What have you just bought?

[philippeb]

Any pics or links?

http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_DCM-M1.html

[sfbp]

Thanks just never noticed it on the site here.

[MDane]

I gotta wonder what that would cost if one could find it on the open market (in used form). On an Ebay search, all that came up was a blank (disc) with no completed listings within the past month.

[philippeb]

I gotta wonder what that would cost if one could find it on the open market (in used form). On an Ebay search, all that came up was a blank (disc) with no completed listings within the past month.

It is an expensive collector item, a prototype more than a product. I bought a used one from a Chinese Ebay shop (internet-time, highly recommended), and a new one from a Montreal shop (Royal Photo). I payed about 400 euros for each. The second-hand one was the most expensive (but accompanied by 3 extra lenses plus 6 blank md view data discs).

[Strungup]

I went to Hardoff today , and got a MD drawer case for 300 yen ....... YAY ! But while I was there looking around I saw an RH10 - In Box , not a scratch , all accessories manuals etc , like it hasnt even been used .

20,000 yen ........ They are holding it for me .

There is a Teac Md5 Mark 2 , and a Sony CD deck on the way to me , in exchange for a guitar repair I did . I will get those probably the 24th or so .

Going to be a good week I think !

Wiz , I will have the money to send your package in a few days . it is ready to go .

[philippeb]

What's the image quality like?

I am really a beginner in digital video. I think that definition and output rate equal standard DVD quality.

Last Wednesday night, I filmed an outdoor performance by Khaled, with the DCM-M1 equipped with a tele lens 2.0x and my good old Sony ECM-929LT microphone (27 years old, I believe). Believe it or not, I got wonderful images (and enough sound) from the other bench of the river (la Garonne).

Then I crossed the river and filmed from behind the security fences, some 100m from the stage. Comparing the images captured by the DCM-M1 with the images from TLT (Télé Toulouse), displayed on a giant screen, I find my takes much better, for several (subjective) reasons:

- Unlike theirs, my images are not uniformly bright, and leave much more room for imagination and poetry.

- The composition of my images is enhanced by artifacts created by the interposition of fences and trees.

- My shots last 30s in average, as opposed to 3s for the professional images. And I enjoy calm.

That was my first attempt at filming at night, and from far, and I am very pleased with the result. Sound is very satisfying, too (good old ATRAC 4.5 SP, automatic gain).

Now the *real* fun.

Towards the end of the concert, when I had already filled up my two minidiscs, I had the intuition that Khaled would end the show singing his world-wide hit Aïcha. I made my decision, grabbed the stylus, and deleted arbitrary tracks of the first disc (mostly shot from the other bench of the river), to free 6mn. That operation took me less than 30s, perhaps 20s. I started to film again, and I won: I captured Khaled's interpretation of Aïcha in one 6mn take.

This ability to edit video tracks like sound tracks is really unique to the DCM-M1 (as far as I know).

[ozpeter]

This ability to edit video tracks like sound tracks is really unique to the DCM-M1 (as far as I know).

I think that's pretty standard with memory chip and hard drive camcorders these days - they've finally caught up with MD!

[MDane]

Speaking of "catching up with MD", I think we need a (home) deck with all of editing features of a typical MD unit, yet with a large hard drive. Well, I am sure there is such a thing, but it is not exactly in the mainstream, or affordable as, say a MDS-JE320 was (around $200 in the late 90's).

Edited June 19, 2009 by MDane

[Strungup]

Picked up The RH10 today ,.......... Already found a trick to make it work on my Mac ....... Yes the Impossible My RH10 is acting like an" M "

YAY , And it sound really good , I love that I can access all the goodies without the remote , But The Remote ,. WOW Nice 35elk they threw in , I havent seen a 35 Elk that looks like this . I will have to post pics . Just not today , I am enjoying myself !

Basically this thing was New , or almost new ...... not a single scratch . All original twisty ties on everything and the battery was half full.

I Also put some money in the bank YAAAAAAAYYYYY first time in months , Paid my wife 100 bucks , sent packages to people ( Hint Hint )

Transfered money to people ( Hint Hint )

Good day today .

[Richard]

I picked up some vintage blanks (all sealed packs) from ebay:

Picked up 8 x Axia J'z 74 mins Blue

And 3 x 10 packs (74's) of the Victor 2003 AR "Measles" discs

* Photos borrowed from Ishii's pictorials

[sfbp]

I got a Sony head unit (GT510) off craigslist for $60 and an XM satellite radio (XT-XM1) for $50 on Ebay (of course the radio needs a subscription but it's there on the shelf if I finally get around to putting it in the car). Each is about 2 years old.

