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kgallen

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Everything posted by kgallen

  1. Here are the listings for various MD drives I can see on Ali Express, not necessarily as described as discussed above. The first is the one I ordered. Clearly some of the other listings are not what they say if the photos are correct. £74.21 | Original new KMS-262A KMS-262B KMS-262E KMS-261A KMS-261E KMS261A KMS-261 KMS261E KMS261 Laser lens for SONY MD https://a.aliexpress.com/_mq1LdVy I don’t believe this is really an MDM-7S2A: £77.64 | Brand new and original MDM-7S2A MDM7S2A KMS-262A KMS262A md laser lens for MDS-JE480 MDM-7S2A player https://a.aliexpress.com/_m0Qg9KO £78.18 | Original new MDM-5A completely mechanism for MDS JE500 - MDS JE510 - MDS JB920 MD player https://a.aliexpress.com/_mNukII2 From the pictures this looks like an MDM-5A (ATRAC1 4.5), it’s definitely not an MDM-7 series because they aren’t all metal (even in Pro decks): £93.44 | Original new KMS-260A KMS-260E KMS260A KMS-260 KMS260E KMS260 Laser lens for MDSJE480 SONY MD https://a.aliexpress.com/_mN7Ii50 Possible legit laser plus OWH? £50.43 | Original new KMS-262E KMS-262 MD Laser lens with Recording head https://a.aliexpress.com/_mL7XRPs
  2. Be careful. There is a seller claiming to have drives for a 480 but you can just see the paper label says X2AS plus the EMC shield and 90MHz crystal so it’s an MDM-7X2A (Type R/MDLP) as I bought, not a Type S. As you say you need an MDM-7S1A drive.
  3. Nice. I think the 930 is the smartest 🙂
  4. I've not done a huge amount with it to be honest. Been too busy at work, fixing that D4 and building the set for the next show! As you know I have lots of machines with similar capabilities, but I wanted a higher spec machine for the main 'hifi' stack.
  5. That looks like a combination of a desk tripod, a desk (or pipe) clamp plus the Sennheiser mic adaptor. Have a hunt on Thomann, but I think you’re looking for a number of separate parts rather than that unit as one. Manfrotto do some interesting mic stands and arms but I think you're looking at a number of items that screw together to make that combination. However I'm not so keen on the way that MD portable is clamped, looks like a recipe for a broken machine. The concept though I can see working just with a different choice of desk clamp part that holds the MD machine. Where did that photo come from? Is there any other info from that source?
  6. All right I'll cut to the chase. It's only that I was typing my initial story on my phone and it was late that it became this nonsense serial thing! So I rebuilt that clip on the back. Of course because I didn't have the upper disc sled in place, it broke straight off when I tried to fit the top. So I did the reverse and fit the top then fit the new clip structure I made around it and reglued to the main plastic body. Left it to dry for a couple of days. If I need to replace the belt again, I'll need to use @M1JWR's method and go fishing through the front (since I usually lift the bonnet [hood for you Yanks]) and fit the belt from the top. Initially I couldn't record a whole album, I got a Record Error after a while. Investigating, the laser sled got stuck at mid and wouldn't traverse to the outer edge. Even winding the gears manually I couldn't get beyond mid. I greased the sled rail and that didn't help. I worked it a bit manually and eventually it started moving ok. My concern was there was some of the broken clip stuck inside the mech, but I couldn't see anything and I couldn't get anything to drop out. I'm certainly not going to try and separate the BD board from the rest of the drive. But I do need to keep an eye on this in case there is something in there that has just happened to move out of the way temporarily. In the machine (geez it stinks!), now it's working perfectly. I've dubbed much of a CD album and it seems to work fine in both Normal (1x) and High Speed modes (2x MDLP, 4x SP) so it seems pukka. Service Mode settings seem consistent - Iop Compare reports 0% OK which is the first time I've seen that so it suggests the OP is indeed unused, and the OP rec and play times are consistent with the number of minutes I've played with it. Conclusions: - I suspect I got mostly lucky with what I received. It was pictured as an MDM-7X2A which is what I needed and to my surprise is what I got. OK it was a bit broken and this is down to the seller not inspecting before shipping. Maybe the've just got a box full from some end-of-run sell-off from the Sony factory when they ceased production (these machines were made in Malaysia rather than Japan). That there were some bits of the clips not inside the (Sony?) bag means it was broken before it was shipped. Maybe the side peg was broken during shipment because the rear clip was broken so the disc tray was flapping around on it's way across the globe. - It doesn't make any financial sense. I paid £70 for the broken MXD-D4 and the drive cost £84 delivered. The machine is probably worth £75 on a good day on eBay (It's a decent machine with CD+MD so they should be worth a