sfbp

Jim Hoggarth once said to me that he thought there wasn't much different in a 980 (from 780). Looks like you have identified one item. I wonder if there are others. The 980 is definitely heavier, IIRC. As a side note, I have myself tried "upgrading" some models (nothing to do with 780 or 980) to match Japanese domestic specs, and ran into problem after problem where Sony made slight changes to the circuit design, similar to what you spotted. Almost looks like intentionally to frustrate hackers and "refurbishers", but who knows? - may have been for good engineering reasons. Can you explain why one set of rails is +/- 12 and the "superior" set +/- 6? Shows how little I know about this stuff......

Agree with Fabian and Gyula too. I think there are some different ways of getting into different modes of decks. I looked up JE640.

I trust you unplugged from the mains whilst doing the belt replacement Try unplugging from the mains (again?), and then entering service mode (plug in whilst holding in AMS knob AND stop button). Does it now say "Check"??? Press REPEAT button. It should fall out of test mode, and probably will say "INITIALIZE" if I recall correctly. PS if display is blank that may be simply because you forgot to reconnect it. But the RED standby light should go out when you turn on, so that's probably not it.

It's easier to replace the guts as documented in another thread here. http://forums.sonyinsider.com/topic/29187-lip-4wm-battery-rebuild/

A quick scan of the manual leads me to ask the following questions: 1. What happens when you press the ADD button to switch the second unit from "Double" to "Stereo" mode? 2. What order did you add them ? 3. Which did you connect to smartphone? You need to connect the bluetooth to unit A (the one you added first). I can see this problem of yours happening if you tried to connect the phone to unit B. I really have no experience, just looking at the manual in haste - feel free to tell me I am talking rubbish. PS I have no idea how all your previous posts happened to get spam in them, or why your sig said NY when you are apparently in Hanoi. More nonsense like that will get you banned, if it turns out you are responsible. If someone hacked your computer, my sympathies, but it is still true that you are on a watch list.

Try changing the file association for .oma Really, this is getting rather boring, please forgive me for being so rude. Your problem has nothing to do with Sound Forge or Windows, but with your particular installation. And, on reflection an artifact of trying to run two different versions of the same software which (likely) relies on file associations to determine some of its behaviour.

It has, IMHO, nothing to do with either the version of SF or Windows. More likely something about the way file types are installed. Has anyone ever seen that funny "file type" something like "Identifying installed files" ;( ??

Right. Sorry read that in a hurry. Characteristics of AA cells are fairly straightforward. You could even put in a normal alkaline AA except for the fact that it's real pain to have to replace when they run out.

HUH? Sony is right, 3.7V, this beast takes a LIP8. I have several, and an MZ-R5ST. No NiCads for me.

From my POV this conversation is over. Yes, I have exactly the same build as you. The save button is greyed out in Xp and Windows 7 on both 9 and 10. This may mean it is something to do with the way .OMA files are installed in Windows. I do not see the issue, and I do not care to debate this further.

It's going to change the file type on you no matter what you do. If you OPEN an ".OMA" or (.oma") file it will not permit you to save as that suffix. That has not changed between versions 9 and 10, the focus of your thread, I think. I tested both versions and as long as you select the right thing (Default Template, Custom), regardless of what it says in the dialog box (maybe confusing to you) it will do the right thing. Better to make yourself a "Save" template and then you don't have to worry. I've already done this for MP3 because the default is "Joint Stereo" which we know sucks bigtime, and needs to be changed. The way to change defaults is to make a template with the right settings. I got 132kbps when I told it that's what I wanted. Did you find the menu entry (clearly marked ATRAC 3) under Custom? The other ?neat feature is that SF will write directly to an MDLP minidisc. That feature is gone in version 10. But why wouldn't it? Atrac3+ is 12 years old already, and you can still export the file via Sonic Stage.

Yes it works perfectly, you have to look (as always) under Custom. But once you have selected that it stays the default as Last Unsaved Template.

I tried both versions and I don't see the problem. Maybe you have to figure out how to make a template (although the last one used should be good enough). I get identical file sizes. The only difference was that version 10 warned it would be throwing away some metadata that it couldn't save in LP2 format.

They have to be decrypted. I wrote the software to do it, but the QHiMDTransfer guys declined to have any involvement (the project seems to have died). In a word they told me to fork off, hahah. The key is slightly different from the one used by MD, but it is the same encryption scheme used by Sony pretty well everywhere. I have long since parted company with the source code and can only remember the generalities of it. Sony took the view that this was a one-way deal, you could never get anything off the ATRAC CDs that you had not put there from original sources. Tuff beans if you did not own the tracks to begin with. There are still units which will play them. Maybe you could start there.

Maybe foobar2000 does what you want.....