This was triggered (excuses, excuses) by the weird behaviour of the Sony-to-Chrysler interface with my MD changer, though the sound is excellent, way better than the RF modulator. Frequently (in fact on any track over 10:00 mins in length) it would fail to advance the time, for about 3 minutes, leaving the unit essentially in lala land until about 13:00. Sound still comes out, but no Unilink bus commands being delivered AFAIK. No track numbers or times showing, and impossible to increase the volume (decrease always works even with no bus connnector there at all).

The hardest part was finding the right connectors and mounting kit which cost almost as much as the unit itself, lol.

Right now it's not installed, as I lack mounting screws, the guy didn't have any, to put the special brackets that lock it in to the front dash. All I know is that they have to be less than 8mm long, I think. Off to the hardware store tomorrow, or Monday.

This thing looks to be amazing, does everything except make the tea. Controls the Satellite radio, the MD changer, plays all CD media including ATRAC3 (LP2 and LP4), ATRAC3+, WMA, AAC, MP3 in most flavours of CD-R and CD-RW (though there are some weirdnesses about whether it will play CD-RW that isn't specially made for audio), and of course has a proper display of the MD titles and recorded bitrate/format for the stuff from the changer. It even has an Aux 3.5 mm input, and I am seriously thinking about hooking the audio out on the back of the unit to something that will play into some headphones so I can listen while someone else is driving or sleeping.

Thank you Sony!

Pictures to follow, if I can organise it.

[MDane]

1. I got a Sony head unit (GT510) off craigslist for $60 and an XM satellite radio (XT-XM1) for $50 on Ebay (of course the radio needs a subscription but it's there on the shelf if I finally get around to putting it in the car). Each is about 2 years old.

2. Right now it's not installed, as I lack mounting screws, the guy didn't have any, to put the special brackets that lock it in to the front dash. All I know is that they have to be less than 8mm long, I think. Off to the hardware store tomorrow, or Monday.

1. I went a very similar route...and coincidentally for almost the exact same price. I bought a GT610U ($64) and the Sony HD tuner ($32). However, I have yet to make an "Atrac Disc". What I do however is put all Atrac media on one of my ($10-15) MZ-E107's and plug their USB cable into the deck. This woks identically to a MD head unit as far as titles, groups, etc goes. I have thought about making an Atrac CDRW just to see how well it works, but have never had any luck with similar endeavors in the past.

The only real complaint I have about the unit is that if you plug a flash drive (or similar) into the USB port, it will not play Atrac, as odd as that seems. In other words, you can only play Atrac though a Sony device. Of course you can load a, say $10 8GB flash drive FULL of MP3 however.

2. If you are speaking of the side screws that normally come with a deck, I have bucket loads of them...would send you some for free if you paid shipping. For that matter, I may have even had the dash kit and harness you needed...but it's likely too late for that.

[sfbp]

1. I went a very similar route...and coincidentally for almost the exact same price. I bought a GT610U ($64) and the Sony HD tuner ($32). However, I have yet to make an "Atrac Disc". What I do however is put all Atrac media on one of my ($10-15) MZ-E107's and plug their USB cable into the deck. This woks identically to a MD head unit as far as titles, groups, etc goes. I have thought about making an Atrac CDRW just to see how well it works, but have never had any luck with similar endeavors in the past.

The only real complaint I have about the unit is that if you plug a flash drive (or similar) into the USB port, it will not play Atrac, as odd as that seems. In other words, you can only play Atrac though a Sony device. Of course you can load a, say $10 8GB flash drive FULL of MP3 however.

2. If you are speaking of the side screws that normally come with a deck, I have bucket loads of them...would send you some for free if you paid shipping. For that matter, I may have even had the dash kit and harness you needed...but it's likely too late for that.

I just got through installation and preliminary testing. Sure, the 610 would have been nice, but at least this one does everything I want. I guess the USB port is a major difference. I really am not into the USB/MP3/*pod wave, so I don't care. It should play MP3 CD's which I have already made at home.

Funny you should mention it, I made an Atrac3+ CD-R months ago to test out a bookshelf unit in the store - and the last test I did just now was to put it in, and it works quite beautifully. So I have HiMD in my car!!!!!

No worries about screws, I got some and the countersunk, metric variety might have to wait until I get to a bigger store than the one I went to today. But it's fairly literally hanging in there, now.

You also have/had a Chrysler?

[MDane]

I just got through installation and preliminary testing. Sure, the 610 would have been nice, but at least this one does everything I want. I guess the USB port is a major difference. I really am not into the USB/MP3/*pod wave, so I don't care. It should play MP3 CD's which I have already made at home.

