[Buddha]

Ive got the opportunity to purchase this model for about 40 USD
second hand, and in reasonable/good cond. (but without wall wart or nimh batt.)

It has a line out socket but unsure if this is optical?

Any past or present owners like to comment?

Cheers

 

[FrostyMMB]

Also, I'd like to know, what about the SL-SX510?

 

[leon]

The 410 is a Japanese model (as opposed to the American 460), so I think it should have optical out. You can ask the seller if there's a white jack on the side of the unit. If it does, that would be the optical out.

The 410/510 are the same generation. I owned a SX510, and I did not like the way it sounded out of the headphone jack. It's just... the timbre isn't right, doesn't have all the qualities we've come to associate with Panasonic.

Having said that, I think it's very likely that the 410 will sound different from the 510. Because the high-end "sister" models (470/570, 580/780) often sound different from each other.

 

[Buddha]

and so far im pretty pleased.

I appreciate the detailed reproduction, and warm punchy output
(phone socket) to ksc35's.

Frosty...Actually auditioned the sx510 on the same day, but the shop was so noisy that i cant really comment on much more than the build quality, which seemed very good.

Leon...the lineout socket is black on this unit, so im assuming its analouge only?

Is there a huge difference when recording minidiscs from such an anologue source as opposed to the optical Toslink?

Cheers

 

[leon]

Congrats on the purchase Buddha! Glad you're liking it.

The black jack that is labelled "OUT" is an analogue line out. On Panasonics, an optical out jack is typically white and labelled as "OPT OUT".

My experience is that MD recordings from an digital out has more clarity than recording from the line out. If you hear both recording results back to back, it's not hard to recognise the difference IMO. However, both should be of pretty good quality, and I don't think people will complain about it.

The one advantage of using the optical out is the accuracy of track marks on the recorded MD. With analogue recording (whether you use synchro or not), there will likely be misplaced or no trackmarks here and there.

MD is plenty of fun whichever source you use, so enjoy!