Sony LAM Z05 USB audio in adapter

[davidallan]

The LAM Z05 is a nice bit of kit but is of a 'closed' design ie it plays CD's and MD's and only lets you record to MD from the internal CD, there is no line input. It does have netmd and allows USB to PC connection allowing sound from the PC to be heard on the speakers. I would like to connect my DH10P and DC6 cassette for playback does anyone know if there is some USB device that allows 'line in' from a jack plug, the thing is it would have to fool the Z05 in to believing it is connected to a computer to allow the USB option to become active. Just a little project to do in my retirement!!

Allan

 

[MDX-400]

Unfortunately what you're saying would not work out of the box as you say--you'd have to hack SS/NetMD to a degree that no one else has ever been able to.  I wouldn't get my hopes up.  Keep in mind you may also be misinterpreting how NetMD works.  Transfers from the computer are not audio transfers, they are file transfers.  The PC encodes whatever it is to ATRAC3 and then sends it to the NetMD device to write to disc; and, these files are DRM-protected as well.  Therefore it's not really just as easy as getting the "USB input to become active" because it's not really an "input" per se.  It's a USB connection that allows DRM-protected file transfers.  You'll have to make it so SS encodes and transfers whatever input signal you have and the uploads the data to the MD unit.  Realistically you can already do this though, can't you?  Just record whatever it is to .wav using an input device on your PC (whether it be the PC's existing soundcard/chip or an external device) and then convert to ATRAC3 and send to the MD unit.

 

If you actually want a standard audio input though, I think you'll have a lot easier time doing something slightly different...  The recording function from CD-->MD internally more than likely uses S/PDIF [TTL].  Provided that signal is carried in the unit between two places (and not all done within the same IC) from CD output to the ATRAC IC, you can probably disconnect that line and then fool the unit into thinking it's recording from CD while you feed it an S/PDIF signal from somewhere else.  In order to retain original functionality of recording from CDs you'd have to build some kind of switch or auto circuit to switch between CD and external source recording.  This of course requires some degree of skill working with electronics, soldering, and surface mount component stuff.

 

Now to record an analog source you'd either need to tap into the analog L/R into the ATRAC IC (if there is a tuner on this you can record from for example) or you'd need an A/D converter and just use the digital input you made, above. Remember if you use an A/D you'd probably need to convert the "external" S/PDIF to TTL S/PDIF (0.5V to 5V) which is not hard to do given the rest of the project. Or if you only need to record analog you could just do the analog part and essentially disable tuner recording--that would probably be easiest.

 

However to be totally honest, you'd do better just to get another unit on the cheap you can record from.

[punkrockaddict]

Just give a Shot to One of those Behringer Cinch->USB Adapters.

They provide Audio to USB from a cinch line in source.

Maybe this works out of a box

I know ppl that Record from a Mixer right to their tablets.

On another cellphone this dOn't work.

But if your Usb ist just awaiting Data to be written to md it won't work either.

What do you mean with Sound from the pc can be h3ard? Playing a Song in Sonic Stage??

[davidallan]

On the Z05 I can select netmd or PC to speaker. Netmd connects to Sonicstage but PC to Speaker (via USB) will let me play anything the computer outputs to it speakers ie Windows media player mp3 or a game sound or a film soundtrack, so there must be an audio input via the Z05 usb connection. I was hoping that there was some device that had audio jacks on it that then would connect to my USB port but it would also have to give a signal to the Z05 that it thinks it has a computer connection(if not the PC to speaker input won't enable)

[punkrockaddict]

Yes that is exactly the device iam talking about

Behringer UCA 222

Iam unsure it will work because as i said i heard of ppl recording audio to their tablets and a friend of him tested it on his cellphone and that didn´t get any signal.

You would have to try or just search a comparable device that is known to work with any Usb input or device that is not a Pc and needs no driver to operate.

 

I hope this helps out a bit :/

[MDX-400]

Ahh okay PC to speaker.  But that is changing the total USB mode of the system, correct?  When you do that, the unit shows up as an audio device in Windows (typically using Windows built-in drivers), either as "Speakers", "USB DAC", or "Audio Sink"--depending on version of Windows and exact device type. If this is the case the unit is acting as if it itself were a USB "soundcard", which is how you get the output from the PC.  Again this isn't really an audio "input" in that sense either, but I see what you mean. 

 

In this case you would need any device that acts as a host that can output to a USB sound device of that type. Obviously a Windows PC can do it, possibly a Mac, and possibly some standalone devices. 

 

However when in "PC to speaker" mode, can you record?  If so, I believe all you would need to do is input whatever you wanted to the PC, with the Z05 as the output device.  You'd need to set monitoring output to the "speakers" (in this case the Z05) and you should be all set.  If you don't have line or digital inputs on your computer or laptop, then you can get any USB device that can do that for a PC--there are many out there.

[davidallan]

Okay I see what you are saying that the input to the z05 is actually a digital input not as I thought analogue. And you are right when you say windows (8 in my case) sees it as a USB DAC as it loaded up a windows driver on first connection. Looks like it might be a lot more complex to connect a simple audio device such as the line out of say my Sony DC6. I can of course connect anything to the line in of my windows computer and that outputs to the Z05 but I was hoping for a stand alone solution ie no PC to do the work.

 

Anyway thanks to you all who answered my questions.

 

Allan

[acbc]

I recently bought the LAM-Z05 from a junk store in Cambodia for $20 and got it working with my 2007 MBP with WinXP installed as primary OS. 

Also found SonicStage 4.3 online. The app detected the LAM-Z05 upon launching. Managed to create new MD recordings with it. I have set the transfer mode to SP for compatibility with my MZ-R70 player. So much easier than recording via optical or through USB optical cable. 

Overall, worth it. 

[PhilippeC]

On 9/14/2019 at 9:15 AM, acbc said:

 I have set the transfer mode to SP for compatibility with my MZ-R70 player.

Sonic Stage's SP transfer is a fake one (LP2 quality). In Vietnam (Saigon) there are also still quite a lot of LAM bookshelves but Sony LAM-X1 I had seen ONE in 27 years...