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Will it write anything to any kind of MD? Even just good old standard?

I thought you had a changer. You're saying you have something that LOOKS like a changer. My mistake. Then you're stuck. The alternative (what I did) is to get a used XT-XM1 that plugs straight into the Unilink socket. There are three sources for one on Ebay as I write this note. Stephen PS the "reset-needed" behaviour sounds a lot like the Red and Yellow swapped over. Are you sure this problem you saw was related to the Auxon device?

I meant that there is almost zero supply of them (the batteries). Not that they cannot be physically removed.

Looks way too expensive to me. Jim can probably help.

Very nice unit with lots of special features. Not sure if more/less reliable than any others. I have the N910, which is the roughly the same EXCEPT uses a "standard" NiMH gumstick battery like many other units. Ay, there's the rub. The problem (if there is one) with N-10 is the battery. They are almost impossible to replace.

What will you do about power?

I have no clue if this applies to the D400, though. I have never seen this protected track name message. On a related point I am trying to figure out how to paste (multiple) track names using MCrew - maybe if my current project fails, I will ask about that in a separate thread, unless anyone reading this happens to know the answer.

Well done. I never meant to imply the D400 does not do optical out from MD. I was concerned about your JVC model. I think you have a very nice deck. I wish they hadn't had to take so many features out (from the front panel). Be absolutely certain he is sending the remote with it (it's an RM-D54M) or you may be in trouble because the remote still has all the things you need (except a proper way of using keyboard). The nicest feature of all IMO is that a CD-Text CD will copy all the track names to MD. However there are very few CD's that come with CD-Text (manufacturer laziness or paranoia, there's talk in the manual of them PROTECTING the CD-Text info on some disks, how silly can you get?) and one has to resort to making a CD-R copy of the CD with CD-Text added from one of the online databases, so that it is there to copy to MD. Confused me for a while, I can say. Stephen

No sub alas, though I never felt the need for one. Probably will do the surround sound thing at some point in the new house. At this point I will be torn as to what to do with the KEF's. I was most amazed to read of someone who bought them about 5 years ago, junking their high end speakers as a result. The onkyo had some problems to do with mode switching as this particular one was the first that "did" HDMI properly. But I managed to get the updates (somehow!) and all is well. Problems that only affected video, in any event. Stephen

Somebody here has the B8**** - if it's still available, quite nice indeed. No optical out but you can't have everything. (**** pronounced "Bait"?)

It was my first unit and it died a horrible death before I knew of Jim (or indeed of how to get these serviced). A word to the wise, save spare parts especially the Transformer, from it. I wish I had. Particularly useful if you ever get an out-of-region machine that you want to convert to home power. Mind you that's a stretch as some of the very fancy models seem to do out-of-the=way things to power as part of their "upgrade" - I'm always surprised that they even make a different. Yes anything made in Japan tends to be better, but I have units made in Malaysia that are perfectly fine. Stephen

If the changer is Sony and the head unit is Sony, why would you do anything other than use the proper Sony interface? (don't answer that) You need the UniLink cables, that's all. A pair of RCA cables and one like this... http://cgi.ebay.com/SONY-CD-CHANGER-CABLE-UNILINK-XM-RADIO-M-BUS-SIRIUS-MP3-/270731359628 There should have been a set with the Sony CD changer when you got it. There's one trick, somehow Sony manages not to connect the grounds together, there is only a single ground connection, avoiding hum/ground/loop problems. What I cannot recall is whether that is done by a special RCA cable with the ground not connected, or by it being disconnected at the changer. But it may be as simple as rummaging in your junk drawer. The cables (3 of them) are usually tied together with fasteners. (duh.... we know that your head unit has the changer control, silly me ignore what was posted there for a while)

It may be that reset takes place if you hold the power switch on without letting go for 5 seconds when turning on. This will clear all settings. It occurs to me that it may clear errors too. I got the service manual at http://www.hifiengine.com/manuals/sony/str-de197.shtml but it isn't a lot of help.

I have one, and it works perfectly despite being a bit bashed up on the removable front panel (the word Sony was completely illegible). This suits me fine as it looks like junk and hopefully no one will burgle car for it. No trouble with changer either. Sounds like you got some 3rd party changer. If you have a Sony changer (and they can be had for $50 or less) you should be able to plug in and go.... NO adapter necessary. If the adapter doesn't work to your 3rd party changer, sling it back at them. I actually suffered with a non-Sony device in the other car, for a while after getting my MD changer, and before getting a Sony headunit. This adapter was the pits... it almost worked but every time a track went over 9:59, everything went nutso. (and same at 19:59 and 29:59 etc). Did you get the red and yellow wires right? If I recall, the YELLOW is always on, the RED is on the accessory switched circuit. What you see could well be explained by having these reversed. They warn you the unit has to be reset whenever power is removed. I'll be any help that I can. I assume yours is configured to Europe-type standards for FM spacing and number of bands - mine has 50Khz and also has a (here useless) longwave AM band too. If not I might be interested in comparing notes. Stephen

Hi Jeff, The md-only deck was posted here exactly one year earlier. Perilously close to 1 April but I think there's no doubt it is real. Moved to just where you say it should be, in News. Stephen

Sorry Chris, don't know what else to suggest. If you google it you will find others who went in and identified whatever IC was blown.