Funny you should mention it, I made an Atrac3+ CD-R months ago to test out a bookshelf unit in the store - and the last test I did just now was to put it in, and it works quite beautifully. So I have HiMD in my car!!!!!

No worries about screws, I got some and the countersunk, metric variety might have to wait until I get to a bigger store than the one I went to today. But it's fairly literally hanging in there, now.

You also have/had a Chrysler?

I was never much into MP3 either (other than podcasts recently). But I had gotten a MZ-M200 a couple years ago, so this gave me the ability (and motivation) to back up my complete MD collection on the computer's HD. So now I can simply transfer stored ATRAC files onto the E107 and play them with the car deck. This is basically the exact same principle as making an "Atrac disc"...but is a little quicker and more convenient...and the 107 holds 1GB versus 700 MB (admittedly minor difference). I guess the advantage of Atrac Disc is that the blanks cost less than a buck, but the E107 actually works well as an Atrac portable that coincidentally will play every last file a RH1/M200 will make...so it's somewhat of a push I guess (yes I hashed all of this out for a while before buying anything).

I used to be an installer, so I still have boxes of harnesses kits, etc. Sony decks use a non machined type side screw, which by the way...as you know can only be so long or they will puncture internal parts. So be careful with that.

[sfbp]

I used to be an installer, so I still have boxes of harnesses kits, etc. Sony decks use a non machined type side screw, which by the way...as you know can only be so long or they will puncture internal parts. So be careful with that.

well... even if u just gave me the exact specifications. And if I cannot get locally, then maybe I paypal you a buck or two - heaven knows what the TSA (or whoever scans all the mail) will make of a few loose screws (that are probably from my head anyway).

Out of the 10 possible screw positions I noticed there was only 1 (and that on the one side) where the screws which are a bit too long currently, would have touched anything. So I took a deep breath and turned it on hoping that I hadn't missed anything. The toughest bit was getting the faceplate/cover (not the detachable thing by Sony, but the piece of plastic that finishes the mating of the two technologies Sony->Chrysler) on, especially since one of the 4 lugs was broken off right out of the packet and with some trepidation I had to superglue it back, before attempting to snap in.

[MDane]

well... even if u just gave me the exact specifications. And if I cannot get locally, then maybe I paypal you a buck or two - heaven knows what the TSA (or whoever scans all the mail) will make of a few loose screws (that are probably from my head anyway).

Out of the 10 possible screw positions I noticed there was only 1 (and that on the one side) where the screws which are a bit too long currently, would have touched anything. So I took a deep breath and turned it on hoping that I hadn't missed anything. The toughest bit was getting the faceplate/cover (not the detachable thing by Sony, but the piece of plastic that finishes the mating of the two technologies Sony->Chrysler) on, especially since one of the 4 lugs was broken off right out of the packet and with some trepidation I had to superglue it back, before attempting to snap in.

Sony gives you four side screws with a new deck, and you be able to view the pdf for your deck to see what they actually look like if you are not sure. I have collected these over the years (from deck installs where they were not needed), so I have hundreds. That being the case, any car audio shop that sells Sony or Kenwood should have plenty handy (most other makes have machined threads).

The install kits and so on made by Scosche, Metra, etc. are pretty cheap as a rule. Only some of the 90's era Crutchfield kits (that they designed themselves) were anything close to the quality of fit and material that the OE trim would be.

[tekdroid]

I finally ordered a Sony PCM-D50 with 8GB Memory Stick.

http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/product-PCMD50/

$449 USD for the unit is reasonable at current exchange rates

(especially when they throw in that otherwise overpriced windmuff).

I think the fun-to-funds ratio will be very high.

[bobt]

Just got a Blackberry 8900 to replace my worn out 8700, what a phone, loaded, not a bad camera on it as well, love it

Bob

[bobt]

The Jimi Hendrix Experience eight vinyl records 2000 limited edition box set, The Chemical Brothers Best Of Volume 1 & 2, Sly & The Family Stone - Stand! album reissue, on vinyl too .

A Ring 22A car battery charger with 150A engine start function, 25m outdoors electric extension cable, a replica metal jerry can with its optional funnel, oil for gas oil engines, an organic sponge.

A Baladéo stainless steel multi-tool, Polaroïd sun glasses.

You got some neet stuff, the Hendix stuff would be cool, didn't much care for him in the 70's, but appreciate it now, Chemical Bro's are great, Sly alway's inspires.

I love multi tools, got a pictue of the Baladeo?