Sort of. But the point is this: anything you already ripped, DEPENDING ON THE RIPPER, is worse than useless for getting good compressed formats. Sony has some settings but they are mostly hidden from you. When you rip to AAL, you get some choices about "ripping speed" vs "ripping quality" IIRC. When you rip to "plain" 16 bits, you don't. It's about dithering a 20-bit source down to 16 bits. Sorry for the digression about Sound Forge - it will not get you any help with 292kbps ATRAC. That format is officially obsolete, though it still plays on all MD units, of course. There is no corresponding disk format, probably because of contractual undertakings to Dolby, I use (if you read some of my posts) SP for analogue recording (eg LPs). But the very first thing I do it to convert it by upload to HiSP (256kbps Atrac3+) which is then easily editable by Sound forge. When I record PCM format, I use the real thing on Sony's amazing PCM-M10. I also make sure it's always recorded in a 24-bit format before I edit it and then convert down to burn a CD or (blush!) MP3. BTW the NetMD interface is not particularly fast or reliable until you get to HiMD. Then it's pretty good. The slowness on decks which have NetMD is more to do with the speed that the control information passes - it's mostly at the speed of SIRCS, to be 100% compatible with remote and front panel display. I have many wonderful recordings made in LP4, of music played on the radio (orchestras, organs, choirs, string quartets, you name it - just not pop music of any kind). They were all made, not by transfer, but by optical.from the computer. The reason is simple - ATRAC is a logarithmic format. PCM is not.

Sorry but I don't always have time to type answers which have already been canvassed to defend a point of view with which you apparently disagree. I do have a life too. My strongest recommendation is the MDS-PC3 which fits all those criteria. That is by any definition a deck, and I already made that suggestion. I asked only that you google it. I will do so now... uh well, I came straight to a topic where I gave the answers you are asking now. "ripping atrac 16 bits" You might try that combination. I hope you don't consider that "coddling". I don't want a war either, but I know who will win it. To return to my last point - "NetMD with newest DSP" absolutely rules out using SP recording via optical.

I'm suggesting that your topic title is an oxymoron

Note in particular the quote: In other words, Sony ***knew*** this about the original (SP) Atrac, and took steps to quietly ditch it in favour of a more reliable, modified scheme (in A3 and A3+). The problem they were left with was (is) compatibility. So SP has a special flavour but it's not necessarily the most accurate; it's what people got used to hearing. Makes perfect sense (to me) since for most, what came before SP was analogue. HiSP with a better encoding scheme and almost as many bits is probably better (well, more accurate). As far as 16-bitness goes, you have some reading to catch up on. I'm not going to rehash it all here - but a word of advice, look using search engines, not the search facility in this forum. Cheers

You're looking at an artifact. This artifact effectively killed ATRAC in favour of MP3. What you do NOT want to do is to use the PC to reduce straight from 1411 PCM down to LP2. This provides stupid results (I didn't say you were stupid, just that the output is, as you have determined, crappy). If you pre-encode (and store) all your CD's as Atrac Advanced Lossless (AAL), and in your case I recommend making the Lossy part to be 132kbps ATRAC3 MDLP, you will find that transfers to NetMD work perfectly. Don't ask me why - I can see it in a general way but I don't have enough background in DSP to be able to explain it. Neither, apparently, did the Dutch testing lab that rubbished ATRAC in the battle of the codecs getting on for about 15 years ago. For sure, part of it is about the fact that so-called 16-bit CD data has more like 20 bits encoded in, and that ripping the data off a CD is NOT a matter of "just copying the data" (I detest that word "just"). You will get a much better image on disk if you do NOT store the data you ripped from a CD as 16-bit PCM. You can use XP virtual machine to operate a PC-Link just fine. There are a few restrictions. PS, if you want to verify what I am saying, try using Sound Forge to do the conversion, and listen to the results on the PC without involving MD hardware at all. But you may need to take special care with the ripping.

Sorry teabag we have a rule that no self-posted ebay listings are allowed. This looks like one of these, I'm afraid.

What is a mini-deck? I've never heard the expression, so you had better define your terms. My favourite, small, non-portable is the MDS-PC3 which does everything a JE640 does but adds M-Crew functionality (you will need a PCLK-MN10 and XP most likely, since 64-bit Windows doesn't work). In my view you don't want the NetMD functionality in a deck (as opposed to portable) sized package, because it's a bit slow for transfers. The HiMD units are the best way to do remote titling (MCrew can do that, too) and USB transfer. Another option would be one of the all in one units that has a direct USB connection. The CMT-M333NT (and -373NT) is good. This is the only way to have M-Crew and Sonic Stage on a single unit.

The symptoms you describe suggest you may have to enable JS for this site at least. We already have the good stuff from V5 included in the download of 'Ultimate II' I'm sorry for my previous short answer, I am simply busy. You will need an MZ-RH1 OR (a deck and a lot of time).

MZ-RH1 1. You can solve those with a deck that has optical output, without loss of quality. But will be at playback speed! 2. Sounds like an alignment problem. 3. generally arises with music that has been transferred TO the minidisc from some other media. Sony decided that was therefore likely copyrightable material.

Sounds like variable bit rate to me.