The attraction of Stereo components and physical media in 2026

 I am of an age that I remember well the cool stereo systems we had in the 1980's, 1990's and early 2000s.

Especially I love stereo system components - Amplifier, Radio, Graphic equaliser, tape deck, DAT recorder, CD player, SACD players, Minidisc deck, LaserDisc and DVD's.

I drooled over such systems when looking around Sony Central shop here in Adelaide (now sadly gone) - dreaming of the day I could save the money to afford to get them - especially the ES (Elevated Standard) series of components - the best of the best for non-professional home Sony gear.

Now in 2026, a lot of this equipment is now finally relatively affordable!

Sony was a big focus for me at the time - I loved their equipment style and quality was "good enough" for me. I didn't have the money to buy Nakamichi, Sansui and other extremely high end equipment. I also didn't get the point of spending that kind of money - I am not a full-on audiophile, but I love a good sounding stereo system component! 

I love good quality headphones to listen to my music too!

Thanks to a large clearance sale recently for run-out models at a local audio shop in Australia, I could afford to buy the headphones I wanted most - Final Audio DC 8000 Pro, made in Japan. 

Would never have paid full price for them, but 70% off for a runout model? That made them within my reach finally so I grabbed them. They are perfect for my setup. 

They came securely stored inside this insane lockable suitcase! 

Nice to know you can securely store them, but I would have preferred a smaller and more useful travel case...probably would have made the headphones way cheaper too.

The reality is these headphones are too expensive to take travelling anywhere, and being open back too noisy in public of course - strictly for home use.

The package also includes two (unfortunately proprietary locking) left and right audio cables. One standard 3.5 audio cable to connect to my digital audio players, Minidisc and Walkmans, and also a standard larger phono plug with a nice long cable to connect to my Stereo components. Perfect for my setup.

The sound and build quality of the audio output in these headphones is truly excellent. And to be honest, so it should be.

Being open back headphones and metal composition, you do need to be careful though - I found the static from the vinyl records when changing them over can actually zap your ears! 

I quickly learned to remove the headphones before changing records...

I am glad to say in 2026 I have quite a few components that I desired back then, and some more modern component and headphone devices too. I covered some of the initial purchases last year in my previous blog post here. 

The Sony ES amplifier came from my late younger brother, and I realised it has been over a year now since he suddenly passed away. I built this system as a tribute to him and along the way, achieving something I wanted back in the day but couldn't afford. Another "revenge purchase" as my wife puts it.

I am still thinking of my late younger brother often, and missing his presence here very much.

You know, this component equipment is from an era when we used to own physical things to play on them. So much better than subscription licenses that are taken away at a moments notice, happily taking your money every month, but leaving you with nothing at all.

Record companies and movie/tv companies these days shop around their copyrighted and DMCA protected shows, movies and music to the many different streaming services out there, looking for the one offering the best deal.

This means you, naturally, get screwed over when you subscribe to a service, only for the music/tv shows you like most are removed from the service a week later, forcing you to subscribe to another service to be able to watch or listen to them. 

Before you know it, you have multiple subscriptions to services to cover all the different areas you are interested in. YouTube, Tidal, Netflix, Paramount Plus, Disney, Foxtel/Kayo, Stan, Apple TV/Music, Amazon Audio, Prime Video, Twitch, etc etc.

Or of course you might be one of those people who refuses to pay for anything and download content illegally, not because you need it or want it, but because you can. You may want to send a message to the world that you won't be forced to pay for anything. This does not encourage content creators to make new content - just remember that. You don't work for free, and neither should they. I feel very strongly about this.

You can fortunately still buy many (not all) content from these services as physical media, be that DVD, blu-ray, cassette, vinyl records and CD. 

Some shows are sadly exclusive to some subscription services, as they made them and choose not to release a physical version. eg. F1 Drive to Survive on NetFlix, Asimov's Foundation series on Apple TV, or The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime video.

You can also avoid subscriptions and buy digital music like MP3 and high quality FLAC files from services like BandCamp, where the artists get more fairly compensated for their work. These files can be downloaded to your devices and used, forever. No monthly fees.

That said, I believe we should embrace and enjoy physical media while we have new releases and the hardware still works.

There is a reason physical media like vinyl records, CD and cassettes have remained on sale. 

