bluecrab

Exactly. Several years ago, I was diagnosed with tinnitus and some hearing loss. Yeah, I was one of those guys who listened to just too much loud rock, I guess. My hearing still works OK, and I too can distinguish (usually) between SP/LP2/LP4 etc etc. So in a way, in this case a little hearing loss worked out to my benefit! I will tell you that I think I detect a noticeable difference in sound between what comes out of my Marantz MARANTZ CD5001 CD Player and any other source I have - the Marantz sounds best. I don't think that this is a format issue so much as a DAC issue. Anyway, I happily listen to all modes! Isn't that what matters most?

If I have agreed with this (or thought the same thing) once or a dozen or a hundred times, then I simply want to say that I agree again. After years of refusing to use LP2/4 without actually trying it, only b/c of all the negativity about them, I was surprised to find them both listenable to me....as is MP3. Main issue for me regarding MP3 is not so much SQ (at the higher b/r, anyway), just that in my current setup plain old SP/LP2/LP4 is the most convenient. I have read various explanations, technical and otherwise, about why one format exceeds the other, but as Bob notes, the only real standard is one's own ears. For that matter, a good cassette still sounds fine to me.

Comcast tech to my wife (I wasn't there at the time) after his having to do some work in the basement and getting a look at What I'Ve Got Down There: "This guy seriously needs a garage!" This doesn't even include other areas of the house, which have caused my better half to state: "This is the most mess I have ever had to live with." And I think I'm being neater than ever, out of consideration! A friend's wife sums up her own situation regarding said friend's (one of The Two I managed to get into MD) proclivities: "It seems like things come in but nothing ever goes out." So, I thought, what to do with this not-working MDS-JB940? Have Sony take a shot at repair? Toss and replace? it was then that the light went on for me...get a second MXD-D400 from Japan...damn the expense...AND get the 940 repaired, after which it can replace the MDS-JE480 in the basement. Perfect. Doing it. Already got the Japanese MXD-D400, a beautiful unit...just waiting for someone to show up and ask, "What's THAT?" I hope Sony can fix the 940. Man, I love this stuff!

I think this unit has been around for a while...or maybe it was a similar one? A while back, I bought an HHB CDR BurnIT off Ebay and of course I was researching all I could about HHB at that time. Thought I remembered seeing a portable MD on their U.S. site. The MDP500 has ATRAC 4.5 for some reason (not R or S) and no LP mode. Perhaps for the intended use that is fine? I noticed that even the latest Tascam MD deck also seems to have 4.5, although it (they, really) do have MDLP. Guess I'll be sticking with my old MZ-R500, which cost just a bit less than the HHB ;-) I wonder though, does the HHB have SCMS. FTR, the BurntIT CDR allows the user to ignore &/or strip SCMS, a most useful feature for me.

Could you possibly elaborate a bit? In what ways does the RH-1 agree with Mac?

http://www.boston.com/business/personaltec...lower_fidelity/ Near the end of this article it is said that lossless compressed music is 2-3 years away. How would that work, exactly? I am still happy with various combinations of SP/LP2/LP4!

======== Could be. Some of the units are now going for more on ebay than their original cost, I think. Maybe this is related: http://www.boston.com/business/personaltec...lower_fidelity/

I have the Sony MDX-C680X ... http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MDX-CA680X.html SP/LP. I don't know exactly what features you are looking for, but I have been very happy with this unit. I installed it and four [Pioneer] speakers myself. It has a flip-down, detachable face. The face has to be flipped down (but not detached) to insert or eject a disc. This I find to be a bit of an annoyance, but worth it overall. I bought the unit used from the minidisc.org Classifieds. These do occasionally turn up on Ebay too, and so do the Kenwood models that are SP/LP. If LP isn't something you need, there's a much wider range of models you can use. I crank out a lot of LP2/LP4 MDs that I listen to in the car and at work, and then I re-use them. It's great!

