PhilippeC

A solution to the MD label-full-wrapped that Stephen (sfbp) don't like (sure that the mechanism could be jammed) : Look at the labels here : https://www.bandcds.co.uk/all-others/minidisc-duplication-and-production/

Hi henry's cat (Henri is my son's name). There are less problems if you use SS only for tracks transferring and editing. All my tracks are stores as MP3 (some), Flac 44,1kHz and Flac Hi-Res (a huge lot). I use foobar200 and jRiver Media Center for listening. I just convert (make a copy) my files in "WMA lossless" just the time to transfer my tracks to MDs, then delete those WMAs. No SS library at all.

External old cables can give those symptoms, specially when a very little mouse is implied. A rabbit also if you have one... High level of humidity in the air tend also with time to destroy slowly the plastic of the cables.

48 to 88,2 then 44,1 ? WHO or WHAT will then downsample to 44,1 if Ultramatch is in charge of the first upsampling ? As it is late, my brain is on pause. Maybe we are talking to the wind but that is interesting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpKKzuDreoM

Hi Bob Shade, more details here : http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MDS-JE520+S39.html Maybe you had recorded all your live music with a MDLP portable unit, your " Sony Minidisc Walkman" (this is generic name for ALL Sony portable units : CD, MD, MP3, etc). All SP only decks (what us we call 1st generation), like the JE520 cannot read MDLP format as said Stephen (sfbp). The good news is that there are plenty of decks or portable units which play MDLP on the web markd is MDLP, then Net-MD, then Hi-MDet. Minidisc.org will give you their model names. To be complete, the best you can get is MDLP with "type S". Do you want to know more about MD portable units history ? https://sites.google.com/site/crazyforminidisc/

Sure, only the very first MD has an optical out. And yes the MD circuit has to resample the 48->44.1 and it could be kinda messy as it is not a simple maths like 88,2 kHz to 44,1kHz or 96 kHz to 48kHz. We enter there in technical specifications that are simply difficult to appreciate but there is an universal law, if you make a clean signal (not messy one) , better the recording. E.g. buying a good external DAC for the digital real time recordings or using a good quality analog source. I will add a third solution to Stephen"s ending point, using a DAC or receiver (both having a coax in) with an external Toslink digital out, and to rejoin Stephen advise, fixing everything at 44,1kHz (if a sampling conversion is needed, it is better at an upper level of the chain before the MD unit).

As Stephen (sfbp) has not the exclusivity to answer (thank you Stephen), let me answer to all the question also if you don't mind. Yes you can copy from a minidisc into another device, as in a computer. Note than if you do so with another minidisc the quality downgrade (1st Atrac compression + 2d Atrac compression). This optical out, my personal view, is to allow a connexion with a digital amplificator (like a receiver 2.0 ---> 5.1) or an external DAC (then an analog amplificator). For a digital recording from a DAC (or an internal PC DAC), you must have 48kHz at a maximum frequency. This can simply set with the sound icon in the taskbar (sound device priorities, sample rate to used when running in shared mode = 24bit-48kHz). The external DAC being used as a DAC this time for the listening accept naturally the digital sound of the MD unit, being fixed anyway at 44,1kHz if I am right. Analog cable : 2 RCA to mini-jack or mini-jack to mini-jack. To be plug in the Line-in entry, as well the digital Toslink mini-jack. You must use the analog signal if the source does not have a digital output (or only the coax digital), e.g.. an analog vintage radio. Nowadays it is very useful with a Hi-Res source like a SACD (or a PC & Hi-Res DAC). Note that Hi-Res does not mean High-end. There are a lot of affordable Hi-Res DAC as the hi-RES quality start with 16bit-48kHz (common cheap DACs are 24bit-192kHz). If you record form a Hi-Res source, the source itself must be set to 48kHz out (easy with a PC, sound settings) but this setting has no importance (and cannot be fixed) with an analog recording (test the difference, digital fixed at 48kHz or SACD analog quality). When I said player about the PC, I was speaking about he software which read the music tracks. You can also put a CD in the DVD-tray and record it through the PC sound card (but the quality remain at 16bit-44,1kHz). Hi-Res quality music can be downrecord it through the PC sound card (but the quality remain at 16bit-44,1kHz). Hi-Res quality music can be downloaded form the ww Net.

Hi zzzuppp. Sure that Sonic Stage has nowadays a lack of important features. SP "fake LP2" is one of them (my favourite bad feature). Instead of having a second OS on your computer, you could get a second hand computer (old one around 100$ max) et then setup Sonic Stage on it. What is that you don't like so much about Sonic Stage ? UK repair service is perhaps the last chance IF your RH1 is in perfect aesthetic condition but had a great problem (100£ would seem ok for me if Sony make it as new inside).

That was what I said that to me when that happened. With classical music you can have kilometric titles ! I decide not to correct that now. I will edit later all my MDs to check those faulty titled MDs.

3. to record digitally > 48 kHz FLAC files or SACD/DSD (Hi-Res), it possible to use a computer : you need a player (foobar2000, jRiver Media Center) that can read the files and Sox resampler which can downgrade very high frequencies to 48kHz.

