Easy to use, great for beginners, good with lower end Hifi equipment. Fantastic remote, better than my ES model!

Loading mechanism broke after 2 1/2 years. Cheapish build quality.

I bought this unit as a pack with a portable player and some blanks MD's. It was about AUD$900.
The unit worked fantastically and it was a great introduction to MD, now I am hooked. I have used portable, car, home and professional MD products, they are great.
The JE510 was very easy to use and recording music was a cinch. The remote had large easy to press buttons which made even titling easy.
About 2 1/2 years in the unit started to play up, refusing to eject the MD. Frustrating but when I took it to my nearest Sony repairer they fixed it without any problems/hassles. I gave the unit to a friend and they are still utilising it today. The unit would be 4 years old now.
I am usually a cynic but I have been very happy with Sony's MD products. Although I now look a lot higher in the range when buying as I think Sony are starting to build cheaper.
The JE510 should be counted as a Pioneer in bringing MD to the masses. Be a little more kind to it.

Similar Products Used:

JA20ES, MDS-E10

Good sound, easy to use.

Dire loading mechanism, phantom power-ups

What a nightmare! Mine did all the classic things - phantom power-ups, jammed loading mechanism, ghastly rattling sounds when inserting discs, random display messages - and all a couple of months outside guarantee.

I eventually fixed mine using the frequently mentioned step-by-step guide to mending the microswitch which was circulating on the Net some time back. With photos of every stage, I can recommend it to anyone who still has enough patience with the bloody thing to want to repair it. However, it *is* still working, though the phantom power-ups have never completely disappeared.

Sony deserve to be sued for launching what must be just about the most unreliable piece of consumer electronics ever released. God knows why I bought two other Sony MD decks since then.....

Similar Products Used:

Sony MDS JE330; Sony MDS JE640

easy operation, sound quality

eject mechanism jams, ghost power turns on, rattling noise from eject mechanism if there is no MD inserted.

When I bought this unit it was pretty much the only one on the Houston market so I had no choice. A friend of mine was running his radio show by using this deck to play music mixes and I went there a few times and thought it was the coolest. I bought it to do mastering in my home studio and for about five months it worked flawlessly, until one day...
The damn thing just wouldn't turn off!
I took it to the shop (it was still under warranty) and they said it was the eject mechanism which turns the machine one, so they repaired it ... it broke again in two months. I took it back and got a repair (still under the warranty) and got it out of the shop just as my warranty expired.
I took it back - they wouldn't repair it for free. I called Sony, I wrote to Sony, etc.- they wouldn't resolve the issue. Their service repair shop screwed me by fixing it just enough so the warranty will run out.
I had been a long-time Sony customer, but after this - I never touch any of their products. They have horrid customer service and dishonest repair practices, so ever since I been buying Sharp minidisk related stuff and for all my other audio needs I've turned to Technics/Panasonic and been a happy customer.
I still use the unit, it behaves OK if you stuff a minidisk inside it as quicly as you can to avoid the rattling noise.When I need to make a garage band recording- I take it with me so that way I won't cry if it breaks.

Similar Products Used:

Sony minidisc player, Sharp minidisk deck

This is my third Mini-disc player. The earlier examples had a noticeably flat, bandwidth limited sound that was easy to discern from the original. Things have changed however, and the latest generation of Mini-disc players are nothing SHORT OF STAGGERING. Fed a digital signal from a Rega Planet CD player I can honestly say that I couldn't, on first listen, distinguish any difference. If you listen hard, there is some slight character discernable, but certainly nothing unpleasant and the differences are so small that you might just prefer the copy! Fed an analogue signal from a Linn Lingo LP12 the results were equally impressive. The copy sounding very much like the original and certainly vastly superior to copies made to tape using a Denon DRM700. The bset bit however is the PRICE! I bought my machine from Richer Sounds for £150 including a very large and comprehensive remote. This is the recording bargain of the decade...get one soon!
P.s. There's a new model out soon, the MDS JE520 that may be even better, but right now you can get the 510 at bargain prices!

Well I have the successor to the 510 (theMDS-JE 520). And It is well quite good..It is actually really hard to hear the diffrence between my CD-player Marantz CD 48 / or NAD 512 wich is a compliment in it self.
I have the feeling it can do a little better with a external DAC . and cables do seem to make a difference..
I currently use a solid core satelite cable as inter connect (both as digital and analog cable)and this seems to add(?) a bit if extra top end that seems to lack in MD's. excelent machine.. could be built a bit heavier as it is quite a feather weight and does tend to slip around.

