bluecrab

Ah. Sad to say, that pretty much eliminates a DIY effort by me, as I am not a solderer. Thanks for the info!

It looks SO simple and easy in the photos, making me feel like I might not botch it. (My repair history with MD decks is fraught.) Let me consider it just a bit. Many thanks!

I thought that having the figurative screw loose was all but required for being here, but my E10 doesn't see the humor. 😉

Thanks. I will check. Can't have extra screws loose! 🙂

That's what I saw when I opened up the E10 yesterday. I also removed the front panel. I had two mishaps. One was that the front panel, once detached, was reluctant to go back into its original position; that is, wasn't flush. A little fiddling with it took care of the brief problem. There was a bit of a front panel issue—right around the loading slot—when I bought the deck, but the seller fixed it on the spot. The second issue was...well, after I put the lid back on, 4 screws remained. I removed the lid again, but could see no obvious places for the screws. Same for the exterior. However, save the power button, the deck's functionality is all good. In fact, the power button is now slightly better-positioned than it was, although it still doesn't work. It feels like it does have a spring, though. My evaluation of all this is that the minidisc gods want me to leave well-enough alone, and just continue to use the external switch. (I do have a friend who could easily make the repair, but that would mean either a 3.5 hour drive or shipping.) Much thanks for all your advice and willingness to help!

More than kind of you, Kevin. I will take a look inside the unit. The photos help!

Thanks! Based on your input, the look & feel, and the E10's SM, I think there is a reasonable chance that it's the spring. There could have been some kind of mishap when the deck was repaired (not by me). IIRC, that's when the issue began. Unfortunately, the repairer is not local, and I don't want to ship the unit back and forth again for this issue. It's apparently stuck in the "On" position, as supplying power to the deck turns in on immediately. I don't recall seeing a spring or anything else where it shouldn't be, but the least I can do is open it up and look again.

So what keeps the button IN and what releases it?

Good point. Right underneath my E10 is an HHB BurnIT CD-R, which does have the clunky on/off. As much as I'd like the E10's power button to work, the deck is one of the two that remain (the other being an MXD-400), and I am wary of messing much with it.

Not sure, because I cannot recall if, when it was working, whether the power button stayed depressed when pushed. (It does not do so now.) Visually I did not see anything amiss inside. I would lean towards "mechanical." I suppose it could be something as simple as a spring.

I'll bet you could fix that faulty power switch in 5 minutes!

Oh yes, of course, I have used other MD decks as DACs...JB940, JA20ES, JA333ES...more. Interesting to know that about the 63KI. I'm not at all familiar with its SM5872BS DAC, other than the info on its Data Sheet. I do know the 930's CXD8735N, from having owned that deck. Yes, it is justly renowned as sounding good. I have in fact used the E10 as a DAC...not bad at all, but not as good as the 930. Just fine doing its DDC thing, though!

Not having said anything for some time, I just wanted to note that my Sony MDS-E10 is making a fine DDC (digital-to-digital converter). I had not intended this use. CDP (via optical) > E10 (via coax) > standalone DAC (via RCA) > powered speakers. Simply connecting the CDP to the E10 was physically easier for me, and resulted in less cable clutter behind the DAC. I do wish the on/off button on the E10 worked, but it does not. The deck is connected to a rocker switch, and powered on/off that way.

It's a couple of months later (and more) since I ran the the E10 direct to my my Kanto TUK powereds. Since then, I have added a Cambridge Audio DACMagic 100 to the mix. It has a Wolfson WM8742 chip for its DAC, and I have the E10 connected to it via coax. For me, at least, the DM100 exceeds both the E10's AK4524 and the TUK's own DSP in how it sounds. Yes, MD decks have long been renowned for their DACs, but this is a new level of detail I'm hearing. (I'm allowing for the TUK's AMT tweeters.)

I have used them both ways, CD > MD & MD > CD, the latter to enable ripping the result into iTunes. This was a project that took about two years. I even have a folder in iTunes devoted to that effort: "MD/CD Heaven." The editing abilities of minidisc completely surpass those of CD, where there isn't much you can do post-recording.

"...what CD players people have paired up with their MiniDisc decks." Just a few days ago, I used my MDS-E10 to edit a minidisc (needed some dividing for track marks), and then copied the MD to CD-RW via coax to my working-when-it-feels-like-it Aiwa XC-RW700 standalone recorder. Ultimate destination was iTunes, per spousal request. I'd created the original MD from cassettes and vinyl—contra dance and barn dance tunes from US & UK. The E10 is also connected to a Cambridge Audio DACMagic 100, which brings out its finest qualities.

Nice, thanks. (Saved.) I am more than a little surprised to see so many units share the AK4524. And I was thus inspired to check what DAC my MXD-D400 has—seems to be AK4584VQ.

EIGHT+ years later and I find in this thread (courtesy of SFBP) confirmation of what I want to know: the DAC in the E10 is the AK4524 (also in the SM). Today I began using the E10 as both a player and a DAC. Its RCAs are going into a pair of Kanto TUK powered speakers. I have tried optical and USB (from Macbook Pro) direct to the TUKs, but I think the E10's DAC to its RCAs is the best-sounding of the three connections. I was listening to an MD played this way and was absolutely, positively floored to find that the source disc was LP2! I hadn't thought to even consider that until I saw the label on the disc. Playing from iTunes also sounds great through the E10.

Not quite the same, but interesting and helpful: https://www.dutchaudioclassics.nl/the_complete_d_a_dac_converter_list/

Very good, yes, and it even has Type S, and can play MP3 CDs. Copies to LP @4x. Dual-line display for CD and MD. A couple of "could be betters": Lacks monitor function; that is, requires an MD inserted to "monitor." Playback SQ is good, but there are better decks for playback. Of course, this can be resolved by using its optical out. At one time, I had two of these and two MXD-D40s.

I have lost track—not that I was keeping a record—of all the CDPs I had paired with MD decks. All of the CDPs had optical and/or coax out, and that's what I used. The pairing I fancied the most was probably CDP-XA20ES > MDS-JA20ES. Now...well, I have my MXD-D400 if I need to copy from CD to MD.

Thanks, and same to you. One thing though...seems that what Firefox actually does is add a security exception. Oh well, I have nothing to hide here.

Working normally on Firefox 96.0.2. No security warnings at this time. [Long exhale.] Although how weird is this?: Congratulations! You've increased your rank to Rookie! Just now Well, I guess it's always OK to get a fresh start. (And it turns out that FF is enabling HTTPS per my Prefs; otherwise, I would get a warning.)

Monitor mode, yes. My guess is that as this is a kind of pass-through, the signal remains unchanged. Perhaps a schematic would depict the path. As to during actual recording—that is, output via opt/coax while a disc is inserted, not monitoring without one—not sure I tried that. I will note that my HHB BurnIT CDR exhibits that same behavior with monitoring.

I have attempted to copy a Copy Prohibit MD from the E10, via optical out. Also tried by monitoring an protected digital incoming and passing through. Neither worked, even when the Copy Bit is set to Permit. But I wonder what the output signal would look like during actual copy-bit-permit recording. It's more or less academic to me at this point, but interesting. I feel like the non-pro E10/12's ignoring the copy bit setting but keeping it intact is a bit nasty, although helpful, I suppose, in many cases. I seem to recall having read that Sony's so-called semi-pro PCM-R300 DAT deck had that same "feature."