Another MD fanatic

Thank you for your comments. Checking which one has had the most use is a good idea, and on reflection perhaps I should have done this before I did the original post. I should also have lifted the lid off one of them, rather than just guessing. Oh well, we live and learn don't we. The black one I bought new many moons ago, so I know it's had rather a lot of use. The silver one was second hand, so is an unknown quantity. I'll do some checks when I get chance and take it from there.

I have two of these, one black and one silver. On the black one the overwrite head has gone, although everything else appears to be ok. The silver one still works fine, but the display is very dim and some of the buttons on the front panel are a bit temperamental, (everything works ok from the remote). So, time to make a better one from the two. I'm thinking it would be simpler to just swap over the front panel than start messing around with the head in the black one, or swapping over the entire drive. Does everyone agree? Depending on how much trouble things are going to be the silver one could end up with a black front, but that's not critical. Thanks

Yes, "Dry joint" is what we call it here in the UK. Looking at the original pics I think these are bad joints rather than stress fractures. if you look closely you can see most of the solder is on the pins, there's not much at all on the pads. Looking at the "after" pics I think NGY is a dab hand with a soldering iron!

So then Stephen, let me just confirm (if I've read it right) - You've got M-Crew and Simple Burner all working along with a fully functioning Gracenote, but only in XP (or virtual XP). I reckon that's the problem, XP seemed to be the cut-off point for a lot of things. Thinking back 10 years or so, when my XP pc gave up and I bought a Windows 7, I also had to replace my printer, external CD/DVD drive and no end of software, because none of them would run on Win 7. Ah well, there's always the option of picking up an old XP machine I suppose, I would expect them to be pretty cheap these days.

I was always under the impression that software designed for 32 bit will run on either 32 or 64, but 64 bit software will only run on 64 bit machines? No doubt some IT wizard is going to tell me I'm wrong but I'll wait and see. I've still got an old 32 bit Vista laptop lying around, wonder if Simple burner will run on that?

This is just a thought, but I wonder if the WebApp could be adapted to upload in mono? Or is it only me that uses mono quite a lot, due to the mountains of antiquated recordings I have?

Not sure if everyone's gone off it, or just become obsessed with ease, convenience and the latest trends. As regards Hi-Fi shops, I think there are still a few around, but nothing like there used to be. In my opinion, whether it be MD in particular or hifi generally, everything went downhill with the introduction of the IPod. Which is exactly the route my son took. Started off with Sharp MT290, which he thought was the greatest thing since sliced bread when he bought it. Year or so later got a Sony MZ-G755, but then a year or two after that he bought an IPod. That was it, whole music collection in his pocket and all that business. Don't think he's touched an MD since. Wonder how many more people took a similar route? Bit sad really.

Yes, this was the bit that I was most delighted with, no TRProtect. I didn't have any issues with Zadig though, all seemed ok. I've only tried MP3 and WAV, don't really bother with any others. No idea about any of the HiMD stuff because I don't have one.

Success, finally got round to installing the WinUSB driver and everything works. I found that with SP transfers the conversion was pretty quick but the upload took a while, whereas with LP2 this was reversed i.e. the conversion took much longer, then the upload was much faster. Anyone else finding the same? Didn't get any better results with the Android system I was experimenting with, still took almost as long as recording in real time. This was mainly due to the conversion time, the upload wasn't too bad. If we go back to Stefano's original demo video, in the second half where he uses his phone, that took quite a while. Stefano put this down to it "only being a phone" but I'm wondering if there's a bit more to it. Could it be something to do with the way Android handles it? Anyone out there got a tablet they could try it on? Some tablets have a fair bit of processing power.

On the odd rare occasion I burn a CD I use a thing called Cyberlink Power to Go. Simple reason is that it was already installed on my HP laptop when I first bought it, and I've never had a problem with it. It's always written CD TEXT without any issues, you just need to check the music file tags first for any errors. You think they're bad, try CD-RW's. Can be re=written 100's of times, or twice, whichever is the shorter! I vaguely remember using one 3 times before everything refused to read it, but that was a rarity.

I've noticed that titles can be corrupted depending on what software you use to rip the CD in the first place. I've seen an example where any apostrophes in the title would display as a weird symbol on the ripped file (sorry, can't remember which software it was). Every CD I've got with CD-TEXT has it all in upper case, which annoys me as well.

Interesting. I could see that LP2 downloads were much quicker than SP but I thought the conversion was taking just as long. Certainly took a while to do the few tracks I was experimenting with. Anyway, I'll probably do some more next weekend, I want to copy a few Pink Floyd tracks to see how it copes with gapless playback. And I'll time it properly next time instead of just using guesswork.

Finally got round to trying this app. I had put it off for a while, simply because I couldn't really be bothered to mess around with the driver business. However, I've recently been experimenting with some alternative operating systems, mainly Linux but one exception - Prime OS. For the benefit of anyone who's not familiar with Prime OS, it's an Android system that can be installed on desktops and laptops. So I tried it on that - Success! And without any problems. Just for testing purposes I put together a mix of about 10 tracks, some in SP and some LP2. Played the disc back, no issues. Now another test, I took the disc and popped it into JE480 deck. Deleted couple of tracks, and moved a couple to rearrange the order. No problem, no sign of TrProtect. For me, and I suspect a few other people, that's brilliant. Possibly the only downside is the length of time it takes. I think if someone just wants to copy a complete CD to MD it's probably still quicker and easier to do it in real time on a deck. But if you want to put together a compilation, in SP mode, from a dozen different CD's, or from a load of music on your PC that you don't have on CD, this is a great piece of work. I wonder if the process could be speeded up in any way? I was always fascinated by the technology in the MX D-D40, and similar decks. They could copy in SP mode at 4X speed, if I remember correctly. I guess that's a totally different thing to using a PC?