Bob

[cornreaper]

Nirvana's greatest hits and Nine Inch Nails: The Fragile. Also, Walmart was clearing out their MDs, so I helped them out with that....six 5-packs of Sony 80min "Colour Collection" for 3 bucks a pop.

[Taliesin]

One month ago my girlfriend buyed to me a PSP 2000... and what a fantastic machine it is!! Ironically, playing games is the less I made with it. Reading (books and comics), watching movies, surfing the internet...even teaching (adapting my scanned classbooks to the correct format "paper") is wonderful in it.

Now it's my main on the go machine for almost everything (even has used it as gps for my holydays journey). A compact all in one that gives me the option not to carry my tablet pc with me in day to day teaching and in my frecuent weekend travels.

But first I used a microsd to memory sick pro duo adapter, cheapier than the sony MSProDuo to carry a lot of things...but not magicgate compatible, what forced me to convert my sound files to mp3. Now I have buyed a 4gb sony MS in an offer, and can used my atrac3plus flies in this format...and what a change!!! The sound is a loooot better to my ears than with the mp3 files, even although I reconverted them from the cds or wav files. If the PSP just had a custom equalizer...

My MD (Hi and non Hi) are still my main "weapons" to listen to music, but now, when I requiered to go light, I can take just one machine with videos, books and great music sound!!

PD: of course, you have to had custom firmware to unvelied the true potencial of the PSP...another nail in Sony's account.

[bobt]

I love old books, just ordered a few Audel manuals from powells.com, stuff like a 1951 TV repair manual, a 1940 outboard engine repair manual, a 1930's or so aircraft manual, a 1927 engineers and mechanics guide, I've ordered before, love the old stuff, amazing how relevant a lot of the stuff still is. The postage and shipping costs are more than the books, but still works out relative cheap, can't wait to get them!

Bob

[sfbp]

Sony Walkman D-NE320, $15 (Can $ hit 94c this morning). Plays Atrac3 and Atrac3+ CD's. Now I don't have to go out to my car to test and see if there is anything playable on the CD when I have made it using SonicStage. (Duh, Sony, how stoopid could you get?).

I think these went for close to $100 originally.

It takes the standard 3V powersupply in for MD Walkmen. The usual remotes work with it except that the N-NE320 "knows" there cannot be a unit with a display out there (firmware hacks anyone?), and so although the buttons work, nothing shows up on the remote's display. The strange supplied remote RM-MC27 (it's like a hook to go on your key chain or belt I think) seems to work with MD Walkmen, too.

I don't plan on "walking" with this man. But it now will sit next to my computer to check the contents of a new CD. I mean, the sound of an Atrac3+ 256kbps CD is seriously good in the car played on a Sony headunit, and of course you get almost 3/4 of a 1GB Hi-MD, i.e. 6 hours on 1CD (2x that for LP2, and 4x that for Hi-LP 64k).

[sinus]

By the way, you probably already have very nice speakers, but could this last purchase tempt you to the Onkyo - Takamine | D-TK10 loudspeakers ?!

I already bought my D-152E when I got to know of these, which are more in a D-302E league anyway, but am quite curious about them...

Guess what - I bought them. Together with a Denon DRA-CX3 receiver. Sounds nice!

[Kain_]

Bought a pack of 5 blanks (Maxell Colorclub 80').

Guess what - I bought them. Together with a Denon DRA-CX3 receiver. Sounds nice!

I'm wondering how they perform against my Onkyo D-302E. A nice pair of speaker you've got there Sinus .

Edit : Sinus, could you please post a picture of your home system now you've got those beautiful Onkyo speakers with you ?

Edited August 6, 2009 by Kain_

[sinus]

Edit : Sinus, could you please post a picture of your home system now you've got those beautiful Onkyo speakers with you ?

workin on it.

[Kain_]

workin on it.

Can't wait your pictorial review

[sinus]

Can't wait your pictorial review

Don't have to. Here we go - the show-off picture of the month ...

from left to right:

Onkyo D-TK10 speakers

Technics MK2 turntable with audio-technica AT33PTG pickup

Onkyo MD-133 Hi-MD deck

Denon DRA-CX3 receiver

Denon DCD-CX3 SACD player

HeadAmp Gilmore Lite with ATH-AD2000 headphones

my audio journey at its end - I hope!

[Kain_]

That's a nice setup you've got there

The Denon elements look so hugly on the pictures taken and published on the Denon website. I'm a bit suprised to appreciate their design on your picture . Surprised by the D-TK10 as well : I thought they were bigger than that actually.

Did you bought the black version of the technics SL-1200 instead of the silver one volontary ? The silver version would have matched perfectly with your other elements.

Cheers.

