Hi all MD people!
I tested the new SONY MD gear at one of the SONY shops
here in Central Europe.
A SONY JB730, JE530 and JE330 comparison
1) JB730 *can* clone TOC
JE530 *can* clone TOC
JE330 *can* clone TOC
On every deck I successfully performed
the David Tamkin's TOC Cloning Procedure
described on MDCP
(thanks, David, you are really great!).
The service menu looks like the one on JE520.
2) I heard JB730's recording. It sounded great
thanks to the new ATRAC DSP TYPE R, of course.
3) JB730 has RM-D15M, a big 25-keys type remote,
that appears to be the same as on JE520.
JE530 and JE330 have a small 10-keys type one,
on which you must press a key up to three times
to insert a character, and then press FORWARD
to move cursor to the right.
4) JB730: A PITCH CONTROL key on front panel allows pitch
change during playback. It changes both speed and pitch
at the same time in the range from 2% to 112%
of normal speed. Yes, 2% really means 50 times
slower than normal speed, 112% means 1.12 times faster.
If you press PITCH CONTROL once, you can change it
by PITCH STEPS (12 steps per octave), pressing twice
you can access PITCH FINE control with steps of 0.1%
When current speed is different from normal speed,
the PITCH CONTROL key lights on.
JE530: No PITCH CONTROL key. The function works in
a similar way, but it's accessible only from SETUP MENU.
JE330: No PITCH CONTROL at all.
5) JB730: You can very easy set REC level by both analog
and digital recordings using REC LEVEL knob (not AMS),
and from remote.
JE530: You can set REC level by both analog and digital
recordings in the same way as on JE520
JE330: You can set REC level by both analog and digital
recordings in the same way as on JE520, but the deck has
no conventional level indicators. During recording the
alphanumerical display changes to 11 level indicating
segments. No level indication during playback.
6) The RT DISPLAY MODE and also SUPER UNDO works
on all of them. (Press and hold STOP for 10 seconds).
The KEYCHECK MODE also works.
(This allows you to check all the buttons and display
segments on the deck. With the deck off, hold in the
AMS knob and the REC button, turn the deck on,
then release the AMS button followed by the REC button
- thanks to Daniel Matos).
For explanation of RT DISPLAY MODE see below.
For explanation of SUPER UNDO and KEYCHECK MODE
see MDCP.
7) JB730 and JE530 have STEREO/MONO REC switch.
On JE330 you can select STEREO/MONO REC from SETUP MENU.
8) On JB730 and JE530 you can set the output level
in the range from -20 dB to 0 dB.
On JE330 you cannot set the output level.
9) JE330 has no headphone output.
10) In spite of expecting it, the JB730
has *no* PC keyboard input.
11) JB730: No FADER key on front panel, only on remote
JE530: FADER key on both front panel and remote
12) JB730: gold plated analog and coax inputs
optical input and optical output
gold plated analog and coax outputs
Control-A1
JE530: analog input and output
coax input, optical input and optical output
Control-A1
JE330: analog input and output
optical input
no coax input
no digital output at all
RT DISPLAY MODE
---------------
I posted this text about 1 year ago, for those
who missed it there is a little updated version here:
I'm describing my own experiences
with RETRY CAUSE DISPLAY MODE.
You can go into it when you press and hold
the STOP button for about 10 seconds.
This is also known as SUPER UNDO, because it
disables the TOC updating after editing.
-----------------------------------------------
It works on SONY JE520, 330, 530, JB730
- probably also on JB920
- not tested on JB930 for the time being
-----------------------------------------------
During PLAY or PLAY PAUSE the display shows:
NN CCCSS XY
where
NN stands for the fragment number (hexadecimal)
You can find the edit points, because
NN changes inside the track
at that point, where you made an edit
(COMBINE or A-B ERASE), or where the deck
continued recording to another part
of free disc space.
User manual says, that you can record up to
255 tracks, but I think, that you can create
only up to 255 *fragments*. Number of fragments
is usually greater than number of tracks
due to disc fragmentation.
CCCSS (cluster-sector) stands for the current
playing disc area address /hexadecimal/
(on buffer memory output - the laser beam
reading goes actually up to 11 seconds earlier)
On Sony home decks, when you press REC, the
new recording always begins on a new cluster
(SS=00), by auto track marking or afterward
track division may the SS be other than 00
X stands for SCMS status and other flags:
X=8 SCMS 11 Allow 1 generation
X=A SCMS 10 Do not allow any copies
X=E SCMS 00 Unlimited copying allowed
X=0 premastered disc
SCMS status is defined for each fragment -
you cannot create an SCMS allowed track by combining
one allowed and one (or more) prohibited tracks
Y stands for track mode (mono/stereo) and other flags:
Y=4 mono
Y=6 stereo
For more info about that see the JE520 Service Manual,
pages 9 and 10. You can download it from MDCP.
------------------------------------------------
During STOP function and rotating the AMS knob
the display shows following info for each track:
YYMMDD TTTT
where
YYMMDD stands for date of recording, if any,
or 000000 for recording without date & time stamp
or for premastered discs
On 520, 530 and 730 if you press the "D" key on remote,
the display shows recorded date & time stamp too.
TTTT: I don't know the exact meaning of this display,
but it depends on the type of recording machine
You can check on which machine the track was recorded.
I met the following codes:
0126 Sony MZ-R30
0127 Sony MZ-R50
0143 unknown machine
0144 Sony MDS-JE303
0146 both Sony MDS-JE500 and JE510
0147 Sony MDS-B5 professional deck
014A Sony MDS-JE520
014D Sony MDS-JB920, JB730, JE330, JE530
0000 premastered disc
I haven't found anything about it in the accessible
service manuals. I don't know anything about
any codes of non-SONY MD gear.
Best regards
Petr Simanek (who doesn't want to buy 730 and waits for 930)
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