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Hi there! I just came back to this forum but today it's all about a cassette walkman. So recently i picked up a "like new, serviced well" EX-615 which was in good cosmetic shape but technical, it had some issues the seller wasn't telling me... I was able to fix most issues but there's still a slightly noticeable wow and flutter and i wonder what would be normal for such a machine? It surely isn't the best one ever made but with a DC servo, I'd expect it to be pretty good. I lubricated the capstan, replaced the belt and the pinch rollers with parts from "fixyouraudio" . I made myself a test tape on my Denon DRM-800 using a TDK SA cassette and used a utility on my pc to measure it. While it was much worse at the beginning, it sits now between 0.39% Rms and 0.50% Rms with peaks up to 0.60% Another unit i just picked up aswell has approx 0.20% to 0.30% Rms. Ofc. we'll also have to encounter the wow and flutter caused by the recording itself but i think this is a dramatic difference for two identical devices. One that has been "serviced" and one that hasn't been touched before (that works better). I found a spec sheet somewhere online (no official sony page) that said "less than 0,45% Rms " So while the second unit seems to be well within it's (official?) specs, the second one seems to be a little off. So i wonder if this is as expected and "as good as it gets" or if something else might be wrong with it? Both units got brand new rubber parts and lubrication where it is needed and accessible without removing the pcb. Btw. the wow and flutter of my denon deck is just about 0.06% RMS on average, with peaks up to 0,1% RMS from now and then, playing the test recording i made with the very same machine! What are your thoughts on this? I'll definitely never buy from this seller again 😄

As many of you know already, MiniDisc was at its most popular in Japan, in fact music in that format (Pre-recorded MDs) have been released and sold there as recent as 2010 (!) So not surprisingly, Japan has PLENTY of nice units that play and record MDs. I've been a regular user of an auction deputy service that allows you to bid on Japanese auction sites (most commonly Yahoo!). Recently I have won a bookshelf MD Unit made by Aiwa in 2003 - and I am in LOVE with it! Take a look: Here are some of its awesome features: the display changes colors (511 according to its manual!) Its FM covers the world spectrum (76-108), though the AM tuning is in japanese steps (9 khz starting from 531 - I don't use AM) You can record in different ways - from Radio to MD,CD, or Cassette, from AUX to MD,CD, or cassette, From CD to MD or Cassette, From Cassette to MD or CD The bass on this (called i-bass) is UNBELIEVABLE and comes in two modes, iBass1 or iBass2. The Cassette deck is right on the top of the unit (that little slot at the top) This thing also has a mode where it will tell you what day it is when you turn it on - it notes important birthdays as well as Japanese holidays. On a humorous note, yesterday, it mentioned that it was Greenery Day, though that was actually changed to Showa Day in 2007 (this thing was made in 2003). More about Greenery Day in Japan (it's like our Earth Day): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenery_Day Minidisc.org has a little section on this unit here: http://www.minidisc.org/part_Aiwa_XR-MJ1.html So this is a pretty sweet unit, and the sound is just awesome. It was also cheaper than I thought. When I won it at an auction, it was about 6000 Yen (around 60 bucks or so), though the shipping (from Japan, remember)...yikes. So, have any of you thought about getting any MD units from Japan? Have there been a few you've been drooling over, like I did over this one? If you did manage to get one, please show it off here!