Re: MD: MDS-JE510 trransport: repair or trash it?
=== = NB: Over 50% of this message is QUOTED, please = = be more selective when quoting text = === If you find an answer..let me know...I had the same thing happen and had to buy a new unit.. Al '' On Thu, 01 Feb 2001 23:14:54 -0600 John Small [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: The transport on my 510 has jammed. Happened when I inserted an MD this evening just when I was feeling all smug that my Sony MD equipment has been working flawlessly (510, R50, E40). When I remove the top from the unit I can see al arge plastic gear on the top back left hand side in the transport cage that is spinning but not moving anything ... it makes a racheting sound as it spins, like gears stripping. I was able to force the MD out with a screw driver. It will not insert. I assume this transport is shot. Is this a common failure mode ... anyone know? I am assuming Sony repair is out of the question. I recall they want a flat $100 to fix? That plus maybe parts will buy a newer unit with something beyond ATRAC 4.5 encoding. The unit is three years old but it has not seen much use. Maybe 40 recordings and 100-200 plays. I want another deck in my hi fi system but here's the rub ... I want the toslink optical digital in and out this deck offers. I don't believe the 330, 440 or the 4x speed DX3 decks offer optical digital out. Buying a high end Sony deck is not something I'm willing to do to obtain this connection. However I am concerned about getting another cheesy tranport as well! Anyone have any suggestions on either repairing this deck or which model to consider for replacement? I should noted that I no longer record from analog (mostly vinyl) with this deck. I now do that with a cd-rw deck (Philips 950) and then digitally dub to the MD deck. Thanks. -jts Arlington, TX - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: MDS-JE510 trransport: repair or trash it?
John Small wrote: The transport on my 510 has jammed. Happened when I inserted an MD this evening just when I was feeling all smug that my Sony MD equipment has been working flawlessly (510, R50, E40). When I remove the top from the unit I can see al arge plastic gear on the top back left hand side in the transport cage that is spinning but not moving anything ... it makes a racheting sound as it spins, like gears stripping. I was able to force the MD out with a screw driver. It will not insert. I assume this transport is shot. Is this a common failure mode ... anyone know? For the 510, the answer is yes, that and the turn on bug which may be related. I took my 510 in for service 3 times and each time it came back worse than it went in. I say trash it or sell it on ebay as a nonworking unit. Some tinkerers may pay you $10 or $20 buck to play with it. In all fairness, be sure to make it known what is wrong with the unit and that you pried it open with a screwdriver. There used to be some links on the md community pages that showed attemps to fix the unit. I am not sure how successfull they were. You are better off getting a new unit, not another 510. -- Jim Coon Not just another pretty mandolin picker. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] If Gibson made cars, would they sound so sweet? My first web page http://www.tir.com/~liteways - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Best buy, phasing out MD equip ??
"Francisco J. Huerta" wrote: I've always felt we've been the Betamax of the audio world... not a bad thing, unless everyone stops marketing blanks. (Remember Betamax? It was the format that was superior to VHS... and disappeared.) I know that this is getting way off of the topic. But I owned both Beta and VHS. I didn't think that Beta looked as good and I had a decent quality genuine Sony Hi Fi recorder. Larry - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Best buy, phasing out MD equip ??