I have the same problem with my deck JB980 QS. Sometimes, it refuses to write the titles (disc, group, tracks). I can transfer 25 tracks with Sonic Stage and for one strange reason, the 5 last tracks do not have titles. No way to write them manually afterwards

This power adaptor is just (yes Stephen I know you don't like that word) there to connect the USB to the mini-USB of the RH1. The cable plus the adaptor is rather big and must be plug to the wall. So for mz I choose to replace it with a Power bank

In case the 8 all round does not enter , I thought to a temporary only solution in using BFA bananas like those (entering as male in the the hole of the "8 all round" and as female the NH1 plug) :

You got that information with the service mode ? Please give me the procedure.

Wow again ! Got mine for 65€ (an audiophile french guy died and his brother decided to sell his brother's audio collection to audiophiles people only at reasonable prices. He just want to be sure that the buyer was an absolute fan of the MD format... then keep it a long time). For 300€, you sold it in a perfect aesthetic condition, with manuals and the box... plus MDs ?

How much did you sold your 980 ?

@macaddict77 has several 333ES & 555ES

For us yes, but some "Vintage Audio" websites think that Minidisc will be vintage ONLY when the LAST unit (2004) will be.... I say that a technology which is not any more sell at least since ten years must be considered as vintage.

2 JA333ES, all my JA555ES... Wow. Sadly I can only help with my JB980. You don't have an avatar yet, please use this one

Sadly Jim Hoggarth (UK) is no more available to repair to repair our units. That would have been perfect for henry"s cat as it has been even for me. This UK Sony Repair service will be costly but at least will do the job.

Hi. First read that : That UK Sony Repair service can cost you a harm... Maybe that will be cheaper if you buy another Hi-MD unit (for me the best choice is the first Hi-MD generation, see the browser of minidisc.org) IF you record in Atrac3plus audio formats. Any non Hi-MD recording unit (preferably type R or MDLP type S) will do the job if not.

I am in the process to fill my huge stock of MD (60', 74' mainly & 80') with music. Real time recording take time and as I choose classical music for my first stock, I decided to record in LP2 quality (one disc, two albums). For that SonicStage & my Net-MD deck are my best friends, I just need to convert my Flac & DSD files (all in Hi-Res quality) to WMA lossless 44,1kHz files, an audio format accepted by SonicStage. It is possible to apply ReplayGain (or not) on tracks before the LP2 transfer to the MD : does this have an influence on the final tracks volume ?

As you certainly know, the Hi-MD - recording - units will allow you to record in real time in PCM (16bit-44,1kHz) format, that done on a HI-MD formatted MD standard you will get 28 minutes lossless stereo music only. Sonic Stage can upload tracks in WAV format. Note that the MZ-RH1 has a feature that others Hi-MD units don't have, it is possible to upload tracks (SP & MDLP & Hi-MD) from any MD (except pre-recorded albums). In your search in a Hi-MD unit, the first generation (NH1, NH900, NHF800, NH700, NH600D) is the most reliable.

The MZ-1 could have a very good value if it is in very aesthetic state as in good order, plus box and documents. This is an historic unit, around 150-200$. If not, less than 100$. The others units are less valuable and are just interesting as being among the earliests MD units. For MD collector fanatics only. For the DAT, I don't know. It is difficult to find DAT tapes nowadays.

At least D[n]A gave us a quite complete description of of what he have done... wrong. As said bluecrab there is an error with the connections : To be connected with a PC witch has an internal or an external soundcard with an OPTICAL OUT (S/PDIF toslink) you need to connect it with the OPTICAL IN (S/PDIF toslink) of your deck. This is for a ditigal real time recording (also to make work your deck as a DAC). What you absolutely need to be sure, is that the signal use at the maximum the 48kHz frequency. That is the case for all the music if not a "Hi-Res" quality (Hi-Res mean Hi-Resolution a.k.a. 24bits-48kHz and superior like 24/32bits - 96-88,4kHz-192kHz and much more (DSD quality). A CD is 16bit-44,1kHz quality so if you create Flac (lossless) files with it on your PC, you will get 16bit-44,1kHz tracks files that Winamp can read. Till you don't want to record Hi-Res music who can keep Winamp and the WinCue plugin to be sure to get finally separate tracks (all silence tracks can be easily deleted by hand or better with Sonic Stage when you also get the time to edit and to title all the tracks). Note that foobar2000 is another good alternative, as foobar2000 can read Hi-Res (SACD plugin), WinCue is replaced by the Post-track silence plugin. Personnaly I use the jRiver Media Center audio player but it is a factory gas station for a beginner. Hi-Res music can be record in real time to your MD deck if you use the Digital Signal Processing (DSP) Sox (resampling high frequencies to 48kHz). You can use the OPTICAL OUT of the deck to connect it to the OPTICAL IN of a Digital Receiver (then listening your music in stereo or 5.1) or of a modern DAC wich could enhance a lot your music. About the recording level, you can choose (or not) to apply ReplayGain* to all your tracks. Wikipedia : ReplayGain normalize loudness for individual tracks or albums. This avoids the common problem of having to manually adjust volume levels between tracks when playing audio files from albums that have been mastered at different loudness levels. Then you adjust the deck recording level for the first tracks and that is done for all the other tracks. (*) not sure this is possible using Winamp... that why foobar2000 will be your next best friend !