Which slim separate MD deck?

[Soundbox]

Well, it had to happen one day. My 510 deck started spitting out the disk, coming up with things I did not enter and generally getting upset.

I am therefore on the lookout for a replacement deck with the same sort of dimensions (I have made a rack). The sound on recording and playback is important as I use it to digitise my old tapes, add track marks and edit, then burn to CD via optical.

So, your suggestions appreciated. Perhaps you even have one that you were thinking of selling...

Regards, Ian

PS. LP mode would be nice, but not essential as 1 MD = 1 CD and I am happy with that.

[sfbp]

I think the JE640 is a nice animal. Mine has been utterly reliable (I can say that sitting there looking at my JB980, which is built like a tank, so between them I should be ok). I just checked and you should get one for under 50 quid. Added: I just noticed mine was made in Japan, when I got it I was unaware of this distinction, looks like they all are from a quick scan of listings - making it quite desirable indeed.

Happy discing!

Stephen

PS recommend keeping the 510 for parts. Wish I had not trashed mine, there were a couple of times I could have cannibalized it.

[Soundbox]

Thank you Stephen - just the sort of help I was after. I will keep an eye on those listings!

[KJ_Palmer]

I'd second Stephen's recommendation for the Sony MDS-JE640. Bought it when they first came out (10+ years according to the Minidisc.Org equipment browser) and it's still going like a champ! Acts as a handy DAC too with other digital equipment, so I'll keep it even if/when the MD mechanics fail.

I once had a hankering for the similarly slimline MDS-JE780, but never got round to it, and probably won't now as they seem to be very rare.

[sfbp]

There is at least one silliness shared by the 780 and 980 (probably all NetMD decks). Sony had introduced the track protect feature to manage DRM via counting the transfers from PC to MD. Consequently SonicStage has to be invoked to remove tracks. The 640 is pre-NetMD, so it doesn't respect the TrProtect flag in the TOC. This also means that SS-downloaded MD's can be edited in the 640 (also 440, 940). But it can be really annoying to discover you can't erase either HiMD-formatted Std disks, or NetMD downloaded content, in the 780 and 980 (I just walk across the room, but it would be really maddening if I had only the one deck!). You can play back NetMD disks out of optical to recover them, even if you can't upload them from the RH1, too. Another reason to own a 640. Not sure about that on the 980.

The same thing appears to be at the root of the 2nd Gen HiMD problems I have seen on the RH910. Though no idea why it doesn't crop up (for me at least) on the other HiMD's. There they did it a little differently, the deleted tracks are actually saved on the disk (titles anyway) and "transferred back" when the HiMD is reconnected to Sonic Stage. It's during the frequent re-reading of the deleted information that something goes wrong.

Yes, I like it as a DAC, too. Whoops I mean ADC. Maybe you did too.

[KJ_Palmer]

Yes, I like it as a DAC, too. Whoops I mean ADC. Maybe you did too.

Hmm, well I've got an optical (TOSLink) feed for FLAC's from my WDTV to the JE640's optical in, and thence via line out to the amp. DAC or ADC it sounds mighty fine...

[sfbp]

Take a look at the circuitry of the JE640

There are lots of filters on the analog side going in, but the optical i/o is more or less directly connected.

My read on this is that the deck is ideally placed to clean up sound in ways that even the best portables probably can not. Interesting that you get analog out from a digital signal, whereas I take analog in and feed it to HiMD recorder, or playback MD to optical input of amp.

Mind you this is probably the way with most MD decks that have equivalent capabilities.... and of course nothing to do with ATRAC, per se.

[KJ_Palmer]

Indeed, the DAC/ADC capabilties of MD decks (those with plenty of digital and analogue) inputs and outputs are very well thought of, looking at AV Forums etc. On a par with the best dedicated DACs, at least for 44.1/16 bit audio. Not bad if you can pick one up for £50 (or less), plus with all the benefits of MD.