After having a portable MiniDisc recorder (Sony MZ-R70) for some months I decided to go for a deck as well. One may ask, why bother spending all this money on a deck, when a decent portable recorder has all the necessary functions, plus it's much smaller. Well, there are few things that decks generally do better: Better sound quality - here we are talking mainly about the DAC (digital to analog converter). A top of the range MiniDisc deck would have more sophisticated DAC and hooked to a analog amplifier will sound better than a portable. MDS- JE530 sounds considerably better than the MZ- R70 hooked to the same amplifier, although I couldn't find any ...  Read the complete review

I was new to minidisc, and didnt know where to start, I was looking for a hi-fi seperate that can record from a digital source, and playback digitaly to an amplifier or receiver. I have always found sony to be my favourite manufactuer, due to their warranty support and the build quality. So I went out to search for the Sony MiniDisc Deck that would suit my needs. It was then that in a local Hi-Fi shop, I spotted the MDS-JE530, this had everything that I needed and much more. The design looks up tp date, and the controls are all layed out very well and are simple to use. The sound quality form this product is excelent, the system always runs smooth, and I have never ...  Read the complete review

When i bought the sony MD deck it was mainly for the feature of pitch control this works very well, but what like most about it is the quality of the sound, in recording as well as playback. Comparing with other models labeling the tracks was is very easy to do on this model, easier to do it on the remote control as it uses the style of a mobile phone. The bass quality is smooth and has a powerful punch to it. It is extremely good value and the best place to get it is Richer Sounds. ...  Read the complete review

Having used my '530 for a few months now (and using some other decks) I have come to the conclusion that this must rank as one of (if not) the best MD on the market. Certainly of the several I've tried [the replacement model for this is a "640", which is more or less the same with one important new feature which is a stroke of genius - a "PS2" connector on the front, which enables one's PC keyboard to be plugged into the front to make titling even easier]. The machine is extremely versitile; having both coaxial and optical digital conections (many other machines have only one or the other) making it more universal for adding to ...  Read the complete review

I have owned my sony JE530 minidisc deck for about four months. I bought it as a replacement for my aging analogue cassette deck. The deck is very well featured with coaxial and analogue inputs and optical and analogue outputs,digital pitch control and the full range of edit and text facilities. Recording from a CD via the coaxial input gives an almost perfect copy, the compression barely evident. Recording via the analogue input using the decks internal DAC is also very good. I was surprised just how good the sound is from this deck,much superior to any analogue tape deck that I have owned. Once you ...  Read the complete review