Sony JE520 & JE530 - opinions please

[Another MD fanatic]

Over the last few months I've been keeping a few notes of the typical going rates for a number of MD decks (I'm looking to buy, not sell) and one thing is puzzling me.

Looking at Ebay (UK) I've noticed the JE520's usually go for better prices and attract far more bidders than the JE530 model. I know that Sony narrowed down the remote for the 530 but apart from that, on face value at least, I wouldn't have thought there was that much difference between the two. And of course the 530 is slightly newer.

Anyone out there know something I don't?

Thanks, Steve (not entirely a novice, had MD's for 12 years).

And remember, a cassette deck is a piece of audio equipment, a minidisc is a piece of precision audio equipment.

And an MP3 player is a disposable little toy!

[jim.hoggarth]

From a technical viewpoint, they are somewhat similar but still different enough to notice. They both use the MDM-5x drive unit which got rid of the load/unload oscillations that the MDM-3 family suffered. I actually like this drive, as it is plastic enough to be light but with enough metal to be robust. The '530 has a slightly improved optical pickup then the '520 - from the KMS-260A to the 260B variant. I believe the only difference is the error rate figure. And somehow the overall power consumption is improved by a couple of watts (from 18W to 16W). It is not apparent from the circuitry how this has been done, probably changes in the ICs used.

The major changes are the remote control, and the master chip (including the ATRAC encoder/decoder): the '520 is the CXD2654R and the '530 uses the CXD2656R, and the ADC/DAC. One obvious result is that the JE530 has the Type R DSP. And the digital-analogue conversion is much improved using an 'AK' brand chip rather than Sony's. I believe this gives more bit resolution here. So given the choice, always plump for the later model.

I am sure Stephen will add to this, as he knows the firmware side better than I. I just fix 'em - he actually listens to them!

Jim

[sfbp]

You said it pretty good, Jim. The one other change of significance is the addition of keyboard socket - which doesn't happen until you go to the 630. The 630 appears to be a 530 with a keyboard socket, IOW. But I don't have (and haven't) a 530 to listen to. The 530 and 630 both have Pitch control. This is present in later models, but I think the 630 is the last one allowing you to RAISE as well as lower the pitch. The raise pitch ability appears to have gone with the introduction of MDLP, though I daresay I'll get corrected by someone

I'm waiting to hear the results of the great debate (in the other thread) over whether the head I've ordered can be fitted to all models, as I don't understand the intricacies of the differences between optical pickup models.

[Another MD fanatic]

Thank you both for your comments. I thought all along the 530 was probably a better machine which Jim has confirmed. At the moment I'm still deliberating but depending on how the finances go over the next month or so I might just say "sod it" and go for a 930.

Thanks again, Steve