Sttop the skkipp.

April 21, 2007 8:25 PM

What exactly is wrong with my DAT Walkman?

My trusty Sony TCD-D7 portable DAT recorder and I have been around the world making shortwave recordings for many fruitful journeys together. Unfortunately, during a salt-sprayed sailing trip to the British Virgin Islands last summer, it began making short little skipping noises [MP3] at random intervals throughout my recordings. Can anyone pinpoint what is causing this? And is it probably just cheaper nowadays to junk the thing and buy a new one on eBay rather than get it fixed?

(P.S.: Suggestions for ditching DAT and moving up to an mp3-based recorder are not useful. I invested in an Edirol R-09 but am having a different sort of issue with that unit, per my prior AskMeFi post.)

posted by mykescipark to technology (3 comments total)

DAT is even deader than MD, making it very difficult to repair.

Worse, Sony DAT mechanisms are known to have alignment problems that can make it difficult or impossible to play DAT tapes back on other vendors' decks. So moving to another vendor's DAT deck may make it difficult for you to listen to or transfer sound from older recordings.

Mechanical parts are more likely to fail than solid-state. If you're worried about noise or compression artifact issues, look into a professional-grade solid-state recorder, such as an HHB Portadrive, Marantz PMD670 or Fostex FR-2.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:13 PM on April 21, 2007

You need to find a good Sony dealer who can wrap you up with a repair person. I have the same exact DAT as you do for work in addition to my own solidstate recorder, the DAT is a great piece of technology and not something you should let go of just because it's "deader than MD", the great thing is that while MD has been made effectively dead by digital audio broadcasting, DAT is still a standard for most of the world. Get a Sony repair person, wait a few weeks, and it'll come back good as new.
posted by parmanparman at 9:35 AM on April 22, 2007

I can't tell you how to fix your TCD-D7. I can tell you what happened with mine.

I'd wanted one since I saw them appear in the magazines in the early 90's. In 1997, one came up used for $150 in my hometown classifieds. The owner said it worked great. It did, about half the time. The other half of the time, one of the channels would drop out from recording.

So I took it to my Sony authorized service dealer. They charged me something like $80 and I don't remember exactly what they claimed they did, but I think it was essentially they checked the connection between the 1/8" jack and the ADC for cold solder joints. When I got it back, nothing had changed.

So I took it back, and they sent it to a regional center, which looked it over, charged me more money, and declared it fine. They apparently were unable to read the detailed problem description I'd sent noting the intermittent nature of the problem.

So I asked around the DAT lists for pros who knew what they were doing. I was directed to Paul Plotnick's Pro Digital in Pennsylvania. If I recall, they were worried that they might not be able to save my unit, but for somewhere around the price I paid for it originally, they were able to fix the problem after a few weeks.

Then I went travelling with the thing and an unfortunate luggage accident put some severe dents in the thing. It powered on, but transport was clearly damaged and the deck wouldn't always open.

At that point, I sold it for parts for $30.

My only advice is that if you do decide to have someone look at it, don't bother with the Sony general repair places. My experiences with them were awful, and that was in 1997/1998 when one could probably reasonably expect that there were more DAT decks floating around and techs would be familiar with them. I'm sure nowadays it's a bit more of a specialty. Go straight to someone who makes it one of theirs. I was happy with Pro Digital.
posted by weston at 12:18 PM on April 22, 2007