kopfhorer

All my friends who've bought micro systems have had problems with them. Those things show up constantly at thrift shops and garage sales, usually with tanked CD and cassette mechanisms. I respectfully submit that one might be better off buying a vintage stereo system from a garage sale or a good mom-and-pop stereo shop. What gets me is how they rate the wattage on micro systems. Like, one maker claims 400 watts a channel on one model, but that's at 10% distortion. 10% distortion is AGONY, and I don't suspect that unit could keep up that power level for very long until things got smokin'! Back during the dark days of consumer protection laws in the US of A, a stereo had to be power-rated at total RMS power into an 8 ohm load at its claimed distortion level (which was usually 0.5 per cent give or take a few).

(Sigh) 'Spect you're right. IBM's old PC-XT's were built like tanks, but they're not terribly useful in today's world, save for historic value or some extremely menial tasks. (One guy tried shooting one at point-blank range with a 12-gauge shotgun to see how it would hold up. Dented the case a bit). The home-built machine I'm using now cost about 1/20th what the PC-XT would have cost new back in '84, and does a damned sight more. I guess my main gripe is, I wish they'd quit making things in sweatshop nations like China, which sinks quality and takes jobs away from regular people here. And I wish they'd stop beta-testing stuff on us a la Microsoft, and charging us bucks deluxe for the privelege of being their "guinea pigs". But hey, gotta get the stuff out ahead of the competition, right? Even if it's a total train wreck, like the M-Audio Micro-Track. Seriously, thanks for being the voice of reason. I actually don't seriously plan to trade a compact, good sounding recording solution for a heavy, bulky machine which you can't even find blank media for easily anymore. Though I do get mighty tempted to do so sometimes...

I own a Sharp MD-MT 200 which has had very light use over the last 3-odd years. Last week it malfunctioned during a live recording. It flashed the message "DEFECT" several times with not one but two Memorex blank MD's. It could indicate bad discs (I've never had a problem with Memorex before but there's a first time for everything, right?). I was also informed that my recorder could be due for its final trip to the landfill. Damn, but I hate the digital media industry! Whatever disease Microsoft has, the whole damn electronics industry has apparently caught it! In the dark days of analogue, equipment was made to last. You didn't need to REPLACE gear, instead you UPGRADED to the next, higher, posher model. At least that's the way the business went not that long ago. Fast-forward to a month ago. One camera company just sent me a new digital camera after I bitched like hell to them for weeks about their old one tanking after only 2 years use and FIVE UNSUCCESSFUL REPAIR TRIPS (including an official recall for a defective CCD which caused the camera to BLANK OUT WITHOUT WARNING)! I have film cameras, which I still use, which date from the 1970's. I have hi-fi analogue cassette decks from the early to mid 1980's which still perform quite well. I recently bought a 30-year-old Pioneer stereo receiver for a friend for $10.00 at a thrift shop which blows away just about anything at Best Buy! I just don't relate to the Brave New World of paying gobs of money for a piece of gear only to have to pay even more gobs of money for a new one a couple of years down the road ("It is better to end than to mend. The more stitches, the less riches.") because no one builds anything to last anymore ("Oh, it's just going to go obsolete anyway!") and it doesn't pay to fix it ("Oh, it's obsolete. Go buy a new one!"). If MD recorders cost $50.00, I might not object, but $200.00 every couple years or so just to be able to keep on doing what I now do is a serious rip-off! If THIS is the Great Digital Future, then I'm going to go out and buy an old Nagra reel-to-reel. Yes, it's "obsolete", but at least it'll be around for a while.

I have a 1946-vintage Zenith AM-FM table radio, the kind with the round, knurled dials and TWO FM bands on it - the original "Armstrong" FM band of 42-50 Mhz as well as the familiar 88-108 Mhz band. It needed some new tubes and it still needs some other work, but it does work.

