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Last I heard, there were lots of bits broken. What exactly did u do to reassemble? As you say the 940 service manual is probably a pretty decent guide.

I finally took my dead 510 to the dump about 6-8 months ago under the watchful eye and ear of SWMBO. Would that I had remained a pack rat and allowed myself to keep the 510 for spares. That way you get to ditch the transformer. I don't think buying anything like that FROM SONY is going to be cost effective, wouldn't y'all agree? I wonder how special the power supply is: I recall something about special PS for the high end models, but that may be mostly smoke and mirrors for all I know (and we care). The experts should know. If not too special, it's probably worth getting a used <whatever> and ripping out the transformer??? I can think of plenty of ways to get a nice cheap low-end deck. The question is: how essential to function is the powersupply "quality"? Sorry to hear of your struggles Stephen

I had a 1996 amp until very recently (a Kenwood). I was very surprised to be able to get a second hand amp with digital everything for a couple hundred dollars (original price around 3x that) from 2007. Highly recommended if you can be bothered. It still runs my amazing 1972 KEF Chorale speakers, nothing fancy on that side (such as 7.1 surround sound, which is possible). When I first heard about MD, amps with digital in were still a luxury rarity costing thousands. The D to A in the 980 is very nice. Possibly not as good as that in such an amplifier. I'm not 100% sure, but it seems that amps came a long way. I recommend something by Onkyo (they make Integra too). Mine is the TX-SR605, which was the first model by any manufacturer at the right price point to sell in great quantity. S

Beautiful machine I tend not to use the NetMD function, but I have an RH1 and there are some weird driver problems discussed at great length here when you run both off the same PC. One of the best things about many of the later decks is the PC keyboard connector. You can control the whole thing and type all your titles into the TOCs of disks very easily. I recommend getting a "PS/2" based KVM (ie use one keyboard for multiple PC's and/or MD deck). Do you have an amplifier with optical in? These are common now, and you could compare the optical out from the 510 to the optical out from the 980. There's no contest with the ANALOGUE out, I suspect. However optical out may be a lot closer. Having said that, there were lots of improvements in the signal handling and DSP chips for the later decks, and MDLP is really good on this deck because it has the so-called "Type-S" MDLP playback enhancement. I have the drivers for it, but I never got the CD. What you need to do is to install SonicStage 4.3 "Ultimate" from this forum. We'll help you with that, too. Having installed SS, then you will need the drivers for the 980 which are NOT included in the standard package. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES install the whole CD that came with the machine, you will live to regret it as you experience all the changes in format, protection, etc etc that Sony passed through in their paranoia on the way to the effortlessly logical RH1. Welcome to the 980 owners' club!!!!! Stephen

1. I was thinking maybe you should :attack: the R50 yourself, there should be one second hand if you want to use the present one for spares. 2. The 980 should be past the mono problem 3. MDLP2 and mono both produce the same maximum times 4. The 510's load mechanism crapped out on mine. Possibly the overwrite head, too. Also they have other faults arising from the motor not stopping in record-pause mode (which maybe you never abused), that went away with the 520 and all later decks. Finally don't make the mistake of assuming that NetMD is bidirectional. It's not. The sole exception is the currently-retailed-by-Sony MZ-RH1 (aka MZ-M200), which will allow uploads over USB of the SP, mono and MDLP tracks you make.

Welcome to these forums! You got lucky in 3 ways: 1. The R50 is known to be one of the toughest ever built. Fix it, if you can. 2. The 510 die often (mine did, the only deck with a problem I owned), so you are doing well 3. The 980 is a great deck. Take it in a flash and enjoy MDLP. The more recent developments (NetMD, HiMD) come to their best in two models. The MZ-RH1 is necessary if you want to upload to computer anything you already got on MD. The MZ-NH700 is probably the best bet for everything else except possibly microphone recording (given that you live in the UK and they tend to go for under 50 quid, at least when I looked a couple months ago) and I would tend to get one if you can afford to. Stephen Oh yes, one more thing: if you record much in mono, please read this: http://www.minidisc.org/mono_volume_loss.html I encountered this when a relative sent me some recordings made in mono. Quite annoying.

(assuming it isn't automatically pausing because there's no input) The service manual is here: http://minidisc.org/manuals/sony/service/sony_MZ-R2_service_manual.pdf Nothing better to suggest right now, hoping someone reading this actually owns one.

