Another MD fanatic

I had a similar problem (but the other way round) with a Sharp MT170. It would work fine when it was laying down flat but as soon as I stood it up the disc would skip and jump all over the place. Which meant it was fine at home lying on kitchen table but I couldn't carry it about in my pocket. I'm afraid I never sorted the problem though, once I realised how cheaply I could get another one I decided it wasn't really worth bothering about. You should be able to pick up another R500 pretty cheap. I suppose your biggest problem might be the postage. I don't know how common the R500 was in the USA and if you get one from the UK it might cost more to post it than the actual player costs. Still, there's always other similar models to consider if location is a problem.

Must admit I don't bother using the remotes very often but when I do I find it mildly amusing to see some spotty faced teenager across the bus looking out the corner of his eye and obviously thinking "what's that, what's it connected to", especially if I'm using one with a backlight. On a more serious note there are one or two models where you haven't got much choice. I think the Sharp MT290 is one that doesn't have the bass boost button on the body of the MD player.

Yes, as said before, follow what sounds good. I have some kit that without doubt gives a more accurate sound (semi-pro gear) but it certainly doesn't sound as "nice" as my minidiscs. Never mind about specs, facts, figures and what other people might say - trust your ears. After all you're the one listening to it. By the way, although you can't edit NetMD tracks on an MD deck you can alter titles. I noticed a couple of spelling mistakes on one of my NetMD discs and it was no problem to correct them on my JE480. And I'm curious, a Flash Walkman that allows ATRAC recording? Which model is that?

Fascinating project. Wonder when was the last time anything was released on a pre-recorded reel to reel tape? One thing puzzles me, why the VHS? Should have included a wax cylinder instead.

I remember puzzling over this myself many years ago. I came to the conclusion a rechargeable isn't going to last very long. Could it be that the life between charges would be so short as to be embarrassing to the manufacturer? I don't see how a NiCad or NiMh could do any actual harm, after all it's a lower voltage to begin with, 1.2v as opposed to 1.5v. Of course there may be an electronics technician out there that knows more than I do about it.

You don't need another programme to tag the MP3 files. When you use Audacity to export MP3's a box comes up for each file where you can input the title, artist, album, etc. If you've only got one album to do it's probably just as easy to do it this way.

I always used to use Sharp portables, MT20 & SR75 to be precise, and I used to swear by them. That was until I got a Sony MZ R700. Without doubt the R700 has a more detailed sound, there are definitely bits of low level detail that I can hear more prominently. Of course whether or not this would be noticeable listening through some earbuds while on the bus to work is debateable. But I do think it's sad that as the technical specs and features of most MD's increased over the years the build quality decreased.

The short answer, (imo) is Yes. But you need to think about what you want to achieve. Do you need absolute top notch quality? Sorry if that sounds a silly question but put it this way, if you're going to be listening to the discs on high end gear with top quality headphones/speakers then yes, obviously go for the best. If on the other hand you're only going to be using a portable on the bus to work LP2 will be perfectly adequate! Let's face it, there are millions of people out there listening to 128kb MP3's on their phones and any minidisc is going to be better than that. Probably best thing to do is one disc of each, one done in real time with optical cable and one done through SS. Then compare them to see if you can tell any difference. After all, you're the one who's going to be listening to them.

I've sent you a PM.

You can change the bit rate of the exported file in Audacity. When you go in to select the type of file you want to export (i.e WAV, MP3, etc) there is a button in the bottom right hand corner labelled "options". Click on that and it gives you a range of bitrates from 8kb all the way up to 320kb, although why anyone would want to go as low as 8kb is beyond me. Just make sure you've selected "MP3" before you change the bitrate. However, I suspect your problems are more to do with the input. This was exactly the problem I had with my own laptop until I got things sorted, an input only designed for a mic is hardly going to be top notch hi-fi standard. I suggest you have a look at a Behringer UCA202 or UCA222 audio interface. You just connect your MD to the little box then plug the box directly into a USB port. The 202 model is cheaper but I'm not sure what the differences are between the two, might be negligible. Bear in mind there will have been losses when the original material was recorded to MD and you will be introducing more losses when you convert to MP3 so don't expect miracles. Having said that there is no reason why you shouldn't get perfectly acceptable results. Shout up if I can be of any further assistance. I've been using Audacity for a few years now and I know it has a few quirks that can baffle you if you're not used to it. Thanks, Steve

If this annoying "TrProt" is ignored by the MXD-D40 and on the JE640 can I assume the JE440 and JB940 will also ignore it?

