From a time where technical equipment was beautiful and made of high quallity. I love it and it makes me happy that i`m not the only one who takes care of broken things trying to repair everything.
I have 6 portable mini disc players and 1 hifi separate mini disc player. Love the format nice and compact. I have collected many mini disc's over the years as people move to other formats have a nice collection of music. Great video :)
+Paul Smith I have a small stack of disks. Probably 30 or 40. Used to use the format in the car. Still have a car player, home deck, and this portable.
I have both of these players, but in my case the MZ-1 is the one that won't accept a disc. (And it's in much better shape cosmetically than yours is, I'm happy to say.) I've dabbled in electronic repair a few times, but I may take a crack at fixing this one after watching your video. Thank you for making this!
Mine was all banged up when I bought it in a Sony 2nd inventory blow out. Paid 50 bucks for it. I am sure you paid more for yours. I also had it mounted to the car mounting bracket for a few years until I got the car player.
Hey, shame to see a good MD player retired. Ive seen the same sort of errors on old floppy drives- when alignment gets marginal, mastered disks read ok, but floppies written with home gear (especially in other drives) fails. I bet if you can get into a service menu you’ll see error correction or retries on the disc that plays OK. Anyway the point is, the electronics and laser is most likely all fine, but the transport just needs an alignment. With the service menu and a scope it should be pretty easy. Love the vids, thanks for sharing them!
I have an MZ1 with exactly the same problem as your MZ2P. It will only play pre-recorded discs. It is a very nice example in virtually mint condition with a working battery. It is a presentation pack that includes two pre-recorded Sony sample discs and some still sealed Sony 60 minute blanks. The carry case has been professionally marked with the Ford logo so it was probably presented to the company when the Minidisc was launched. It's a shame that the machine doesn't play discs that I've recorded myself because it is still one of the best sounding machines I have, and I have about 35 of them. I do have 19 pre-recorded discs so it still gets some use.
Hey great video! I have a little problem, maybe you can help or you know who could. I have a cable-remote for my MD-Player. It's the RM-MC33L. The headphone-jack seems to have a loose contact. Next there's a lot of dust behind the display-cover. I'd like to disassemble it and clean it up, fix the loose contacts and reassemble it without damage. Do you know how to remove the volume-dial? Cheers, Johannes!
hi nice video but i only have one queston what is the main reason a minidisc fails to record is it a lens problem or a disc problem and how best can i fix it thanks
Hi nice repair! i also have a MZ-1 , but now is out of work,after open and check, found has 1 black colour wire on main board is off from welding point and can not find which point to re solder, can you help give me advice?
I have a MZ-1, and now It takes about 4 to 5 pushes to load a disc. Once loaded, It Is fine, works great. I don't have a battery for It anymore. But works off the mains power just as good. Shall I try and do a fix. Or just leave It as Is?. as long as It Is working Ok. Best thing I ever bought back In the day. I still have the Bag It came In, make carrying a lot more easy. And unlike yours, It Is still like new. I love It.
Hello!! I wonder if you still have this MZ1 unit with you. Just received a clean but yet faulty Minidisc MZ1 unit. It loads correctly, goes to TOC READING but 3sec after shows DISC ERROR. Fine. After opening the device, I noticed a blue wire unsoldered (It was Sony added, because the way it's attached with the black specific factory tape, as well as other jumpers around the mainboard. ) MY QUESTION is, the Mainboard end of that blue wire is loose, and insulated with scotch tape. someone probably had a look before. The blue wire is connected to the pin26 of CN804 (INSEL ìnput selection' ?) but where supposed to go on the mainboard in the other end? Any clue would be highly appreciated Regarding the fault, as the unit seems to be not abused and not so used (super clean inside) I bet the optical unit is fine, and I prefer think that it could be a DC-DC convertion issue. I'll inspect voltages and signals according to the service manual. If by any chance a Sony tech reads me...... ^^ Thanks a lot
RU-vid DMCA be damned, you just introduced me to a band I have never heard before! I am quite liking 54-40 right this second. I like you style of music and your shop sound system seems quite dynamic sounding. I only wish they would let you use these sound and video clips as a fair use for demonstration purposes.
