BearBoy

I've got an MZ-N910 that makes a bit of a racket when the sled is moving any distance. It's generally fine if you play tracks through in order but if you try to skip from track 1 to track 15, for example, it makes a fairly unpleasant screeching sound. So, I think I need to lubricate the sled mechanism? I've ordered a small tin of Dow Corning Molykote EM-30L Synthetic Grease from eBay, which was recommended by @kgallen in another thread, and am currently trying to work out where I need to apply it. Ideally, I'd like to be able to do this with dissembling the device. Looking at the Service Manual, is it the screw labelled 161 (Screw Service Assy, Lead) in the diagram below to which I would need to apply the grease? I can see this screw (161) through the door opening and I think I would be able to apply grease to it without taking anything apart but not sure if this is the right part to lubricate or whether there is anything else I would also need to grease. Anyone got any experience with doing this?

Yeah, I really don't fancy my chances of getting it back together again if I tried to dissemble it. Everything's so tiny compared to working on a deck. I got a bit annoyed with it yesterday 🤦‍♂️ and gave the jog dial a pretty vigorous work out and it seems to have improved a fair bit 🤣 I think I'll just keep playing with it for a while longer and see how things pan out.

So, I got a new (to me) MZ-R909. Very nice condition and everything seems to function correctly with the exception of a slightly erratic jog dial. It kind of works, some of the time, but often will jump forward/backwards a bit instead of moving one step forward/back and when you push it in to "enter" it suddenly shoots forward or backward in the menus so you enter the wrong one. I can navigate things using the remote or the play/pause/stop/rew/ff button on the recorder (once I've managed to get into the menu using the jog dial) but it's a bit frustrating. Anyone encountered anything similar and managed to fix it? Not sure if the recorder just hasn't been used in years and might "loosen up" with a bit of use. Or if there's any way of getting some contact cleaner into the jog dial somehow.

Good to hear you've got it all sorted 🙂 And I'm sure what you've discovered along the way will help other people faced with a similar issue in the future.

Thanks, again, for the reply @asivery. I might have a play with that test version if it works with any of my devices 🙂

Many thanks for the explanation @asivery. One of the results of the different containers/file types is that WMD doesn't seem to recognise the SP .aea files so you can't rip them from one MiniDisc and then copy them back to another without do some sort of file conversion. Unless I'm missing something obvious? The other thing we noticed was that when you rip LP2 tracks from a MiniDisc and then try to copy them over to another one, they get added to the new MD in reverse order. e.g. I ripped some LP2 tracks from a MiniDisc and it created a series of .wav files on my PC: 1. LP_Song title one.wav 2. LP_Song title two.wav 3. LP_Song title three.wav etc When I then transferred these files back to a blank MiniDisc, however, the track order on the new MD was reversed: 3. LP_Song title three.wav 2. LP_Song title two.wav 1. LP_Song title one.wav I've never experienced this track order reversal when copying files from PC to MiniDisc using WMD before and the tracks show in the correct order prior to copying when I click "Show Tracks" in the Upload Settings box. I've got the same CD ripped on my PC via iTunes as .m4a files. When I selected those files as a group, they transferred across to a MiniDisc in the correct order. You can re-order them in WMD (so they show in reverse order in WMD but copy to disc in the correct order) as part of the transfer process but just wondered why it happens. Any ideas?

Was about to say the same thing. I experienced an issue following a belt change where one of my decks (can't remember off the top of my head whether it was an MDS-JB980 or MDS-JB940) was clicking twice when connected to power but was otherwise dead. I re-seated the ribbon cables and, to my relief, it came back to life. Worth a try if you've not already done this? Edit: just read back and saw you'd already tried this. Sorry.

Some sort of Bluetooth transmitter that connected like the screw in AA battery compartments would be a great idea!

Haha 😂 Maybe the video will help?

Didn't you buy one of those PC Link connectors at one point @kgallen? Or am I mixing it up with something else?

Yeah, fingers crossed it is included.

Hmm. Did the seller advertise it as a 480? They tend to command a premium for the MDM-7S1A.

Sounds like a great idea @DigiTalk. Sadly far beyond my skills to build 🙁 I keep meaning to pick up a compact Bluetooth transmitter so that I could use my Minidisc players with wireless headphones but would be reliant on using either the remote or the controls on the player itself. Wouldn't surprise me if someone manages to work something out though. It's amazing the various things people have been developing for MiniDisc over the past couple of years.

This popped up in my YouTube feed today. Although I'd heard of it, I didn't know anything about M-Crew / PC Link. Just thought it might be of interest to people here.

@asivery - just wondered if you could shed some light on the download functionality of Web MiniDisc Pro (i.e. transfer of tracks from MD to PC) please. A user on a different forum mentioned they had used Web MiniDisc Pro to transfer some music to their PC and it had come across as .wav files, rather than the .aea files I get when I use it. I wondered if the difference was because they were transferring LP2 tracks and mine were all SP or whether the application had been updated. I did a quick test by recording a song from CD to MiniDisc three times: once as SP, once as LP2 and once as LP4 (using optical connection into an MDS-JB980, not via NetMD). I then transferred them from the MiniDisc to my PC using Web MiniDisc Pro and an MZ-N910: The SP track came across as a .aea file (7.58MB) The LP2 track came across as a .wav file (3.43MB / 132kbps) The LP4 track came across as a .wav file (1.72MB / 66kbps) Looking at the media files in VLC, the SP track is marked as ATRAC 1 and the two MDLP tracks as ATRAC 3 (as you would expect). They are all 32bits/44.1kHz. Just wondered why there is a difference in file type (.aea v .wav) between the SP and MDLP tracks?

Looks like you might be able to get the cable from here: https://sony.encompass.com/model/SONCMTPX7 It says they won't export to UK but you might be able to get one where you are?

Nice looking device. Don't think I've ever seen one with such a large screen. There are some pictures on the MiniDisc Wiki: https://www.minidisc.wiki/equipment/sony/bookshelf/cmt-px7 I seem to remember Techmoan mentioning issues with importing speakers from Japan due to restrictions in shipping magnets or something. Can't remember which video it was now though. Also not sure if it was a UK issue or a Japanese issue. So not much help 🤦‍♂️

Good to see you back @M1JWR 🙂 Look forward to hearing about how you get on with fixing the 480.

Ah, how frustrating! Good luck with the lower profile encoder. Let us know whether that component does the job as I am sure the information will be very useful for other people facing a similar issue.

Hi Michael. Not sure if this is much help but there's one on eBay.co.uk at the moment. Having said that, it's £65 and I'm not sure if they'd ship to the USA? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285058707492

Nice clean, simple design. I like those. Don't recall blank MiniDiscs without cases being a thing in the UK. Long time ago though so I might be completely wrong.

We’re a terrible influence on each other 🤣

Ooh. Looks exciting. Planning on sharing some pictures of the contents?

And they arrived from Japan this morning. Time to get recording 🙂

Thanks for the information, @Richard. I'm not really au fait with Japanese pop music tbh (pretty much limited to Cibo Matto, Shonen Knife and Pizzicato Five as far as my record collection goes) but look forward to seeing your post when you get a chance to finish it 🙂