Great sound, very reliable, cool editing functions, great remote control, Sounds better than the MDS JE530, for anyone interested in a comparison, I've owned both the 520 and 530, even though the 530 was a newer machine, with Pitch control, and possibly a few other differences inside, the 520 sounds better to my ears, through its Analogue out than the 530 though its Analogue out, 520 has better bass, and an over all warmer sound, the 530 seemed to sound thinner and more metallic, or more digital sounding, so I sold the 530 and I still own a 520, it is still going strong since the day I bought it, back in 1998, with no maintenance required.

No keyboard input for track titling, coaxial digital output would have been nice, there's nothing else that I can think of as a weakness.

Flexablity and compatiblity with other Sony products. Really good sound, almost as good as the master CD!

NOT A ONE!!!

Damn shame that MD didn't take off in the States, because it's a hell of a sound medium! Anyway, After my JE510 kept giving me problems I switched to this and haven't had on problem since...

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Sony MDS-JE510, which bought the farm!

Good sound quality which is better than the sound quality delivered by the majority of cassette decks; ease of us, digital recording possible

Sometimes rather thin and bass-light sounding, no coaxial output

This is the very first MD-player I ever bought and I must say that all in all this is quite a fine buy.
Of cousrse the MD 520 is not built as sturdy or tank-like like Sony's MD players from their Extremely Standard product line, but I think when looking at the price which has to be paid for the MD520 it would be unrealistic to expect that to be.
I have fiddled for more than a year with the MD 520 now and I can honestly say that I am very satisfied with it.
I must have recorded almost a hundred MD's by now and apart from three bad discs which somehow skipped when playing them(each from a different manufacturer); I never ever had a problem with it at all.

The sound quality of your recordings is great especially if you record purely digital by using the coaxial input. I have my MD520 connected to my Cobalt 307 DAC and if there is a difference between the original CD and my copy on MD then it's darn small.
MD really is that good.

The only minor gripe I have is that when listening to a MD, this unit can sound rather thin and lightweight if you know what I mean. I solved this by connecting the 520 to a Musical Fidelity X-10D tube buffer which in turn is connected to my pre-amplifier.
This resulted in a warmer, more full-bodied sound which simply was more pleasant to listen to.

All in all I can really recommend this player if you are looking for a good quality MD-player without wanting to have to take a second mortgage on your house. The MD 520 is not perfect but for the money paid; it delivered the goods in a more than reasonable way.

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none

noise free recording, digital level adjustment, a ton of features

no coaxial digital input or out. Check out the mini disk community page for more info

I'm amazed at this piece of technology! I love that I can record my vinyl for posterity. I wanted a CD recorder but after a few years maybe DVD recorders will be on the market,I hope! I generaly think that Sony reliability is quite suspect but this thing works flawlessly, nice change!
Labeling is easy although a keyboard input would have been well worth the extra price, but damn it only cost me $200.
My only worry is that the MD format will not last to long. But it sure beats my tape deck all to hell. Check out the minidisk community page for lots more info at http://WWW.minidisk.org/index.html
Killer little format. Unless you have a real high end system I doubt the average Joe would hear any degradation of the sound quality although there is some but very slight.
I have to admit that it took me a while to get the hang of things when I first got it as it does have more features than most people will ever use. Use and enjoy, I recommend it highly .

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1st md deck

Excellent sound quality, simple to use, low price

Cant get this model in a pro rack mount

Why anyone who's into making their own recordings would pass one of these up is beyond me. The sound quality is fantastic for such a low price, offers tons of editing options, all on the very durable minidisk format. Working with MD's is far more flexible than CD-R (you can always erase what you did, and it doesn't cost you $20 CDN a disk to do it). Build quality is fine, but I miss having a rack mount version. I've gotten around this by using special shelves designed to mount "consumer" type units in pro racks. I use this unit primarily for mastering my original multitrack recordings done on the Yamaha MD-8, which is a minidisk 8 track unit that utilizes the DATA version of the minidisk. Mixing down to the JE-520 is transparent, even though I cannot use the optical connection for this operation (impossible anyways because the 8 track format doesn't quite "line up" with the 2 track setup, eh). The optical line IS used when copying my masters to CD, though, and this is a REALLY useful feature!

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Yamaha MD-8 multitrack recorder desk

Ok unit. I had no functional problems and it made good recordings (Digital). I did notice it had high pitched noise that I could just hear in the analog output. I used this unit with my computer sound card and just used the digital connections so this noise did not bother me much. I would recommend the MDS-JB920 over this one, but this is still better then several of the other MD's out there.

High fidelity sound quality, sturdy construction, easy to use, large number of features

none that I could think of.

This unit rocks. The sound quality is superior to any MD Deck I've heard. The features that are available from the unit cover every possible use I had for the deck and I've had a lot! The construction quality will make these things last for ages. All round great value just what you would expect from Sony.

Good sound, Nice and clean. Has both optical and coaxial out puts

nothing

This product is very good. I shouldn't have bought the 530 as the 520 has the same quality recording and same quality play back. I spent $350 on the 530 what a waist. The only differnce between the 2 players are that the 530 has pitch control and the 520 doesn't. The 530 is a very good player but i don't think there is much point of paying more when you get the same recording and same playback.I use qed quenct 2 for both the players.

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sony mds je 530

Picked up for $300 locally...darn good piece of engineering. It has really turned me back on to tape making like I was years ago. Very straightforward process, and editing is logical and quick. 3 button pushes and the last track is erased (I do that alot). Labeling is also intuitive. As far as sound - IMHO you need $3k worth of speakers to really tell a difference, and even then you are being nitpicky. Sit back and enjoy the technology - thats why we buy these in the first place, right? Aviod the bundles though - 2 mediocre pieces bundled together does not a quality experience make.

The Sony MD deck is a great way of starting up in the Minidisc format. It gives great quality recordings and has a great build quality. I've owned one since last November and it hasn't given me any problems at all.