Another MD fanatic

Never ceases to amaze me how much trouble some people will go to (and cause) for so little financial reward. I mean, not only must it have taken considerable time to assemble this pile of junk but then the seller had to advertise it, then once sold package it up and take it to the post office. And all for what? In my opinion pointless, absolutely pointless.

Since posting this question a couple of months ago I've done quite a lot of testing. Turned out the only discs that skipped were a few second hand ones of unknown origin. I think there could be a moral to this story!! Steve

Let's assume you record something on one machine then you play it back on another machine and the disc skips. Is the fault most likely to be with 1) the machine used for the recording, 2) the machine used for playback, or 3) the disc itself? Just wondering if there's any generalisation or common cause or am I going to have to experiment with a multitude of different combinations in order to pinpoint the fault (as I suspect). Thanks, Steve

Hi. If the files on your PC are already in MP3 format convert them to WAV files first and go from there. Sonic Stage doesn't appear to make a very good job of converting directly from MP3 to ATRAC. Also I'm thinking if your MP3's are only 128kbs there will already have been noticeable losses from the originals. To then convert to LP2 (either with or without converting to WAV) may be a bit too much. The only thing to do is to try it out and decide for yourself if the sound is good enough. If the time issue is a major consideration fair enough, carry on, but you may wish to consider the following: I have a little external box that plugs into a USB port and gives an Optical output. Then I connect the Toslink cable and record just like I would from a CD player. Dead simple. Obviously it limits you to doing it in real time and you've also got to do the titling manually but I'm willing to bet the sound quality is superior to using any other method. Be interesting to hear how you get on. Steve

I've always been under the impression that the DAC's built into MD decks are on the whole pretty damn good. I too have never heard of MD users using an external DAC but I know there are a lot of computer users that use an MD as an external DAC. So that should say somthing.

I have the 701 model (amongst others) and I also find Sharp models generally to be more convenient to use, due to bass boost and stereo/mono select being controlled by buttons on the front rather than buried in menus. Regarding frequency response last year I did some accurate comparisons. With bass boost turned off all my Sharp MD's gave a more or less flat response, my Sony one's did not. The Sony models all had a small amount of bass boost present even with the function turned off. My Panasonic MR220 also gave a flat response as did my JE480 deck (which you would expect). Whether or not this applies across the range I don't know as I only have about a dozen or so to compare. Steve

Thank you both for your comments. I thought all along the 530 was probably a better machine which Jim has confirmed. At the moment I'm still deliberating but depending on how the finances go over the next month or so I might just say "sod it" and go for a 930. Thanks again, Steve

Over the last few months I've been keeping a few notes of the typical going rates for a number of MD decks (I'm looking to buy, not sell) and one thing is puzzling me. Looking at Ebay (UK) I've noticed the JE520's usually go for better prices and attract far more bidders than the JE530 model. I know that Sony narrowed down the remote for the 530 but apart from that, on face value at least, I wouldn't have thought there was that much difference between the two. And of course the 530 is slightly newer. Anyone out there know something I don't? Thanks, Steve (not entirely a novice, had MD's for 12 years). And remember, a cassette deck is a piece of audio equipment, a minidisc is a piece of precision audio equipment. And an MP3 player is a disposable little toy!

Apologies for the delay in responding, been having some other (unrelated) issues with my PC. Anyway, all done and works fine. Took me two attempts, had to help it along and tell it what to do, mostly down to Windows not being as clever as it thinks it is! So I can quite confidently say that the AM-NX9 does work ok with 64bit Windows 7. Happy to assist if anyone else is having problems with this. Thanks for your help and assistance. Steve

I'm new to this forum so firstly hello to you all and apologies if I've posted this in the wrong place (I often do). Just been looking at your list of drivers for 64bit Windows 7 and I notice the Aiwa NX1 is on the list. Is this also suitable for the NX9? If not - HELP!! Thank you for your time