MiniDisc is the greatest audio-centric optical format ever conceived; Sony really knocked it out of the park. A more portable counterpart to the compact disc? What a great idea! Too bad the MZ-1 was so large anyways.

I was first introduced to MD on November 30, 2023, by an amazing retrospective from This Does Not Compute, one of his multiple fantastic videos about the format. After that, I was given my first ever MD hardware for Christmas: a Sony MZ-N710, which is among the best units for newcomers. Once I received two irritatingly unreliable gumstick batteries and a pack of five blank discs, I slipped one into my N710 and experienced the novelty of a portable audio format that wasn't accessed through a streaming service.

MD played a significant part in helping me both appreciate music and, somewhat ironically, get into high-end audio equipment. The thought-provoking process of selecting a finite number of tracks to put on a disc made me reconsider what I was legitimately interested in listening to. My primary headphones at the time were a pair of SteelSeries Arctis Nova 3s, and while they sounded pretty good, I started thinking about a potential set of better drivers, as I had been hearing small details in music through MD that I hadn't heard previously.

I kept using my N710 throughout the winter, and once summer came, I felt my interest in the format as a whole become reenergized. I purchased my second unit in July, this time a Sony MZ-NH600D, which supports Hi-MD. Hi-MD is essentially the successor to MD; it entails higher-capacity discs, which allows for lossless encoding, data storage, and a whole host of other benefits.

In August, I saved up a fair chunk of change to nab an Onkyo FR-N7X, my first non-portable unit. It also supports Hi-MD, and man, the ability to sit at my desk, swappin' discs out left and right while tinkering and sipping peach tea... it's glorious.

That's about where I'm at now: MiniDisc is still my preferred way of listening to music. I'm getting very, very tired of streaming services, and MD helps break away from that. It's also just a ton of fun. If your interest has been piqued by this page in any capacity, I highly recommend at least reading up on the format. The MiniDisc Wiki and its corresponding Discord server are the best sources of information about this, and as mentioned above, This Does Not Compute has multiple videos about MD, including one about where to start if you want to get into the format.

MD4EVA.