KJ_Palmer

Haha, keep trying Stephen, I've got it down to a fine art now! Incidentally, it's much easier on the MXD-D40, though it's Left Clear, Right Stop button. Wonder how the OP's getting on...

Hm, simultaneously seems to mean just that - both together at exactly the same time, with very little margin for error. Just tried it now on the 640, and even a slight delay meant the demo wasn't turned on or off. A Demo On/Off message is helpfully shown if you manage it. There's clearly a knack to it. I'm not sure how permanent it is anyhow, demo will come back if you turn the power off, and who knows when else? Maybe the earlier decks can't turn demo off - seems no mention in older manuals I've perused. On the other hand, my JB980 manual doesn't seem to mention it either. Maybe there's no demo mode. In any case I always have an MD inserted, so perhaps that's the answer if demo mode becomes an annoyance...

Pressing Stop and Clear together seems to be the combination that does this on some later decks (eg. my MXD-D40 and MDS-JE640). However, I can't find any mention of this in the JB920 manual (http://minidisc.org/...b920_manual.pdf) or other manuals for decks of that vintage. Worth trying Stop and Clear in any case.

Thanks HD. Might put in a bid then, though not sure if I really need 80-odd MD cases...

There seem to be a mixture of MD cases in that lot. I'm a bit fussy and prefer the 'cassette' type fold over cases rather than the slide-in type (if you know what I mean), so I can insert my own printed covers. If those could be seperated I'd be interested...

There used to be a lot of debate about this, back in the good old days when MD was more popular. The general consensus was, I think, that these cleaners can do more harm than good, as their brushes can pick up dirt and dust that could scratch the optical lens. I did buy a couple of cleaners, but they've remained unused for several years. There was a period when MD and CD users got obsessive about lens cleaning and the many such products on offer, but not really any more. If your lens does get dirty, it would probably be better to apply a drop a lens cleaning fluid on a q-tip/swab and try to shift it manually, or for small dust particles use some canned air or a lens blower such as a photographer (?) might use. Personally, I think prevention is better than cure, so I keep my portables cased up, and decks away from excessive dust sources. Has worked so far...

Presumably that should say "do not have line out". It's best to turn off any bass/EQ settings, and preferably any button beep etc as well as getting a reasonable signal level. It also depends to an extent on the make of your portable. I've noticed that Sharp manuals suggest turning the volume right up to max, which I believe cancels the EQ settings anyway, and some Sony manuals (eg. for the MZ-R500) mention 27 (out of 30) as the optimum volume for 'connecting to a stereo system'. Obviously it would be best to experiment with settings till it suits you, it's all a bit of a compromise anyway.

A slight warning though - the trouble with creating SP discs using sonicstage is that you'll only get (at best) an LP2 quality recording. That's because SS can't actually handle the SP codec and first transcodes from the SS library to the next best thing (in NetMD terms), ie. LP2. So though your SS-SP disc will be fully compatible with your deck you might feel (rightly) cheated in terms of the quality of your disc. It also takes forever to create the SP discs, not much faster than real time if at all. Sorry to put a fly in the ointment...

It didn't sound too bad at all if I recall correctly, with either CD or MD, perhaps a little bit on the thin weedy side, if I can put it like that. The Sony (it was an MDS-JE640 which I still have up and running), seemed to have more presence, probably owing to ATRAC Type-R and better circuit components as Jim mentions. Might be worth while picking one up if you can get it cheap, though I'm pretty sure now having thought about it, that it was the CD drive that went on mine, rendering its CD-MD dubbing credentials worthless.

My first ever MD deck was a Grundig MD-CD combo in about 2000. Not sure if it was this exact model, but was something similar. Definitely looked and felt cheap and nasty, with loud and clunky drives. Eventually, after a couple of years something broke. Can't remember what went exactly, possibly the CD drive mechanism or display but it ended up in the local charity shop. Since then it's been Sony decks all the way. Those were the days..

Yes - indeed you can download and install SS 4.3 Ultimate which no longer includes the defunct Connect bits. You'll probably need to uninstall any SS3.4 components that may have just installed.

