-Atrac 4.0 or higher is awesome.
-Solid construction.
-The current MDS-JE530 can be found at a great price.

-Remote is slightly large.

I bought my JE510 back in the early winter of 1997. I paid about $550CAN which was quite high, but I never reget buying it. I've been using MD for about 5 years now and it is still, to this day, hard to believe that MD isn't big as it should be.

I've never had any problems with the JE510. Every function has worked flawlessly. The loading mechanism has never failed me and the sound quality has always continued to put me in awe. MD was and still is a vastly superior medium over CD-Rom. There's newer technology out now, but with MD equipment at an attractive price, you can't go wrong.

I highly recommend anyone out there thinking of getting into MD; to replace your cassette collection and to use as an alternative to CD-R. I love MD because it's so versatile.

If you're short on money, the Sony MZ-R55 portable recorder is the one to buy. Otherwise, get the MDS-JE530 and the super small portable player MZ-E55.

Go here for more info:
http://www.minidisc.org/
http://www.sony.ca/

Similar Products Used:

-Sony MZ-E3 portable player

I think that this product is excellent for people who listen to the radio a lot as well as everyone else. The sound is excellent, and I couldn't tell the difference between MD's and CD's. I love being able to record my favorite songs all on a MD, and I don't have to buy any more Cd's since I can borrow them from friends. I also love the feature that allows you to move, split, join, and name tracks. I have been very pleased with this product and think it's well worth the $300.

Minidisc isn't very succesful in the US,or at least that's what I've heard, so I'd like to give my opinion on Sony's MDS-JE500(soon to be replaced by 510) minidisc deck.I've had mine for about one year, and I'm very pleased with it. The sound quality is really good, esspecially for the 600 guilders I payed for mine(price is down to 500 guilders now.). I don't know the dollar price for one, but it shouldn't be above $550. The best thing about the minidisc system in general is it's flexibility: durable re-recordable discs, sector-based recording(instead of lineair, like CD), the editing options and the discs themselves are, due to their size, ideal for portable use.

The MDS-JE500 uses sony's 4th version of ATRAC(compression), and delivers sound-quality similar to CD. It has optical digital in- and output-, and can handle 32khz, 44khz and 48khz signals. It has no digital recording level adjustment, but the 510 will. It is, however, the cheapest minidisc deck by Sony, and therefore it has the quite dreadful hybrid-pulse D/A converter. Buying a seperate D/A should solve this. Analogue recording should be avoided at all costs, since the A/D converter isn't that good either.

Features:
* sampling rate converter for 32, 44 and 48khz
* 20 bits ATRAC 4.0
* editing functions: move, combine, erase.
* titling capabilities(disc and track)
* digital in- and output.(optical)

In my opinion, it's not exactly audiophile material, but at it's price, it beats all tape decks.

MDS-JE500 makes sense when compared to prise. (£200). But... I have to say I was a bit disappointed about it. (I sold it). Everything worked O.K, but the sound wasn´t such good as I expected. Even non-recordable original MD´s didn´t sound so good. There was lack off lowest bass, and treble was a little bit harsh, as other reviewers has noticed. The worst thing was it´s capability to deliver real stereo sound. Space just wasn´t realistic. Deck might be useful if you have MD-player in your car, but for serious Hi-Fi use in home, it just isn´t good enough. Besides my deck made this whistling noise all the time, which almost drove me crazy. I couldn´t listen at nights at all, because this ´noise´ came through quiet parts. Could be Monday-sickness in my deck, but irritating still. Three speakers for value + practical options.

I have had the MDS-501 Sony Mini disc player for over three yearsand I love it!!!
Its great because I can record CD qaulity sound and throw it
in my portable units.
It blows away tape players.
It is true that it has not taken off here in the US.
People truly dont know what they are missing.
As this medium fades, I will be loving it for years to come.
Recomendation....GET ONE...THEY ARE AWESOME!!