Sorry Stephen, not working for me. Waiting to see what other responses you get, just in case it's just me.

So everyone went out and bought MP3 players, then copy-paste-copy-paste to their heart's content. I could never figure out Sony's thinking, it stopped any further MD development but certainly didn't stop pirating. It also didn't stop Sony making MP3 players either. What on earth did they think an MD player was going to do, launch nuclear missiles?

To the best of my knowledge the only differences between the Sharp SR40, SR50, SR75 was in the items that came with it and the colours. Some came with a rechargeable battery, some didn't, some came with a remote and some didn't. Sharp were in the habit of doing this, same thing applies to the MT range. So for service or operation purposes manuals for either SR50 or SR75 should suffice. The higher the number (40/50/75) the more you got with it and obviously the higher the price. I'm therefore guessing the SR40 was the budget model and didn't come with either rechargeable battery or a remote, although it will probably still have the required socket, as the remotes were available as an optional extra. I still have an absolutely pristine, complete and boxed SR50. I used to have an SR75 but unfortunately that gave up the ghost a few years ago. Hope it works for you when it arrives.

Looking back I was probably spoilt, my first minidisc was a Sony D-D40 deck. Oh the joy and convenience of being able to copy tracks from CD's at 4x the speed. Sheer bliss. Although that wasn't what I used it for in the beginning. I had a fair bit of music on singles that I didn't have on album, so my first job was to record all my singles to MD's. Then I could sit and listen to 20 or so singles in one go. Strangely enough, almost from day one, I always felt the MD part of the deck was better quality than the CD part. No particular reason, just a feeling. Lo and behold a few years down the line and the CD player packed up (wouldn't read a disc). I carried on using the MD section for quite a while afterwards, that never packed up yet it had probably had far more use.

As we all know the connection to Gracenote disappeared some months back and I for one don't expect it to return, particularly as Sony don't own Gracenote anymore. So here's a thought - Is there any good reason (either technical or legal) why Sonic Stage can't be configured to link to another database? There's loads of free software for CD ripping that does include links to databases so why not? Or am I missing something? At the moment I rip a CD (as WAV files) with another programme then import them into Sonic Stage. Ok so it may not be a big deal but it's a bit of a faff, lacks convenience and usually ends up taking me twice as long by the time I've finished putting the tracks in the right order! Anyone else's thoughts on this subject much appreciated. Thanks

Entirely agree. I've done a few like this without any major problems. Only thing is the time it takes. To allow for the initial recording, then any editing, adjusting levels, labelling tracks and tidying up suggest you allow roughly double the length of the MD. So if you've got a an hour interview allow 2 hours to get it all done.

No, there isn't a sensible way round it and, In my opinion, one of the biggest problems with LP modes and one of the reasons I usually stick with SP. More to the point WHY? What on earth were Sony thinking? I can fully understand why they wanted to prevent people from making endless digital copies of music but preventing you from erasing a track? Never figured out the thinking behind that. It's almost as though they were deliberately making things as awkward as possible.

Just wondered what others thought about this. My own experiments with LP4 were disastrous so I'm going to ignore that completely. But even LP2, where do I start. Reduction in sound quality - There is but whether it's noticeable varies from one person to another. Listening through some studio grade headphones (that are renowned for being clinical) LP2 recordings don't have the sense of air and space at the top end of the frequency range that SP recordings have. Having said that, whether or not there's a noticeable difference listening through some earbuds on the bus to work is a different thing entirely. Sonic Stage - You've only got to look through the postings on this forum to see the variety of difficulties people have with that. And now we've lost Gracenote as well making things more awkward. Then there's compatibility. The couple of LP2 discs that I have I can only play on about a third of my MD collection. Or am I the only one who still uses MD in the way it was originally designed i.e. as a replacement for the cassette? Everything (almost) recorded in real time in SP mode and always delighted with the results. Any comments?

Hi I suggest you don't use the analogue output from the MZ-G750 as you won't get a flat frequency response. Sony portables give a small amount of bass boost even with the bass boost switched off. It's only a couple of db but enough to be noticeable. A few years back I did some accurate tests which proved this. Incidentally Sharp and Panasonic portables however do give a flat response. This in turn gives a slightly clearer mid range but a less warm sound (IMO). As to what decks have an optical output and are LP compatible I have no idea so somebody else will have to answer that for you. Cheers

Hi, all of the Slade and Nazareth remasters on the Salvo label from Union Square Music have CD text. Whether or not others from the same label have it I don't know. Status Quo's remasters also have CD text, they're on Mercury/Universal. So ok if you like rock, not so good otherwise.

Couldn't agree more Slugbahr.

Depends on your interpretation of "better". A lot of things aren't better, they're just either more convenient, cheaper, more profit for the seller, etc, etc. Or even more important for some people - More Trendy! Something I wasn't even into when I was a teenager. I often have little disputes with my work colleagues, most of which just can't understand why I still use minidisc as my portable music source. I try to tell them it's all about sound quality but they don't get it. I do have an MP3 player but it rarely gets used, the sound is nowhere near as good as MD. Mind you, I can remember my Panasonic portable costing me close to £200, my MP3 player cost me £30. Says it all really.