I am thoroughly impressed with the sound quality of this unit. I use it to make digital backups of tapes that I sing by. (Music Minister) The ability to quickly access tracks is great for rehearsal. The AB repeat is indispensible for the same reason. Any musician who sings by cassette trax needs to buy this unit and start backing up their library. There is nothing more depressing than going to sing one of your favorite songs and the tape gets eaten by another churches cheap take deck. Buy a potable mini disc player to carry with you. They have come way down in price.

This unit has become my favorite piece of audio equipment. The ease of editing is comparable to the simplicity of adding and deleting files on a computer diskette. Sound quality is far beyond the capabilities of any cassette deck. In direct A-B comparisons, I found it hard to distinguish an original CD from an MD copy made on this deck.

i've been using m.d. format for sometime now and find it very easy and reliable to work with and because you can erase and re-use the discs over and over it is also very cost effective. At the moment i'm recording my vynl collection onto m.d.and then editing on my p.c.then burning to c.d. Once the c.d. is checked i clear the m.d. and it's ready for the next recording project, so it's been a very useful addition to my recording set-up.

I was a skeptic for some time concerning minidisc. When the reviews of the latest ATRAC coding system became more and more positive, I took the leap and purchased the MD Bundle 4. What a fantastic format! The sound quality of the home deck is excellent, virtually indestinguishable from the original. I can't say the same for the portable player, the highs are brittle and the playback level is low. The format itself is incredible with ease of editing and the small size of the media. I can take the portable on the plane with 5 minidiscs in the space normally taken by a cassette player alone. All you skeptics, jump on board!

I purchased the MDS-JE510 after deciding that I'd had it with cassette tapes.The MDS-JE510 uses ATRAC 4, and digital copies sound nearly indistinguishable
from the original CD. The ability to edit and re-write on MiniDisc without any loss of fidelity was also a factor, since this was one of the prime reasons I
wanted to do away with my cassette tapes.

The sound is dazzling - MUCH better than even the best mid to hi fi cassette
decks using Dolby C and S. Gone is the omnipresent tape hiss, the compressed
lows, and the washed out midrange blahs. Some of the higher high frequencies seem a tiny bit tamer than the CD original, but this is not always present.
Analog copies made via the RCA jack out sound less like the CD original than
copies made digitally (via the optical output jack), but still sound far better
than cassette recordings.

Copies are fully editable. Tracks can be moved, deleted, cut into pieces,
titled (a really cool feature) - you name it. Skipping tracks is practically
instantaneous, much like a CD. Minidiscs are also a lot smaller than CDs
(2.5 inches), and the shutter on the plastic cases protects the disc itself
from scratches, fingerprints, and dirt.

The MDS-JE510 cost me $300, and a car minidisc deck cost another $300. Blank
minidiscs (74 minutes in length - the same as a CD) can be had for under $4
a piece when ordered on the web. All in all, it seems a laughably small price
to pay for getting rid of your tape deck forever.

In short, minidisc's time has finally come. If you get a chance, take a listen
to the JDS-510 (or any of the ATRAC 4 or newer) deck, and get ready to to fall
in love with the format. It's time to take minidisc decks out of the tape deck
category, and give them their own category, where they can be judged against
each other, instead of against tape decks (where they'll score a 5 every time).

I got the SONY MD BUNDLE4 and am having so much fun with this terriffic unit! I have a lot of music LD concerts. Every one of these is a 'live album' as well as a video concert to me. I've been dubbing these to MD using optical out of my Pioneer CLD-D704 into the MDS-JE510 and they sound fantastic! Then listening to them on the portable MZ-E40 at work is cool.
Also, I've been archiving my collection of irreplacable casette tapes and LP records. The editing features and flexibility more than make up for the infinitesimal difference between MD and CD quality. ATRAC works as well for audio as MPEG works for video (I'm also a big DVD fan!).

With the prices on these things where they are, nobody should buy a tape deck ever again. I am very impressed. If there were more than 5 stars I'd give it more!

I got turned on to the Sony JE510 at work. I'm Operations Manager for Public Radio station WUKY/University of Kentucky. We've replaced our cart machines with JE510s, and our on-air sound has improved tremendously. I bought one for my home 4-track studio as a mixdown deck. (I'm a guitarist & songwriter.) The quality of my demos are so good that I'm tempted to master right to CD! Musicians, take note!

Add me to the list: #1) these things deserve their own category, and#2) these will more than likely make cassette recording "old hat."
I notice a bit of compression (I can only make analog copies so far),
but this has too many advantages (over tape) to ignore.
Consider me converted...and blank MiniDiscs make great birthday gifts...
Pricewise:5 stars. Performancewise:4.5 stars.
Absolutely worth a test drive. See for yourselves.

The Sony MDS JE510 has some flaws.
It developes an insertion error when getting to the end of its life cycle.

If the machinie is off and you eject a disc, the machine sometimes blinks on and stays on. It sould not do this.

Also, when going into record mode, it will sometimes go into the mode for about three seconds and pop out of the record mode saying disc
is out of position. some kind of sensor error I've determined.

Looked at the MDS JE920 at the Good Guys. $488 with tax and six year Good Guys Guarantee! ! ! Can't beat that. Just need to come up with the cash! Nice machine.

Also,

I have recently purchased the sony je510 package and simply love it.Paid a little over $300 and well worth it, the best toy I bought in many years so good in fact that by the next day I removed my 3-head Pioneer tape deck and threw it in the closet hoping never 2 see it again.
Please old cassette deck don't ever rear that ugly face again...
MD player sounds superb, fun 2 use and simply amazing, get one and you'll see for yourself.
Best New Product in 15 Years...