Sony MZ-N707

sony_mz-n707_main.jpg

Name MZ-N707
Manufacturer Sony
Released 2002/03
Device type portable
Recorder Recorder
MDLP Yes
NetMD Yes
Hi-MD No
Radio No
Dimensions 81 × 74.4 × 27.7 mm
Weight 116g
ATRAC ver Type-R
Battery AA
Battery notes
Sidecar (depr) No
Voltage 3
Power cable Center positive
Price (launch) $250
¥30 000
-
Inputs 3.5mm line in (optical multi), 3.5mm microphone
Outputs 3.5mm headphone
Control Remote (Sony), USB Mini-B

Highly recommended as a beginner device due to ease of use with NetMD and AA battery. Shipped with a charging dock, but also has the barrel charger in on the body so it isn't required to power the device. Barrel charger dimension is 2.35 x 0.7mm. Replacement chargers work but make sure they output 3V.

Works without issue on modern Windows 10 PCs using WebMiniDisc/PlatinumMD and Zadig driver.

You can also use it with the old Sonicstage and OpenMG programs using the 64bit drivers.

EEPROM hack confirmed working

Originally shipped with the remote RM-MZ4R, but confirmed working with RM-MC10L and RM-MC11EL.

A Note on “dead” units that don't power up:

  • Some users have reported an odd power issue (sometimes related to battery terminal corrosion) where the unit does not appear to power up either under battery or dc power. If tilted a bit, however, the LCD appears to be getting some power as it will be visible powering back off. First step would be to clean off the battery corrosion (lemon juice or white vinegar, followed by isopropyl alcohol to clean everything up). Afterward, from the FB Minidisc Repair group, user Andre Ho suggested the following:
    • “I have got two of these and it's seems to be that if left unused for a while the fail to turn on. Keep lighting the display up by pressing any button on remote or unit and mix it up with the mains current eventually it will turn on but It took mine nearly 45 minutes of doing that and just as I was about to give up it lit up. Also try a rechargeable battery in the unit and leave it in the charge stand if you have one that also worked for me. Good luck.”
  • Note - This may not be a permanent fix and the issue may re-emerge, though it's reported that the same “fix” can revive the player. Obviously, the continued presence of the issue indicates other power issues to diagnose / resolve.

Potential Write-head failure

Similar to the MZ-N1, you may notice skipping during recording, recording silence instead of audio, or the unit fails to write anything to the disc at all (for example if you started with a blank disc, recorded it in this unit, and then ejected the disc or put the disc into another machine, and the disc is still blank).

You may need to do the Write head repair.

Before doing the write head repair, especially if your unit is also struggling playing discs, you may want to do basic maintenance such as cleaning and re-lubing the machine.


Content adapted from: MZ-N707 Minidisc.org Page

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Manuals

Photos

chemist83, 2023/08/27 06:34
I recently bought one on Ebay. Works perfectly. I have a weird setup though. It’s always plugged into the power using the cradle. Always connected to an optical input cable which is connected to a toslink switch that has dual outputs where the second one is connected to an MZ-R55. I have the mini usb always plugged into my M2 Macbook Air using a physical swith that acts like a usb power button. That switch is so that I can use optical. My recording source is a CD walkman with optical output.

So I have 3 NetMD recorders. I recorded over 50 discs this month. I have owned mini disc back in the days from 1999 to 2007. I recently got back in in August 2023 and purchased 6 mini disc recorders.

I have been using Web MD Pro and Platinum MD for recording. The Web MD is the only one that I don't have issues with MacOS. I use Windows virtual Machines for Platinum MD. Using the NetMD, I noticed that gapless tracks on Albums actually had a slight pause so I decided to erase those discs and record optically.

On my MZ-N707, i spent a whole day recording optically. About 10 discs were blank. I noticed that on sync record, the player would recordas soon as the CD player was on, even on pause but it didn't click on my head. The MZ-N707 recorded optically fine the previous time I used it.

My solution was disconnecting the power and the battery. That worked and was able to record again. In order to catch up on that wasted time, I fired up my MZ-N707, MZ-R909, and MZ-R55.
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  • equipment/sony/portable/mz-n707.txt
  • Last modified: 4 weeks ago
  • by specialk