Denon DMD 1300 – MiniDisc player

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

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 meant that the CD, which we all use today, prevailed. The Minidisc, however, had the enormous advantage of being more compact and virtually scratch-proof, as it was 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...

Denon’s new MD model uses Sharp’s ATRAC 4.0, which, like Sony’s, is a single-chip solution. In addition to the data compression logic, it contains a sampling rate converter. It is precisely this feature that offers potential savings compared to the DMD-1500 model. The DMD-1500 used two separate chips, which were clearly more expensive and featured a lower-quality ATRAC. Version 3.0 (Sony ATRAC) used by the DMD-1500 produces noise interspersed with the so-called ‘Spratzeln’ when recording small signals. ("Spratzeln" is a German word that cannot be translated; it is like the sound of bacon in a frying pan with hot oil). From ATRAC 3.5 onwards, this behaviour has been completely eliminated. The DMD-1300 is free of this and therefore achieves DAT-quality noise levels. Even when recording at a low recording level, the music is presented in the same PCM format as usual.

From a purely construction point of view, the DMD-1300’s drive mechanism is entirely metal. It is equipped with a sample rate converter and is compatible with a sampling rate of 32 kHz in BS transmission mode A and 48 kHz in standard DAT mode and BS transmission mode B.
The D/A converter consists of Λ SLC, which in principle generates zero cross-distortion. The 20-bit, 8x oversampling digital filter is used in conjunction with the D/A converter to achieve a more expressive sound quality. The A/D converter is a 4th-order ∑Δ type with 64x oversampling.
Using the character entry function, you can enter information such as title, track name, artist name, letters (upper and lower case), numbers and symbols. Up to 100 characters can be entered for each track. The entered information is shown on the display up to 14 characters at a time, whilst the rest scrolls. It features editing functions such as split, combine, move and delete, exclusive to MD.
It is equipped with independent left and right segment level meters that can be used to adjust the level during recording. Sound protection memory: by storing a music signal for approximately 10 seconds, sound skipping caused by vibrations is suppressed. Inputs and outputs are both analogue and optical digital. It also features an optical digital input.

The overall finish meets a solid Hi-Fi standard, with an all-metal casing and aluminium front panel.

Refurbished and fully functional unit.