Minidisc 'cradles'

[RomulusXXV]

Hi! Just lately I've been having issues with the 'cradles' ...is that the name given to the unit that the disc sits in? - of a couple of my Sony minidisc recorders that are different models.  Are all of these cradles of different Sony models interchangeable?  Thanks in advance for any responses. 

[BearBoy]

Hi @RomulusXXV. Are you asking about portable recorders or decks? The drive units for the latter are shared among multiple different models (e.g. you can put the drive unit from an MDS-JE480 in an MDS-JE780 or MDS-JB980).

 

I think @kgallen might have produced a list on here at some point.

[kgallen]

If you mean the drive in a deck then the same drive is usually used in the same generation of deck. Look at the last two digits per the examples from @BearBoy. But you can’t swap between generations e.g. you can’t put a drive from a 530 into a 520.

 

The drive has the ATRAC chip on it and these chips evolved over the years as the ATRAC coded was revised. 
 

Also some machines of the same generation have a variant of the drive which makes them incompatible. For example the ‘pro’ machine MDS-E10 has an MDM7SC drive in it and you can’t swap that for a consumer MDM7A from e.g. an MDS-JE440. Similarly the MXD-D4 high speed dubber uses an MDM7AX2 which supports the high speed dubbing. Again you can’t drop in a ‘vanilla’ MDM7A drive from a 440.

 

If you give a list of your machines we can be more specific on what options you have. 

[sfbp]

I could have replied yesterday but didn't get around to it - the "cradle" is generally the word we use for the charge stand that the entire portable unit is dropped into for easy overnight charging, or in some cases as a dock like you would have for a laptop.

 

The bad news about cradles is two-fold:

1. There are lot of different designs, and only rarely did Sony make several models with the pins on that cradle (and the portable) that were interchangeable
2. The charging (in my experience) tends to be somewhat unreliable, though this is the case (also) with direct charging via a 3V adapter, for instance.

 

Indeed some models ONLY charge with the cradle, which is a real pain.

 

But if you mean the carry-mechanism that slides in and out of a deck, then everything Kevin said is correct.