Well I've changed (from 352/256kbps) since my earlier post. Now everything's 132kbps LP2 (both standard and Hi-MD) for listening purposes. Seems to strike the right balance between quality and quantity.

12 now - add your signatures folks!

That is, if your PC has optical in and if you have an MD deck with optical out you could do this. I believe the key word here is 'if '.

Thanks - I'm long since sorted..

Have you tried or considered using a PC keyboard to do the titling on your deck? Much simpler and less fiddly than using the remote. You need one with a (round) PS/2 connector rather than the more common USB type. Even simpler would be to use if you can install that on a PC and connect your deck or a NetMD/Hi-MD portable. Otherwise I don't know of a simple guide to titling apart fom slogging through the manual.

My MDS-JE640 is digitally fed from 2 sources, an Inoi 500Gb Media player which only has a coaxial output, and the optical TOSLink from an LG DVD/USB deck. The JE640 in turn feeds its analogue RCA outputs into a Denon Receiver. Don't mind saying it's quite a nice setup for me, most audio-visual bases being covered, including MD of course. I could use my JB980 for the same job, and perhaps get a slightly better result from its DAC, but the JE640 seems fine, and is slightly less obtrusive. Maybe I'll switch over to the JB980 one day, but for now it's happily ensconced in my MD-CD only system.

The Sony LAM-X1 is/was one such CD/Hi-MD bookshelf unit. Couple more Onkyo Hi-MD systems: X-N7/N9 X-B7/B8. Not sure if any others were made...

I love Tascam gear, I have a few SD based portable recorders of theirs, but don't much like recording and playback with SD cards. If only they could have 'upgraded' the MD deck to Hi-MD....

I daresay we should sticky this one, if there's been more than occurrence - or maybe I'm just getting paranoid...

No - no SP uploading now I'm RH1 free. I now record direct to Wav on my computer, or PCM-M10. (PS sorry about the screen name change - Barock1 is no more...)

I don't use MD so much at home these days, but I'm now using MD full time on the daily commute. I've tried various large-ish capacity MP3 players, and not found any to be as satisfying as my MZ-RH800 (or RH700) and its AM/FM radio remote. A 1GB compilation will keep me going for weeks, and I don't need to constantly worry about charging the battery. Coupled with my Sennheiser CX300 phones, the sound quality is as good, indeed better than anything else I've tried, and though I'd like larger capacity discs and smaller footprint, I'm not tempted by anything else out there at the moment. At home I've got a few MDLP decks (JB980, JE640, MXD-40), which I'll occasionallty pop a legacy disc into and play through the hi-fi. I've made about 350 SP/LP2 discs over the years, so a reasoable colelction. The decks also make great ADC/DAC's in conjunction with my other audo systems. I also use my MZ-B10 a lot for music practice with recorded backing tracks, for which I find it an excellent tool. I don't do much general MD recording now, essentially all my MD units are downloaders or playback devices, but all in all MD's here to stay in my case.

As I have now dispatched my 2 RH1's, sadly I have to take myself off the list of RH1 owners (and have updated the poll count accordingly). Not that I'm leaving MD/Hi-MD at all. I still have my decks and other portables and of course music collection on MD. I have left Sonicstage though, since moving on to Windows 7, so no longer needed (or rather could use) the upload-all feature of the RH1 which I originally got them for.

Richard (Hungerdunger) has been an excellent buyer of my 2 MZ-RH1's. A pleasure to deal with, quick to reply and very prompt with payment. I would not hesitate to trade with him again in the future. I'll miss those RH1's, but I'm sure they've gone to a great home!

Perhaps the seller is describing 'normal' RH1 operation - the OLED display turns off after a few seconds to save battery life and/or the display? That's the same as that other OLED unit, the MZ-RH10, which I found extremely annoying for that reason, although the 7 line display was far nicer than the RH1's. Maybe it could be set to be 'on' all the time - I don't find it useful enough to bother with. Btw, if you're after a spare RH1 (and are in the UK?) I have two in good condition I could let you have at a very favourable price. You'd have to arrange pickup as I'm too busy/lazy to deal with the post.