(I posted this question under two other headings in this forum before discovering this one. Don't know why I didn't see this heading the first time out. My apologies. I've been sick lately...) I have a Sharp MT-200 mini-disc recorder. I got it about 3 years ago, have used it only occasionally to make concert or field recordings and it’s given me almost no problems, until recently. A few weeks ago I taped a concert from the sound board of a local club using a Marantz PMD660 compact flash recorder (the Itals, if you must know). I daisy-chained my MD-MT 200 from the Marantz’s line output to the line input of my MD recorder in order to have a backup copy of the show in case the Marantz failed (I know, I should have used a separate output off the board, except that there wasn’t one to use that evening). I was using Memorex 80-minute blank MD’s, which have never given me trouble before (SONY’s on the other hand are a nightmare. More on that some other time.) Anyhow, about 4 or 5 times that night (and with 2 different blank MD's) my MD-MT 200 would flash the message “DEFECT” on its display, and then re-set its time counter and put a track marker where the alleged defect occurred. When played back, each “defect” point contains a brief drop-out in the audio. The only other time I have encountered this kind of behavior in my MD recorder is when someone else once tried to daisy-chain through my machine’s earphone jack into another MD recorder before I asked him to disconnect, and threw in a fresh blank disc. (I think he might have been using his MD unit’s MIC input - some tapers really need to get a clue). What I need to know is, was this malfunction the result of incompatibilities between my MD-MT 200 and the PMD-660, or was it the fault of the MD recorder by itself? Did the PMD-660 inject signals or DC potentials into my MD recorder which made it behave abnormally? Did I get stuck with a bad batch of blank mini-discs? Or is it time for me to consign my MD-MT 200 to the county landfill?

(I posted this message in another part of this forum). I have a Sharp MT-200 mini-disc recorder. I got it about 3 years ago, have used it only occasionally to make concert or field recordings and it’s given me almost no problems, until recently. A few weeks ago I taped a concert from the sound board of a local club using a Marantz PMD660 compact flash recorder (the Itals, if you must know). I daisy-chained my MD-MT 200 from the Marantz’s line output to the line input of my MD recorder in order to have a backup copy of the show in case the Marantz failed (I know, I should have used a separate output off the board, except that there wasn’t one to use that evening). I was using Memorex 80-minute blank MD’s, which have never given me trouble before (SONY’s on the other hand are a nightmare. More on that some other time.) Anyhow, about 4 or 5 times that night (and with 2 different blank MD's) my MD-MT 200 would flash the message “DEFECT” on its display, and then re-set its time counter and put a track marker where the alleged defect occurred. When played back, each “defect” point contains a brief drop-out in the audio. The only other time I have encountered this kind of behavior in my MD recorder is when someone else once tried to daisy-chain through my machine’s earphone jack into another MD recorder before I asked him to disconnect, and threw in a fresh blank disc. (I think he might have been using his MD unit’s MIC input - some tapers really need to get a clue). What I need to know is, was this malfunction the result of incompatibilities between my MD-MT 200 and the PMD-660, or was it the fault of the MD recorder by itself? Did the PMD-660 inject signals or DC potentials into my MD recorder which made it behave abnormally? Did I get stuck with a bad batch of blank mini-discs? Or is it time for me to consign my MD-MT 200 to the county landfill?

I have a Sharp MT-200 mini-disc recorder. I got it about 3 years ago, have used it only occasionally to make concert or field recordings and it’s given me almost no problems, until recently. A few weeks ago I taped a concert from the sound board of a local club using a Marantz PMD660 compact flash recorder (the Itals, if you must know). I daisy-chained my MD-MT 200 from the Marantz’s line output to the line input of my MD recorder in order to have a backup copy of the show in case the Marantz failed (I know, I should have used a separate output off the board, except that there wasn’t one to use that evening). I was using Memorex 80-minute blank MD’s, which have never given me trouble before (SONY’s on the other hand are a nightmare. More on that some other time.) Anyhow, about 4 or 5 times that night (and with 2 different blank MD's) my MD-MT 200 would flash the message “DEFECT” on its display, and then re-set its time counter and put a track marker where the alleged defect occurred. When played back, each “defect” point contains a brief drop-out in the audio. The only other time I have encountered this kind of behavior in my MD recorder is when someone else once tried to daisy-chain through my machine’s earphone jack into another MD recorder before I asked him to disconnect, and threw in a fresh blank disc. (I think he might have been using his MD unit’s MIC input - some tapers really need to get a clue). What I need to know is, was this malfunction the result of incompatibilities between my MD-MT 200 and the PMD-660, or was it the fault of the MD recorder by itself? Did the PMD-660 inject signals or DC potentials into my MD recorder which made it behave abnormally? Did I get stuck with a bad batch of blank mini-discs? Or is it time for me to consign my MD-MT 200 to the county landfill?