We're not out of options just yet. Can you record anything using JUST THE MZ-R2, and the 60-minute disk? That would be my next thing to try. Keep a careful record of what happens when you do that, eh? (just to show I'm Kanajun)

As a last gasp, try cleaning up the default URL's in the registry under EMD. If you don't know what I am talking about try looking at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sony Corporation\SonicStage\EMD In fact you might take a generic sweep through the registry looking for "C:" Stephen

S/PDIF is fine, but HDMI does everything that SP/DIF does and a lot more, it seems. To be absolutely specific, I found that my HDMI port will output 44.1kHz from Sonic Stage (whereas the S/PDIF toslink socket was limited to 48 and 96), in addition to all the video. I was rather surprised! I also "caught" it outputting 192 kHz at times. I read somewhere that many "SP/DIF" sound cards will resample to 48Khz, and the result may be fine on raw PCM, but is absolutely horrid with compressed music, for reasons you will appreciate when you consider how that must work.

Home Theater PC. Suggest you visit avsforum (don't confuse with avforum), for example this thread: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=26 Stephen (did you ever get hold of loque?)

Actually, we don't need MD's to do so, as I have just proven. My HTPC setup with all the ATRAC titles that came from MD (or CD, for that matter) shows just how excellent the ATRAC format is. However it's a little tricky - you probably want to get an HTPC that has HDMI so you can do video as well as audio. And there may be some minor problems with non-support of NetMD format (well, LP2 and LP4 and SP) if you don't run XP, either as a copy hosted under 64-bit Windows, or as the real thing (what I did). Tricky, because your system needs to be new enough to have HDMI in it, but old enough to run XP. But it will be a long time before I can fill up a couple of 1TB Sata drives with ATRAC formatted sound. Better solution than most; why? because the MD recording bit reallocation (Type-R) is probably important to the quality of these recordings. Yes, maybe SonicStage will actually achieve this when ripping, but at least I know that the MD recordings made from various analog sources will be as good as they could be, since they get transferred up in digital form unaltered to the HTPC.

I read this with great interest 10 months ago when it was announced. But not a dicky-bird since then. Analysis: it takes more than a startup company and a good idea to make a market for a technology. Ask Sony.

Just a question, Darren. Can you FORMAT a 1GB disk properly? I am still trying to figure out what's wrong with my 910, which works perfectly with 80m disks in all formats. Planning to recalibrate it but need a lot of stuff still before I can do that. Stephen

Is it possible that the "pop" is actually a suppressed "beep"?

I'm equally amazed - that you consider this noise significant. Makes me think you listen to a lot of silent tracks. Yes, I agree with you that there is something there. But I have never noticed it, and it would never bother me, even now it's been pointed out.

Why do I feel this is building up to another one of those April 1st announcements?

Sounds like you are right on the money, boss. I am still astounded by how good both the 640 AND Sonic Stage sound playing directly into a receiver with digi input at 16-bits 44.1. Most of the posters here (me included) were choosing on the basis of the DACs (eg the 920 has possibly the best DAC of all in a non-digital system) but you are right, it's the features that count. One thing that crosses my mind is: does using a longer word length ever cause PROBLEMS (such as bandwidth overloading or drops)? I am not experienced at the ins and outs - I am simply happy that my current setup actually works. I suspect QS tuned for the UK is some weird combination of filters for 50Hz and the current-at-the-time UK broadcast setup. My 980 is also "QS Tuned for the UK" and it runs fine here (Canada, 115V 60Hz) as far as I can tell. Maybe Sony are the only ones (if any) who can explain this particular piece of mythology.

True... but the RH1 can upload over USB the SP and LP2 recordings at approx 8-15x playback speed, and with optional .WAV generation on completion.

That's weird.... Page 42 of the manual claims it (sync rec) is only operable with optical in. Sorry. I think your idea about the battery is correct. However there are ways to revive an NiMH battery. Mine is to put it in my old (MZ-R91) recorder and charge it. For some reason this always seems to get it working again. Another idea is to discharge it by playing (the circuits in the NH900 should protect it from complete discharge). Time to get a new battery and if possible, one of those GP chargers. Stephen

You might try Avrin's "Ultimate Sonic Stage". Check with him first if you like, I am sure he knows which mobile units are supported.

Actually the X-B7 and X-B8 have terrific timers. http://www.minidisc.org/part_Onkyo_X-B7+B8.html Problem I think you have to order from Japan. Stephen

Have you got it set on SYNC REC (there's no Sync switch on the 900, it's in software)???

There are supposed to be removal keys that come with the install package. Try talking to someone who has purchased or installed a Sony unit any time. Eg a 3rd-party installer. Good luck.