I've always felt we've been the Betamax of the audio world... not a bad thing, unless everyone stops marketing blanks. (Remember Betamax? It was the format that was superior to VHS... and disappeared.) Are we in danger of become another Betamax? -jts Arlington, TX - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Senses fatigue
Don Capps wrote: A. This is a common argument forwarded by the subjectivist camp in audio jounalism. So...in other words...we can't trust our OWN ears and therefore must trust those of a magazine reviewer or an audio salon salesman to tell us which sounds better, no? Is there no objective means of determining a component's performance? Or the differences between components? No Don, there is no way to objectively determine the difference between two things that are subjectively different. That seems simple enough to me. It applies to food for example. That's why you may like Prego and I like Ragu. The same thing applies to audio. I remember the arguments on the list between a Sony and Sharp portable MD recorder several years ago. Each side insisting that the unit they chose sounded better. The difference in components varies not only from brand to brand and model to model, but even from unit to unit (of the same model). Fortunately most of these differences are beyond the ability of humans to hear. As Ann suggested in her reply to your post, "buy the cheapest one that sounds as good" (paraphrasing). The weak link in the chain will always come down to two things. The listing room (which you are limited to some extent to control) and the speakers (or headphones). The difference between the least expensive receiver (that would be considered by the industry definition - if there is such a thing) "HiFi" and the most expensive individual components is insignificant when compared to speakers. Also, I'm not stating anything new when I say that you have to audition speakers at home. They may sound great in the listening room at the store, but not in your listening room. Again, price can not be used as a guide. Or, perhaps the differences between well designed equipment are actually so insignificant that they disappear under well controlled double blind conditions and (particularly) when the price tag is hidden. I agree 100%!! Using flat settings and volume equilibration compensators (I just made that up, but you know what I mean) most well designed electronics will probably have identical audio properties as far as the human ear is concerned. It is the speakers that are the critical (and most subjective) factor. Because most of today's music is "electronic" comparisons between live and recorded can only be make with certain types of music (such as classical). In my humble opinion, if you can make electronics that can keep the distortion as low (unfortunately this becomes very hard with analog tubes, tape, vinyl, etc.), the frequency response as wide, the signal to noise ratio as good and the dynamic range as wide, analog would sound better then digital. That's because that concert was analog to begin with and so are our ears. Larry - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Best buy, phasing out MD equip ??
John Small quoted from a post of mine, If MD dies in the US and commented, | Sorry, I came in late on this thread. Is there some danger of the format | dying in the US? I wouldn't say "danger," just "theoretical possibility." That thread was strictly speculation; having been computerless for six days, I was catching up with the list last night, so my post to it came later than everyone else's. If you just subscribed to this list, John, then my post would be the only part of that thread that you saw unless you visited the MD-L archives. - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Best buy, phasing out MD equip ??
"David W. Tamkin" wrote: I wouldn't say "danger," just "theoretical possibility." That thread was strictly speculation; having been computerless for six days, I was catching up with the list last night, so my post to it came later than everyone else's. If you just subscribed to this list, John, then my post would be the only part of that thread that you saw unless you visited the MD-L archives. Things are looking worse for MD than I thought. A few months ago when I visited my local Circuit City (my local CC was never big in the MD format to begin with) they seemed to have the most portable MD units I had seen there (like 3 or four different models-big deal!). But today they only had one unit! All of the Sony's were gone. No players. About 6 or more MP3 players though (along with 32MB storage cards that they were asking $99 for). With the exception of not being affected by physical vibration (which I will admit is a big deal, I do not see any advantages to storing music on tiny, expensive memory chips as opposed to MDs. I suppose if you made the memory buffer large enough (although this would increase the cost of an MD recorder) you could eliminate the concern of physical vibration during MD playback. But it doesn't look good for in the US at this point. People are so stupid. Larry - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
MD: archives
only part of that thread that you saw unless you visited the MD-L archives. Speaking of the archives, what's up with them? There's no 2001 posts in there (unless i'm missing something) Josh. - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Senses fatigue
las wrote: In my humble opinion, if you can make electronics that can keep the distortion as low (unfortunately this becomes very hard with analog tubes, tape, vinyl, etc.), the frequency response as wide, the signal to noise ratio as good and the dynamic range as wide, analog would sound better then digital. That's because that concert was analog to begin with and so are our ears. No, then the analog would sound the same as the digital, if I'm interpreting your statement correctly: If analog was the same as digital, analog would sound better. I know that you are making the distiction between the analog process versus the digital process (continuous vs. discreet) but if all things are equal, then the result should be equal. You're saying that digital is inherently inferior, because our ears are analog. But our ears are digital. When a sound wave wiggles the basilar membrane, it causes selected, individual, DISCREET nerves to fire. Which nerve depends on the frequencies and amplitudes of the sound. A digital recording of sufficient quality will cause the EXACT same nerves to fire as the analog recording of similar quality. 16 bit 44.1 kHz is not sufficient to exactly reproduce an analog sound waveform, given the ear's resolution of 20 kHz (if your'e lucky) and 130 dB (before you go deaf). But 24 bit 96 kHz probably is, given a 144 dB dynamic range, and 48 kHz frequency response. To be absolutely sure, 32 bits would probably be better, and maybe bump up the sampling rate to 192 kHz. But at that resolution, there will be no difference in the ear's response to an analog or a digital signal. -steve - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Best buy, phasing out MD equip ??
