philippeb

Got my JA-20ES for about 200 euros on eBay France. That was reasonable.

eBay 330673728972

Yet another alternative is the HHb MDP500 Portadisc deck, that has a USB Audio input/output, and does not require any extra software on the PC or Mac.

Correct. Lossless copy, as well as lossless defragmentation, are standard MDS-W1 features. The MDS-W1 gives you unlimited ownership of your recordings, within the SP and MONO world, without hack.

The seller claims that he has _tested_ the recording/playback of video with this device. I am surprised : AFAIK, the Sharp MD-PS1-S is a digital _still_ camera, not a camcorder.

A similar trick can be used to restore DATA (alas at the cost of one generation hop), with decks equipped with Scale Factor Edit. If such a deck can read a damaged track (that other machines cannot), one can Scale Factor Edit the track by +2db or -2b, and the deck will rewrite the same track in place (without dirtying the TOC, for that matter). This rewrite can make the track readable again on other machines also. It is a pity that the Sony decks do not offer a 0db Scale Factor Edit, that woulds simply rewrite the track in place, without decoding/reencoding it, nor changing its level.

No. This Sucks says that if the (one and only) poor TOC can be read on at least one machine, it is worth while dirtying it, so that that the very machine that could read it, would also rewrite it. One can reasonably hope that such a rewrite of the same TOC on the same disc could make it better, and that other machines could read it afterwards. This Sucks suggest to record a new (short, disposable) track, when I would name or rename an existing track. The result would be the same: the TOC would be dirtied, and rewritten. The best machine I know to restore damaged TOCs with this procedure is the HHb MDP500. It is definitely more tolerant to TOC damage, and beats all Sony decks in this regard.

All recordings (from FM radio, CD player, DVD player, digital TV, or from another MD deck) sound better to my ears when performed via the analog inputs of the JA333ES (rather than digital inputs).

I second R. Daneel. Here is another important quote from the same post: "To my ears, best sound on minidisc can be obtained using a standard Atrac codec at 292kbps and recording done via analog inputs. If a md deck is a good quality with Atrac type-R processing and 24bit inputs such as the Sony mds-jb930, then it is way better to record via analog inputs." I agree 100%, from my experience with the JA333ES.

My experience with chinese sellers : be honest with them, they will be honest with you. If you pay the right price, you will get top quality. If you demand low prices, you will get poor, or fake, goods. I often buy from China, and never had a problem. That said, I do not think that fake MD ever existed.

To enter service mode, press 'OUTPUT' + 'CLEAR' (Deck A) + '<<' (Deck B ). To exit service mode, press 'MD SYNC'.

1. Wait for the transfer to finish 2. Eject the destination disc (TOC will be written) 3. Enter service mode 4. Eject the source disc (TOC will _not_ be written) 5. Exit service mode

I confirm. The W1 does perfect track or disc copies in the ATRAC domain. A track move between two discs is actually a track copy (to destination) followed by a track erase (from source). As the final track erase is not immediately written to TOC, it can be undone in service mode, restoring the source track. (copy; erase; undo erase) == copy

Agreed. My mother, who is 80, has a silver one, that she uses daily, when she walks her dog.

Sennheiser HD-555

I have met many such protected track names, that my MDX-D3 will not copy. There is an easy workaround, that requires pressing two buttons per track. After each "Protected Track Name" message: 1. press "Menu" to access the "Name In" menu entry 2. press "Yes" to acknowledge No need to type in anything: the current track name sits there, ready, in the "Name In" buffer !

Thank you for advertising the virtues of monaural recordings ! I am definitely a fan of that mode. Stereo distracts me from listening, like 3d movies distract me from viewing.

Not for first gen analog tracks, I think. I am not 100% sure, though; I have removed the 333 -> W1 optical link, since then.

I recently added an optical link from the 333 to the W1, and used it. I recently recorded from my internet freebox to the 333, via coax. Pity that those two events occurred more or less at the same time...

Exactly like yours.

My JA333ES recently started clicking on power-on also. The *20 family of Sony MD decks were better built, IMHO. I would recommend any of the MDS-SD1, MDS-JE520, MDS-W1, MDS-JB920QS, or MDS-JA20ES.

Market price. I just meant that the auction failed to conclude, with a starting price of EUR 329 (including shipping). I bought my unit for less than EUR 250.

The point is: I do use my MD machines a lot, every day and every night of my life. And when I am busy, let's say, socializing , I program them to record for me. This very HHB unit has also a sentimental value: I bought it second-hand from a French journalist of RFO (Radio France Outremer). That said, they pop up from time to time on Ebay. Last one I saw was http://cgi.ebay.at/HHB-Portadisc-/300469621580 (too expensive to go).

Yousif, you were right. I have connected the HHB MDP500 to a PC running Windows XP (via USB), played a track on the HHB MDP500, recorded it in real-time with Audacity. Then I have played a track on the PC, and recorded it in real-time with the HHB MDP500. USB audio transfer works like a charm :-D

I use the HHB MDP500 for field recording, the Sony MZ-RH1 for uploading tracks to the PC (when required), a Sony deck (MDS-JB920 or MDS-JA333ES) for office or home listening. Finally, I use the Sony MDS-W1 deck to duplicate my minidiscs. I do not use the HHB MDP500 for uploading tracks to the PC, because (as far as I know) the MDP500 requires pre-XP versions of Windows to operate - where the audio device could be USB ; not sure this would work with recent Windows versions. So, basically, I agree with PhilippeC's recommendations, with the addition of the HHB MDP500 for field recording. I should add that the HHB MDP500 has helped me recover recordings from damaged minidiscs that none of the Sony decks could read.