+Tech Gorilla 54-40 is a great band, and they have been performing and recording for over 35 years. Very popular here in Canada. They are from Vancouver, and one of the members, lives in my home town. I went to school, all the way from kindergarten through high school with his wife.You can look them up on google, facebook ext. facebook.com/fiftyfourforty/
Did you clean the lenses and the discs themselves? Q tip and some isopropyl alcohol. Sometimes all that is wrong is a dust or murk on the lens or discs.
As a former Sony technician: do you know any workaround for the FL displays on certain Sony devices that lose brightness over time? I own a MDS-JE700 MD deck that still works and sounds fine but the display is losing a lot of its brightness.
I had luck overvolting the filament for a few minutes to "clean" them These kinds of displays cathodes get poisoned with age ,but first have a crack at it and clean the display and plastic window inside You wouldn't believe how dirty they get and how much brightness it reduces
Good day. I see you have experience with MZ-1. I have a question. I own the Sony MZ-1. It was long delayed. Maybe 10 years. Now I'm on. The battery is defective. I turned on the adapter. MZ-1 does not work. I measured the adapter. Output 17V. Surprised. I replaced the 6xAA battery in the case. The MZ-1 works on batteries (6xAA). I bought a universal 11V / 1A adapter. I plug the adapter and does not charge. Sony MZ-1 works only on batteries. What happened? Any idea? I hope there is a serious disorder. Michal from Slovakia. Thanks
great channel, Sir quick question, why i have every time when i copy a song to my net MD MZ-N707 type R walkman, "Blankdisc" error? i was reading that there's some ribbon cable that could be damage or something, appreciate your help! Thanks.-
Hi, what is the problem that no longer ejects the disc? I am Italian and I have not understood correctly. I have the same problem on MZ-2P. Is it possible to repair it?
Loverly cat, beautifull :-). I was a little too young to have a sony, and no money did put a stop to lots of things. Dam optical systems!!, ive had cd units with dead or problem lasers and ive never found out why they fail, often they still light and look normal, ive cleaned lenses and used a can of compressed air to try to shift any internal dust, never did anything ;-( I wonder if the laser purity or some kind of minor distortion to the emmitter was messing up the clarity of the data stream. I had a multi cartridge pioneer cd player to look at, disk error, the only thing that fixed it was a laser transplant. Im no lover of optical storage in a world of dust :-(
+zx8401ztv Many things cause optical failures, and usually it is not the laser, but one of the photo diodes that read the reflected light They typically have 6 photo sensors, 4 arranged in a square arrangement, and then 2 on the sides. When the system is in focus the output will be the same from all 4 sensors (because a round spot is in focus, as the spot goes out of focus it becomes elliptical and will cause the output to be higher on 2 of the group of 4. So it hunts focus until the level is the same. The other 2 are tracking detectors, and should have no signal on them. If they do, then the beam is misttaking, and feedback is sent to the tracking servo to move the lens laterally.In the case of this init reading pre recorded and not MO (magneto optical disk) is because of how the disks are made. On a stamped disk the pits will cause an in-focus and out of focus data stream.MO disks have a stamped track as well, with equal spaced pits, no data on them. The data is encoded when the disk is heated by the record laser to momentarily melt the metal layer, which has the record head over top. Depending on if the head is north or south magnetic polarity will determine the angle that the metal molecules align. On playback this causes a light polarity change. The pickup is able to read the pits (as in a stamped disk) but not able to read the phase change of the reflected light of a MO disk.
Great video! I've got an MZ1 with eject problem: guess what? Gear trouble! I can find a couple of gears made in 3d but what I need is the only gear NOT detacheable, so I will have to resort to a donor. Do you think MZ2p has the same gear box of MZ1?
Hello and thank you for the video. I have a question: What can be the problem when a MiniDisc shows that it imports songs but cannot read them afterwards as the indication is Blanc Disc? I have two devices and they can play only the old recorded discs but not the new onesm as after any attempt to rewrite/rec/format them turns the discs into unusable. Is it a problem that concerns the overwrite head or needs just some kind of "digital calibration? Thank you in advance.
