Rich Peet wrote:
> I took construction under consideration when I bought my MZ-R90 Sony
> Minidisc. Magnesium top case, antiskip etc.
>
> When I first dropped mine it fell out of my pocket while recording
> and was wounded. It then, for revenge, killed two more discs when I
> simply played them back and would record no more. It was a senseless
> murder of the TOC's of inocent non-suspecting young discs.
>
> It turns out that on this one model of Sony the record head has less
> than 1 mm clearance between the record head and the case. There is
> an aluminum band between the clam half shells that is at risk also.
> The record head is opposite the mic jack so that if it falls when
> recording you are garrenteed it will fall on the weak side.
>
> Once I learned of this design flaw I was able to easily repair the
> unit with a little more "impact engineering". It is once again
> working fine.
>
> Also on most Sony MD's it is good advise to scotch tape the door
> closed that holds the internal battery. Breaking those off is the
> most easy way to kill a Sony MD's in the field, imho.
I was using a MZ-R30 and it put a nice dent in the corner of the case,
which is still there. I actually dropped that one hard on 3 separate
times. It seemed to always hit the same corner.
To be fair I had correspondence with one person who dropped a Portadisc
off a table onto a hard floor. That had to be sent in for repairs, even
though no external damage was evident. Would not play or record, but did
not damage disks. I never heard back what was found internally.
All boils down to regardless of type of equipment it pays to be careful.
Walt
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
|