Hello. New to the forum but pleased to see there is still an active MiniDisc community out there. I first got in to MiniDisc back in 1997 when I bought an MDS-JE500 (which is still going) and an MZ-E30 (which was sadly stolen) and was a big fan of the format until finally succumbing to the lure of the iPod's greater storage around 2005/2006. I was a somewhat reluctant convert to the iPod, as I preferred the sound quality of my MiniDiscs, but convenience won out. Anyway, following a recent house move I have finally got my players and discs back out of storage and have been having a nostalgic play around with them. Was pleasantly surprised to discover, amongst the recordings from my CD collection, a number of radio shows and recordings of various bands I had been in. After my MZ-E30 was stolen, I replaced it with an MZ-E501, which works fine but the original battery only seems to hold enough charge for about 10 minutes of playback. I am pretty sure I have the external battery case somewhere but impatience got the better of me and I ordered a Vapex replacement for my Sony NH-14WM. It arrived yesterday and, so far at least, seems to work pretty well. My MDS-JE500 deck also appears to be fine although I have not tried to make any recordings on it as yet. Anyway, to my questions (sorry for the rambling). 1) I want to transfer my original recordings (not those made from CDs) to my PC so that I have a back up and can burn them to CDs etc if I want to. My MiniDisc equipment predates NetMD so I was intending to copy them digitally via my Focusrite audio interface. My interface only has an coaxial input so I would need to use a convertor to convert the MDS-JE500's optical output to coax. Am I likely to run in to any issues with doing this? I was specifically thinking about SCMS related issues as I seem to recall having problems copying MiniDiscs to a Boss digital multitracker about 15 years ago. Also, what does my MDS-JE500 output through the optical out? Is it PCM 16/44,1? 2) Although impressed at the reliability of my MiniDisc equipment, I did start thinking about future proofing and whether it might be an idea to purchase a "spare" deck in case my MDS-JE500 ever broke down (I have an MZ-E300 in a box somewhere in case my MZ-E501 packed up but I am more worried about keeping an operational deck tbh). I have been looking at a few of the Sony QS MiniDisc decks on eBay (MDS-JB9XXs). The MDS-JB980 seems to attract the higher prices (presumably due to its NetMD capabilities?) but, if I am really only looking for a device to playback SP discs recorded on my MDS-JE500, does the MDS-JB980 really offer anything over the 940/930/920? I notice on minidisc.org that they have differing versions of ATRAC but am not 100% sure how this relates back to playback of my existing discs. Also, given that my laptop is running Windows 8.1, would I be likely to have any joy with getting any of the NetMD functionality of the JB980 to work? Sorry for the epic first post; I will try to be a little more succinct in future!