Mini disc uses the laser to read the disc on playback and to heat the magnetic layer on record to erase it. The laser does not do any recording all it does is heat the metallic layer to The cure point which causes the magnetic molecules to rearrange in a race the state they are in a magnetic head that is positioned directly over top of the disc then records either a North or south magnetic pole. As the disc rotates away from the laser the magnetic signal is locked into the recording layer. Upon playback the magnetic signal causes the laser to reflect at a different angle depending on whether it's north or south polarized. So if you can play old recordings your laser is okay if you can erase a disc your laser is okay but if you cannot record and the material that was on the desk becomes erased that's an indication that it's a problem with the magnetic head or the circuitry that drives the magnetic head to make the recording. These units are more than obsolete these days good luck finding any parts
@@12voltvids Thank you very much for the analysis. Much appreciated Sir. I am already looking for some certain spares, I'd say all around Europe. We'll see! Good luck to all of us and keep enjoying music for life!
Hello Oh my ! you're the only one to post video about how to fix a md player (trust me I checked a lot of website and videos too I know that you post this video a long while ago but if you still making video about md player and solving problems about it I got a question for you (I spend a lot of time on watching your video and trying to understand how to fix my problem) So I have a MD in my player and suddenly one day no way to eject it. So I opened my player just today and took of all the dust but eject button is not working I wonder if some material broke inside I don't see the real problem as long as it was working a few week ago if you can help me or telle me if you have a video about this problem that maybe I didn't see From France Thanks in advance ;D
+Tech Gorilla Yes it is a 3.5mm toslink. Looks just like a regular 3.5mm jack but the tip is hollow and has the plastic fiber inside.I love the way people refer to toslink as fiber. It is anything but fiber. I work with real fiber optics and real fiber will transfer data for dozens of KM without repeating. TOSLINK you would be lucky to run it more than about 20 feet before attenuation becomes an issue.
These are still readily available, in case you're interested. You indicated that you probably not ever to be ever to find those cables. They can be had.
Hey guy I know your videos are almost 2 years old, but I have been watching & commenting on them as I have said I am getting back to Physical Media and my MD collection. But to let you know if you even care, they sell that OPTICAL CABLE on Amazon for $9.99 each!! I just purchased 2 of them back in early December 2017 and they come directly from the SONY Amazon Seller. It is the Mini-Optical to Regular size on the other end. If you are interested at all here is the info for it. It's not the exact "Hyperlink" as they always seem to not work after a while, I just put the item name in quotes. If you copy and paste "Sony POC-15AB Optical Digital Connecting Cable - Optical Rectangular Plug to Optical Mini Plug" in the Amazon Search it will pop up. It's not "Prime", but I got them in 3 days from some SONY warehouse. Just letting you know if you or anybody else is interested in the Optical Cable, which is the best you are going to get while burning/recording a MD. Happy 2018!! Peace...!!
Greg Taylor The SMSL 50 watt music player I just reviewed uses the same hybrid analog / optical jack and that is a new product selling on Amazon now and it uses the same optical cable to use it as an input so yes those optical cords are still in use and will work with the minidisk portables.
I love my MD units, have a MZ-N707 and a MZ-N1, also have a MDS-JE470 as part of my home system. only complaint i can come up with is the MZ-N1 came with a proprietary battery that I can't seem to find anymore. othwize all units work perfectly.
@@BavarianM I had found 1 on amazon but I believe it was new old stock, and it had almost no life left to it. mine was the N1, gumstick NiCad I don't think they make anymore. but I do have the AA external attachable. You can screw it on to it and use any AA nicad and I've been using it. not as clean looking or as durable, I'm always worry about mishandling it and breaking it off.
awesome video :) I bought 130 mini disc a couple of weeks ago along with the JVC mini disc deck for your car....lol all the disc have music on them because buddy was a DJ all rock music ....anyways I also have a HI-MD recorder MZ-M200 from japan that you can hook to your computer ( usb ) anyways love da video`s , keep making them .
That's awesome :) Love the DAT format . the wife cant figure out why I like Dat tapes ....lol My daughter collects VHS tapes and she's only 19 takes after me I guess . I just bought a Sony Dat recorder pcm 7030 for 60 bucks buddy has two of them ....maybe ill send you the other one ...lol take care !
