NGY

Can you share the make and model? Would help to figure out, how to release the disc. There are many, many MD players/recorders - decks, walkmans, etc., with different mechanisms. Success of the MD to PC transfer: it depends on how that disc was originally recorded/formatted. If it was a legacy MD recording (ATRAC audio), only an MZ-RH1 can transfer the content from the disc to the PC. If it was formatted as a HiMD disc, a couple of HiMD models can do the transfer (audio or data). (If it was a data MD disc by any chance, it would need a dedicated data MD player/recorder.) File format on the PC: you may want to refer to the SonicStage manual for possibilites (many) - you would need that software anyhow, for the transfer.

Thanks for the link and the quote. Interesting reading, and makes sense. I could not notice a difference between the two 940-s though. True, I did not make any A-B switching back and forth listening tests, that would have probably given a good evidence. I will dig my photos out I took when compared the two units' internals.

Great job, congratulations. I am getting envy now :-) !

I wonder if anybody here has some comparison of the "regular" Euro/US/Japan vs. UK Sound/Edition (etc.) decks? I am really curious, whether it was just a marketing trick, or it does have to do with the sound. My observation is that the UK version 940 is actually missing a relatively large piece of circuitry (blank areas on the main board), that exists in the normal version. So the question is, it is the case of the "more with less"? Unfortunately, all my service guides discuss the regular versions only. If someone possess service manual(s) for the UK versions, I would love to read and compare them.

Sounds a bit long. It is not a problem from resistance point of view, however, long cables can pick up electromagnetic noise, like an aerial. What you can do though is to fold the cable in Z or Omega shape, making sure the folded parts cover each other precisely - in other words, wires won't get over a neighbouring one, to avoid interference. And no need for very sharp edges, to avoid cracks. In your case keeping the 125 mm distance beetween the two ends you first make a fold at ~100mm, then at ~75mm from the first one, making the Z. In the middle you will have triple layers, consuming about 225mm of the length, plus ~25-25mm-s at the ends Once this is done, you may want to tie it together with a piece of adhesive tape.

Yes, 0.5mm pitch 50 pin can make it in a 1mm pitch 25 pin socket. I found this, but looks tooo long: here. But that guy has other width/length, may be worth asking. What is the length of your cable, Chris? I can also check my spares box. And whether or not is it an inverted cable (contacts on one end are on the back side of the ribbon).

That's right - seems both edges of the cable are damaged. Yes, NC stands for "not connected".

I took a look at the schematic. The leftmost (topmost on the second photo) pin is for the -36V, that gives the cathode a negative charge (heating AC is delivered on pins 5 and 6). The Rec LED is driven from pin 24 (second from other end).

Yes, this cable looks broken, and most probably not only the two left lines - see how the whole thing is wrinkled. Bad handling for sure, for several times. If you tell me which connector it is, I can check, whether or not it was the cause for the dark display. And such a cable you can replace yourself easily. New cables are available on ebay for example. Just look for the proper pitch (inches or millimeters beetwen two lines), if you don't find a cable with the exact number of lines, buy a wider one, and cut the excess wires using a pair of scissors. (There is a method of repairing such a broken cable, but it is kinda time consuming, plus requires thorough attention and an easy hand)

That dark spot is all right. It is there on nearly all VFD-s - see my second photo above. Cathode filaments are OK, this is good news. You may need to check the cathode voltage, and the VFD controller chip, whether or not it gets the proper supply voltages and signals (latter one would require an oscilloscope though). If you don't feel comfortable with such measurements, I would suggest to stop here, and take the unit to a service. Without much experience, even a test tip put to a wrong position (say, accidentally shorting two pins) can cause further damage to the unit. But one thing you can do without big risk: if you have a DMM, set it to AC Voltage, and measure the voltage across the VFD cathode, i.e., on your photo, the leftmost and the rightmost pins of the display. Those are both double pins, that means you can touch either one of a pair, but the best way is to point your probes between the twin pins, that can give you a relaxed, firm position to do the voltage check. If you measure something like 3...5 Volts (AC), then the circuitry that drives the cathode is OK.

If you mean the brown stain around the pins of CN751, that is most probably some residue of the soldering flux (rosin). Not a problem normally. How strong is your electronics vein? There are some test points that can be checked with a DMM, to see where the signal is lost. But first, how about your display's cathode filaments?

Ha. I just sold my "UK Sound" 940 two weeks ago. Had two 940 anyhow, so one had to go to release some play budget. I sold it locally for ~130€, with an RM-D10M remote. (I still have a very nice 930, not a UK Edition though. PM me for detiails, if interested.)