Used in conjuntion with : Citation/harman 21 control preamp, Marantz SM-500 poweramp, Marantz CD-48 and Spirit Absolute Zero
Studio Nearfield monitors. with double runs of monitor speaker cables..

I have had the Sony JE520 and JE510 for awhile now and find them to be great. Now, I know some out there say that it "sucks" compared to DAT and recordable CD blows it away. I disagree. The minidisc is a good replacement for cassettes, in my opinion.
When I made a recording of Pat Metheny from CD to MD and played them both back fro comparison, I could not tell them apart. To me they sounded identicle. I cannot for the life of me tell how ANYONE can REALLY tell the difference. I am willing to bet thay cannot and they're just trying to create an image of themselves as some kind of omnipotent supreme being who passes judgement and whose word is final! The audiophile, as these people are called, are ridiculous in their overview of MD. Why is the DAT "far and away" superior"? I don't see it, or hear it?

I also have the Sony 8900 MD car stereo and the MD 61 6 MD changer in my glove compartment. I also keep about 50-60 discs in the gloce compartment. Can you even do any of this with recordable CD? I think not, you audiophiles?

If you get sick of listening to the music on an MD, you can change the order of the songs, erase and rerecord at the touch of a button as many times as you want - they say 1 million times is the limit - would like.

If anyone is thinking of improving their sound system in the car and making storage better, check out the MD. Even if for some reason you find the sound to be not as good as recordable CDs, the tradeoff of size for the incremental amout of quality you'll be sacraficing will be worth it and then some!

Does anyone have experience with the Sony and Denon higher end models? Do they sound better or are they just filled with more editing, recording and tracking bells and whistles? Email me at UVa1985@starnetinc.com if you know anything. I appreciate your help as I am going to upgrade if it is a better sound!

my first MD recorder, so little to compare to, but I'm extremely pleased. The model has been replaced by the JE520, (with ATRAC 4.5, as opposed to 510's 4.0) but the sound quality on this model is already superb. Extremely easy to use, convenient remote. Many "made in Malaysia" models have a quirk that without a disc in it, the model often turns itself on. Just a minor inconvience, so 5 stars it is.

I can't tell the difference between a mid-Fi CD player and MD recording either. The user friendliness and convenience are way better than anything in a CD format. People who say that MD 'sucks' may have heard an earlier version of MD (which did suck). Its funny however, that the same people who hate MD will turn right around and laud praise on MP3, which uses way more compression and doesn't sound as good. People like MP3 over MD because its an excuse to interface even more with their computer. (smooch-smooch, hug-hug)

I recently bought the Sony MDS-JE510 bundled with the Sony portable MD MZ-E40for less than $350. The sound quality on both the MDS-JE510 and the MZ-E40 is
great. I recorded a CD to a MD and played them both and I could not hear the
difference. I don't have a CD player in my car, however now I use the MZ-E40
in my car with the Sony CP9 adapter and I can take all the songs I like from
my CD collection on the road. The MDS-JE510 is easy to operate. The facility
with which you can move tracks or delete them like you do with files in a
computer is great. So far I love this system and the quality of the music is
awesome. If you decide to purchase this system you will not regret it.

Bought the 510 bundle at a SEARS close-out for $299. Great deal, the sound is really good. Even listening with headphones in a quiet room I have a hard time distinguishing MD from CD. But I use it mainly in my noisy car so who cares?
The editing features really kick ass. I like to mix compilations and using the MD is 10x better than regular tape for any type of editing. Cut and paste is VERY accurate, changing song order is a breeze, and the UNDO feature is a nice extra.

The remote is cool, with more buttons than any other I have ever seen (whole alphabet + control buttons). Makes it easy to name songs etc. The included MD-40 (?) portable playback unit is ok, nothing fancy (although it does remember where on the disc it was when you cut and restore power to the unit, very convenient in the car)

My only "annoyance" with the 510 is the lack of a digital fade, which is really only a software issue (I think) and should have been included.

It has digital in and out, and with my new Toshiba DVD I will be able to record digitally from CD.

4 stars (because no digital fade..)