old md-jes510 deck atrac version ?

[ATELETRONICS]

i have a old md-jes510 deck that i recorded some music on. the hi end sounded more like 256k mp3. i decided to try it again on my old mz-n510 walkman. both weree done through the digital input. has anyone noticed how much better type R recording is? i was also wondering what version of atrac the old 510 deck uses? does any one know? have anyone else been able to hear the differences between the old SP standard atrac versions?

[ZosoIV]

According to the MDCF entry for that deck, the MDS-JE510 (like the 500) has ATRAC 4.0. Though everybody's hearing abilities are different, I personally find ATRAC Type-R to be leaps and bounds better than 4.0 in two areas: pre-echo (smearing and "fattening" of sharp sounds like acoustic guitar or clicks on an LP record), and HF ringing (especially at 16kHz and above). I came to these conclusions after lots of playing around with different decks and portables, as well as blind ABX testing. In short, Type-R would be better at handling high frequencies and would sound crisper than 4.0. Will you notice? That depends on your equipment, hearing abilities, and sensitivity to artifacts. I personally can’t even stand some recordings made on my MZ-R900, which has ATRAC 4.5, because I am very sensitive to pre-echo.

If you're happy with your 510, keep it. If not, grab a Type-R capable deck on eBay. Look for the following models: MDS-JE530, MDS-JE630, MDS-JB930, MDS-JB940, MDS-JE980, MDS-JA20ES, MDS-JA333ES, MDS-JA555ES. The 400-series of decks are really cheap and don't have a phone or optical output, so I would personally avoid them. If those aren't important to you, you could also look for the MDS-JE440, MDS-JE470, or MDS-JE480 series of decks. The 900-series and ES series of decks are the best quality and correspondingly more expensive. They also don't pop up as much anymore, whereas the 400-series are quite common and can still be found NIB.

Oh, and your MZ-N510 has ATRAC Type-S, which uses Type-R for SP encodings. If you find problems with those too, maybe ATRAC isn't the codec for you - try a Hi-MD unit and record in PCM (uncompressed) mode instead. (Other codecs which are better than ATRAC and MP3 at HF content and pre-echo are Ogg Vorbis, AAC, and Musepack (MPC)).

[ATELETRONICS]

actaully i really loke atrac type R. i think its the best if your going to record compressed. pcm is not necessary for me. i would really like to get another deck. thanks for your help. i wish damn sony would release a hi-md deck. i would buy a hi-md then!! untill then its old sp for me.