bit more to my mind). There's one on there now at 70 quid spares/repairs. No I'm not... - However if you have a beloved machine and you need a new drive, maybe there is light in that you may well be able to get a NOS drive for it. Just remember to replace the load/eject belt straight away! Other things I needed to do. - Needed a new 27-way FFC cable. The one in the machine was damaged at the end, possibly me inserting and withdrawing repeatedly. The replacement wasn't the quality of the Sony original. Comparing side-by-side the Sony one is definately a more substantial construction. However the replacement one, which is probably standard part fodder these days, is working fine, it's just a bit more flimsy so probably won't tolerate much in-and-out like the Sony originals do. - I needed to strip apart and clean the headphone volume potentiometer because it had a drop-out mid-travel and was a bit rough at the ends. I couldn't find new the correct Alps part - looks like a Sony special [*]. So ended up stripping it down and using some Deoxit Fader F5 to clean it. Rebuilt and reassebled and is working fine now. - The CD mech is a little noisy, but I've added some Molykote grease to a few gears and it's less noisy now. - Oh and I renewed the power flex and fitted a new plug. I might use this unit to play with my SPDIF/TOSLINK project before I inflict it on great fellow enthusiasts @BearBoy , @M1JWR , @sfbp. [*] The volume control is an Alps RK09L series. However the one in the machine is 1kOhm and because the PCB is mounted vertically, the spindle flat is at 10 o'clock and also the flat section is full length of the spindle. Alps standard parts start at 10kOhm and the spindle flat is at 2 o'clock for horizontal PCBs and isn't the full length of the spindle. (sorry for the shonky photos)
  7. I'm intrigued about the actual drive that was advertised and you received. The E10 takes the MDM-7SC variant. In this story I bought an MDM-7X2A. What did you get (if you know how to identify them)? If it's an MDM-7X2A are you saying it actually works ok in an E10? It's quite possible it will as it is a good match as Type-R/ATRAC3 using CXD2662. But I'm interested if the "high speed"-ness of the 7X2A has any side effects in the E10. Maybe not as probably it's only switched in to do 4X CD dubs, which the E10 obviously doesn't have as a stand-alone MD deck. In addition as the E10 will ignore SCMS on a record - and on the E10 PRO model allows you to set the recorded SCMS bits - I'm assuming neither of these work unless you actually got an MDM-7SC drive. From PCB photos alone it's not possible to determine a 7SC versus other MDM-7 variants unless you can see the sticker that usually has "SC" somewhere on it. I would say the MDM-7X2A I got was NOS. In the machine it reports 15minutes of OP time, which would be consistent with the amount of testing I've done with it. I realise that the odo counters can be reset but I don't think the seller is that knowledgable (since I'm pretty sure they don't actually know what they are selling, although clearly they realise they have considerable value based on the price I paid...). Darn, I'm leaking my soap-opera story...
  8. Cool! I like the break down and optical component demonstrations. Very illuminating! His questions on the photodiode receiver array can be answered by reading the minidisc technical doc on minidisc.org (but I can’t tell him that as I don’t have a login on that site). https://www.minidisc.org/manuals/minidisc_training.pdf
  9. Yea, I’m probably not tough enough with these sellers! They are clearly NOS (at best) not truly new. Anyway in my case, out came the Araldite and some plastic parts cut from some old electronics… rebuild a new rear clip…
  10. So I picked up the box from the post office. Right sort of size. Customs Description ‘Car CD Player’. Go to work… Get home and unwrap it. Very well packed. And it is indeed an MD drive, and the right one. It looks new and it looks Sony. But there are some ‘extra’ bits. The sort of bits that should be attached. Plastic bits. And they aren’t all there. The bits that are broken are the clip at the rear and one of the side pegs that runs in the vertical guide channel. So do I just bounce it to Ali Express and start again? I guess I should have. But does it even work? How likely is that. Fit it into the MXD-D4 and support the wobbly bits. Insert a disc and immediately realise my error in the rush. The load belt is perished. The disc is in but it’s not coming out. Turn on. By some miracle it reads the disc and will play. 😃 (at this point I’m regretting starting this on my phone!) …to be continued… (not really sure why I’m writing this story like this, sorry!)
  11. It arrived a few days ago. The plot thickens…
  12. Currently here (Mar 2022): https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2pcs-1-0mm-Pitch-FFC-FPC-Flexible-Cable-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-20-21P-40P-Forward-/264827389812?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l6249&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0 usually 23, 27, 17 for MD drives, 1.0mm pitch, ‘forward’.