Don't have to. Here we go - the show-off picture of the month ...

from left to right:

Onkyo D-TK10 speakers

Technics MK2 turntable with audio-technica AT33PTG pickup

Onkyo MD-133 Hi-MD deck

Denon DRA-CX3 receiver

Denon DCD-CX3 SACD player

HeadAmp Gilmore Lite with ATH-AD2000 headphones

my audio journey at its end - I hope!

[sinus]

I felt the same when opening the box - the speakers appear larger on the images. the turntable is in classic black.

[brian10161]

I just picked an HP DV2-1044CA. Great little sub-notebook if you ask me.

AMD Neo MV40 CPU @ 1.6GHz (Single Core, Dual Core model is available I think.)

4GB Ram, DDR2 667

ATi Radeon HD 3410 (Dedicated Graphics)

12.1" LED Display

250GB HDD

Windows Vista Home Premium (I got the Win7 free upgrade kit ordered already)

Webcam

External DVD+/-R/RW Lightscribe Drive

I sold my Asus F8 and my HP Tablet and replaced them with this little computer. This is all I need.

Edited August 9, 2009 by brian10161

[sinus]

Now please tell me you can crank the volume up from time to time to feel the bliss of the set up ...

from time to time, yes! But sometimes I get easily annoyed when listening too long to too loud music.

[bobt]

from time to time, yes! But sometimes I get easily annoyed when listening too long to too loud music.

I found that the real benefit of lots of power was that it would exploit the dynamic range at low volumes without straining, case in point the Telarc LP of Lorin Maazels 1812, when the cannons fire, you really feel it, but you need a good cartridge, I've seen the tone arm come out of the groove with a cartridge that wasn't compliant enough.

Nice set up

Bob

[Kain_]

Very, very nice, sinus.

Now please tell me you can crank the volume up from time to time to feel the bliss of the set up ...

Yes, shame on me , I'm nagging you again, Kain_ ... but I still kind of fail to understand what audio benefit 2x 200W can do in a densely populated urban area...

The aesthetics though I certainly do appreciate, of course, in both of your systems. I guess that can be enough justification, why not. Brushed aluminium is very appealing, and gold plated connectors does improve the interconnects.

The benifit is to show off when a MD aficionado and his gf ring my bell with an EH1 and its cigarillo case in hands

I found that the real benefit of lots of power was that it would exploit the dynamic range at low volumes

That's the very reason why I bought the MD-133 instead of the MD-105FX. I found it easier (and more secure because of the warranty) to buy the remainder elements in Europe as well, knowing that the 205 series were not available in France

Edited August 9, 2009 by Kain_

[sfbp]

I found that the real benefit of lots of power was that it would exploit the dynamic range at low volumes without straining, case in point the Telarc LP of Lorin Maazels 1812, when the cannons fire, you really feel it, but you need a good cartridge, I've seen the tone arm come out of the groove with a cartridge that wasn't compliant enough.

Nice set up

Bob

I always assumed the reason for this was mechanical feedback from the noise made by the amplifier. If so then the beautiful solution is to make an MD with the power amp volume down to nothing, and then play back the (MD, or CD if you can be bothered to transcribe it) result with no possibility of mechanical feedback when the cannons go off?

Stephen

[bobt]

I always assumed the reason for this was mechanical feedback from the noise made by the amplifier. If so then the beautiful solution is to make an MD with the power amp volume down to nothing, and then play back the (MD, or CD if you can be bothered to transcribe it) result with no possibility of mechanical feedback when the cannons go off?

Stephen

I had an Ortopfon MC cartige that sounded sweet, but any dynamic would shoot it out the record, even at the limits of tracking force, did it with a very high end Kenwood turntable, and with a Revox, cure was a Shure V-15 type 5, sound just as clear, and a whole lot less hassles.

Bob

[sinus]

received yesterday - together with a twinkle MD (also new to my collection) not in the ebay article description.

a rather rare TDK bitclub

[cornreaper]

My 20-year old CD player just bit the dust, so I picked up a virtually new Sony changer with optical out off Kijiji. Now I get to redo all my MDs straight digital to digital. Let the fun begin!

On a side note, I'm a little disappointed that standalone CD players have bit the dust. Gone are the days big badass stereo systems with tower speakers. Everyone wants miniaturized iPod shelf systems now. Sigh.

[tekdroid]

note, I'm a little disappointed that standalone CD players have bit the dust.

same, both portables and separates - especially when the alternatives are often (but not always) wimpy lossy formats with no backbone

[Giant_Rick]

Just arrived:

10 random MDs

5 sealed TDK 80 min. MDs

They look soooo good that I want more