Sharp MD-R3

LR376481 - Sharp Atrac 5

Also known as a MD-R3H in some regions. Sharp ATRAC 5.0, 3 CD changer. One touch digital recording. Clock/Timer to control playback and recording and provide date and time stamp recording and display. One touch CD to MD digital copying.

Some function buttons are only on the remote, some only on the unit.The disk changer is quite noisy and slow. Ejecting CD2 while copying CD1 stops the copy. Track change glitch: We tried copying the Janet Jackson album 'The Velvet Rope' and found that the copy had glitches at some of the track changes, because there aren't breaks in the sound where the track changes are. (Janet's albums tend to be continuous…) The same problem occurs on the Enigma album 'The Cross of Changes'. The glitch can be heard during copying, but doesn't appear if you just play the CD. -Jon Herbert [It has been further reported that later units do not seem to have this track spanning problem. -eaw]

To fix the R3's track gap problem on continuous discs: If you take an optical cable and connect the optical in to the optical out, put the unit in Synch record with the MD input as the optical in, and play the CD, you can record a contiuous CD without getting gaps at the track marks. It's somewhat clunky, but it works fine. -Paul Zimmer Another workaround for the track gap problem: I have found this only happens when you use the CD to MD one touch record button. If you put the MD in Record/Pause mode then hit Play on the CD. You will get a perfect recording everytime. -Glen Beestone

Content above adapted from: Minidisc.org Page Sharp Product Page Sharp Product Page (MiniDisc Wiki mirror)

It seems a common problem now (in 2024) that the CD-changer mechanisms fail to work properly - they tend to get confused and the result is that CDs get stuck inside and the machine won't play anything or eject. While experimenting with such a broken unit recently I discovered that spraying cold spray on the area of the single surface mount 44-pin IC that is mounted to the PCB affixed to the bottom of the whole CD-Changer assembly (also connected to the two main motors), made my unit work again. I assume something contracted and improved poor solder connections. Re-soldering/flowing all of the pins of the IC (and all of the other through-hole solder connections on the rear of the PCB), seems to have permanently fixed my unit. Cleaning the 4 push-button switches on the side and the 4 leaf switches under the side PCB is also a good idea while the changer assembly is removed.

MD-R3 User Manual

MD-R3 Service Manual

MD-R2 Service Manual

(repair links go here)

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