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A Beautiful Revelation -- the Epic MZ-RH1 Arrives


Christopher

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Great News! I just need a Hi-MD deck to complete my ideal setup. Does anyone have news of one available in Europe or ?

Congratulations to kurisu and all keen reporters.

Best Wishes and Kind Regards

Bill Phillips

I 've just recieved my Onkyo MD-133 himd deck 3 days ago from pricejapan.com (importation from japan).it sounds very good.

Including shipping and voltage transformer (I live in France) I payed 450 €.

There is a cheaper Onkyo model: MD-105FX (350€ including shipping and transformer)

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:ok::ok: Such great news!!!

I'm very happy that Sony is pursuing the Hi-MD hype. Long live the Format!!!

It's a shame though that I bought my M100 quite recently. Maybe I will sell and buy this new sexy baby...

I don't mind the lack of an external AA case, as long as the promised 9 hour recording operation is true. I hardly use m100's external case anyway (I have two ni-mh batteries).

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Anyone know what item 2 is? A built in mic? Speaker?

Built in mic?? it would be great!! for reporter or dictaphone

with radio recording mmm...

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If you want to, you can get the RM-MC40ELK for this one.

Sets you back only 8400 Yen.

------------------------------------------------

This Thread is really active: 287 Readers while I'm writing this.

And to Sony: Very well done. I'll get one.

I already have the 40elk, I am just saying that I would want to be able to use the scroll wheel and the whole kit and kaboodle on the 40elk with the rh1. If it really is 100% functional then I might have to consider this thing. Hmmmmm :mellow:

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Anyone know what item 2 is? A built in mic? Speaker?

Item 2 is probably a control rocker of some kind. Take a close look at the controls as they're shown in the photos - note that there's no play button or roller/jogdial visible. Ergo, my guess is #2 is probably the main control.

Thoughts:

The record slider implies to me that the "manual levels" setting is probably superfluous with this unit; they may have done what I've been suggesting for 2 years and returned the the slider with which a simple slide+pause or play = record with AGC, and holding the slider for 2 secs [either initially or with the unit in pause] turns manual levels on. If this is the case, there need be no menu function for this control, and remembering the setting is completely unnecessary as you set it every time you start recording - with the record button itself.

-------------------

Use of the LIP-4WM battery means "real" line-out is possible. For those of you who complain incessantly about the lack of a real line-out, well, the higher supply voltage of these cells is what's enabling it. Otherwise the unit would require 2 NiMH or AA cells to do the same job.

For those of your who were talking about petitioning Sony to change the battery format - it would necessitate a complete redesign, and would make the "true" line-out impossible, so don't bother.

I personally would rather have no line-out and to run off NiMH with the option for the AA sidecar. The lithium batteries are extremely expensive here and ordering online is not an option that's open for me.

As for attaching external batteries, the unit will likely use a 3 or 4.5V PSU/charger. This means that anyone with half a brain can go to Radioshack, buy an appropriate battery holder [2 or 3 AA cells], a piece of wire and a connector to match the PSU jack on the unit. Voila, AA-sidecar. Or, for that matter, you could make one with C-cells and have something like 65 hours of battery life [made that up off the top of my head, the number is not real but you get the idea].

-------------------

Someone, I forget who, has already asked about SP uploads not being in SP - I take this as Sony's final word on the subject, that they're never going to make an SP codec for any computer. With uploads directly to PCM possible, I see it as somewhat superfluous anyway. People will get the most critical part of that function. What would be nice though, is 20- or 24-bit uploads as an option from SP sources. Actually, the same could be said for HiSP [and 352kbps with this unit] since the units themselves all have 20-bit ADCs in them. This is more an 'icing' feature request, mind you.

Having access to SP recordings will likely make these units sell much better to universities, colleges, radio stations, &c. who still use SP-only units in the field on a regular basis.

-------------------

On the one-line display: [to repeat what I've said elsewhere]

If they're marketing this unit primarily as a recorder/uploader [which seems pretty clear to me that they are] then the multi-line display is not a necessity. Having the most important info available at a glance, all on the display at once, means as little info as: the record meters; recording mode/bitrate; group and track #; time display. From the photos shown, this is already the case.

Also, the display may be only a single line, but is far wider than the RH10's.

-------------------

My only real question at this point?

What contract am I going to have to take specifically to get the cash to buy one of these and 2-3 additional LIP-4WMs?

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Agreed, Dex, I would rather have 'fake' line-out and NiMH (+external AA) like we had with the NH900. I suppose I will have to investigate making an external AAs kit.

And get a new job as well ...

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Any word if any features will be deleted for the USA-version of the model?

Will USA have the black or silver remote? Multi-line capable?

Would really like to know if recording levels can be adjusted "on the fly".

The lever on the side, to me, would indicate that it might.

Paul

From past Sony history, the US release will have:

1. A silver only color

2. A downgraded remote - probably without a LCD.

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This thread has grown by two pages while I've been reading. I hope both Sony and Apple are paying attention. (Why Apple? because a recording iPod would give Sony the competition it needs to get serious about modernizing the format, or would give us a better product from Apple, or both.)