=== Thank you. I have reported on the buying experience in Find Your MD. As for the unit, it's like good sex, only better, because it will, I hope, last longer ;-) Here is what I have been fussing about: http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MXD-D400.html Really, Sony must have had me in mind when they designed the thing...oh allright, they could've made it 8x copy. The Japanese version appears and acts identical to the US version, except for some cosmetic diffs, not the least of which is its pale gold color. I wanted another MXD-D400 so I could do 4x copying simultaneously on two machines...hey, that's almost as good as 8x! I also wanted optical out. If Sony (or whoever) ever made a high-speed CD>MD Hi-MD deck, I would seriously consider going that route, although then someone would have to make a Hi-MD car deck. Why can't they just give us what we want!?

It seemed to me like I would indeed have saved a few $$ by using PriceJapan, but in this case, price was NOT the primary issue for me. I was willing to pay a bit more for customer service. The company I work for doesn't offer the lowest prices for what we do; instead, the pitch is the best customer service. We deliver on that and have a solid customer base. Really, all I was trying to say was that Japan-Direct delivered and made my life easy. I also feel assured that if there is a problem, they'll help me out. I thought it was extremely odd and I mentioned it to them. Yet they seemed honest and seemed to have a good rep. It all worked out well, somehow. It was big deal for me that during the whole ordering/buying process, they were responsive to my queries. BTW, this is where I found Japan-Direct to begin with. Some of the other sites (most, maybe) noted no longer exist. http://www.miniboard.com/rate/view.php?site_id=20

I have one I don't use - it is a Sony MDS-S39 (mid-size). It works all right, but like the 510, it turns itself on. It has optical out (and in, of course). You can have it for $15 plus whatever it costs to ship. PM me if you would like it. I haven't used it in a while and I will test it if you are interested. I really don't need it any more. Bruce I agree that the JE480 is a pretty good bargain, new, if you can do w/o the optical out. Of course, for new MD decks there isn't much to selection from these days. I bought my JE480 off ebay "like new" a few months ago (more?) for 75 usd + ship. No problems so far. For me, the main benefit of this unit (as opposed to my Pioneer MJ-D508, which I think may actually sound a little better and certainly looks better, is that the JE480 has MDLP, while the Pio does not. I too have noticed that anything halfway decent is going for relatively high prices on ebay lately. MXD-D3, MXD-D40, MDS-JB940, etc etc, these all get snapped up quickly at prices higher than they were say, a year ago.

Some time ago, I bought a Sony MXD-D400 CD>MD deck. The one I got was possibly one of the last ones available new in the U.S., because soon thereafter a friend of mine wanted one, but there were none to be had. My nice MDS-JB940 having recently expired, I thought I'd rather have a second D400 instead of another JB940. New, they cannot be found retail in the U.S., AFAIK. On rare occasions, one will turn up on Ebay. The last couple went for 400 USD or so. Eventually I decided to try getting one from Japan. PriceJapan seemed reasonable and was recommended strongly here and elsewhere (http://www.resellerratings.com), but the buying process was a little complex and I was concerned about what would happen if something went wrong. I found a company in Japan (http://www.mailorderjapan) that would do the deal, but I could not figure out how much, exactly, it was going to cost me. I finally found a somwhat outdated page from a minidisc user web site that mentioned, among others, Japan Direct. I got in touch with them and they quickly quoted me a price that included everything. It was on the high side, but in this case I was not necessarily looking for a bargain. I wanted service and ease. The deck had to be special-ordered and it took over a week for me to get it, but get it I did, earlier today. It is definitely the Japanese version, gold in color, English display, English on the front panel, Japanese on the rear panel, Japanese manual. No matter, it is the same as my N.A. version otherwise. I am very happy, for now I have TWO of these beauties and both have optical out. Anyway, I just wanted to recommend Japan-Direct. They found the unit for me, had it shipped, and I had to do nothing except pay and wait a bit. They were responsive to my emails about status of the order. It was all so easy once I found them. And they say if there is a problem under warranty, they will help me with that, too. http://www.japan-direct.com/faq.asp (for some reason, the "home" page of the Japan-Direct web site doesn't work, but all the info you need is available elsewhere on the site.) I would order from them again. In fact, if I ever get a few more $$, maybe I'll see if the elusive JA333ES might be had!

