MZ-R2

[RVr]

Glad I found this place. I was digging out all of my stuff in my climate controlled storage building to sell or throw out and found some really interesting stuff. I bought the Sony MZ-R2 after buying the first one the MZ1. I wanted the portability and read ahead shock resistance. Mine stopped working after a year and started giving a read error. I paid a lot for it and had a lot of discs recorded. I put it up in a sealed plastic bag with all the accessories as I am anal about my equipment and condition. I forgot about it after awhile getting ridiculous quotes to fix it but mostly no one even knew what it was. Now, at 61, I would like to get it fixed. It is charging now but I know the original battery won't work. I have my recorded discs from back in the early 90s, a boxe of unopened new discs as well as all the accessories still including the headset with controllers and the external battery pack, manual and original power supply all like new. Except for the little detai8l about not playing. It powers up when I plugged it in and then tried to read the disc I put in and after a long while it gave the dreaded error reading disc. I remember it used to play for awhile upside down only and briefly. Pics below taken today, click to enlarge them.

Can anyone point me to a repair place/person who can repair it?

[sfbp]

It probably CAN be fixed (Jim Hoggarth) but I would counsel you to look at something newer. Many improvements were made to ATRAC to make the newer models perform almost unrecognizably better than the Codecs built into the first few models.

And you probably don't have to pay much.

Of course, if I am speaking to the converted and you just want to revive your museum piece (for whatever reason), that's a different matter. But for practical purposes, an ultra lite portable, or one of the decks, or perhaps a combo (all in one) Bookshelf unit including MD might be just enough to make you happy.

I grant that if you really want optical out, you will have to be a bit selective about decks, but at least half of them had it, and the other half of them can have it added quite easily without being a total electronics whiz.

If you want to upload to PC, then the MZ-RH1 ($$$) is the way to go - but don't make the error of using it as a portable, however wonderful it appears. Its value is in the ability to upload, and there are other portables which sound really good and routinely sell for under $100 on Ebay.

Welcome to the board, we encourage everyone to tell us about their gear, it's fun to read.

[PhilippeC]

Like said stephen, a good choice would be a MDLP type S with Net-MD unit, both a deck and a portable unit.

Cheapest portable units are the the MZ-R*** and MZ-N*** series.

Cheapest decks are from the MDS-JE*** and some the MDS-JB*** series.

Or with not, a Hi-MD portable unit, MZ-NH*** and MZ-RH*** series.

The browser of minidisc.org is your friend, as eBay (just search for minidisc + eBay world wide to have a good idea of the prices).

[RVr]

Stephen and Philippe,

Thanks but I think it is a case of being one of the converted wanting to restore my museum piece. I owned the MZ1 and wanted the non skip and reduced size of the R2. I am not a Sony collector, just a user of all Sony Hi8 and machines. I still have an EV100 Hi 8 VCR/editing deck that I had to have repaired two years ago. And an EV-S7000 full editing deck. My HandyCam is not worth repairing even though I have two underwater cases for it, one for everyday use and protection, and a spare still new in the box. I needed one or the other to complete converting our videos from around the world, and underwater, to digital and DVD .iso files. For new videos I have a Flip HD Mino touch and an HD video capability Olympus camera. Not to mention a Galaxy smartphone that does well for unplanned photo videos.

Insofar as uploading or using the deck for daily music play, no, I just want to get it working again. And since it played upside down only initially before it stopped reading discs from research it should be repairable by an aficionado. My music collection is extensive and already on CD as I made the transition early in the early 80s. I was a professional DJ when here and living in Europe for 7 years as a weekend stress relief that paid for itself and my music. I have over 30k cuts at last count and spent a month almost 8 hours every day ripping them all to the least loss mp3 sample rate of 380kbps if I remember right. I have it on three separate computers and hard drives so I don't have to do that again. But back to the topic, all the music on my MDs came from my CDs, which I still have and have catalogued with an early database program to be able to pull requests.

Anyway, like the Hi8 VCR, my daily use tech is far beyond my old PCM music on Hi8 metal tape. I went through vinyl and reel to reel with a Sony TC 630D editing deck, then Technics cassette decks and Yamaha with dbx noise reduction, allowing me to play a new album once and record it at the same time and put them listening to the cassettes. I still have the best of my old vinyl that are collector albums in climate controlled storage with virtually new covers and tracks. And I have over 3000 original CDs. I was never one to bootleg, and shock friends when I refuse to copy any of my music for them. I spent from 10-18 bucks for each CD they can buy and download online for as little as $.99 today. My collection represents about $30k-40k original investment in last century dollars. And yes, I do download some music today. I just prefer full range hard copies I own without DRM issues invoked.

So I always meant to get this repaired, just now getting a "Round Tuit." And finding out that now it may be too late. Oh well.

Thanks again for the responses guys! If any body knows who or where someone CAN repair it please let me know.

[jim.hoggarth]

Finding parts may be a slight problem, as the R2 is actually more rare a beast than the MZ-1, in my opinion. I have two R2's stored away somewhere, but I do not know of their true condition. All I can remember is taking the main board out of one to fix a customer's unit several years ago, and also there being some problem with the cosmetic trim.

Working better up-side down is often an indication the focus coil is at fault, which would mean the optical pickup needing replacement. I have a suspicion these earlier units had trouble with the pickups, but cannot swear by that as I have seen so few in for repair (ie the MZ-1, MZ-R2, MZ-E2 etc)

Jim

(back from the dead after catching that awful 'winter puking virus' that has been going around the UK)