Dan Scellen wrote: That's true. Just about a week ago, my 20 yr old brother started to use my MDs. He has about 300 cassettes all of live recorded material, and he was perfectly content with them. Well, after a week using MDs, he said to me last night "Minidisc is the way to go. Why have these not caught on yet?" He is now the 4th person I've converted to MDs, and I've only tried to convert 5. It's sad. But until recently prices were just too high. Someone mentioned that editing on a CDR/W drive was easier than on MD. I don't see that. I can stop an MD anywhere I want, then combine, divide, delete, move. You can't easily do that with CDs on a computer. But a computer does not add SCMS. And a CD can hold an equal amount of music without compression. I truly don't believe that the average person can hear the difference between the original CD and it's MD copy. But the 5 to 1 compression still has a psychological affect. Also, a CD holds the same amount of music, but 5 times the "information" since it is not compressed. but is CD is not 5 time bigger than an MD. I'm talking about the disc itself. I'd gladly accept the extra size if CD were encased in jackets like the MD is. This is especially critical in CDR/W where scratches are much more sensitive than even a plan CD. Larry - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: playing back on different machine (was MD better??)
John Small wrote, | BTW, can you play back the 940 non-LP MD's on a prior generation player and | get the same quality benefits? First, it's not a matter of LP or SP discs, but of LP or SP tracks; tracks recorded in different modes can coexist on the same disc. Generally, you'll get the effects of the recording machine's ATRAC version, but those of the player's DSP and DAC. So it depends on which has improved more between the older unit and the newer one. | I am concerned about the 2x cost (of the 940) over the 440. But if the | sound and build quality are there I might go for it. It was about 1.5x for me, since I got a good price on the 940. But since the 440 has no digital output and no headphone jack, I didn't want it. I *wanted* the 640, which has those plus keyboard input, and based on early releases of the specs would weigh less and consumer less power than the 940, but the 640 was never to be sold in my homeland, and being able to get service for it is paramount to me. When a JR rep offered me the JB940 at $US 296, I bit. At $399 I would not have bought it. The build quality is probably the same; the 940 is advertised as having a 100 dB SNR, while that of the 440 is something like 96 dB. Some advertising has stated that the 940 has a current-pulse DAC; others have said it's hybrid- pulse, which apparently is something less impressive. - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Best buy, phasing out MD equip ??
Larry said: But it doesn't look good for in the US at this point. People are so stupid. That's true. Just about a week ago, my 20 yr old brother started to use my MDs. He has about 300 cassettes all of live recorded material, and he was perfectly content with them. Well, after a week using MDs, he said to me last night "Minidisc is the way to go. Why have these not caught on yet?" He is now the 4th person I've converted to MDs, and I've only tried to convert 5.As a cheap medicine commercial might say, 4 out of 5 Americans prefer minidisc. They just need to be promoted. If people knew about them, and about their capabilities, they would catch on. Easily. Dan Scellen - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: CD vs MD
This is so bloody ridiculous!! MD is far better than CD-R or CD-RW! Sorry. But here I cannot agree with you. How can a data compressed format possibly be superior to a properly dithered uncompressed digital recording? This statement just doesn't make sense. Jeez. Why do I feel the need to defend myself? I dunno. I obviously didn't intend to compare CD sound quality to MD. There is an obvious difference to me (especially in my Classical recordings..) What I was referring to was the ease of use: (ie when you want to create an audio CD, you have to dump all the music onto the computer (unless you have a CD-R audio deck) - after copying all the music onto the computer, you start the software, arrange the disc and finally burn the bloody thing... What a long and tedious process!! It's so much easier to simply dump your favorite music onto a MD -- one step!) My statement (when you read it in the proper context) was OBVIOUSLY not a comparison of audio quality, but ease-of-use. Please don't jump on a statement just to blurt out a statement containing information we all already know. Thanks Don - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
