof and has features like auto looping that made the unit popular with not just club DJ's but also the radio jocks that work without a technician, this has prompted the company to release a single deck version of it called DN-M200. Denon also has a professional portable recorder, the DM-PR70. In addition to all this Denon's professional division also makes a MD duplicator called DN-045
Grundig
Made the MD-P1, a simple player with a 40 second anti-shock protection. Exited the MD market altogether in early 2001 in favour of MP3 devices.
Lenco (STL)
Had the MD3760 a competent portable playback unit that is as far as I can gather the only player ever released by the company, it was introduced in 1999 and discontinued in the latter half of 2001/early 2002. The player sounds OK but is a bit thin on features but then again it was one of the cheapest players availble at the time.
Sharp
If you are searching for a used recorder rather than a player you will do worse than taking a look at the MD-MS702 model, it's a fairly simple unit but it has a well regarded mechanism, has an unusually high user satisfaction rating and is modern enough to be small and offer synchro and level control of recording (it was discontinued in early 2001), and there is no need to take our word for it you can read some user reviews of it here. The MD-D10H is one of the uglier recorders we have seen, but that is not all that bad since it means that you can often get it cheap used. It's slightly bigger than the modern players and has a bog standard feature set. MDX-8 (CD changer/MD/Tuner) plus optional computer to MD kit. You can read a review of the recently discontinued MT-831 by Gadgetsquad.
Sony
The first MD recorder in the world was the MZ-1 that was introduced in 1993, its huge, power hungry (max playback time of 75 min with new batteries, less when recording), has only a 10 sec buffer so it's nowhere near to being shock proof, will not play 74 minute discs, much less the 80 minute ones and sounds awful to boot, one you shuld stay away from it unless you want it as a collection piece. Owners of the MZR-900 can join the mailing list that is dedicated to that model.
Currently manufactured music systems with MD's
For a time it in the latter half of the 90'-s it actually seemed that Minidisk would actually replace the cassette in home systems as almost all pricier ones coming out of Japan featured one, what has happened however is that more and more companies are scuttling the system for anything but mobile use and surpricingly enought Sony itself has for one reason or another never tried to push it in this sector, all their music systems that have a recording factility at all, regardless of price actually include a Compact Cassette funnily enough, while you can at the least get MD systems from their AIWA division.
Aiwa
Has the ADN-1 an cleverly designided music system based around a NETMD capable recorder, in addition to a high speed USB port it can also rip from CD at 4xspeed, as can the cheaper XR-FD55 and XR-FA700 micro systems but they lack an USB/computer connection. In addition the Japanese market gets the XR-MJ1 and the XR-W88MD music systems and a system called XR-MJ3DVD that is a bit unusual, it's a normal 2 speaker music system that has a DVD player instead of a CD player, but obioulsy offers no mulichannel capabilities but does support MP3 playback. All of their current lineup of microsystems is LP compatiable.
Kenwood
Has 2 portable style systems that have MD recorders, the MDX-J9 & MDX-J7 both extremely neat designs that has feature MDLP compatiable recorders and fold up to become a portable system, in addition the MDX-J9 has an USB connection and is NETMD. They also manufacture the MDX-K3 and MDX-K1 that are actually advertised as portable systems but the K3 in particular probably better described as transportable, both feature MDLP compatiable recorders. These may only be available in Japan BTW.
Discontinued music systems with MD's
Lenco (STL)
Made 2 low budget integrated systems that featured MD in 2000 to 2002 or so, the PPS2037 has a built in player and the PPS2039 has a built in recorder, and both were sold at bargain prices making them a nice introduction to MD, today's second hand prices make them alomst irresistible but the sound quality is OK rather than great.
Kenwood
Has at the least 2 recievers on the market (i.e. a combination of tunerMD palyer and an integrated amp), namely the KMD-X92 4 channel unit and the cheaper KMD-44, the the company also manufactures the KMD-D400 a 4 disk changer that can be controled by any Kenwood head unit made after 1998 that supports changers in general.
Yamaha Corp.
Makes 2 models of multichannel recorders with built in mixers, the MD4S and the MD8.
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