Denon DMD 1500 – MiniDisc player

This is a Denon product, so it’s been engineered to the highest standards. Denon does not manufacture laser mechanisms or other specific components, but focuses its efforts on the design phase of its equipment. The result is always well-built and reliable equipment.

This Minidisc player and recorder is no exception: it features a Sony KMS 210A mechanism and a conversion stage with two Burr Brown DACs, the PCM 61P in the L version, and a 20-bit ASLC system with a digital filter and 8x oversampling. 

For the less experienced: the Minidisc format once competed with the CD format for dominance in the digital audio market. However, the production costs of both the discs and the players ultimately favoured the CD, which we all use today. The Minidisc, however, had the enormous advantage of being more compact and virtually scratch-proof, as it is housed in a plastic case that opens automatically when inserted into the player. These two features effectively established it as the standard of the era for freelance recordings and in the professional sector, where compactness and durability were of paramount importance. The recording quality is, of course, digital and therefore has nothing to envy the CD format; on the contrary...

This device features a disc labelling function using both upper- and lower-case letters as well as symbols. Furthermore, you can edit the MD using the split, merge, move and delete functions. You can programme the playback of 25 tracks in any order, start random playback, and set a track or the entire disc to repeat.

The inputs and outputs are both analogue and optical digital. It also features a coaxial digital input.