MiniDisc deck life-span and availability

[DaveNH700]

Hi,

About a year ago I bought a 2nd hand Sony JE780 home MD deck. It's in very good condition and according to the receipt attached to the manual it was bought in 2003.

I've started to use it frequently as the ps2 keyboard connection makes it very easy to edit and label tracks that I record on my portable NH700.

My only concern now is how much life is left in it and I sometimes regret not buying a brand new one for a little more money whilst they were still available.

My questions are these:

1. Does anyone have any idea of the typical lifespan of a home deck such as the JE780?

and

2. Are there any home decks still available new from any manufacturers preferably with a keyboard connection?

Thanks,

Dave.

[THIS SUCKS]

i have several decks at home. they are from 1996 and on the first one i made about 250 recordings and now it cant record anymore. i bought it after it was already used from a pawn shop so i have no idea how much use it already had. i have another deck that i bought used and i made about 300 disks on it and it still works perfect. one thing i can tell you just from my general experience with cd lasers is that they do degrade by themselves over time and that is always an issue. i dont think buying a new unit would make a difference in life span because some new units have the lasers burn out quickly. if its working good. i would not be worried about it.

[Bwil]

I have a JB920 that I've been using steadily since 1999. Since I got into NetMD in 2002 I've used it less for recording, but I've not noticed any problems when I do. It's probably my single favorite piece of stereo equipment.

Oddly, after I let it sit unused for 9-10 months last year, certain parts of the LED had dimmed. After I let those "pixels" stay lit for a while, though, they returned to full brightness. I thought I had contracted the dreaded "burn-in" that occurs on the RH10, but that didn't happen.

I also have a D40 that will not play CDs anymore. It won't record, either, but that's my toddler's fault. MD playback is fine, however.

[KJ_Palmer]

My first deck, the MDS-JE640 still works like new, since it was bought in 2000. It's had plenty of use, too, and though by no means a high-end model in terms of build quality and components, it's a great deck with plenty of nice features. One of the first MDLP decks too.

[bobzilli]

I still have and use the first unit made, the clunky MZ-1, built like a tank. I had it repaired once years ago, and it has worked great ever since. I just realized there are a good number of 'fear" threads on this forum. People are truly worried...

[raintheory]

Yep, our MZ-1 is still going strong since '93

I also have a number of older units that still work great. If you take care of them, they will last a good while. MiniDisc units (at least the older ones and the newer top of the line models, but even some of the cheaper models have surprised me) are built much better than most newer electronics. I think people have had too many newer devices fail because of shoddy build materials. Hence the fear. Unfortunately most things these days aren't built like things used to be. MiniDisc units on the other hand, are very sturdy by todays standards, even though they have moving parts.

I think the key is to use them, but not abuse them. Though that is good advice for anything. Bottom line -if you take care of your units they will give you years of dedicated service and enjoyment.

That being said, I have also dropped a few units (even sent one tumbling down concrete stairs) only to find they still worked fine. My N707 flew down the stairs the day after I got it when it first came out, and still works flawlessly. The other units that have fallen/been flung from via the USB cable (NF610 & NH900 respectively) still work fine as well, though I have to say the stairs incident was a winner.

All this isn't to say I haven't had units start to go bad on me. My N420D is picky about when it will play, and both of my R700's have problems with the headphone jack (but both record fine and I use one [modified] for TOC-Cloning). I also have an NH600 that the headphone jaclk died on (I use it as a transfer workhorse). These weren't top of the line units (especially the N420D & NH600) so their problems aren't entirely surprising.

Edited April 18, 2008 by raintheory

[bobzilli]

I dropped my MZ-1 off the stairs to an airplane about a month after I bought it. it worked fine. i was sold on MD from then on