sailorman

Sorry to piggyback on the OP's post, but anyone know of a cheaper U.S. source than tapeonline for the gold, or even the colored regular MD's. I was shocked to see they actually had labels. Any info on other US sources of labels would be appreciated too.

Ha. Believe it or not, I found an easy source of the belts for this thing on line. They had it cataloged by model, so no measuring necessary. So... I replaced the belts. Unfortunately, I broke off the wires where they attach to the microphone. No big deal. I never used it anyway, so I didn't bother to re-solder them. I powered it up. Everything looked great. I put in a tape. It was the only one in the house. It was promptly eaten. It seems like the spindles, or whatever they're called, work fine until they encounter some resistance. I don't know it would do the same thing with a less ancient tape or if there's some easy adjustment. The headphones also have lost a channel. Knowing Sony, my money is on a broken wire, but who knows?? Fully operational ones on the bay are pulling down near $200, and they aren't in nearly the same cosmetic condition as mine. I'm thinking of listing mine for $140-$150 or thereabouts and see what happens. If someone here is interested, let me know and make me an offer. I'll let it go much more reasonably if the ebay leeches are out of the picture. Here's some pics.

I've spent the last couple weeks haunting this, and the old forums you linked to, getting up to speed. I'm probably going to stick to the regular 74-80 min. discs. I just picked up my first netMD, so I'm sure I'll be busy for awhile with SS and whatever other software I'll need to make that work. It came with 18 disks, which made it worth the $35 I paid for it. Right now, I've got around 90 blanks to play with. What I need now is labels and storage racks. I figure I can do without the expensive, HiMD stuff...for now, at least. The data capability doesn't really justify the extra expense either. Anytime I need to haul around 50 hours worth of music, I've always got my Rockboxed Sansa that'll play FLAC files from HCMSD cards. I Just snagged two 4 gig cards for $13. That's not much more than a blank HiMD disc. With the right IEM, it doesn't sound too bad. But the MD sounds better on my "real" speakers. I can't see using a HiMD for data. It's an insulting use for a Minidisc. Kind of like hauling fertilizer in a Jaguar. You can do it, but when flash drives are going for $2/Gig, why would you?

Thanks for you guys' feedbacks. I hunted it down today and tried to fire it up before I took some pictures. No go. I pulled off the outer case and saw that one of the belts inside had snapped.. Motor still runs and everything looks o.k., but I need to decide if it's worth hunting down a belt to fit it. If anyone has any ideas about where the heck I can get a belt for it, or were I can find out what size belt it is, I'd be appreciative. It looks like it's not too terribly difficult to replace, but I'd rather not remove the old belt for measurements, etc. until I have a reasonable chance of lining up a new one, or two. Might as well replace the other one while I'm at it. Bummer.

Since there seems to be a lot of Sony experts around here, I'd thought I'd ask about a walkman I'm considering selling. A year or so ago, I ran across what I believe (and correct me if I'm wrong) is the first Walkman model sold in the U.S. It's blue, all metal and built like a tank with a red button for the dual "buddy" headphone jacks. I stuck a cassette in and powered it up and it works fine. It's in like new, excellent condition with it's original blue leather case. I remember paying close to $300 for it in the late 70's when I could afford, and had to have, the latest and greatest gadgets I could get. I stuck it back away and what I'd like to know is if it's worth hunting for again. Does anyone know if it might be worth anything? I even have the original headphones, which were surprisingly good despite the foam being deteriorated. So, is it a museum piece, or just another piece of obsolete crap better off left buried wherever it is right now? TIA for anyone's opinions.

I hope you like the W5000's. For comfort, the F1's are definitely the most comfortable headphones around. If there are any more comfortable headphones out there (especially for less than $300), I'd like to know what they are. I've tried and/or owned dozens of headphones - maybe more, and shopped for months with the primary goal of comfort before settling on the F1's. At the time, I could have spent twice as much, but the comfort rated a 10 and the SQ was at least an 8.5 in my book. They are the only headphones I've ever kept around in hopes of repairing after they were damaged or worn out. I wore them for 8-10 hours straight, 5 days a week for over 5 years, only taking them off for 5-10 minutes every couple hours at most. Sometimes, I'd turn the audio off for hours and forget I still had them on. I remember lots of times getting up and having them yanked off my head by the cable. I guess that's why the pads are all worn out. I wish I'd have bought a backup pair, or two. Yeah, I'm a real fanboy of the F-1's. It p.o'd me immensely when I found out I missed, by a few days, a pair that went for $80 on ebay. Regarding the sound, the only very minor issue is the bass is a bit thin. I'm not into heavy booming bass anyway, so that's a non-issue for me. Truly awesome headphones for the money. Once again, Sony screwed up when they discontinued them.

