bluecrab

"The 940 is the ONLY one (except for the pro models) that has both coax AND optical Input AND Output." This is true, I believe, of Sony MD decks, but my Kenwood MD-2070 had both opt/coax I/O. And it has the awesome AD1855 (Analog Devices) DAC. Its playback SQ is very, very good. ATRAC 4.5, though.

Check. Agree about LP4 > Analog. Now, I am just picking up more Windows knowledge (having been in the Mac/*nix world for a long time), but you can probably set up Windows to send audio out via USB? (I may want to try this myself.) If so, then all you would need is a free USB port and a USB > Optical switch, like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-UCA202-Audio-Interface/dp/B000KW2YEI/ref=sr_1_3 Or as you note, a sound card would also do it. I don't quite get why the PCLK-MN10 is a must-have. It looks like it'd do the job and way, way more, but plain old optical in would also work for capturing PC audio out. Oops, I re-read and saw this: "Keyboard function and the ability to easily move MP3s with tags seems handy." Some MD decks—including the E10— can have a PS1 k/b plugged in to them; this helps, I am told, with titling and with some MD functions via the k/b.

Like sfbp, I have no direct experience with the E10 (or any other of the Pro model line). One thing I would look out for is that as a professionally used model (I am assuming so), the unit isn't going to be one that was used a few times, put away, and now is up for sale. Or maybe that is exactly what its history is. Never a bad idea, in any case, to ask about prior use and whether any exposure to smoke. I would like to also mention the MXD-D40. I have two of these, both of which I bought used. My brother has one, too. All three units have been reliable workhorses. None of them has been modified to have optical out, as sfbp refers to, and thereby lies the rub, as the D40 does not have outstanding SQ via analog out. Oh, it's not bad—but probably not as good as that E10 you're considering...which does have both optical and coax I/O. Then again, the D40 has the benefit of CD > MD copying: up to 4x in Mono or Stereo and 2x in LP. Avoid the 510; this is a model that can have serious issues. Also, where some of your sources lack optical out, you may want to consider which MD has good analog recording circuitry. I can vouch for the JB940 in that regard...don't know about the others....hmmm, now that I think of it, I have recorded from computer to D40 via analog, with OK results. Good luck and please post here about what you decide!

I have seen various methods described, from washing them with soap to using compressed air. You note that you're using SS init to erase the discs. Have you tried just doing that on the NH1 (IOW, not using SS to erase/init)?

Ah. I think I see, then, what is meant that you don't get true SP anyway. I just did a couple tracks with SS set to LP (on the S1) and it was very much faster than SP. The idea is that I am going to use SS for mainly or all temporary MDs that I listen to while I am on the treadmill or whatever. So LP2 should be all right. Probably the biggest job now is to load up CDs into SS. Hmmm...can you import Apple Lossless files from iTunes? Or have to convert them to .wav first? I will need to look into that, but I'll probably be doing a lot of ripping from CD in any case. For serious, good-quality copying, I use various standalone CD and MD decks. FWIW, my initial impression of SS is fairly positive. As with most s/w, you have to figure out some things by applying what you know and experimentation—and of course GIYF!

Oddly, it seemed to do all right with SS set to LP. I will also try a different recorder and see how that goes.

OK, so I got SS up and running on Win 7 and have created a couple of MDs via NetMD transfer. I am using an MZ-S1 for this and SS is in SP mode. To say it is slow...well, 4x on an MXD-D40/400 is faster and perhpas 2x is, too. But if I use SS's LP2 mode, then transfer goes much faster. Pretty much makes sense. The issue here is not so much one of SQ, but rather playback of the completed MD. If I use the faster LP mode in SS, then disc cannot play on an SP-only unit. My question is whether such dismal slowness is part and parcel of SS's SP mode or if a different MD recorder would be faster. How do others handle this?

Yes, it worked for me on WIn7/64. Once the files are unzipped, you use Dev Mgr as noted here: http://www.howtogeek.com/167094/how-to-use-the-windows-device-manager-for-troubleshooting/

Thanks, Mr. S; that is exactly what it turned out to be. I had to also get myself into Device Manager. Kind of learning as I go with both SS and Windows.

