Anyone Up For A Sharp MD Discussion? :-)

[Kona702]

Hello!!!!!!!!!! I know this is all about minidisc on SONY INSIDER but I want to break off a little to discuss Sharp portables. If anyone wishes to contribute to this it would be freaking awesome!!!!!!!!!!! Kind of in a rush right now while I am starting this thread, so I will post my info, reviews, and my opinions of them. "Sharp only" features and Sharp vs. Sony is a perfect example of my goal/approach for this topic.

Participation would be really cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Catch y'all later fellow MD-Junkies!!!!!!!! 

[freddyjollo]

well I have the Sharp  MD-MT88/99H  Metal bodies ones - I bought 3  from Agos  a very long time  ago thinking that  if htey last me 3 years each then that would be 10 years or so. I am still on the first one - looks VERY  tattly,  the metal has  worn off the  controls but still works fine. Great clear display and  built in   charge circuit and  microphone circuit. If only it had some way to the increase the treble rather than just boost the bass I would be entirely  happy.  Puts the plastic  Sony portables to shame - as they  say , dont make them like that any more

[KJ_Palmer]

My one remaining Sharp is the fairly unexciting MD-MT270. Has both bass and treble controls, and the typical 2 x 10mW output, which on paper at least is stronger than Sony's, even without the EU volume cap.  Overall I still just about prefer the Sony sound which to me sounds crisper than my Sharp, albeit less punchy. Sadly nowadays it's main use is for duplicating disk titles with the Name Stamp feature, though occasionally I take it out for the day's listening.

[Kona702]

KJ,

I started this thread because I came across my very first Sharp at the local Farmer's Market here in Delaware. It is an MD-MT770 and I paid a whopping $60 for it. After some research I realized that this was a MORE than a fair price. This unit is touted to be one of the best portables made, and I couldn't be happier with it. I dont use NET-MD too much for standard SP LP2 LP4 transfers, I prefer recording in real time so I get the true SP encoding. If you use sonic stage to transfer in SP, it is identical to LP2. A very knowledgeable member Steven informed us of this. The only time I use an MD via usb with NET-MD LP is to title and re-arrange tracks, so the missing USB feature on my Sharp MD-MT770 doesn't matter to me at all. I use a Sony MZ-S1 for the track editing purpose only.  That being said; I do however, use S-Stage for my HI-MD transfers because the problems dont exist in HI-MD (I use an RH-10 for that). You can transfer at any bitrate you choose, even lossless...but that's off topic.

 

I use the name stamp feature CONSTANTLY. When I need to label an old disc in "SP," for example, I do not want to sit and type for hours. So what I do is download the albums and or tracks, and burn them onto a Sony NetMD in LP4 (so its really fast). After I created the disc, I clone it with the AWESOME name stamp feature and afterwards simple just erase the "middle man" disc for use again. That is my fav feature also.

 

Another thing.....I HATE HATE HATE the Sony's headphone volume. Its crippling to me. This has infuriated me since I upgraded from my original MZ1. The portable side of this technology is useless. I need volume and I am hard of hearing. I agree that the Sony's do in fact sound great with the treble feature, but as I mentioned, I need to pick one with sufficient volume. The sharp blows the Sony out of the water in CLEAR loud volumes, but doesn't sound as crisp so I had to just deal with it.

Also, this unit (MD-MT770) is a treat to use. Small, lightweight, metal construction, and all the bells and whistles from the time, (Lacking treble control.) :-(

They would have achieved minidisc perfection with this unit (MD-MT770) If they added that ONE TINY STUPID treble adjustment option. At least that must be what the design team thought about it. But to us....its NOT tiny, and NOT stupid.

 

Anywayz...I am happy with my beautiful 770...and would take it over a Sony n510 or equiv. ANY DAY!!!!!!!!!!

[febed01]

Hi, I'm too quite fond of the Sharp machines. Maybe because my first MD unit was the MS-702 (turquoise-ish), in 1999 (and it still works great despite the death of the remote). I loved the sound and I find the controls comfortable. Because of this it's still my favorite for titling.

I also have a SR-50, all blue, sounds good too, but hungry on the 1-AA battery and the buttons are small and a bit hard.

On the "1-bit" side, I have a DR-420 which is my main everyday portable now. Good sound with the 4-pole earphones.

And finally, I managed to get a DR-77 (the latest made, I think). It was all beat-up (it looks like an almost-dead horse that still can win the race). The battery door is broken (but not the metallic part, so you can put a battery in it if you use electric tape but it's not very reliable so I mostly use it at home(but I'd be happy to find an AA adapter). Great recorder and this is the one that sound the best to me. Also, there's a REC button on the remote

A nice day to everyone

[Kona702]

I have a really interesting question. I haven't  tried this yet but the possibility is certainly viable.