Yeah, that's pretty much what that means. The only one I'd consider selling is a 1Gig M4, but it's not worth the postage to ship, it's got native support for audible audiobooks and it takes a standard AAA battery, so I've just talked myself into keeping it.

I have Clips and 2000s models, but that statement was made tongue-in-cheek. Sorry. The Sansas have a few advantages over MD players, namely Rockbox, sleep timers and MicroSD cards, so I still like them for audiobooks and second-tier music. Besides, new and refurbished ones are so cheap nowadays that they're hardly worth selling.

Wow. I guess being unemployed isn't all bad. I got to spend almost all day reading to try to get up to speed on 10 years of MD technology, well....actually only 3 or 4 years. It's a lot to absorb in one day, but since it hit a dead end, I'll eventually catch up!! I think I'm going to forget the HiMd stuff. For now, I have the MZ-R700 and I'll record SP in real time with an optical output. I've used Media Monkey for a couple discs just to get back up to speed with my machine. I even managed to find the original manual so I don't have to keep referring to the .pdf manual. Since I'm going to be confined to real time recordings for the time being, I'd like to make them the best possible. My R-700 came with Digital PC-Link optical USB gadget. Using Media Monkey, I can direct the output to the USB and avoid the possibility of computer sounds messing up my recording. I also have an optical output in the back of the computer but I've never used it. Presumably it is attached to the soundcard, which is undoubtedly a motherboard based one as it was standard equipment on this Vaio and I never upgraded. So, 2 questions.... Is there any difference, in terms of the ultimate audio quality, in using the USB link instead of the harder to access optical output built into the computer? If it makes any difference, the sound manger software (RealTek HD audio driver) informs me the audio driver is ACL880 and controller is "HD Audio". Would it make any difference if I had a first class sound card? I don't know how good my sound card is, or if it makes much difference. It's not bad for computer stuff and movies and this was a high end Sony in it's day, but I've never heard anything good about motherboard based sound cards. At any rate, is the data coming from the digital link the same as what would come from the rear panel output? I have been assuming that it makes no difference either way, But I dunno. Until I get a NetMD, I'm going to try Phillipe's suggestion of WinAmp with DXF. Do either of you guys know if I can do the same thing as I'm doing with Media Monkey and direct the output through a separate USB device in order to avoid system sounds? Sorry if these questions are dumb. I never really learned the technical details of computer sound systems. Thanks again. With your help, I'm sure I'll figure all this stuff out eventually.

Thanks all for your quick replies. Frankly, I didn't expect them so quick. This doesn't seem to be the most active board on the net., so I was pleasantly surprised. I would not have thought about the issue of parts and repairs and would have assumed it to be nearly impossible at any rate. I think I'll stick to the regular MD, mostly for the reasons Phillipe outlined, and the economy of the situation. The Hi-MD discs also cost 2x as much. I'm mostly going to record FLAC files from my PC through the optical link. I'll have to make do with real time for now, or maybe forever. Which brings up another question. With the Network models, do you have to be downloading mp3's, or can you use any less lossy formats. I'd like to archive all my CD's on the PC in FLAC or APE, then copy them to MD and it would be nice to be able to do it in a higher speed than real-time. I guess what I'm asking is, is Sonic Stage the only program you can use on the Net machines, and if so, will it handle any lossless codecs? Or would I have to use Hi-MD so that I could convert CD's to WAV before burning them to MD? I still have a V1 copy of Sonic Stage on my Vaio from 2004-5. (Don't laugh. It was top of the line back then) But I can't figure out whether it will work with a minidisc recorder or handle FLAC files. Thanks again for your quick answers. You probably saved me from being stuck with a bunch of HiMD discs.

Wow, Those headphones look SWEET. I'm still trying to figure out how to salvage my MDR-F1's. I bought them during better times and no longer can afford anything even close. Hey Sony! Sell the headbands, not just the ear pads!!

Roy Bookbinder "25 Songs"

Hi, I just re-ignited my love affair for MDs after straying to the dark side of flash/mp3 for almost 10 years. I dug out my old MZ-R700 and my discs. Now, I'm looking for some more discs before they get unobtainable. I think I lost track of the whole MD world just about the time they came out with the Net MD's so I never learned about anything more up to date than my own model. I'm trying to play catch up, but meanwhile, can someone explain the difference and any compatibility issues between the MD and HiMD discs. Are the HiMD discs usable in my machine? Are newer model players/recorders backward compatible with discs made on my machine? I know the issues with MDLP, but I'm in the dark about the disc situation and I may be looking for another machine. I want to be sure I won't have to re-record a bunch of discs or buy two different types of discs for two different machines. Thanks for your help in advance. Anyone want to buy some Sansas? The Prodigal Son.