Hell, you can even buy new release SACD's too - I got the 1991 album Dangerous from Michael Jackson, which was released on hybrid SACD for the first time recently...complete with CD titles.

I also bought Nine Inch Nail's The Downward Spiral on SACD too - as you can see this SACD uses multi-channel surround sound output, something a CD cannot ever do:

Why do they still release music on physical media in 2026?

Simple. People like me still want them - there is enough demand to keep the industry going. Artists get way more money from physical releases than they do from streaming. I support this as much as I am able to.

There is a good reason why many artists release music on these formats still, and also do more "live" shows where they make way more money. 

Streaming music is not the best way to support your favourite artists.

Younger people are realising what they are missing out on with streaming too, and also buying physical media from time to time.

I think a mix of modern and older formats is healthy. It allows us to keep the music, tv shows and movies that we like most in physical form, and use streaming and digital music for the stuff we don't care about so much and for travelling. That way, when we inevitably lose access to it, we don't care about it so much.

Up until 2026, I have used an Audio Technica vinyl record player. I have been using it for ten years now and it works great. When I first got a record player in the 1990's it was a second hand Technics record player. Later on I bought a Sony record player to replace it, but they are not as good, and I always wanted to have a Technics SL1200 record player. 

The Technics SL1200 units were direct drive (no belt needed), and were renowned worldwide for their quality and use for DJ's worldwide in clubs in the 90's and 2000's. Even today you still see them in use for sets in some clubs, even last year at the famous Tomorrowland 2025 festival they had a vinyl only set! Armin Van Buuren also did a State of Trance celebration vinyl set recently at the newly rebuilt UNVRS club in Ibiza. Steve from The Thrillseekers also does vinyl only sets at various clubs and festivals, and also in their home studio too - I love it. If you are not into trance/drum&bass, more well known popular charting dance music is also mixed on Technics turntables still. And yes, from the links here you will know I am a big fan of Trance and drum & bass genre music, amongst others :-)

Technics continued to make the SL1200, but reinvented it in the late 2010's with a new (much more expensive) SL-1210GR2 version intended for live, studio and home use.

 I suppose this was necessary since DJ's have mostly switched over to Pioneer DJ kit using music stored on USB sticks and auto beat matching and pre-programmed syncing toolsets - sets are still often awesome (like this one from Armin Van Buuren) but not totally the same for me without records. 

It is very sad in my opinion as the DJ basically presses "Play" and they play with the volume knobs for an hour or so pretending to be busy when in reality much of beat matching and song transition is preprogrammed, but I admit that modern dj setups are much easier than lugging around a pile of records and having to learn how to beat match by ear. 

Personally I respect DJ skill when doing vinyl record sets with two turntables - the "wheels of steel" as SL1200's were often referred to as back in the day. 

I remember watching in awe watching GT (Groove Terminator) and Carl Cox beat matching in clubs locally here in Adelaide in the late 1990's. I was watching the DJ's at work playing my favourite dance, techno, trance and underground drum band bass music...if you are interested, you can even learn how to beat match records here using the same model Technics SL-1210GR2 I now have. anyway, I digress.

Technics now have crazy expensive versions of the SL1200 series that are aimed at audiophiles I guess.

The low-mid level SL-1210GR2 is good enough for my needs, and thank to a run out sale from a local audio store that was getting rid of their stock, I got a new one for a nicely discounted price.

The DJ origins of this unit is clear though, with no stylus included in the package. DJ's prefer their own ones, so Technics didn't include one with the unit as they didn't use it anyway. I bought one separately - more on that shortly.

I chose the black version so it would fit the rest of my HiFi stack. I know the SL1200 is traditionally silver, but that doesn't work in my setup here so black version it is. The black version was cheaper too - the colour being the only difference! 

It is a heavy unit, and that is a good thing since it minimises impact of vibrations.

Interestingly, the instructions get you to start assembly in the box it came in, since it is easier to access the RCA and power ports when using the box!

The port locations are a strange one being underneath, but this allows it to sit flush in DJ boxes for transport and quick setup on location. It wasn't originally intended for home use!

As you can see the turntable has no belt to install, given it is a direct drive turntable.

I set to work installing the top half of the turntable next - which is quite heavy too:

With the top half installed, it is starting to look more like a record player!

