BearBoy Posted May 17, 2022 Report Share Posted May 17, 2022 Interesting. As you can see, I know absolutely nothing about theatre lighting 😆 My daughters had to go to the theatre for the "technical rehearsal" on the day before the show. They said there was a lot of messing with the lights then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kgallen Posted May 17, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2022 1 minute ago, BearBoy said: My daughters had to go to the theatre for the "technical rehearsal" on the day before the show. They said there was a lot of messing with the lights then. I have to be VERY organised! It's been 2 years since our last show due to the unmentionable. I've had to do a lot of revision... "so how does this lighting desk/sound desk work again....?"! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BearBoy Posted May 17, 2022 Report Share Posted May 17, 2022 Yes, I can imagine that must be something of a challenge. It's not really the sort of kit you can use every day at home, is it? I assume the two guys at my daughters' show are possibly employed by the theatre so they probably do this sort of thing several times a week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kgallen Posted May 17, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2022 7 minutes ago, BearBoy said: Yes, I can imagine that must be something of a challenge. It's not really the sort of kit you can use every day at home, is it? Let's just say "getting your kit out in the back room" is not always that popular with she who must be obeyed! 😆 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BearBoy Posted May 17, 2022 Report Share Posted May 17, 2022 Haha. No, I bet it's not 🤣 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kgallen Posted May 17, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2022 3 minutes ago, BearBoy said: Haha. No, I bet it's not 🤣 It doesn't mean I don't do it though! 😉 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BearBoy Posted May 17, 2022 Report Share Posted May 17, 2022 This is how men end up spending so much time in sheds... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kgallen Posted May 17, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2022 3 minutes ago, BearBoy said: This is how men end up spending so much time in sheds... Oh that option is available too! No bed in there though (yet!!!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BearBoy Posted June 30, 2022 Report Share Posted June 30, 2022 Was tidying up some of my MiniDisc stuff this afternoon and, for no particular reason, decided to take a picture of my blue portables 🙂: Clockwise from top left: MZ-E520, MZ-N910, MZ-N710 and MZ-N920 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kgallen Posted June 30, 2022 Author Report Share Posted June 30, 2022 Nice @BearBoy! They all work ok? Best I can do is ‘prove’ my trusty MZ-R700 from 2000 is still alive and well. I’m listening to a radio mix-tape at work as I photo/write this 😍 (R909 is still dead…) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BearBoy Posted June 30, 2022 Report Share Posted June 30, 2022 They're all fine. Well, the 710's got a little bit of cardboard in the battery compartment to make sure the connection stays stable 🤣, but apart from that they're fully operational. Currently listening to the MZ-N920 via my office hi-fi. Could just use one of the decks wired in but felt like a change. You've got a good stash of discs on your desk. Did your colleagues have any clue what they were? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BearBoy Posted June 30, 2022 Report Share Posted June 30, 2022 47 minutes ago, kgallen said: (R909 is still dead…) I have one, hopefully alive, incoming 😬 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted June 30, 2022 Report Share Posted June 30, 2022 3 hours ago, BearBoy said: Was tidying up some of my MiniDisc stuff this afternoon and, for no particular reason, decided to take a picture of my blue portables 🙂: Clockwise from top left: MZ-E520, MZ-N910, MZ-N710 and MZ-N920 Nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BearBoy Posted June 30, 2022 Report Share Posted June 30, 2022 Thanks @Richard One odd thing I noticed today: when you go into the "AUDIO OUT" options in the "USEFUL" menu it says "LINK OUT" on the 920, as opposed to "LINE OUT" on the 910. Yes, I probably should get out more 😆 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted June 30, 2022 Report Share Posted June 30, 2022 2 hours ago, BearBoy said: Thanks @Richard One odd thing I noticed today: when you go into the "AUDIO OUT" options in the "USEFUL" menu it says "LINK OUT" on the 920, as opposed to "LINE OUT" on the 910. Yes, I probably should get out more 😆 I've not heard of that before - interesting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BearBoy Posted July 2, 2022 Report Share Posted July 2, 2022 My MZ-R909 arrived this morning. First impressions were good. Nice looking machine, pretty much mint condition. Even came with a free blank inside 🙂 Unfortunately, it also came with the original NH-14WM inside it. Which has leaked 🙁 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kgallen Posted July 2, 2022 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2022 1 hour ago, BearBoy said: Unfortunately, it also came with the original NH-14WM inside it. Which has leaked 🙁 Doh! Hope you manage to clean it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BearBoy Posted August 5, 2022 Report Share Posted August 5, 2022 Picked up some small drawstring bags for my portables the other day. I got 15 for the grand total of £4.56 delivered from AliExpress. They're quite padded, so would appear to offer a reasonable amount of protection, and are stretchy enough to mean the same size fits all my portables from the largest (MZ-E30) down to the smallest (MZ-E909). