dirkhb

Hi, the lubricant coating you mentioned seems to be optional, as the Sony Minidisc Training Manual says. The record head of MD recorders is made of a low friction material and glides on the disc surface even without lubricant. I cleaned some badly soiled disc with water some time ago. After soaking them, I dried the discs with compressed air through the opened shutter. They work perfectly since, in playback and also in record mode. Dirk

Hi, as far as I remember, the MDX-E300 is technically similar to the MDX-M5. I repaired such an unit some time ago, it had a different MD mechanism than the two decks I mentioned above. I never managed to get any service manual for a Yamaha MD deck as pdf file, I only own a paper copy of the MDX-9 service manual. You can obtain these manuals at www.schaltungsdienst.de, prices are around 15 €. Greets, Dirk

Hi, I own two Yamaha MD decks: MDX-9 and MDX-595. This two decks (and also the MDX-596 and MDX-793) use MD mechanisms manufactured by Sharp. Mounted to the mechanism is a printed circuit board with the entire mechanism control and digital audio section of the deck, also manufactured by Sharp and using Sharp ATRAC chips. The only audio electronics in these decks contributed by Yamaha is the analog and ADC/DAC section. In my opinion, both the MDX-9 and the MDX-595 sound very good, differences to the source is hardly audible. Furthermore, the workmanship of the Yamaha Decks (especiallly the MDX-9) is far better the that of the (non-ES series) Sony Decks. Dirk