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Opinions on the MZ-N505 Portable Unit

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Hudson

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That old generation of Net-MD MD units work well in general. I just noticed some charging battery problem on units which have a gumstick battery inside. Personnaly I use SP and LP2, not LP4 and close to 100% of my MDs are recorded in real time. I have two units of this generation, a blue Sony MZ-N510 and a grey MZ-N710. As the MZ-N505 is not type S but type R, it is a perfect match for SP recording & listening.

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They are actually one my favorite MD devices. They are built like tanks - I have one I've been using off and on for what seems like 10 years - and I think I bought it used. I know I've ripped hundreds of CDs using it. Probably thousands, actually. The fact that they take "AA" batteries also makes them very versatile.

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Cheers guys, i will buy it then, i have been looking at a QS-980 full sized unit but at the moment (with today to go) its on ebay at £205 !!! Bloody hell thats getting close to what it cost new. I only want to copy about 100 cd's onto MD then that will be it, after this it will not be used that much, so paying close to £250 (when the auction ends) does seem a bit much. Should i be looking at Type S for recording in SP ?

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They are actually one my favorite MD devices. They are built like tanks - I have one I've been using off and on for what seems like 10 years - and I think I bought it used. I know I've ripped hundreds of CDs using it. Probably thousands, actually. The fact that they take "AA" batteries also makes them very versatile.

That may be but the first one I got had a busted overwrite ribbon cable (which was duly repaired).

Sergio says in his review of MDLP that the sound is not great.

I would be much more inclined to get one of the later Type-S models on general principles. I remember sticking an SP disk in my (dirt-cheap) MZ-NE410 (there are MZ-DN430's to be had for not very much money these days) and handing it to my Ipod-wielding son. "Holy ****" was the response.

I see no particular reason to go for this generation of portable. The later ones are better. The only problem you may have is that the cheapies (like the ones I mentioned above) do not have optical input. So you are stuck waiting for the linux-minidisc project to get their act(s) together to allow SP downloads, if it can be done (I say if, because I'm still a wee bit sceptical). But you shouldn't pay that much for N510,N710 or even top-of-the-line N910 in today's marketplace.

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The N505 is a workhorse, but not a very pretty one. Aesthetically I actually think it quite ugly, and the LCD display is oddly quite dim. Not a fault, just the design. But they do go on forever if you have a good one.

Known faults to watch out for:

+Overwrite head flexible cable cracking (affects many units, including R700, G750, N1, N707, R900, etc etc)

+The famous audio out crackling problem. Caused by bad solder joints on the audio amplifier chip

+Control button contacts flaky with age, buttons send spurious key values

+General drive unit faults caused by motors or optical pickup. Quite common, actually

Other than these the N505 is generally reliable. I very rarely have to do any work to the main board, for example.

Jim

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