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BearBoy Posted December 29, 2022 Report Share Posted December 29, 2022 Think I've only picked up one new MiniDisc related item whilst the site was down, a (very fetching 🤔 😉) green MZ-E620: It's got some of the usual scarring that the silver painted plastic finishes tend to suffer from, and probably wouldn't have been my first choice of colour, but I managed to pick it up for less than £30 so can't really complain. It's a nice player (small, light, Type-S). Think it was probably a Japan only model as I've only been able to find a Japanese manual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BearBoy Posted December 29, 2022 Report Share Posted December 29, 2022 1 hour ago, BearBoy said: Think I've only picked up one new MiniDisc related item whilst the site was down... Just remembered this isn't the case as I bought an MDS-JE480 a few months back. No remote and a bit scruffy looking but I was only after the MDM-7S1A drive as a donor for an MDS-JB980 with a persistent C13 issue. Had an initial set back as the 480 threw up a C13 error and then refused to eject the disc I had put in it to test it worked but after a quick belt swap it seemed to be in good working order. A check in the service menus showed the 480 had far fewer "miles" on the clock than the 980 (21 rec/119 playback vs 108 rec/536 playback) so hopefully it'll have a fair bit of life left in it. Swapping the drive unit over was straightforward enough (had a bit of advice/moral support from @kgallen 👍) - almost a direct swap, although the drive in the 980 had an additional earth wire so I connected that to the donor drive as well, and I am now back up to a full complement of working 980s 🙂 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kgallen Posted December 29, 2022 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2022 I’ve just done a load/eject belt swap in our Sony DHC-NX5MD mini hifi. It took a disc yesterday and wouldn’t give it back! The drive is an MDM-7B, so our fave 17x0.8 belt. That all went well but I notice the machine always does an ‘Initialise’ after power has been removed. I’ve probed out the supercap and it doesn’t seem to be maintaining the backup voltage so I’ve ordered a new one (or a new 10!) from RS, so hopefully that will be here tomorrow and I’ll swap out the duff one. Hopefully that will sort the issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfbp Posted December 30, 2022 Report Share Posted December 30, 2022 Do you need the SM? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kgallen Posted December 30, 2022 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2022 5 hours ago, sfbp said: Do you need the SM? I’ve got it (but thank you!) but it doesn’t help much with the part ‘cos they list Sony part numbers. The info I needed is on the component (5.5V 0.22F). The order from RS arrived about half an hour ago and the unit is now fixed 😀 For anyone who cares, the RS part number is 184-5554… https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/supercapacitors/1845554/ and I’ve got 9 spares! 😆 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BearBoy Posted December 30, 2022 Report Share Posted December 30, 2022 47 minutes ago, kgallen said: The order from RS arrived about half an hour ago and the unit is now fixed 😀 You don't hang around 😂 Good to hear it's fixed 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kgallen Posted December 30, 2022 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2022 6 hours ago, BearBoy said: You don't hang around 😂 Good to hear it's fixed 🙂 I know exactly which screws I need to take out now 😆, which is not all of them 😆! For a 2000-era unit it seems quite serviceable. Screws rather than breakable plastic clips hold the thing together. It does still have a couple of niggles - there is a pixel row and column of the main LCD that are out and it persists on still going into demo mode (which it shouldn’t do once the clock is set!). Needs some more investigation at some point. But the MD section is fully working. 👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BearBoy Posted December 30, 2022 Report Share Posted December 30, 2022 I'd imagine those bookshelf units are fairly challenging to work on compared to a full width hi-fi deck. So much technology squeezed into such a compact machine. Good luck with the remaining niggles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted January 2, 2023 Report Share Posted January 2, 2023 On 12/29/2022 at 9:41 PM, BearBoy said: Think I've only picked up one new MiniDisc related item whilst the site was down, a (very fetching 🤔 😉) green MZ-E620: It's got some of the usual scarring that the silver painted plastic finishes tend to suffer from, and probably wouldn't have been my first choice of colour, but I managed to pick it up for less than £30 so can't really complain. It's a nice player (small, light, Type-S). Think it was probably a Japan only model as I've only been able to find a Japanese manual. Nice green E620! I did have some luck on buffing up the front of mine with some of that cream that is used to polish watch bezels that I found on Amazon.. Need to be careful to stay away from the logo in the middle. This one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BearBoy Posted April 15, 2023 Report Share Posted April 15, 2023 I've been away for a couple of days (tail end of the school Easter holidays here in the UK) but arrived home to a small package containing an MZ-E720. First impressions are good: all functional, nice and small, metal case. It's got the fairly standard specs for the later Sony portables (Type-S, HD Digital Amp, VPT Acoustic Engine etc). Like with the MZ-E620 I picked up a while back, I've only been able to find a Japanese manual but Google translate seems to have done a fairly decent job of rendering it comprehensible. Cosmetically it's in pretty good nick, just got some minor scuffing on the shiny silver swoosh thing on the front. Looking at pictures before I received it, I'd assumed this was clear plastic over a metallic looking base (so was intending to give it a buff with some of the Polywatch that @Richard recommended) but it's actually shiny silver plastic (I think). Not sure if the Polywatch would be a good idea for that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kgallen Posted April 15, 2023 Author Report Share Posted April 15, 2023 Not familiar - family photo when you've had a play! