In my opinion there is no best brand. It is not so much the brand as the batch
and quality control at that particular time.
Today's most reliable brand may exhibit some mechanical problems 6 months from
now. Manufactures can improve quality control based on repeated complaints of
customers. On the other hand, the price of the discs is so competitive that it
is also possible that manufactures are constantly searching for less expensive
sources for their raw products.
Quality control may also be cut as a means of saving money and cutting costs.
This can allow the manufacture to either lower prices to compete, increase
profits or both.
I am also fairly certain that there are many more brands then there are actual
manufactures of blanks. When a particular brand's contract is up with the
actual manufacture they may choose a new one.
I read a few negative comments about Memorex blanks here. But I have also read
here and my personal experience with them has been good. I do think that
Memorex have used different manufactures (and I speculate that at one time they
used Hi Space, since it said on their blanks " Made in France").
There are a limited number of factors that determine the quality of the final
disc. The raw materials used (for example superior or inferior plastics), the
manufactures of the machines making the actual disc itself (I think that this
is a very limited number).
The equipment used to construct the shell and shutters probably varies from
manufacture to manufacture. And of course quality control.
Too often I read comments from people stating that they can hear a difference
in the quality of different discs. Using the same exact unit to record and
playback the discs, this just can't be. We are not talking about analog here.
With digital either the error count is satisfactory or the disc will produce
distortion ("stuttering", dropped sound, etc.) But the actual frequency
response curve and typical none digital distortion, such as flutter and wow
(you never hear that term any more because digital reproduction makes it
practically impossible to measure, let alone actually be audible), dynamic
range, signal to noise ration etc. are not factors of the disc. The are
factors related to the recording and playback device.
If a recorder is defective and injects hum for example, that has nothing to do
with disc.
Now if you want to talk about which individual models of recorder and player
sound the best, there you have a topic that has merits. Even here you can't
site brands though. Today's Sony model X may be considered to produce great
sound according to a majority of the people. But that doesn't mean that Sony
recorders sound the best. It only relates to model X.
I also believe that some of people's claims of hearing differences in sound
quality are more psycho acoustic then real. Conducting true double blind A/B
test is impossible to do with out extremely sophisticated equipment.
For one thing matching the volume is very hard.
Well I already said too much.
Regards,
Larry
Brett Tyre wrote:
> I'm curious as to everyone's opinion on what the best brand of MiniDisc
> happens to be. I've been pleased with the results of the Sony 74s and 80s,
> both in my Sony deck and my Aiwa portable; TDKs also seem very good.
>
> I've tried a few Maxells (Gold), but of all my MiniDiscs, the two Maxells
> have been ejected from my deck with the shutter half-open much more
> frequently than the Sonys or TDKs. AFAIK, this has only happened once with
> my Sony discs and never with my TDKs. Has anyone else experienced this
> problem with the Maxell Golds? The sound quality is good, but this problem
> deters me from saving a few cents and buy more Maxells.
>
> Any other brands I should try?
> --
> NP: Tristan -Valve
> Brett Tyre
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> London Drugs, Comp. Dept.
> "My 98 is fly, I don't drive no junk" -Chuck D
>
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