Minidisc recommedations please

Howdy

My minidisc walkman - which I have also been using in my home system -has just died, and I am now looking to replace it with a full size one to take over home recording facilities.

I've seen various Sony models around the £100.00 mark but am looking for something a bit more substantial and with more edit options - the Sony ...980 looks good, although I've yet to hear it - for a reasonable price.

So...any recommendations for models and where to get them for the best price?

Thank you all in advance.

 

For home use, I've been using a Sony MDS-JE480. It's a budget deck, with an RRP of £130. It does a decent enough job for the money. It only has Optical In and no coax connections.

However, if you've got more money to spend, then either the MDS-JE780 (with Optical In/Out, plus I think NetMD functions) at £210 is worth looking at, or the MDS-JE980 - I'd love one of those decks, but funds will not allow! Personally, if you've got the money for the 980, I'd go for it!

 

On a general point I like the Sonys. I use an old 520 and find it convenient for editing the speech out of recorded radio shows, etc. Just one point: if you already have a PC keyboard (or even if not) I would get a model that allows one to be connected so that you can type in track names etc a lot quicker. Even if it is netMD this is better than being dependent on a whole PC in the neighbourhood.

SteveC

 

Sorry if this sounds dumb, but does the above mean that you can connect a PC keyboard directly to the MD deck for labelling purposes, without the need for any special adaptors or a PC itself?

 

Yes, I believe so, though my own deck doesn't have that capability, and I miss it! Otherwise, labelling is reasonably quick with the standard controls on these Sony decks - but the remote keypad is laid out alphabetically, not QERTY, and the front-panel possibility is done with a rotary knob for the alphabet - so I always felt a PC-keyboard connection would be ideal, if you like to label tracks individually.

 

Yep - I use a 940 and a cheap PC-Line keyboard - no problems at all re labelling, though I rarely use MD now unless during mastering to a CDR (it's easier to take the performance hit of MD than piddling around with editing on CDR).

The 940 is a stunning machine - I'd expect the 980 to be even better. I also use an old 530 which in itself is fairly nice, but not a patch build or quality wise on the 940