The Onkyo is a pretty heavy piece of equipment. It looks and sounds very solid. Even if I didn't need it to handle video, I would still be delighted with the sound. Granted, I cannot compare with your Cambridge. But it drives my KEF Chorales as well as ever. They are a *very* inefficient speaker that need lotsa power. A lot better than the Kenwood (analog in only) that I had for the previous 13 years. And it (Kenwood) was decent. I still use it for phono input when I need to convert LP's. I do think there is some advantage to having DAC and power amp in the same unit, though I am sure the real buffs will say this is nonsense. Stephen

Very interesting. Glad everything is now ok. You might have more luck if not using HiSP but LP2, although I realise the quality will be down. One more question about how to avoid in future. I'm guessing a momentary power glitch, though it need not be. Did you record with the RH1's inbuilt battery or using the wall adapter supplied? There's always been a bit of a power problem with longish recordings. You might like to build (it's been done) or buy a USB power adapter that runs off batteries and provides 5V USB. Another interesting experiment might be to massage the disk extensively, once you have recovered what you need (you can capture the sound stream, all but the last 2 minutes of course, using one of the many free or shareware sound programs for PC or Mac). How likely is it that this fault on the disk now permanent? If so, it's just one of those things that could happen to anyone with any gear.

Sounds like another one of these laser adjustment errors. If you can hear the beginning of the recording, then the whole thing must be there on disk. Probably the head ends up doing a lot of seeking (I'm making a wild guess that 1hr 27 mins is a completely full 1GB disk recorded at highest data rate, am I right?) at the end because of some previous fragmentation, before the disk is wholly filled. There's a very good chance that this can be played in most other HiMD units - just yours is a bit out of alignment. Seems to be happening a lot with the second generation machine (RH10, RH910, M10, M100) these daya. What unit do you have? I don't think this is the kind of thing that NickyJay was thinking of, where the disk is not finalised properly. Or you'd get nothing at all. Don't try anything fancy. Buy another second hand unit (for way less than $100) or borrow a friend's. You could even send it (disk and player) to me, though depending on where you live, there may be someone here on the forum who is a lot closer. Whatever you do, DO NOT try to make any more recordings (or edit in any way whatsoever!!!) on that disk. It may be a good idea to avoid recording on already-used, partially full disks until this problem is resolved. If you're going to spend $100, spend it on Sony's repair service (for the unit) rather than the disk itself. Probably they will replace the machine - they no longer try fixing things - for a flat charge. The refurbished unit will probably play your disk. Sorry.

http://esupport.sony.com/CA/perl/tutorial-display.pl?tut_id=294 The key observation may be that you have to be UNPLUGGED (not just in standby mode) from the main for 2 hours.

Check and make absolutely certain there is not a tiny bit of wire grounding one of the speaker outputs. You might even shake it a bit (I think dropping it is probably too drastic) and see if something inside broke off and fell in the wrong place. Otherwise it has to be fixed. Your power output must be shorted somewhere in the signal path.

MD relies on some quite sophisticated feedback circuitry ("servo") as do all optical devices and indeed all VCR's. A whole bunch of things gotta work right. My sense is that 9 times out of 10 or better, only ONE thing has gone wrong with most MD. It's pretty reliable, mostly. Just to scare you, once I got my "new" (hahah it was worth about what I paid for it) unit with C13 (BIG CLUE was I sometimes got C14, and just once I managed to read the disk name which was displayed), tried the following things: 1. Replaced the motor ($50 + hassle of putting it on). 2. Replaced the optical pickup head (thanks Jim). Even then it didn't work, though it did happen to work in the machine in which the drive was being tested (huh?). Mostly C14 now. 3. (finally) entered the IOP number written on the optical head into the NVRAM. Now mostly right but there was a tendency of disks to get hot when playing or recording 4. Adjusted the laser power using a laser power meter. Only after this did it give (touch wood) perfect operation. Don't get bamboozled by thinking MD is like a floppy (disk). It isn't. Writing is actually more likely to work fine than reading, as a lot more power is used. It's the OVERwrite of the TOC which packages the whole thing up (and in the case of HiMD writes a hash or checksum to make the whole shebang valid) that seems critical. Reading is quite tricky, and subject to getting the right amount of laser power onto the surface of the disk. I still wonder whether I could have got away with 3 & 4 only. When I started (and caused 1 and 2 to be carried out), I didn't have the meter to check the power. Stephen

There are LOTS of HiMD units on Ebay UK today. DH710 NH1 7*NH700 2*NH600 All except the NH1 are bargain basement prices. Some expiring very very soon. Stephen

Either I or Jim (he's in Yorkshire) might be willing to look at this on a trial basis. Once the head is blown (by too much heating sitting writing forever) there's nothing to be done. But I certainly saved my unit. Time should be 10 seconds for a working unit.

When was the last time it worked? Has anyone worked on it recently?