kieronkirk

My 20 year old JB930 occasionally does the same when titling or skipping tracks. This is something that I can live with but of course there is no problem when recording. Kieron. I should have mentioned using the remote control, not sure if the JE530 has an easy remote as the JB930.

That seems expensive! I got 50 for £29.85...? Just ordered 200 at £131.40. I suspect the price varies depending on supply. That said, the cases are excellent quality and good value for money. Having purchased many MDs second hand with no sticky labels, I insert hand written labels into the old cases with the MD. These new cases are much easier and also look better than the many scratched cases that came with the second hand MDs. Kieron.

kieronkirk - just wondering if you got a further discount for buying 100? (buying 50 works out cheaper per box than buying 20 on Amazon). They only seem to have a shopfront on Amazon. I paid £89.25 for the 100 cases. Kieron.

Agreed. Just purchased 100 cases from AWV International via.Amazon. Very quick delivery from Hanover, in Germany.

"Or am I the only one who still uses MD in the way it was originally designed i.e. as a replacement for the cassette? Everything (almost) recorded in real time in SP mode and always delighted with the results." No you are not the only one and yes and I am delighted with the results after 20 years of recording SP. Kieron.

I could not have said it more cogently than the above. 20 years on, I have 4 full size decks, 4 portables, 350 + recorded discs and 650+ blank discs. I would not let any of my MD units within a million miles of a PC. Addict ? Kieron.

I have a RM-D17M which came with my MDS-JB920 and three RM-D33M from MDS-JB930. One of the RM-D33M has a "DO BIT" button which the other two do not have. Is this of any help?

JB940 Service Manual Page 4, from the equipment browser on this site. Ciarain.

"What exactly were you proposing (or describing) in your post? If there's some new trick, I'm always game to try it.." I record concerts from BBC Radio 3,FM or DAB in analog because my JB930 goes into SCMS mode if I attempt to do so digitaly. I use MD80s in order to get the recording onto MD. After editing if it appears that I could have used an MD74 or MD60, I transfer the recording between two JB930s SPDIF to SPDIF. Chiarain.

The Sony MDS-JB930 is not MDLP capable, but does have an optical out. It is possible to connect two MD players, optical to optical, or co-ax to co-ax to make/edit a second copy of a recording. Chiarain.

"So MZ-RH1 is a must have investment" At the moment there is an MZ-RH1 on UK/Ebay , bidding up to £180 with 7 days to go. Kieron.

"The mechanical and electronic complexity of these MD units are mind blowing. needless to say im scared 20-40yrs from now some or all of these MD units may not even work due to age, ware & tear, etc." My 15 year old JB930QS was successfully repaired a couple of months ago, spare optical units and probably other components are still available, but for how long? I have a 16 year old JB920QS which has worked perfectly since purchase. There are plenty of the QS models available on Ebay UK, but the shipping costs to NE Ohio would be very expensive. As for portables, my only experience is the MZR55 which I purchased soon after the JB920QS. I have recently purchased 3 MZR55 from EbayUK, one has been well used and is scuffed front/back but the sides are near perfect. As an aside, I undertook a long train journey recently, and listened to 4 hours of music using the gum-stick battery and 2 rechargeable NiMh AA batteries. Upon recharging, the batteries needed a total of 1600mAh to bring them back to full charge. So 2x2400mAh+1400mAh equals 6200mAh, less about 10% unusable charge gives about 13-14 hours playback at approx. 400mAh. The joys of having an intelligent battery charger! Kieron.

http://www.minidisc.org/manuals/sony/sony_mdsjb940_manual.pdf Kieron

A quick look on e-bay reveals: JE780 £120-149, JE640 £90-119, JB930 £120-150, JB940 £130-150, two JB920 for £110 each and another one with RMD-11P for £200. Yes a repair is better than buying s/h, not knowing how your purchase has been treated. It does help buying s/h if the unit comes with the original packaging, I purchased yesterday a JB930 with box etc. for £90 + £20 postage Kieron.

For the first year I made many recordings on my JB920, they play very well on the JB920 and the JB930. I cannot detect any shortcomings with the JB920 compared to the JB930. There is no PC keyboard socket on the JB920, so it is a bit awkward when it comes to editing/naming. Kieron.

freddyjollo, The optical unit failed, the repair cost was £103. A bargain considering the s/h cost of a JB930, typically £130-160. Kieron.

Thank you Jimma, most interesting. I purchased a MDS JB920 in 1998 so that I could record concerts from BBC R3, particularly those at which I was present. An AC mains programmable timer proved very useful. An MZR55 followed and the following year I purchased a MDS JB930. I have not looked back! The sound quality from MD is far superior than Compact Cassette and there is no comparison when it comes to editing. Recording engineers from the 50s/60s could only have dreamed of MDs capabilities. I felt Sony's issuing of pre-recorded MDs to be irrelevant, it is after all a recording media. Considering Sony's problems back in 1992, we can be thankful that MD lasted as long as it did. My MDS JB920, MZR55 and MDS JB930 are still in use, despite the JB930 dying a couple of months ago, fortunately repaired. I have since added two MZR55 and two JB930. Kieron.

"By all means enquire about repairs but to be honest it is unlikely to be economically viable. The Sharp 702 is a fairly common model and doesn't usually fetch excessively high prices so you will probably be able to get another (or even two or three) for the price of having your existing one repaired," There are two sellers on Ebay(UK) with four assorted Sharp 702s. Neither seller has any MDs so cannot verify that the 702s work. This seems to be a bit of a lottery. Can anybody suggest an good performing alternative model. My only experience of portable MDs is the Sony MZR55, my 16 year old example still works perfectly. Kieron.

Try DK AVS in Mitcham, Surrey. Find their website on line. Kieron.

My 15 year old JB930 seized up with an MD inside. Many thanks to AV Services in Mitcham, London who fixed the problem. (£100). As a result of this, I purchased another JB930 from E-Bay.(£155). My JB920 is still working as is my MZR55, both purchased in 1998. Again from E-Bay, another two MZR55s (£86) and with a stock of over 150 blank MD60/74/80 I should be prepared for any possible problems in the future.