M1JWR

ive had md since 99/2000 , still got the md gear, i come back to it from time to time, it can spend months and not get looked at. back then i moved on from cassette tc k611s, dont get me wrong tapes can sound fantastic but you need good gear and good tapes. i found md gave great sound for a compressed format, its very clever, its much easier to record to etc than cassette. suppose md decks have better sound than what you may think because they have very good dacs in them, especially the higher end ones. addiction in my case, not sure but i have a friend that has 22 cassette decks sony es, naks etc and loadsa unused and used chrome/metal tapes. now thats an addiction !!!

well look at that, somebody new visits the site and stumbles on a possible cure looks like c13 is not always the laser, if it does c13 all the time then probably laser if ribbon cable suspect just to say they can get broken if handled roughly then you are sunk then you are looking for a donor just for the cable.

anyway i will get back to the 470 experiment md player in the near future i think its just connectivity probably with the 940 drive sitting for years ive still got a couple of jobs to do to the 940 they will need a soldering iron to sort i am quite compliant with one of those, not on those microbe bits you get nowadays its ok its got nowt to do with playback or record its just that two of the opticals have had a knock over the years, there is no damage to main pcb they have been removed prior so i will replace them when replacements arrive, there is 1 in and 1 out affected they are the older type with trianular locating lugs modern variety have just two lugs, as optical plugs are either rx or tx 1 of each was required. dont need to remove main board as with back panel off there is plenty of room for the iron.

yeah just had a problem with that on the 470, it went into the constant toc writing stage, it would probably do that forever so off with the mains, there are two, looking from the back broad ish whits slots, when its off give the broader one a wee and i mean wee push first the stuck md will go towards out for about quarter inch then give the outside one a wee push keep going till disc is all the way out no harm done as i switched on and put disc back in only difference is the recorded track the toc hasent wrote isent there anymore it played the other two tracks normally still must be some crud on that drive connections, somewhere down the line i will give connecting block a smite of switch cleaner or ipa and see if that helps dosent help that 530 you have in that respect i suppose

yep, the 470 has just recorded from vinyl we will put it down to age and oxidisation forgot to say the 940 is not a uk tuned model if that makes any difference

did it still have a disc inside, ive had that problem before

it was last night when i did the swap so when test the 940 played 4 of the 17 discs i put in that would not previously including the californication one thats shop soiled. havent tested with the other 13 yet. includes 2 maxell golds and a sharp disc they played no problem this time, a lot of my discs were recorded 20 years ago from vinyl with the 930 deck i had then in sp fast foreward to now, i have put it back on, put the sharp disc in and away she went no problem i will soon test the 470 and do a recording from vinyl and report back

Hi i can now report the results of the drive swap as per kevins recomendation i retained the jb gromets and screws i am happy to say the 940 is playing all discs, it does now also record from analogue, as in the recent past it only showed up on vu meters and no sound actually recorded, however it did previously record from cd player direct via coaxial input. however there is a suprise here the 470 with the 940's drive in it also plays all discs, so the 470 still lives !!! wonder if all that was wrong was slightly iffy connections on ribbon cables into drive itself, we will never know. cheers guys i have one more job to do before it can be put into front line service. its possibly typical of a machine thats been out of action for a long time as many will be hmmm what now to do with the 470, now i know the drive is ok regards john

ok, will do the swap over the weekend and report back when complete

hi yes i did try some laser adjustments on the jb it was originally at 10, i tried it 2 steps either way, no change, on the jb there are the two ribbon cables and two what i would call earth straps, the 470 has only one, the screw hole is there for another, i did not see any flying lead on either, not shure i know what you mean by that, i take it thats these earth straps, they screw onto the drive and clip onto the chassis, are the mounting bushes the rubber parts where the four main screws go. my minidisc history goes back 20 years when i moved on from tape and bought a new jb930, several years later i sold the 930 and bought a nice 980 for £100, those were the days it seems, you cant get those for that now, it was for net md at the time, i still have the 980, at around the same time i also bought a mint mzr 909 for £20, also bought heaps of unused discs, around that time 2007'ish it was boom time if you wanted any md releated gear.

i have a mds jb940 that has a weak laser, well thats what i suspect as it will play some discs and not others, its not disc make spacific, or how the disc is recorded eg sp or mdlp, it just dosent like some discs, i have 1 shop soiled one that i bought 20 years ago new, californication by the chilli peppers, it wont play that it gives c13, the ones it will play, it does each time and the ones it dosent well no cigar every time, i did clean the laser gently and have replaced the belt. all discs play no problem in the other player which i will get onto, i realise that replacing the laser is not easy, the other is a mds je470, i know they have the same disc drive, after some reading in the two service manuals, i checked the pin outs on both players to see if the bd board connections are compatable, in the service manuals the pin outs do the same exept they are numbered opposite way round, i would like to swap disc drives as the 940 is far the better machine, and i will experiment with the 470 at a later date, has anybody done this swap or encountered any issues doing so. regards john