My personal opinion is that MDS-JE500 is awesome, the sound is much betterthan my MZ1 portable player( the MD first product that they came out with). I know a lot of people are knocking minidisc right now, but watch out audiophile will end up liking this gadget. Like they do with LP vs CD thing. To me MD gives me a texture of ANALOG sound. Think about it LP is not perfect it has it's
share of flaws and so is CD's MD's and DAT's. I guess it all comes down to peoples different taste.

Purchased unit a few years ago, and still gives me excellent sound from TosLink cable from Yamaha CD player. Good entry level Minidisc Deck with Atrac 4.0, Should be able to find a good price on a used one since the current model is MDS-JE530.

THS PRODUCT IS A MUST ON HOME RECORDING, JUST PUT THIS THING TO WORK AND COME BACK LATER FOR THE EDITION, THE SOUND IS INDISTIGUISHABLE FROM THE CD.

OH NO. You posted about Mini-Disc. Break out the flame torch, guys.
I feel bad that somebody will eventually flame Andrew who happens
to be absolutely correct.

I happen to agree that Mini-Disc sounds incredible even considering
the compression. At $300 no tape deck can match the qualities and
features of Mini-Disc. Everyone needs to wake up. Sony's Mini-Disc
products are no longer using the old compression technique called
ATRAC 1. The newer ATRACs are incredible and sound good enough to
pass as 'audiophile'. The vast majority of reviewers thought
enough of Mini-Disc's ATRAC 3.5 to give it favorable comparisons
to DATs with 20-Bit (Super-Bit-Mapping) analog to digital converters,
when recording from analog sources and digital sources. Now Sony is
showing off ATRAC 4.0! A true 20-Bit performance with a computational
dynamic range of 131db! I own the JE-500. I know it sounds very
good, and even the most descriminating 'audiophile' would have to
agree that it is a step above most recording units out there.
Blind tests done by audio reviewers as well as Andrew below and myself
show that you could blindfold any audiophile and play his favorite
music and he would think it was a CD. Auditory Masking is no longer
a theory, it is a fact, and Mini-Disc has shown off the possibilities
of compression techniques. Sony is continuing to improve ATRAC as
science understands more about auditory masking and human hearing
in general. ATRAC 4.5 is in their new MDS-JA50ES and Mini-Disc
now has broken into 24-Bit territory and has SMASHED DAT's sound
capabilities (in my opinion ATRAC 3.5 already did with 131db
dyanmic range). Now if you 'nay-sayers' have any doubts left, try
connecting the new MDS-JE50ES to a separate D/A converter and take a
listen (after you have recorded from an analog source). I cannot
afford Sony's ES line, but I sampled it at the Good Guys and was very
impressed. Sony's JE-510 shows all of us that for the first time
ever, high quality digital sound is affordable to everyone (not just
the rich).

Cheers to Sony. They deserve industry and audiophile magazine awards
for the newer ATRAC versions they have developed. They have taken a
nearly dead format, and breathed life into it's all but cold corpse.
Not only has Mini-Disc risen like a phoenix, but has now become the
best choice among all the recording formats in both sound quality
and features, as well as ease of use.

5 stars! If I could give 10 to Sony for Mini-Disc's ATRAC revisions,
I would. Shame on anyone who would slam such an inovative and
creative idea, and subsequent rebirth. Mini-Disc's story could be
turned into a hollywood script for how much flack they have had to
overcome in the audiophile community.

not too much really. but better than tape decks, and a very flexible recording medium.

sounds a bit poor really, though the newer models are a huge improvement, such as the MDSJB930.

weren't too bad in its time, but its a poor product now. and i mean really poor since it has been superceded by newer and better models. avoid at all costs, its dissapointing-sounds very compressed and lifeless. Though i suppose if you're after a budget player it'll do the job- but like most things you get what you pay for, so its definetly worth investing a little more for a far superior minidisc recorder. you have been warned.

Similar Products Used:

MDSJB930