Someone please tell me, why should I spend 4 bills or so for a machine which supposedly will let me "rip" my conventional MD live recordings when for years, SONY resisted putting digital outs on its MD recorders on account of "piracy"? I spent good bread on a 1998 model SONY home MD unit with S/PDIF outs (which I'm using to transfer a concert to my hard drive as I write this) because none of the portables, even the non-SONY's (mine's a SHARP), have digital outs and SONY's recent home MD recorders don't have them either. How do I know that SONY, which is to mini-disc what Microsoft is to Windows, won't very soon decide to cut costs yet again and send the whole MD format the way of the BETAMAX? I think I'll keep my current MD setup for as long as I have to and then upgrade to a flash recorder.

Newer isn't always better. I recently purchased one of M-Audio’s Microtrack 24-96 flash recorders (it was advertised at Minidisco.com, in case you're wondering why I'm posting about it here). I bought it (from another firm) thinking that here, finally was the affordable alterative to the now-obsolete mini-disc or to the less-than-impressive and/or overpriced offerings from Marantz. After using it for only a short while, I can see that I made a terrible mistake. What M-Audio sold me is a product which was not properly readied for market. When I first got it, I made some test recordings with it using the included “T” microphone. I must say, the results were outstanding. Although I found the unit rather tricky to use, I was nonetheless looking forward to using it for general recording jobs. Until one night last month. I attempted to use the device to record a friend’s DJ gig at a local club. As I have done with other kinds of recording gear, I connected the Microtrack 24-96 to the “tape” outputs of the mixing console. I used a perfectly functional dual-RCA to dual-1/4-inch (mono) cable which had previously been used in my home sound system. I powered up the recorder and operated it according to its instructions. That’s when things got complicated real fast. Even though music was already playing through the DJ system, not only did I not get any readings on the unit’s VU meters, the “overload” lights over the level controls on the front panel of the unit were glowing steadily. I repeatedly tried to correct the situation, but to no avail. I later took my Microtrack 24-96 recorder home to try and determine what had gone wrong. I double-checked the revised instructions that M-Audio had recently posted on the web, and evidently I had done everything properly back at the club. Using the aforementioned audio cable and a 1/8-inch-stereo to RCA adapter, I connected the recorder to the output of a portable CD player to the recorder’s inputs, and a pair of Sennheiser headphones to its monitoring jack. At first, I heard nothing, even with a CD playing. Repeatedly removing and reinserting the 1/4-inch plugs into the unit’s input jacks had no effect until, with no warning, I heard loud, distorted hash through my headphones. The overload lights above the input level controls glowed steadily. Then several seconds later, for no apparent reason, the unit responded normally to the incoming signal. It sounded normal through my headphones. But that was not the end of it. Despite the fact that I heard signal coming through both channels, only the right level meter registered any signal. Just to ice the cake, I tried to play back the files I’d just recorded from the CD player. Again following M-Audio’s instructions, I could not get the unit to play back what it had just recorded. M-Audio had a beta firmware update on its web site to correct this issue, but why did they send an inadequately-tested model to market in the first place? That strikes me as terribly irresponsible and bad business practice.I paid $399.00 for what? The opportunity to be M-Audio’s guinea pig? This is not the only issue that I find unacceptable with this unit. If the battery in my old mini-disc recorder runs down and I don’t have time to recharge it, I can either insert a spare Li-ion battery which I keep at the ready or run it from line current on its “wall wart”. If need be, I can switch it to “mono” to double the capacity of its recording media. Why can I do none of those things with this supposedly “advanced” unit, at least not without installing a **BETA** firmware update? If the Microtrack 24-96's non-user-serviceable battery fails in the middle of a job, I’m just out of luck (I understand that Ipods have this problem too, but they’re not pro-sumer recording devices like the Micro Track). Why does my “obsolete” MD unit (or a $39.95 portable cassette deck) have more functionality in this regard? My computer has an M-Audio sound card in it, and I’ve had very little trouble with it. M-Audio is part of Avid, which I understand markets equipment for the film and television industry, where reliability and functionality are absolutely crucial. So what’s the problem with what should have been an innovative and useful product? After my experience, I believe that any professional who uses a Microtrack 24-96 is putting his business in jeopardy. Never in my life have I ever used a product that is so quirky, so poorly designed and so unreliable right out of the box. If this is M-Audio's "Ipod Killer", then Apple has absolutely nothing to worry about. If this is an example of what the future holds for us from M-Audio, then I'll definitely think twice about buying recording gear from them ever again.