Relevant links:

RMAA: SHARP MD-DS8/9 16-BIT
Minidisk VLOG - 02: Sharp MD-DS8/9
Minidisk VLOG - 01: Elegant lies
BACK TO THE FUTURE FRIDAY: PORTABLE MINIDISC

From 2007 until about 2011, and then again from 2014 until now, I've collected personal thoughts, RMAA and square wave measurements, and more, regarding various portable and desktop/rack MD units. The MZ-E55, which came out in 1998, and which does neither MDLP, nor bears an HD digital amp, is my favourite sounding. It was my favourite sounding hours after picking it up last week, and, with a few provisos, remains my favourite. It also tests well, though its amp shows serious weakness against modern Sony DAPs as well as iPods and the like.

Relevant links:

Minidisk VLOG - 02: Sharp MD-DS8/9
Minidisk VLOG - 01: Elegant lies
BACK TO THE FUTURE FRIDAY: PORTABLE MINIDISC

Great battery life, viper-like one-touch eject functionality, and a bevvy of sound enhancements do not a great player make. Neither does a noise floor that rivals Astell & Kern's best DAPs a good-sounding player make. Sharp's MD-DS8/9 marketing bowled over a fast-tribalising MD market, who needed motivational support for their assertions of MD's superiority. The DS8 was the first 1-Bit portable player on the market. It and its recorder brethren were also the first mass market portables which sported balanced headphone outputs. In the right hands, those things were instantly marketable, and instantly gained apologists. I tried to explain that in Fauxtaku Lounge's latest YouTube video.