In case anyone is interested or needs to know, I am answering my own question. The display on the Sony MXD-D400 CD>MD deck is definitely in English. The manual is in Japanese. The front panel is in English and the rear panel is in Japanese. I finally did get ahold of one of these (at no small cost) from Japan, through Japan-Direct (http://www.japan-direct.com/faq.asp). I will report on this generally pleasant experience in the Find Your MD section. The unit itself is a gold color. It is a work of art, just about!

A somewhat old list of CDs w/opt out can be found here: http://www.ericwhitney.org/websites/minidi...on/opt_all.html

I have the following Sony MDLP units: MZ-R500, MXD-D40, MXD-D400, MDS-JB940, MDS-JE480. My favorite, by a good piece of ground, is the MXD-D400. It is a CD>MD deck. ATRAC Type S. 4x CD>MD dub for both SP and LP. Optical out. On it, I crank out a LOT of comps that I listen to at work and in my car. My main complaint is that the CD and MD parts are not independent (they do not have separate I/O). The MZ-R500, which one can get cheaply on Ebay, meet all my portable needs. It has no mic i/p, but I don't use a mic. It has no remote, I don't care. I use it for listening at work, where it takes up little space and is powered by AC via converter, and I use it for travel. On rare occasions, I use it to record via optical in.

At work, on my MZ-R500 in LP4, through Koss MAC-7 headphones: * The Fashion Statement: The Fashion Records Story (reggae, ska...) * Welcome to Woop Woop, Original Soundtrack (indescribable) * Pure 60's: The #1 Hits (Get out the a.m. radio) * All-Girl Review (partial, custom mix made by my brother, one of the two people I ever convinced to do MD) How can you insert pix here? FWIW, all tracks copied CD>MD 4x on MXD-D400.

Are there any Sony portable MDLP units on which it is possible to have the TRACK TITLE scroll continuously? A friend has an older Sharp where this is possible and he would like to have an LP-capable portable with this feature. Thanks, Bruce

At work, on my MZ-R500 in LP4, through Koss MAC-7 headphones: UB40: Labour of Love I II & III: The Platinum Collection Also on this disc: Big Mountain, Doo Wop Jamaican Style (V/A), Our Boys Steel Orchestra. ----- On the way home later, I'll listen to what remains of the 129-track comp I made last week. Oldies circa 50s 60s mainly. (Sony MDX-CA680X, bought off the classifieds here.)

Is that you, Oliver? I mean, Boise, Idaho, it COULD be you...just thought I'd ask while I was here. Bruce (from back in the day of discussing mds-w1 etc etc on that board that was always getting spammed)

Not too long ago, I bought a Marantz CD player that looks a lot like the 6001, w/o the MD: http://us.marantz.com/Products/1154.asp If the DAC on the 6001 is the same used in the CD5001, then I'd be expecting some really good sound from the unit, because Marantz didn't waste much time with bells and whistles for the 5001, all the money went into its guts. Wow. Bet we'll never see the 6001 in the U.S.

All will be forgiven if you can tell where-oh0where I can buy an MXD-D400! No really, all is forgiven anyway, but I do want the D400!

I'm looking at several MD decks, including the Tascam MD-CD1. Try as I may, I cannot find a review of this unit. Anyone ever used one or know where to see a review? ..........I was just reading the manual for this unit, which states that it in LP2/4 modes (and mono), its fastest speed is 2x. It'll record 4X in SP, but the LP 2x is a deal-breaker for me. Too bad, because I found some demo units w/warranty for 500 USD.

How do I make a contribution? Is it tax deductible? (I just want to know that and will contribute no matter what.) PM me! Thanks, Bruce Smith

Thanks, Rich. I did in fact get a quote from pricejapan and asked about the display, but they responded only with the quote. The manual's no problem as I already have a US version of the MXD-D400 and I would think the English-language manual would pretty much work. I also think the transformer can be had for 25-30 USD w/in the U.S. My main concern is the display. Bruce Smith

By any chance, would anyone know if the Sony Japan MXD-D400 CD/MD deck has an English display? I think there are still some of these available in Japan. Thanks for any help!