Yes I agree with Danny, the things you make or have made always look so perfect. I'm interested, are there many MiniDisc users still in Korea?

Unfortunately most charity shops these days (or certainly the major ones) have somebody knowledgeable picking through stuff like vinyl records, CD's etc. Anything that appears to be worth a bit then gets listed on Ebay. You might find something in a small, local, independent charity shop or occasionally stuff turns up at car boots. There's a lot of luck involved. I believe there was a thread some time ago discussing pre-recorded MD's and which Atrac version was used. I've got a pre-recorded copy of Meat Loaf's Bat Out Of Hell album and I must admit the sound quality is nowhere near that of the CD. I haven't actually tried this but I reckon if I copied the CD onto a blank MD using my deck (in SP mode) the copy would sound better than the pre-recorded one.

As Punkrockaddict says, is there a particular reason you need Hi-MD? Or is it just because the RH1 looks nice? I suggest you think long and hard about this before committing to buying anything. To buy an RH1 you will need pretty deep pockets. 1Gb discs are also known to fetch silly money although of course you can still use standard discs. If it's capacity you're bothered about bear in mind an ordinary NetMD in LP2 mode will give approx. two and a half hours of music on one disc and still retain perfectly good sound quality. And welcome to the forum. There's usually somebody that can answer the majority of questions that come up, and there are plenty that are more knowledgeable than myself, especially regarding Hi-MD. Good luck

By all means enquire about repairs but to be honest it is unlikely to be economically viable. The Sharp 702 is a fairly common model and doesn't usually fetch excessively high prices so you will probably be able to get another (or even two or three) for the price of having your existing one repaired, Don't want to spoil anyone's dreams here, just being realistic. I think the above applies to a large number of machines, not just the Sharp 702.

Hi everyone. Anyone out there got a user manual for the Denon M30? Doesn't need to be original, tatty photocopy or anything else will do as long as it's in English. I want it to use not as a collectors piece. I can only find one on the net and it's in Japanese. I've tried three different lots of software to translate it and they've just made a mess of it (despite all three claiming to translate PDF files and retain the original formatting - they don't). I've got the Japanese version saved just on the off chance anybody can recommend some software that will do the job properly. Thanks

Ok then, this is one for all you clever hackers out there. The one thing about Net MD's that I find a bit of a pain is having to connect back to the PC just to delete one track, or to change the running order of the tracks. Can I assume there's no way around this? Thanks

Hi again, bit more info. The mic sensitivity thing may be an issue. Generally speaking the MD models that only took an AA battery usually tended to be at the budget end of the spectrum, the higher spec models with more features all used gumsticks (as far as I know). You can get new NiMH batteries but the quality appears to be a bit hit and miss. There are some people on this forum that have reported good NiMH batteries and there are those that will say just the opposite. However, you might consider Sony MZ-R700. It's an LP model, takes AA batt & has a mic input. No mic sensitivity but you can adjust the recording level manually. But note you can only change the recording level while in the rec pause mode, you can't change it "on the fly". The R700 is easy to come by and fairly cheap but also note this model came with a remote when new but this is often missing. Two others to consider are the Sharp MT290, cheap and cheerful, all plastic and doesn't look particularly pretty. With this one you can change the level while recording though. Again, this came with a remote. Then there's the Sharp DR420. This is actually a NET MD and as such would normally be more expensive than the previous two models. But it has three mic recording levels, "auto hi", "auto lo" or manual. Note the cheaper models in these ranges (MT270 and DR400/410 models) don't have a mic input. If you go for the Sony make sure you activate the "end search", especially if you're out recording a gig. Otherwise you could record the first set then record over it when you came to the second set. A great Sony bugbear as far as I'm concerned. The two Sharp models don't suffer from this. Finally one thing I forgot to mention in my previous post. Although any LP model will play the discs you originally created with a NET MD that is all you can do, listen to them. You will not be able to do any editing such as erasing an odd track. Cheers

