MD vs. tape

I have Denons' MD-1000 . I have not used a tape since I got it. Don't even think about using tape again, Home Theater had a review and stated that it was almost indistinguishable from their best DAT recorder and way, way more convenient. Do you really want to wait for tape while fast forwarding or rewinding ever again? I have 28 years of experience in recording and the Denon Minidisc recorder sounds better than most analogue 2 track sources I have used.

I would not say that MD sounds better than any 2 track analog. That, in my opinion, is not true. If your not looking to spend much money, and I'm assuming your not. MD might be the way to go. It will sound good in a compromised environment,i.e., your car and it is flexable. By the way the cost of a disk is lower than a good tape. However, you can buy a CDR for relatively cheap. That might be a better option because, "alright all you MD nuts", cd's sound better and everyone has a player.

Thanks for the info, Ramstl. My hesitation with CDR at this point -- and I may be completely wrong about how it works -- is that you can only record the disks once. So you forget to add a song or bump the turntable when it's recording or decide you want to reorder the tracks and you're stuck. But maybe I don't understand how it works. Is there some kind of finalizing process you go through? Also, I'm not crazy about the harshness of CDs on ordinary equipment, and have found that tapes can lessen that problem. I don't know how MD affects that. Also don't know how vinyl sounds recorded onto a CDR. Any comments?

Ramstl, I said most, not all analogue 2 tracks and that still says a lot. You may not have heard the DENON minidisc recorder yet. Don't judge the Denon based on your experience with other brands, it is in a class of its own. Some CD recorders produce CDs' that cannot be played on other CD players. Michael, you can avoid some harshness by using analogue outs of a Minidisc recorder. The minidisc format offers more than the CD recording format. Easy editing, low costs discs, very small size and %99.8 of CD or DAT quality. I think it is a mistake to think of Minidisc as good mostly for car listening, think of it as a far superior replacement for every use that cassettes gave you. Good luck. Let us know what you decide.

I don't want to debate what is better sound, MD or CD. In my opinion CD is better. However, that will depend on the system, the environment and the listener. Each has their advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, each person has to decide which is best for them. In a car the environment is compromised, therefore, the differences can be masked to a certain degree. To answer the question about mistakes on CD's, if you use CDRW you can record over the last track. However, not all decks can read CDRW. One reason that I would not buy a MD, besides the sound qaulity difference, is that the last thing I want is yet another format! This format offers nothing for me accept: 1) added expense, new hardware and software 2) lack of present compatibility with hardware 3) no sonic improvements. Therefore, in bailing out of the cassette format I would go to CD. Not only does everyone own a CD player but the sound is better. You can even upgrade to better A to D's down the road for even higher rez! Here is an example: If you have a great musical experience recorded whatever software and you want to share it with others how many people out of ten would you be able to share it with if it were on CD? Maybe 9 out of 10. How many on MD. maybe .25 out of 10. That means you can enjoy it almost anywhere. Now I'm sure that Sony would also like it to be 9 out of 10 for MD and I'm sure that they will continue to improve the sound but I don't need no more stinking boxes taking up my $ and space. That is unless it increases archival and sound quality. Well, I know I said I didn't want to debate but I did. Sorry!