I have just installed SS 4.3 Ultimate from here to a Dell E5400 Win7 Laptop. The install went well and SS is up and running. I imported a CD into my Library as .wav and I have connected a Sony MZ-DN430 portable recorder to the laptop. The 430 immediately displayed PC>>MD, but the SS Transfer drop-down shows only Audio/ATRAC/MP3 CD as options. So what have I missed here? Any help? Kind of bewildered right now.

Stop? Pick up some MD decks first!

The 2Sec tracks work a little better for me, but still wildly inconsistent (abt. 9/20 tracks pick up the marker). IMO Apple/iTunes has no excuse for this. Shame on Apple for releasing software like this.

I have tried with silent MP3s of 1, 1.5, 2, and 3 seconds today, resulting in 1 long track. I added the silent MP3 tracks as playlists and then added them to the playlist I'm playing back. Is that what you are doing, ggabriele3? I also tried just dragging the 1-sec mp3 into the playlist and still get 1 continuous track.

Interesting. I think that's what I have used, and it has sometimes worked and other times did not. I'll try again when I can. If there's an issue recording to my MXD-D40, then I will try with an MZ-R500 portable. I do all non-temporary MD recording @1x anyway. One thing, though...if you are adding a second of silence between tracks, that may interrupt a "live" recording when it's played back.

1. If you mean recognizing track marks, then no. The problem isn't unique to the R70. It's iTunes. If you poke around you can find a silent MP3 file that you can add between tracks. Variable length. I have had intermittent success with it on a Mac. Or, if you are willing to put up with it, you can record 1 track at a time and stop the R70 after each track. I wonder what would happen if you created a separate playlist for each track and then tried recording. Maybe I'll give that a go myself. Some fun, huh?

The Aiwa is totally bound by consumer CD-R rules; in fact, it will write to only the so-called "CD-R Music" discs, which cost more than the regular ones. But it's convenient for me because in my setup there's ton of connectivity between various CD and MD units, via a powered digital switch, which itself is connected to.... ...the SCMS killer, AKA Hucht CDQ1-IHF Copyprocessor. In any case, based on what you have reported so far, I think SCMS is pretty much confirmed as a non-issue for you. FWIW, I have never had an issue burning various copies of CDs using iTunes on several Macs. In general, I think computer-based software ignores SCMS. You should be good to go! Your idea of getting a "spare" deck is IMO sound, and any one of the 9*0 series should be a good fit. They all have optical out—always check for that feature in MD decks. If you're not concerned with LP mode, then you will have a wider selection of decks from which to choose. Good luck!

I can't speak to the Hi-MD solution, but I did want to mention that I have had a couple of outstanding results going from MD > CD (standalone Aiwa CD-R) by setting my JA20ES d.out to 16 and using optical out. The resulting CD-Rs sound like...well, CDs. SCMS not a factor due to SCMS-killing device. MDs originally recorded @SP using MXD-D400.

Welcome. I will answer the questions that I can. I believe the MDS-JE500's DAC is CXD8607N, which appears to be 20-bit. If so, the output would be PCM 20/44.1? I don't see any way to switch that on the JE500. I suspect it is a multi-bit (Sony calls this "hybrid pulse") DAC, as opposed to 1-bit (which Sony calls current pulse). Whether SCMS comes into play depends on the Focusrite. If the Focusrite is a pro unit and modern, my guess would be that SCMS is not part of its picture. NetMD aside, the MDS-JB980 offers MDLP ATRAC Type S, considered by many to be improved over Type R for LP, but with no effect on SP mode. The 940 and 930 are both Type R machines: the 940 has MDLP and the 930 does not. The 930 is said by many to offer superior SQ to the 940 (I agree). 930 has 1-bit DAC; 940 has multi-bit DAC. The 940 has switchable D.out length (16, 24), while the 930 doesn't. The 920 has switchable D.in and D.out, both 16/20/24, according to http://minidisc.org/part_Sony_MDS-JB920.html At least one person told me that the 920 and 930 sounded the same; another said they did not. Although I do not have a 920 (ATRAC 4.5), I do have a Kenwood MD-2070 that has 4.5—it sounds great. I am thinking that you would be OK with any of the 9[2|3|4|8]0 units. You really should take a look at http://minidisc.org/equipment_browser.html for more details. I hope others may well chime in with their perspectives on your questions. I know nothing of Win 8.1 or other MD/Win configs, but you may yet get some feedback on that. That's about it for me...HTH.

