Minidisc

HI,
Sony made the mistake of not expanding its use for Pc back then and not making another deck after 333 & 555 hi-md compatible.
Only the mega cassette decks were superior ( five or six) but not even close to user friendly recording capabilities of MD. 

I had one of the last UK tuned high end Sony decks with the latest ATRAC compression.

Loved it to bits - even got a keyboard connected to sort out the titling that bit faster. It was a dream for compiling ’best of’ collections due to its unparalleled editing options and two and half hours of hq recording space.

I once compared the various recording speeds to the original CD track and could only hear a significant difference on LP4 recording (some treble artefacts went missing and some detail loss).

At half and full speed it was effectively indistinguishable from the source.

Sadly my deck’s eject mechanism couldn’t survive the rigorous product testing my young son put it through in those days. I kept hold of it in the hope that someone in the UK would be able to fix it. Couldn’t bring myself to stuck it in eBay for spares/repairs. Still got a couple of portable Sony machines.

MiniDisc was such an excellent format that some bands even used it to record their albums on.

Almost everyone who used it could see that but not the out of touch smug b******s in the domestic audio press.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiniDisc

That's a very nice deck.. I hope the sound quality from the Tascam will be better than cassette, although I'm not over fussed as it's just a bit of fun...

HI,
Still use occasionaly my Ja333es, sounds great especially if make an analogue recording. Have enough blank mdw74es discs stil to play with. Only maintenace replaced the drive belt for the transport.