ExplanationsHow the MiniDisc got so small

The 2.5-inch MiniDisc, encased in a plastic cartridge that looks like a 3.5- inch diskette (see illustration above), uses a new digital audio compression technology called ATRAC (Adaptive TRansform Acoustic Coding). To store more sound in less space, ATRAC extracts and encodes only those frequency components actually audible to the human ear.

The meaning of “no sound”

“No sound” describes a recorder condition in which the input level is about 4.8 mV during analog input or less than –89 dB during optical (digital) input (with 0 dB as full bit (the maximum recordable level for a MiniDisc)).

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