Next up was the fiddly bit, setting up the stylus:

Having always had a stylus included in my record players from purchase, I have never actually had to assemble a stylus before. I bought the Grado Gold3 Stylus, which was not cheap, but not insanely expensive either.

I set to work connecting the cables to the Technics enclosure. was actually more fiddly than I thought, and double checking I plugged the right wires into the right ports...

I then put the screws in from the top to hold the stylus together, and used the included tool to make sure it was aligned correctly. This tool was very helpful.

I then calibrated the turntable swing arm for the correct weight and position following the instructions.

Now I can put the turntable where I want it and put the lid on!

I put my own slipmat on the record player to replace the heavy rubber mat that comes with the turntable - I got this one when I bought the Chillhop Spring 2025 record.

I received a new Thrillseekers record on the same week, which I bought on Bandcamp called Adjusted EP01.

As expected, it sounds fantastic. I tested with a 7" NIN record next, which also runs at 45.

Very happy with my purchase - I finally have a Technics SL1200 series record player!

Naturally I needed a Minidisc deck to go with my setup, which I purchased last year as shown in the previous blog post here.

What is great is that in 2026 you can buy new release Minidisc albums still!

I bought this album Continuum by Torann, which came with this stunning wrapped Minidisc artwork on the disc - below is photos I took of the rear side and front - this is still available to purchase as I write this post if you want one:

My Minidisc deck is an MDS-J510. Not an ES series unit, but buying an ES series Minidisc deck in black is very hard. They are rare as they came towards the end of the Minidisc lifecycle - the silver and champagne colour decks are more common than black, and black is what I want. Obviously, since the rest of my HiFi setup here is also black.

I am keeping an eye out for one though - hopefully I can get one soon! I have several new in box blank Minidiscs to use for compilations and recording of more modern music - something I thought would be great to have on Minidisc in 2026. 

As covered in my other blog post here, I have a Sony portable Minidisc recorder/player, so having the recording deck to record digitally makes life a lot easier. 

Except of course, for doing the track titles. As anyone who has ever tried doing long track titles on a Minidisc using the remote - it is painful, tedious and long process. Many people I knew back in the day didn't bother with labelling tracks because of it.

Fortunately though, Sony did also provide the answer back then too - behold the wireless keyboard remote for titling Minidiscs! I had one in the 1990's, and I managed to track down another one to use in 2026 with this deck to make life easier.

Having this keyboard to title tracks makes a huge difference. I know with MDLP portable devices you could connect via USB to do titles in Sonic Stage, and some Minidisc decks had a PS/2 keyboard connector, which was very handy too. This deck doesn't have either - so this remote is a huge saviour.

Since I plan to replace it with an ES deck in the future, I didn't want to spend much on the deck itself. It works well, and was very cheap.

To finish off my ES Sony component system setup, I decided to buy a Sony DAT deck and a proper high end SACD Player. The DAT deck I chose a locally available Sony 57ES refurbished unit on eBay - it was relatively inexpensive and arrived quickly and well packaged:

I love that it still has the original "New" sticker on the top right corner:

At the back is the analog in and out RCA port, and the all important Optical (Digital) in and out ports. There is also Digital optical coaxial cable support on this unit, but I don't plan to use it.

This is a 100V unit, which means it came from Japan and doesn't work on our standard 240V in Australia. I have a step down transformer for situations like this, so this is no problem.

I connected it up outside the existing stereo setup first to make sure it worked properly before I did the messy job of trying to integrate it...

I have used DAT tapes as backup tapes in my professional IT career in the late 1990's and early 2000's, when DDS1/2/3/4 SCSI tape drives were popular as server backup tape media. 

This is my first time to use them for audio though. Note that DDS1 is the tape format to use, not the higher DDS2/3/4 which were not intended for audio use. You can buy new old stock DAT branded DDS1 tapes, or Data Sony DDS1 tapes. The seller kindly included one DAT tape for me to get started, since he knew I didn't have any tapes yet.

The DAT tape mechanism operates similarly to a VHS tape cassette system used for video, if you are familiar with VHS. I am guessing if you know what DAT is, you know what VHS is too :-)

I was pleased to see the unit worked fine, and played audio with no problem.