+Navpers 47 The big thing I like about tape is it is a linear format.Disk and file based formats have their advantages, but you can't stop a project, put it away, and then pick it up and continue where you left off. I log the music services from my satellite dish onto DAT format tapes. A tape will hole 6 hours of pristine quality music. There no no benefit to using the SP speed, as even though the optical out from the cable box is 48KHz, that is resampled by the cable box, most of the streams are 32KHz sampled anyway, so the 32K LP speed sounds the same. So now I have a 6 hour tape that I need to play back and copy the tracks I want onto the computer. I might work on it for an hour here and there, when I have some spare time. When done I shut it off, and when I am ready to resume, the tape is where I left it. If I was to record onto HDD or a file based system, I would have to start the file over again at the beginning, and try to remember where I left off. It is just more convenient and faster to use tape in this application.I also have some tapes where I made mix tapes that all the music is cross faded between the tracks, and those sound cool to listen to, so I just load a mix tape into my living room DAT, and I have 4 to 6 hours of mixed music. Same thing, when I shut off, I don't rewind until the tape is done.Sure I could do that with my phone, or mp3 player, but seeing the tape turning, or the 200CD jukebox running is half the fun.I am tempted to get a lexan case made for my 200 disk jukebox so I can watch it in operation.
Oh one more thing! Apple does the combo optical plus 1/8th stereo jack on a lot of their computers and gear (even the Airport Express!) and it should be super easy to find the 1/8th optical to TOSLINK on amazon or ebay for really cheap
A very late response: In my opinion, the purpose of the optical input was not definitely the sound quality but also the purpose of transfering text information such as titles of the songs. Therefore, it is quite possible that you do not hear the difference in sound quality directly. Although beautiful video!
My MZ-1 After about one hour of constant and perfect working, it starts heating and stop playing on every few seconds, and not loading disc. When I put it to cool down it works normal again until it heats again. Can you help me and tell what could be problem? Thank you very much. 😀
Minidisc sounds, in my opinion, way better than MP3. Because Minidisc equipment is way better than cheap computer stuff. Minidisc was made for only audio. In these days the phone has to do everything! So it doesn't stand out in something. And the optical cable, you can buy those for cheap on eBay is just standard cable.
The actrac 1 system on this MZ1 did not have very good sound. Later minidisk systems sounded much better, and you are correct better than the first MP3, which was low bit rate, but like ACTRAC MP3 also got better with higher bit rates. I challenge anyone to compare minidisk to high bit rate MP3, such as 384K which sounds almost as good as WAV. Many phones don't have very good audio chips. The best sounding phones I have heard are the Blackberry phones. I have been using one as a media player into my vacuum tube amp. Sounds fantastic.
12voltvids It true.., but actrac 3 sounds the same as cd. Audio is more than codecs. Good new audio equipment is hard to find these days. That's why I am using old 80/90s equipment. The good thing about the MZ1 is.., it has an analog amplifier! That's why the MZ1 sounds better than modern portable MD players. It has analog distortion. I'm lucky I have my whole music collection on official pre recorded minidisc's I think 45. They are worth a fortune now, really collectors items!
I have a few pre recorded minidisc and a hand full of pre-recorded DAT. The DATs sound incredible. Plugged into my single ended tube amp and a good pair of can on, and I sware i am in the concert hall.
12voltvids DAT sounds the best! I had one the Sony DTS 55ES beautiful machine. But too complicated, too many repairs. I had one pre-recorded "Simple Minds" DAT tape.
21:40 Oh, i can recognized that sound perfectly. I love Lee Ritenour and Night Rythms :)! Very nice music! By the way...this MD Player use the atrac 1.0 right?
+Naitoraven951 I am not a big fan of ACTRAC 1. I bought a MDS302 to do my recordings on when I was using minidisk, but still I am not a fan of compression. My favorite format is DAT. No compression, sounds great, and it is fun programming a mixed tape.I have dozens of DAT mixed tapes I listen to. I ususlly use the LP speed as the frequency response if flat right to 15KHz and at my age I don't hear much beyond that anyway, and that lets me record 6 hours of great sounding music. That's an entire afternoon of music to fit any mood, and no compression. I used to spin vinyl from 2 turntables and 2 CD into a mixer, and record the output. I have literally hundreds of mixed tapes, some cassette, some DAT, and even some 1/4 reel to reel. Nothing like loading up a tape I recorded 20 years ago.