One thing I am convinced of is that copying at SP at normal speed on any of MXD-D* decks will produce audibly better (the best, really) results than any of: hi-speed SP copy, LP2/4 copy at normal or high speed. We know that on the MXD-D40/D400 units that hi-speed copying does not happen using Type R, although I am not exactly sure what ATRAC version is used in that case. For the MXD-D3, similarly, it may not do hi-speed copies using 4.5. Anyone know? Just curious. FWIW, I have two MXD-D40s in use. They have been serious workhorses, even if their SQ via A.out isn't quite as good as the MXD-D400 (the 40s have features missing in the 400 though, and the 400 has features missing in 40...too bad Sony never made a CD/MD deck combining all their features...the MXD-D4000)!

The MXD-D3 does not support MDLP, so if you want that ability, you should consider the MXD-D40 or another model that has MDLP. One advantage the D3 has over separate CD/MD decks is its ability to copy at 4x speed. You can compare MD models here: http://minidisc.org/equipment_browser.html

Great pix...thanks for taking the time to post them. I would guess that SCMS is going to pass through intact. That's what happens on my HHB BurnIT CD-R, which when recording is set to strip SCMS, and does. However, when it's used in Monitor mode, it passes along the SCMS encoding all too well. Good luck with it, though. BTW, yes, you will need either an adaptor or an optical cable that is mini on one end and full-size on the other if you're going deck-to-portable.

Re: Lossless copying using the MDS-W1. Not sure this is quite what you're looking for, but maybe it will help in some way. A while back, when it looked like I was going to acquire a W1 (never happened), someone told me about this trick, which I have saved just in case. I have not edited this in any way, but it's pretty much self-explanatory. If you mean SCMS bits, they are completely ignored when cloning a track or a disc, that is they are duplicated along with the tracks, without limitation. The reason is that the cloning procedure uses the disc to disc track MOVE operation, which creates copies of the original tracks on the target disc, and then ERASEs the original tracks on the source disc. It is clear that moving tracks should not be limited in any way (and that SCMS bits should be moved along) because no extra copy is created in the process. After moving one or more tracks, I eject the target disc, enter service mode and exit it. This procedure transforms the disc to disc MOVE into a lovely but undocumented lossless disc to disc COPY, because exiting service mode ejects the source disc without writing the TOC! The source disc is left intact, the "deleted" tracks are back, untouched. You can imagine how happy I felt the first time I verified the procedure, that I had figured out *before* acquiring the double deck. It worked perfectly, creating an island of health and sanity in this DRM contaminated world. Had they trusted their customers, omitted SCMS and DRM in the first place, Sony would have conquered the world of digital music recording.

Philippe, I did consider an actual standalone DAC, but it just didn't seem like a good use of $$ when I could just use the JA20ES's DAC for the same purpose. It's a very good DAC and even improves the SQ of LP output from the MXD-D400. I am also going to take the coax output from an Aiwa CD-R and pass that along to the JA20ES's coax in. Walkdude, good luck with your project and I hope you will report here how it turns out.

Philippe: I don't know about non-US models, but my Sony MDS-JB930, while it does have optical out and otherwise is mainly a really nice deck, isn't MDLP-capable. I do have an MXD-D400 which is most assuredly Type S and MDLP. The MDLP sound is improved even further because I'm sending it via digital out into an MDS-JA20ES. Thanks for the list, even though it confirms my fear that there aren't many easily available LP decks with optical out (that also don't cost a lot).

Currently in the midst of a project to get my audiocassettes onto MD. I bought a second CS deck on Ebay to help with this. The 24-bit ADCs of the JB930 and JB940 are doing a good job. The MDs seem to sound better than their cassette sources! (Unless the CS is worn or not well-recorded to begin with.) I'd say that most of the track marks are getting onto the MDs, too. Update: The CS > MD project has slowed down, at least in part because I am finding less than I thought I would that I want to put on MD. I'll get there, though. Meanwhile, I recorded a couple of MDs to CD. These were digitally recorded MDs that either had had the SCMS removed when I recorded them or I removed it when doing the transfer. Doesn't really matter. But what did matter was that I set my MD deck's (MDS-JA20ES) D.out to 16 bits. My standalone Aiwa CD-R seemed to like this, as the resulting CDs came out quite nice. I knew about this method thanks to this board. It's something I will be doing again!