One of the challenges with having DAT, Minidisc, DVD and CD is the need to handle Digital output for recording to DAT and CD. This is an issue for me, because the Stereo ES amplifier from my late brother sadly has no digital input support on it.

Fortunately there is a way around this - and a cheap one at that. I bought this SPDIF (digital) switch box from Amazon.

Here is the rear view showing the 3 digital (SPDIF/TOSLink cable) ports for input, and one output SPDIF port.

I also picked up from SPDIF cables at the same time from Amazon. The price for all this kit was very cheap indeed. I was glad I didn't have to replace my brother's amplifier, as I really didn't want to do that obviously!

This equipment allows me to output the digital out from various digital inputs like my CD changer deck, DVD player and Minidisc to the switch box, and feed the digital output to the digital in on the DAT deck. 

I then fed the digital output from the DAT deck to the Minidisc digital input.

Here it is wired up:

There is a button on the front to switch  inputs, and a remote control is also included (as shown below) so you do the switching from anywhere in the room. The unit is powered by USB, so I use a nearby usb charger to do that job.

This allows me to record to DAT or Minidisc from any of these sources, as the DAT has a pass through Digital to Digital function in it. The rest of my components and my Mac are feed through the analog inputs to the amplifier, which is connected to the minidisc and the Dat deck via multiple outputs (DAT and Minidisc RCA ports on the amplifier)

I tested on the DAT to record audio from another digital source and it works well.

Since I have zero chance of remembering which input on the SPDIF switch box is which device later on, I added a label to the top and put from red tape on both ends of the output digital SPDIF cable so I know which one is the output cable:

I also needed a RCA output splitter to allow me to send the RCA audio output from the amplifier to the cassette deck, the Minidisc and the DAT deck. So, another visit to Amazon and I got this solution - an RCa audio splitter:

It supports outputting an RCA output to four seperate RCA outputs simultaneously.

Withe digital and audio switching sorted out, now the not so fun part of getting it installed into the HiFi setup. 

I moved the turntable out of the way to remove the ES cassette deck and place the DAT deck in it's place. I then put the cassette deck on the other HiFi tower stack. On reflection, I suppose I could have done it easier by putting the DAT in the other hifi deck to start with...anyway. It's what I did and I can't remember why I chose that way now...

I got there eventually!

Setup is pretty cool!

I picked up some new old stock DAT tapes to use to record some music I already bought, just to test the digital output and it works very well.

It is clear from the professional use label on the box that this was never targeted at consumers. After all, they didn't want us copying stuff digitally with no protections right? Minidisc was the evolution of DAT that allowed us consumers to have digital copies with strings attached to prevent multiple copies being made.

Of course, the DAT tape was quite portable, and made since there was a Sony DAT walkman series made for it too, to use on the go. I was able to pick one up on eBay cheaply, as it made sense to me to have the option to use it portably as well. This one is a TCD-D8 model and came in it's original box!

This unit is in reasonable condition considering it's age.

Compared to cassette walkmans of the time, this DAT walkman was quite bulky and heavy. But it was popular for journalists to use these units to record DAT digital audio of interviews, which could be then use by TV networks in their news bulletins and motor racing/sports coverage, etc.

It is covered in buttons and knobs to confuse all but the most dedicated person - in the traditional Sony fashion of the era!

Because of the cheap price of this unit, I wasn't expecting too much, but the seller showed me a video of it playing audio from a DAT tape so I was hopeful. I connect some headphones and prepared a DAT tape in the main deck to try on it.

Since this uses a mini-VHS style mechanism, it makes sense the unit is not that compact. But it is "workable" as a portable unit, though attaching it to your belt is probably the only way to use it portably.

With the DAT tape inserted and the lid closed, the units whirs into life and displays the tape position, track and levels on left and right channels.

I am pleased to report it works very well. given it's age I am not likely to go jogging with it, but it is nice to know I can now listen to DAT tapes in any room in the house if I want to.

Speaking of obsolete formats, I got an unexpected VHS video cassette in the post around this point, from my favourite "IDM" band Boards of Canada. 

They sent out just 50 of these tapes to their biggest fans that bought merch from their official Bleep storefront in the last 12 months. I am a huge fan and I buy new t-shirts and merch from them quite often.