  13. @BearBoy and I recently expanded our aged horizons and toyed with Amazon Japan and bought some new (new) MD blanks. Buoyed by that experience I recently decided to go another step and risk my hard earned cash with Ali Express. I do quite a lot of ‘hobby electronics’ but it’s not an online vendor I’ve ever been tempted to try. Expectations were not high. A few weeks back I bought a Sony MXD-D4 (yes guys another one…) from eBay. But this one was listed with MD issues. I can sort that, I thought. Well yet again I bought a thoroughly minging machine. The thing stinks. I think it’s been on 40 a day for the last 20 years. I lifted the lid first and I’m glad I did. The MD overwrite head was folded up like a concertina. No wonder it had C13 reported. Replaced the CD eject belt. CD section works fine now. Took out the MD drive and removed the OWH assembly (pretty straightforward). New load/eject belt as a standard service procedure. MD drive back in the machine and it plays. Result. Steal an OWH from another drive that has issues but OWH is known good. Fit to the D4 drive. Nope still won’t record. Regardless, stripped the whole machine down and gave it a severe dose of isopropyl alcohol and washing up liquid. Damn thing still stinks. Break out the LPM and the Iop jig. Short story is this is the first machine I’ve come across where the laser is genuinely aged. The read laser power can be calibrated ok - hence the machine can indeed play. However the laser power can’t be adjusted for the write power. Even at a crazy 150mA of Iop (bearing in mind the factory cal for the laser is around 56mA), I can’t get more than about 6mW of write power out of it. Thoughts of doing my first laser replacement… Start looking around for a KMS262A laser assembly. Find one on Ali Express and it’s about £55 delivered to the UK, so not cheap and not guaranteed to fix the machine. Browse a bit more. It’s fairly clear some of these sellers have no idea what the stuff is they are selling. Come across some pictures of an MDM-7 drive. Find some additional pictures of the underside showing the BD board with an EMC shield and a fitted 90MHz crystal. So the MXD-D4 can do 4x dubs from its internal CD drive. This means the MD drive is a variant of the MDM-7A drive we find in x40 decks. The drive is an MDM-7X2A and you can spot it as it has this EMC shield and the 90MHz crystal which is not found on the usual ‘single speed’ drives. If you like, this MD drive is like a 4x CD-ROM drive except it’s MD. So back to Ali Express, these pictures are ticking all of the boxes. But is it BS? The seller talks about a laser. The seller talks about CD and BMW cars. If I order one, what the heck am I going to get. Will it look anything like the pictures? Get a rush of blood to the head and shell out £84. In the name of research. There is no way this exercise will cost in… To be continued…
  14. Is there a site with a CDP machine listing a bit like we have for MDS machines on minidisc.org? From digging around I’m getting the impression the CDP numbering is a bit like the MDS numbering. For example I see a CDP-XE700 but it’s an older model, much like the MDS-JE700. Similarly I see a CDP-XB930 that looks a similar build to our MDS-JB930. I have the CDP-XE530 which pairs nicely with my MDS-JE530. Similarly CDP-D12 with MDS-E12. So I’m thinking, hmmm… there looks to be some parity here…
  15. 😆it’s ok there’s nothing on eBay fortunately 🤨 … I must be looking for the wrong models 🤣
  16. If you’re UK there is Sony CDP-XE530 on eBay at the moment for 40 quid. That’s quite a close match. (Ahh sorry I see you’re States-side…) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sony-Compact-Disc-CD-Player-CDP-XE530-Working-AUDIOPHILE-Unit-Only-/203868167617?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m2548.l6249&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0 ( @BearBoy made me start looking for CD players now!)
  17. I don’t know, I bought them at different times, the CDP new (discontinued stock possibly) and the MD-350 maybe a year later from eBay second hand but immaculate in-box. Having a quick google there isn’t a Tascam CD-350. There isn’t an MD-450.
  18. Yea me too, the case of the 520/530 era was so much better than the creaky cheapness of the ‘e-line’ cases of the 440/480/770.
  19. Tascam MD-350 with Tascam CD-450. The annoying thing here is you can’t connect these directly digitally as the CD only has coax output and the MD only has TOSLINK optical I/O 🤦‍♂️
  20. Oh yea, forgot that combo @M1JWR 🤦‍♂️. MDS-JE480 + CDP-XE370 Here we go:
  21. I’ve got a CDP-XE530 so assumed the XE730 was the next model up!
  22. I’m not aware any have adjustable brightness.
  23. Doh. ‘Twas the ‘X’ that threw me!
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