Electronics: The benefit/stress paradox

C

chuchosay

New member
I purchased my MD8 about 2.5 years ago. It was May of 98 and they were in big demand--my MD8 didn't come in until August because it was on back order. I'm not positive, but I think this was a curse from the beginning. Maybe they were rushing them out the door and placing less emphasis on quality, who knows? Anyway, my MD8 never worked 100% from the very beginning. Once in a while, although very rare, when I pressed STOP twice to edit the TOC, it would simply lock up on me. All I could do was repower the unit which resulted in losing all of my recording. This only happened twice in the course of a year, and although extremely irritating, at that point it didn't warrant going without it for a month (at least for me). About 13 months from the purchase date a much bigger problem occured. It would not eject the minidisc. I tried everything, even the "emergency manual eject hole." So at that point it was necessary to send it in. Fortunately Yamaha was nice enough to fix it free of charge, as though it was still under warranty. Well, about a week ago, the dreaded happened (they just keep getting worse, don't they?). It now recognizes all discs as "blank." It records improperly, leaving noise on the track and loud beeping noises. It does not play back unless I repeatedly hit the play button. After about 37 taps on the play button, it will play, but not correctly (plays, then pauses, plays, then pauses). The machine is once again rendered useless. This time Yamaha will not fix it free of charge, and this problem doesn't seem like one of those cheap-to-fix-it'll-just-take-a-minute sort of things. Although I have done a lot of recording with my MD8 and I know of its quality of recording, I have had little to no luck with my particular unit. I'm getting extremely frustrated with buying electronics that don't work properly. I realize that things will inherently break and age over time, but spending $1300 for a unit that is never problem free, and seems to break down anually does not set right in my mind. Do any electronics work perfectly? It seems anymore like you just have to name it at my household and I'll have a problem with it. DVD problems? Yup. Behringer problems? Hell yes. TV problems? Once in a while. Phone problems? Yuh. Computer problems? Don't even let me start about those. Am I the only one out there?
 
When I took mine in for fix-it-ups (pre-amps WAY too noisy), the fixer-upper guy noted that a very good deal of solders on the main board were "cold-soldered," which makes them prone to breakage and loss of signal. He was cool enough to dig into the board and simply re-solder the any "welds" he found that were wrong.

ANYWAY, if you do get into your MD-8, or decide to send it in, then check the soldering.
 
Man that sucks. But you are not the onlyone who has problems with electronics. I just bought a little visor palm pilot type thing, and have gone through 5 within a month, and still dont have one that works right. I think electronics are like lottery tickets. they make ONE out of ten that works, just so people will keep buying. The other 9 pay for repairs.
About your MD8 though, I have no idea. It sounds like the drive is all jacked up, or maybe the laser is really dirty? You might try Green hornets vacum method...or maybe you already have. But if that doesnt work, you might as well at least take it in and see how much it would cost. If it's too much, well then Akai has a 16 track recorder that looks pretty nice :)
-Nilbog
 
No laser on the MD-8, or other minidiscs, either. It is true that the information is digital, but the 1s and 0s are recorded magnetically, like DAT and ADAT. The MiniDisc is basically a high-density floppy disk!

So, don't put your MDs on speakers and such! It'll kill 'em!
 
just did a little research and here's what I found:
"When a MiniDisc is being read it works very much like a CD, a low power laser strikes the playback surface, laser light is then reflected into a laser pick up. The laser pickup makes something of the laser light returned. The amount of light returned is altered by a metal layer in the middle of the MiniDisc*. The data is then passed to the ATRAC decoder and then to your ears."
Alternatly,
"When the device is recording it works totally differently to a CD. A thin layer within the media contains magnetically
sensitive elements. When this layer is heated to about 200°C (its "Curie" point), the polarity (north and south) of the magnetic elements can be changed by an external magnetic field from the drive write head (similar to that of a hard drive)."

I wonder if the MD8 has a service mode? Maybe you could go in and automatically re-align the laser like you can on some portable MD recorders.

-Nilbog
 
WOW! Talk about inventors on acid!

So the inside of the MD-8, and anything else MD that records, is potentially 200 degrees near the disc head? No WONDER these fuckers are breaking all the time!

No discredit to you, Nilbog, gotta go and find some other sources that explain this better...

But first--WORK!
 
You're absolutely right, Nilbog. Holy Moly. This is from http://www.minidisc.org/first_minidisc.html

"How do MiniDiscs work?
A single MD holds the same amount of music as a CD (74min) but does so in one fifth as many bits by using an audio compression method Sony calls ATRAC (Adaptive TRansform Acoustic Coding). ATRAC is a form of perceptual coding, a data reduction technique that attempts to encode only the information audible to the human perceptual system. Perceptual coding, based upon the masking effect, is also the principle behind the Philips Digital Compact Cassette PASC compression, Dolby Labs AC-3 compression, and Bell Labs PAC (Perceptual Audio Coding) algorithm.
The way data is actually stored on Recordable MDs is as follows (taken directly from Sony MZ-R3 manual): "The laser inside the recorder applies heat to the MD, demagnetizing the magnetic layer of the MD. The recorder then applies a magnetic field to the layer. This magnetic field corresponds exactly to the audio signals generated by the connected source. (The north and south polarities equate to digital "1" and "0".) The unmagnetized MD adopts the polarity of the magnetic field, resulting in a recorded MD". Sony describes the Magneto-Optical (MO) recording technology used for MDs in a technical paper on their HS MO system. For a few hard numbers, check Sony's MiniDisc Specifications. "

Definitely running a fan over the MD-8 now. I think a good deal of units go bad because the fan fails (based on how many fans go out on computers...).

Do you think they make an aftermarket fan unit to improve the life of MD-8? Or would this make the MD too cool to magnetize?

Now we know why the media is so expensive. I'll try and find out the difference between the regular and data discs, too.

You know how it takes a little while to write to TOC? Bet this is why...
 
Check this out. It's a link from the aforementioned site...http://www.minidisc.org/disk_technology.html#partC

Still looking for HD vs. regular...
 
I'll tell you the difference between regular and Data MD's. I bet you it's one bit of data that either sez it's regular or pro. It's only there so they can charge you more. Think about it, all minidisc read/write the same way.
-Nilbog
 
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