To beat the DRM/SCMS on Sonys, you would unplug the device before the TOC was written, and apply a "ghost" TOC upon re-power, which in turn erased the DRM/SCMS but replacing the TOC.

My theory....These Sharp recorders have a utility called "name stamp" that EXACLTY clones the TOC from one disc to another. So...what if you made a digital recording off a CD, rendering the MD non reproducible to copy digital to another MD or CD burner, then make an exact recording via analog input which is reproducible. Next if we were to take the analog TOC and clone it to the digital TOC...will this erase DRM? The analog copy has no DRM and I am copying the TOC to a digital recording with DRM...will this replace the digital copies DRM and replace it with an analog signal???

HOWS THAT FOR SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT LOL!!!!!!!!!??????????

Let me know what you guys have to say about this interesting idea, although its 99.9% likely to have been already tried and explored, we have a TON of experts on this forum...but just in case no one picked up on this I would like to have a little experiment to confirm.

Cheers,

Sean~.

[Kona702]

There are ALOT of features ONLY available on the remote on my MT770. All of the edits, bass, rec vol, etc.. options are ONLY accessible through the remote. But thank GOD!!!! The remote is beautiful with a crystal clear turquoise backlit display. It is quite a pleasure to use! :-) I just wish I could control everything from the unit when I'm making recordings from my home HI-FI and dont need to monitor the signal (still outputting the original signal anywayz). The pesky unneeded remote for that needs to dangle from it while not being connected to a damn thing.

[Kona702]

I tried the TOC cloning from an Analog disc to a Digital TOC of the same recording. The Digital copy had DRM encoding, and the Analog copy did not. When I cloned the Analog TOC to the disc with the Digital TOC and material, the DRM remained along with the Digital content. So no....I cant trick the SCMS or DRM with the TOC clone name stamp feature. Rats!!! I thought I was on to something! >:-<

[sfbp]

Someone's sold you a bill of goods. There is NO DRM on the data (in the sense we normally mean it, namely actual encryption), just an extra field on the TOC. The reason for this is simple, your disk is still playable on devices made before they invented NetMD (and TrProtect).

If you can find a deck (or portable) where, instead of leaving it alone, the TrProtect bit in each entry is reset, then your idea should work. However, the scheme would founder if there were any rewritings of the FAT map of the drive - ie. both versions should be made with a virgin disk. I'm guessing the MDS-E10 might just do this, as it is a pro deck which in theory allows copying anything. As always, YMMV.

Stephen

[bluecrab]

Stephen: I think it may be a common misperception that Sony E-series "pro" decks can somehow control or subvert SCMS. My MDS-E12 seems to have no way to do that. I would truly like it if I am wrong, though.

[sfbp]

The E series definitely don't set the nocopy bit, from everything I've ever read. But this is not about SCMS, I think. NetMD is not secured by that mechanism.

[bluecrab]

Oh, I get it now. Meaning that I could erase a Tr-Protected MD in the E12. Probably true. I have other decks that also will do that and also pay no attention to anything Net MD, as they are pre-NetMD. NetMD turned out to be kind of a disappointment for me, anyway, because of its inability to do true SP. Good for titling, though, and of course for non-SP use.

[sfbp]

More to the point the E12 supports MDLP (as do some other units) whereas the SP decks do not. Not clear if cloning MDLP TOCs is possible with SP decks. I have a feeling that the MDLP decks respect the TrProtect flag. I'm not sure if the E series are the exception to this. You can tell us.

[bluecrab]

Be happy to. Errr...exactly what do I need to do to get a TrPROT flag on the MD? Just create and MD in SS or is there more?

[sfbp]

You have to have Sonic Stage actually download something to the MD. The flag is on a track's TOC entry, not on the disk.

[bluecrab]

I downloaded some  tracks form SS to an MZ-N510. I thought this would have led to TrPROT when I tried to erase on an MXD-D400, but it didn't. Was able to delete tracks. Same for MXD-D40 and MDS-JB940. The odd thing is that I HAVE seen that TrPROT issue on at least the MXD-D400 before. I did nothing out of the ordinary on the transfer. It looks like I used SS's "normal" mode, in which the tracks are transferred as LP2 (not faux-SP). As an aside, I note that MD isn't smart enough to update the TOC when a track is deleted.

[sfbp]

Hmmm need to think about that. Not making sense yet. Maybe it only bothers to protect the tracks it thinks are copyrighted?

[bluecrab]

I can try it on the N510 itself (an actual NetMD unit) and see what happens.

Still, I am thinking about why this could be. All tracks, I think, were original transfers to SS. However, there is just a chance they could also have been copied from iTunes, although whether that would have an effect, IDK. It just doesn't seem right, as I have encountered this situation before on the MXD-D400 and resolved it by using an earlier deck to erase.