A used Sony MDS-JE510 - what are the things to look out for?

[nsherin]

I am thinking of buying a used Sony MDS-JE510.

Are there any issue and problems I should look out for or problems I should be aware of. Is it very risky buying a used MD deck?

I should have the unit either today or sometime during this week for a home dem.

Thanks!

[Warren M]

Go here (http://minidisc.ch/problems.asp) and go down the list looking for MDS JE510 and Sony Sony MDS-JE510.

[themadhippy]

yes theres possible a problem with an internal switch,easy to cure if you dont mind striping the machine down.symtons include toc errors,grinding gears and refusual to eject the disc.our heavily used machine at work developed the fault after approx 3 years,took less than an hour to cure,but still replaced it with a 330 for the sake of reliablaty.nothing worse than hiting play to trigger a sound effect and getting a horrible grinding sound instead

[zanash]

There's an ok machine lurking inside if you want to spend the time and effort giving it a good tweaking... I've the service manual for the 520, which I'm lead to belive is very similar...different atrac version ?

[nsherin]

Thanks - rather than have to open the thing up - I am not particularly good with precision handywork - rather cackhanded, are there any tweaks you recommend?

[zanash]

Well where to start really !

best and faily simple

change the diodes to schottky 11DQ10's.

I added a digital coax output, coz I could not find a suitable op amp upgrade to run through my dac.

All the caps were bypassed with wima 1uf 63v jobies, and the resisters inand arround the signal path changed for holco's.

changed the nasty rca plugs for decent PTFE types.

major reworking of the suspension of the transport raft, lost the little rubber gromets and replaced with sorbthane cubes [you need to match the height of the original other wise it does not post the disc out].

[nsherin]

Thanls Zanesh. Don't think I'll be doing any of that. I'm hopeless with a soldering iron and definately don't want to risk ruining kit! :D

[zanash]

As wot not said to oojar...." come up and see me some time"

This would depend were you are, but If I'm not bussy I'd do the biz for you. Alternatively PM me and we could see if its worth the effort.

I found that the 520 was a complete dog out the box. I know I said this in the past but, its now hard to tell the difference between source and disc. Unlike before when I rather just forget the whole idea. I had originally bought the 520 to put all my Records on to minidisc, untill Irealised how badly the thing was bu**ering the signals.

[nsherin]

Thanks Zanesh. Unfortunately, I'm down in Portsmouth at the moment, but if I'm ever up in your part of the world, I may well take up your offer.

Picked up the deck today. So far, I'm pretty impressed with it. Decent playback. I'm just in the process of copying the new Steely Dan album (Everything Must Go) onto an MD, so will report on the recording quality a bit later. On a side note, the album is another cracking effort from Steely Dan. Their last album, Two Against Nature is brilliant too!

However, as there is no remote at the moment - the guy is looking for it, then it may not stay, as half the stuff, such as CD synchro - bloody useful if you have a Sony CDP, isn't available without the remote.

Fingers crossed it'll turn up. I like the deck - it's made in Japan and from what I've read, it seems the models made in Malaysia seem to have the grinding problem. Thanks again, CJROSS - carried out the tests you suggested twice and so far, so good....

[themadhippy]

nsherin if your mate cant find the remote ive a spare one you can have,o and got my md portable today cheers for the tip,olny proplem,the girlfriend spoted a hoover on "special offer" so i ended up spending more than planned

[nsherin]

Cheers mate - might have to take your offer up on that. Will let you know tomorrow if he finds it!

Bet the 'hoover' cost more than your MD! :D How have you found the Sharp so far?

[nsherin]

Thank goodness for home dems! Bloody thing goes through the normal stages of recording, then updates the TOC. Press play to play the disc, then find that it won't play. Eject the disc, put it back in the machine and then get a Disc Error. Tried several discs and got the same problem.

Still, I'm glad it surfaced before I bought the bloody thing!

[themadhippy]

well i aint read the destructions yet,but found my way around ok,recording seems pretty good as does playback,seems to have the usuall editing faciatys (combine,split move ect )the headphones are crap though,whys one lead shorter than the other?o and £10 for a rechargable battery :eek: i think not i can get 8 for that price.will give it a proper test tommorrow at work:D .As for the hoover it was olny £38,cant comment on that thou as its her toy:o but quess i'll have to learn

[themadhippy]

does the recorded discs play on the portable? seem to recall having a simalar proplem with our 510,unplugging it and restoring power cured it for a while

[nsherin]

Nope, they don't play on the portable unfortunately. Glad you like the Sharp. Might buy some Senn MX400s from Maplins for £10 for it actually.

[nsherin]

Gave up with it after using an MD cleaner. As it was on dem, there was nothing lost, money-wise. Picked up an MDS-JE480 at lunchtime - no digi out, but it should be fine for the purpose I need it for. That is recording MDs for my personal and editing for compilations before mastering to CDR. The CD recoder I've got uses SCMS in any case.