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BearBoy Posted April 15, 2023 Report Share Posted April 15, 2023 Sure, will take a couple of pics tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted April 15, 2023 Report Share Posted April 15, 2023 I'm not sure if the Polywatch would work on that - it seems to work well on clear plastic / perspex, as it was designed to get scratches out of watch dials (plastic ones of course).. In theory there must be something that can be used to polish out scratches on the silver plastic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BearBoy Posted April 17, 2023 Report Share Posted April 17, 2023 Here's a quick snap of my new MZ-E720: Richard's photo posts have inspired me to take some better pictures of my portables so I'll try to get some nicer photos together. Size wise, it's smaller than my MZ-E520 and MZ-E620 but a fraction larger than an MZ-E909. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted April 18, 2023 Report Share Posted April 18, 2023 9 hours ago, BearBoy said: Here's a quick snap of my new MZ-E720: Richard's photo posts have inspired me to take some better pictures of my portables so I'll try to get some nicer photos together. Size wise, it's smaller than my MZ-E520 and MZ-E620 but a fraction larger than an MZ-E909. That looks great! I've not seen an E720 in the flesh, but with most Sony units I have, I am / was always surprised at how small they actually are in real life - the pictures for some reason always make me think they are bigger than they actually are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BearBoy Posted May 13, 2023 Report Share Posted May 13, 2023 Saw a link to this website on the r/minidisc Reddit this morning: https://md543.jimdofree.com/ It's in Chinese (according to Google translate*) but there are some great photos and (Japanese) catalogue scans. The timeline seems to stop in 2004, so it doesn't have the very last generation of devices, but it's still an interesting place to while away some time 🙂 * Although it translated the caption for 2003 as "Nourishing Goose" so I'm not sure how accurate it is... 🤣 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted May 13, 2023 Report Share Posted May 13, 2023 13 hours ago, BearBoy said: Saw a link to this website on the r/minidisc Reddit this morning: https://md543.jimdofree.com/ It's in Chinese (according to Google translate*) but there are some great photos and (Japanese) catalogue scans. The timeline seems to stop in 2004, so it doesn't have the very last generation of devices, but it's still an interesting place to while away some time 🙂 * Although it translated the caption for 2003 as "Nourishing Goose" so I'm not sure how accurate it is... 🤣 I think I have seen that site before as well - you're right there are some great photos on there and some interesting catalogue downloads Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kgallen Posted June 22, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2023 We’ll that’s it. With gay abandon I’ve thrown caution and OCD to the wind. I actually opened one of my new MDW80T. Just went right out and ripped off the plastic. You don’t know how hard that was. I’ll go to almost any lengths to not open a brand new-new disc. No I don’t know why either. I just didn’t have another new Sony 80 to open and I didn’t want to use a pre-used one. Well I just bought a couple of new-unopened Kraftwerk CDs and I just wanted a Sony 80 minuter to put two of them on in SP. So that’s it, I’ve broke by karma. I’ll be ripping them open now like there’s no tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BearBoy Posted June 22, 2023 Report Share Posted June 22, 2023 😄 I don't mind opening MDW80Ts as I have quite a few of them, they're still readily available new (as an aside, someone over on the MiniDisc Discord server e-mailed Sony and got confirmation that they are still actually manufacturing the MDW80T, not just clearing existing stock, which I thought was great 🙂) and they're individually wrapped. I get cold sweats just thinking about breaking open a block of Biancas or some of my older discs though 🤣 Bit daft when I think about it as they're not really in that short supply. I dread to think about @Richard and all his super rare discs though. I don't think I could bring myself to unwrap any of them... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted June 23, 2023 Report Share Posted June 23, 2023 12 hours ago, BearBoy said: 😄 I don't mind opening MDW80Ts as I have quite a few of them, they're still readily available new (as an aside, someone over on the MiniDisc Discord server e-mailed Sony and got confirmation that they are still actually manufacturing the MDW80T, not just clearing existing stock, which I thought was great 🙂) and they're individually wrapped. I get cold sweats just thinking about breaking open a block of Biancas or some of my older discs though 🤣 Bit daft when I think about it as they're not really in that short supply. I dread to think about @Richard and all his super rare discs though. I don't think I could bring myself to unwrap any of them... I cracked open a few Axia's and Denon's for recording on this week as well. I think Autobahn was one of the very first CD's I bought when I got a portable CD player in my teenage years (an early Sony Discman of course) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Hinge Posted July 14, 2023 Report Share Posted July 14, 2023 Hey you radical Minidisc people out there! I've been making a labels template based on the original Sony designs for MD! I'll do a video soon, and provide templates in both Illustrator and Canva. 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BearBoy Posted July 14, 2023 Report Share Posted July 14, 2023 Nice work! Although it reminds me I have a load of discs I need to sort out labels/inlays for 🙁 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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