What exactly is the problem with the display? Is it completely dark? Several things can happen. The quickest checks, that don't need much testing gear: - check if all those flat cables are seated properly - check for any electronic components that look burnt , also, for dark brown or black spots/stains on the PCBs - check if those tiny cathode filaments inside the VFD are not broken. Two photos below are from different models, but give you the idea The left one shows intact filaments, the one on the right shows the topmost filament broken: .

I wish I could reach him. Tried several times, on several channels, no reply. I would need a good 530 BD board - he probably has one pulled off.

PhilippeC is right, it should fit. A couple of notes though, you might want to consider: - there were at least three variants of the KMS-260. While all those are pin compatible and share the same frame (therefore all three would fit mechanically and electronically the vast majority of the Sony MD decks), the laser power is different, and the deck must be set up accordingly - either way, once you replace the OP, for proper settings (for the sake of longer laser lifetime) an LPM is necessary, as well as a test jig, to measure the IOP. These are both very sensitive values, and a wrong or loose setting can kill the laser in a relatively short time. (Not mentioning that the deck may not be able to read, write, or both, if settings are way out.)

I have finally bought an RM-D21M. Would have never expected one popping up here on home soil (my W1 might well be the only one in the country, but certainly there are not many), then it happened by chance, and I almost overlooked it. Remote cost ~19€ that I think is a fair price for such a rare item. With that, this thread is now --- SOLVED ---. Thanks to everyone.

It depends on the final goal. This multiplexer IC (and the encoder switch) can handle four channels. As one position is currently used for "mute", that can be converted to an optical input. One coaxial input can be replaced by an optical receiver quite easily, also, adding an extra optical output (or more) is not a big trouble. These would be relatively small additions/changes to the original circuit/board. However, if two or more additional optical inputs are needed, besides the existing coaxial channels, that would be a different circuit. It is certainly doable with discrete logic ICs, but it would probably make better sense to build the new circuit around a microcontroller and a few push buttons instead. (And adding IR remote control is much easier, than to the current device.) As for building one: there are PCB making services available, so no hassle eith etching, drilling, etc. at home. Some level of soldering skills is certainly necessary, but other than that it is a pretty easy assembling task. ICs are in sockets, and the passive components are not that destructable, even for a hand without practice.

Am I? I am very sorry, if you misunderstood what I wrote. Where did I take anything out of context and misread?

We cannot really compare ATRAC and FLAC, a lossy and a lossless format. "Superiority" of ATRAC shows only on the playback side (like 20 bit oversampling etc.), while FLAC "simply" plays back the original audio - but preserves every single bit of it during encoding.

Because ATRAC is not compressed. It is encoded.

Well, in the case of FLAC, it is very close to the zip/unzip idea. WAV is "compressed" to FLAC without throwing away any data, and the exact same WAV can be restored. The FLAC file is resonably smaller, than the original WAV file.

I have an MZ-R90, that had similarly corroded battery contacts. I took the contacts off of the player, using a fine bronze bush I removed the loose particles of the oxides and the remainings of the leaked battery juice, then dipped the contacts into 5% HCl acid (regular household stuff for cleaning) for about a minute. The acid removed the remainig oxides from the copper contacts. Sadly, the original protective plating was already gone, and although after this cleaning the player worked OK, the copper contacts would oxidize again when exposed to air. Therefore, to "imitate" this plating, I tinned the contacts with a soldering iron. The player thanks very much. I know this is a kind of tinkering, but postponed the useful life of the player. (I think I took a couple of photos of this "repair", if I find them, I post them here.)

You probably did not have the OP in proper parking position - see this discussion>> here <<. Just a few - unintentional - turns of the gears at the back of the drive during disassembling/reassembling can slightly move the OP out and open the microswitch. The MDM7 mechanism family seems to be sensitive to this.

My understanding is that it is rather decoding than "uncompressing", when it comes to playback. And it is done by the codec of the given format. When "compressing" and audio file, it is actually encoding it (again, by that codec), and in case of certain formats this encoding can reduce the actual file size compared to the original wav audio - either lossy or lossless way, depending on the format. FLAC encoding is lossless, mp3 and ATRAC are lossy.

Nobody? Nah... Anyhow, back to the original thread: I have solved half of my remote needs: I bought an RM-D49M finally. It cost 62 pounds - OK, I got some extras with it: an MDS-JB940QS with manual :-) . But I am still after an RM-22M RM-D21M - let me know, if you have one for sale. I just figured out, that I also have an RM-D37M (for the MXD-D3), should anyone need that for a swap or trade in. [UPDATE: model name corrected]