+Naitoraven951 Not really considering it is an obsolete format now. It was expensive, but used players can be had quire reasonable.I paid like 20.00 for that Tascam DA40 that I repaired, and I am going to be getting a Panasonic soon for not much money. I picked up a Sony 670 for 15.00 on Ebay. Had minor problems but easily fixed for me.
Hi I have the MZ-R3 model, it has been great but somehow it went into Mo Mode which from my reading of the minidisc forum pages is a service recalibration mode. I have been trying to fix it recently by resetting the factory defaults in this service mode but i cannot get any test mode but MO run which is sometimes ok others not.(ends on; MOmode NG 82 05 0A 00 which alternates after and below the NG. I have scoured the MD forums for a solution the best i have found is: www.minidisc.org/sony_mzr_reset.html I have tried the process described but it will only give me error 40, power is not a problem! I am stumped can you help in any way? Shuffle is also stuck on the screen.
I have a MZ-R55 mine plays and records have a player only and have a JVC mini disk recorder and 3 disk CD changer home deck And have the optical cable for the MZ-R55
A nice offer, but I am not sure I want to part with it. Also, it has copyrighted music by different artists, you wouldn't be able to play but a few seconds of each song.
@@markmarkofkane8167 Oh no it has nothing to do with playing it, I collect pre-recorded minidisk, DAT ect. Not that they are worth anything but I have a bunch of promo disks CD's, mini CD singles, and Minidisks. I have about 10, and another 10 DAT all classical performances.
I don't know if this link will work, but here's the song list if curious. (A little blurry, I can retake it when I dig it out again) www.dropbox.com/s/yxv3lajaa8v8sta/13-12-01--3-28634d85119af044.jpeg?dl=0
You cant really compare sound quality with these early minidisc units, the ATRAC codec got massively improved especially in the first 3 or so years of the format's life.
Mini Toslink is very common Also ATRAC is the best Lossy compression scheme available imo, specially ATRAC Type R which came much later on Those MZ1s are very limited in recording quality
I have the MDS-101 first MD Home deck. Deck stays is standby mode. I like to get it repaired. Fun for a new video? Minidisc repair is always fun to watch!
Nope. Actrac is a lossy system just like mp3. Later versions of actrac were better then the first version on the mz1. If you can't hear the sound difference then you should get your hearing checked. I have recorded both via optical and analog inputs and you can hear it working. Perhaps not on hip hop or hard rock bit record some acoustic music and the compression artifacts stuck out like a sore thumb. Many people will never notice it but people with good hearing especially musicians will notice it. The last version of actrac was very good but earlier versions were pretty bad. Now remember I was talking about ATRAC, not the latest version ATRAC S. None of the minidisk recorders I own have the "S" version, so unfortunately you can hear it in the recorded sound.
Man you slapped t kik or minidisc recorder because it old player it life Iiij has Sony nz410 md net now from Ebay it wirk good I know it needs come back minidisc recorder but stck went down in 2002 because apple was won ipod. Sound quality are different from ipod and iPods touch.abd still now mobile phones stream service and mp3
+THEtechknight Yes the playback only unit reads the MO (magneto optical) disks just fine when the laser is working properly. I used to use the MZ1 initially for recording, and put the MZ2 in the car. Used it for a long time in the car until I got an in dash car player. I will have to dig that one out and go through it some day.It is in the trunk of my old car that is parked waiting for the day I decide to restore it.. The car is all covered up with a tarp, hasn't been moved in 5 years.
+Grandpa Cocky Solder flicking? No, removing the protection short yes. There was no loose solder on my iron to fall off. This is pretty standard service procedures.
I stand up to your challenge of witch sounds better , CD , Minidisc , or MP3 They all sound the same , the compression only makes it LOUDER Only Analog has the flexibility of caricature . I prefer the idea of MD as it is built in to a case & takes a lot of abuse unlike CDs . MP3 is just bloody boring plus SD cards pack up with loss ! So theres my dumb comment .