It has been 13 years since there last album release back in 2013. 13 long years. and now this tape comes out of nowhere!

It was mystery what was on the tape and I wanted to know. And I needed a VHS player to play it to find out. And err, I didn't have one anymore! 

So in an unplanned expansion to my HiFi stack, I bought a Sony VHS cassette recorder (VCR) so I could play the tape and see what was on it! 

Luckily for me, unlike ES components, VHS players are cheap second hand and plentiful - people are not interested in VHS the same way as they are about Vinyl records or audio cassette tapes. I picked up this 6-head Sony VHS deck for a very cheap price on eBay locally.

It arrived quickly and was in excellent condition. To be honest I think it had very little usage in it's previous life.

I hooked up the VCR to my Checkmate screen in my room, and tested it with the Boards of Canada tape. Risky since it could chew it, but I didn't have any other VHS tapes to test with!

It played fine, and the video contents left me confused as much as I was before I watched it! 

I suspected from the tape contents that a new album was finally coming and indeed it was. Inferno was the new album, and I picked it up on Vinyl record and their first cassette release (and FLAC/MP3 too) when it was released a month later! Very glad! (it is released on CD too)

I decided to pick up a few other VHS tapes (music videos mainly) to test the output with something more normal! They were very cheap as people just don't want VHS anymore. I get it. Really. I don't like VHS either as a format, which is why I got rid of it many years ago and moved all my VHS tape contents to DVD.

The Checkmate display doing 5:4 or 4:3 aspect ratio means the output of VHS tape low resolution looks very nice indeed:

It is not stretched to fit a modern wide display. I did notice the checkmate shows a section of screen at the bottom not normally visible due to the 5:4 aspect screen though.

I also tracked down some Commodore 64 programming series VHS videos which I had never seen before! See, I still managed to get C64 stuff into a HiFi blog post :-)

I then installed the VCR into the HiFi stack - cue another round of cursing as I tried to move components around without damaging them or having to rewire everything.

With that done, I turned my attention to the last thing I wanted for my HiFi stack, a proper SACD player - a real ES deck. My SACD player is a hybrid CD changer, and is sometimes hit and miss when it recognises the SACD layer on hybrid discs. This is (as I found out) a very common problem on this particular Sony cd changer.

So I wanted a dedicated single disc ES SACD player. I knew it would not be a cheap purchase, and so it proved. Luckily though I found an Australian seller selling a high end 555ES model for a lot less than the usual price, and I managed to negotiate the price down further to what I was willing to pay for it.

It arrived in good condition and when I opened the box it came in, it looked gorgeous. Perfect condition.

This is an Australian delivered SACD player, so normal 240V and no step down transformer. Also, this SACD deck weighs a ton! It is easily the heaviest ES component I have ever owned. 

I tested the deck with a recently purchased SACD and crossed my fingers:

It detected the SACD layer and worked perfectly with Hybrid discs. Very happy:

I sat back and enjoyed listening to a few SACD's from my collection:

The SACD I bought was cheaper than usual because its was missing the remote control. Naturally, it would be impossible to track down a loose one given the rarity of these decks in the first place. As it turned out though, the CD changer remote control works perfectly with it, so no problem at all!

Happy that it all worked well, then came the miserable job of pulling apart my stack again for the last time (I hope) to put the SACD deck in there. 

Due to the size and weight of the 555ES deck, I needed to put it below the DAT deck but above the CD changer so all four feet rested on something solid underneath.

Job done! I kept the CD changer for normal CD's, as it works fine for that, and leaves the more expensive SACD player exclusively for SACD, which should hopefully extend it's life.

At this point I am very happy with the HiFi stack setup - I can play pretty much anything through it - from audio cassettes, DAT tape, minidiscs, CD, SACD, VHS video tape, Laserdisc video, DVD, BluRay, 4K Ultra HD Bluray, vinyl records, iPod classic, Playstation 1/2 and PS4 games, my Mac Studio's audio output, A1200NG and of course the radio!

I do have an ES Minidisc deck on the way, as I finally tracked down a black one, so once that arrives and is installed that will then complete this setup!

I am one very happy person with my ultimate desired HiFi stack in 2026! I like to think my brother would be proud to see his old ES amplifier used everyday in such a great setup. I certainly am :-)