Hi, no you don't need a NetMD just to play back your existing discs. Any player that has the LP function will play them back. As regards which machines to go for a lot of it is down to personal choice. For the purpose of convenience I personally always go for the ones that run from a standard AA battery fitted inside the body of the player, although this does limit your choice somewhat. Having said that most of the other models that take a "gumstick" battery have the option to fit an external case which houses an AA battery, just make sure the case comes with the player. They're not always easy to come by as a separate item. No idea about the mic sensitivity thing but I'm sure somebody on here will advise you. Good luck.

I've been reading this thread just out of interest really and there's one thing that puzzles me. That is, why is this problem affecting some users but not others? I downloaded SonicStage Ultimate from this sight together with the drivers around Christmas 2012. My laptop is running 64 bit Windows 7, and I get all Windows updates automatically yet I have never experienced any problems with SonicStage. If anyone would like me to check any of the settings, configuration, etc, on my laptop shout up. Perhaps if we can pinpoint some fundamental differences somewhere you may be on the right path to a fix.

I've been reading a few articles recently about TOC cloning so I decided to give it a go. I had a handful of discs that I'd erased some time ago ready for using again at some point so I had nothing to lose, it was just an experiment to see how successful (or not) the operation would be. So following some guidelines elsewhere on this site I used a Sharp MT20. I'm pleased to say it was really quick and easy once I'd recorded a "blank" disc. The results however were a bit mixed. A couple of discs that had only ever been recorded on once turned out perfect, only had to divide up the tracks. But a few other discs that had been used a number of times, and been subjected to a degree of editing, resulted in a bit of a mess. Half a song here, another bit of a song there, etc, with just a few songs surviving intact. Also doesn't work so well if you've got different recording modes on the same disc. I generally stick to SP mode but one of the discs had some mono tracks on it. Once cloned the mono tracks played back at double speed! So overall I think it's worth a try if you really want to rescue something, just be aware of the potential pitfalls.

Just read your headphone reviews MDietrich, very interesting. I've heard the Momentums and I wasn't really that impressed. They came across as having a very "nice" sound, possibly tuned to appeal to the masses and somehow justify the price? But they certainly don't have an accurate, detailed sound. Now I can see why, looking at the graph the Momentum's have an awful lot of roll-off at the top end. I also noted your comments about the earcups being too small, couldn't agree more. I'm currently using some Shure SRH440's which I know aren't everyone's cup of tea but there's loads of top end detail which I like. Seems the majority of headphones these days have rolled off top ends, I'd be interested to hear about any others apart from Shure that keep the high notes (full size, closed back). As portable MD's have a bass boost function you can always compensate a little if your headphones are a bit light in the bass department but if the treble is lacking you're more or less stuck with it.

I've done it and been pretty pleased with the results. I have one of these little boxes that plugs into a USB port and gives an optical output. Recorded in SP mode I can't say I've had any problems or heard any audible artifacts. Must admit I've never tried it with LP2 mode. As I'm one of those people that likes to play around and experiment with things (just for the hell of it sometimes) I've also tried it the other way round, an SP mode MD recorded to my PC then converted to MP3. I was far less impressed with the results this gave even though I converted at 320kbit/sec. Although there still weren't any nasty unwanted noises the overall sound was dull and flat compared to the original MD, as though it had lost it's sparkle. There was definitely some low level, high frequency detail missing. So from my own tests (and in my opinion) MP3 to MD = OK, MD to MP3 = not OK.

This is just curiosity at the moment. Anybody out there ever bothered playing around with Atrac CDs? If so what did you think? How did sound quality compare with MD? What bitrate did you use and which player did you use to play the discs back? All comments welcome. Thanks

Will you be using them while travelling around or are they for use at home? This will make a big difference to what's suitable and what isn't.