Getting my MD feet wet with a Denon DN-M1050R

I think we're still at the "why do you want that" phase with mini-disc but some collectors are seeing the coolness of the format. Not only was it a neat little Walkman replacement but it was a good enough format for over-the-air professional broadcasting. After seeing some previous threads about this format I started thinking now is a good time to grab some nice gear for the equipment stack. James T and Jorge have got me more excited about the format and I think it should be part of any vintage stereo system.

I have a Kenwood that I'd consider entry-level and I have the little DENON (posted on another thread) that was part of a micro-system but works fine on it's own, and those are nice, but when this Denon DN-M1050R came up for sale locally I jumped on it.

What a beast, dimensionally it's one of the biggest components outside of my receiver. I don't know what I'm going to do with half of the settings but its fun to play with. I was snapping up minidiscs when they were dirt cheap and somewhere around here I've got bunch still in the packaging. This unit came out of a radio station and was used for prerecorded broadcasting, I consider that a bonus. Hopefully you guys aren't debating the format, in a few years you'll be wondering why you didn't pull the trigger when it was still cheap.

 

Minidisc was a format that I always loved, I remember seeing square MD boomboxes that I lusted after in the early 90's at Best Buy, but sadly minidisc was sold at a premium. The format is really cool, I have a small cache of discs and players so it's probably a good idea to have it in the system. They were so rare here that it's cool to pop them in and play them, I haven't experimented beyond that but am willing to try.....You guys have me thinking that in a few years a lot of this stuff will be long gone. I'm hoping someday to be the first to post that square traditional MD boombox in an upper thread but I have to find one first, I've seen one on ebay but that was 6-7 years ago.

I'm also dabbling, very incrementally, in DAT, I've got a Yamaha DTR2 and my Japanese Mule promises to bring me his Sony Portable DAT when he gets done transferring his "interviews." I'll have a nice "vintage" system and I think CD might be close to vintage now but I'm not positive on that. I've got both a DBX and Nakamichi CD Players but I don't think they measure up to what you have.

 

I love having the entire matching "stack" of equipment. I've lusted after the Pioneer Spec or the high-end Marantz Rack Mount Systems, there's something supercomputer cool about them. I used to find a lot of the tapes and discs so I have a nice little stash of them and don't have to worry about media. Most of my equipment was bought for pennies on the dollar or given to me like the two units above.

 

I don't know how these compete against each other but when I was reading up on the big Denon I think it was close to $2000.00 USD back in the late 90's and was used in the broadcasting industry. It's interesting that the format seemed to be mostly Sony's but the higher end equipment was made by other manufacturers.

Here's a nicely written review from 1998
https://rapmag.com/a/1990s/331-98/j...enon-dn-m1050r-professional-minidisc-recorder