I do think that losing the AA battery case is a serious shortcoming--in fact, I'd prefer a model that just takes a AA battery instead of the silly gumpack. (There is such a thing as TOO small even in electronics.) However, if the unit will charge its battery over USB I could live with that--ZipLinq cables do work. And the batteries do seem fairly cheap on eBay, though one would have to remember to keep a bunch of fully charged spares around. One can hope Sony will make (does make?) an external charger for these gumpacks.

As for CF recorders, I've looked into those. Some of them are really cool, but because flash is so expensive, they're not really suited for recording much other than short "songs." I record a *minimum* of 3 hours at a time, and at a weekend event I might need to record 20 hours. Removable batteries and removable (or large) media is important to me. Furthermore, you aren't going to be tossing CF cards in drawers, you're going to reuse them, but MDs are cheap enough to be their own backup. (That's a big deal for me--live recordings are irreplaceable, and I like being able to toss my MDs into a drawer instead of recycling them.)

It's unfortunate Sony didn't decide to add Mac support or uploading of legacy recordings to its previous generation of MR recorders, but better late than never, I guess. If those features work as advertised, I'll buy at least one of these, and maybe an RH10 to use in the field--I really like that big OLED and AFAICT there's no easy way to title recordings on the RH1.

~ Kiran <entropy@io.com>

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and... based on the caption I saw on the sonystyle japan site, you can UPLOAD TO A NETWORK WALKMAN!

I seriously doubt that, but it's something that I've really wished for, device to device connectivity and transfer. That, along with doing away with hiding all of the files nonsense, something that gives cheap flash mp3 dmps a big advantage over Sony's otherwise greatly superior hardware. Add, or rather, correct those two things and things would be as they rationally should be IMO, I would be in heaven. And a digital out would be really nice for hooking up to a nice receiver, especially since you havn't released a deck yet, Sony.

But more to this unit, yes, it is quite pleasing to the eyes and I intend to get one, especially since I dropped my RH-10 onto concrete and it now only works using external power, rendering it a really light nonportalble :rolleyes: . I still have my NH-1 from the Australia liquidation, but this one will end up in my collection sometime, but I'm afraid I won't be able to get it until after I have depleted my savings for the PS3, and there's no definite telling how much that will put me out.

As an end note, I see the single unit as a good move by Sony; it just makes marketing sense, but I also think that it's probably a sign of scaling back and Sony being cautious with it's niche market products.. we'll see.

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Will be adding the sexy black model to the collection, for sure! :ok: I'll miss the charging stand, though! I'm with DEX on being able to overcome the external battery issue - not really an issue, especially since I have rarely used it anyway.

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Agreed, Dex, I would rather have 'fake' line-out and NiMH (+external AA) like we had with the NH900. I suppose I will have to investigate making an external AAs kit.

And get a new job as well ...

:huh:

I would rather have a the LIP-4WM with a real line out than have AA's!

Its personal preferance...

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Bah nothing new for me. Still no dedicated EQ access button and the stupid long press button to enter menu. It's so stupid for stupids like us that have to buy sony as there are no HiMD's from sharp ! :angry2:

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Well - thank you Sony! I think I will have to have one. The only downer (not that this affects the use for live recording obviously) is that I will no doubt not be able to archive my original MD albums onto HIMD for listening on the move. Bah.

Right, now let's have a deck in UK to save me importing the Onkyo!

JC

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Well - thank you Sony! I think I will have to have one. The only downer (not that this affects the use for live recording obviously) is that I will no doubt not be able to archive my original MD albums onto HIMD for listening on the move. Bah.

Right, now let's have a deck in UK to save me importing the Onkyo!

JC

Who says that will not be possible? If you can upload the old MD-albums it will probably also be possible to send it to Hi-MD again.

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Hi MDFreak, cheers for reply.

I suppose I just made the assumption - that if you can upload home recorded stuff but not NetMD transferred stuff, then you also couldn't upload your old original prerecorded albums.

If I can get my old originals into my Sonicstage library then I will be ecstatic!

JC

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The lid legends seem to be the wrong way round - I'd have designed it so that the controls were on the front edge not the side edge, so I'd have put the lid legends 90 degrees clockwise from where they are now, the same way as the control button legends. Of course it matters not - just seems a bit odd.

The functions of the controls seem to be (reading from the left of the picture)

Display/menu (click for display, hold for menu)

Playback volume down/up

Stop/Cancel

Pause

Track mark

Record (the usual slider)

Combo lever/button for fast forward/rec level (push up), rewind/rec level (push down), Play/enter (press)

... and presumably that control navigates the menus in the usual way.

Significant change from previous models is the separation of playback and record level controls - the rest is pretty standard.

The provision of a "spectrum analyser" on a display that small is a bit of a joke. I can't imagine it showing my eyes anything that my ears wouldn't be better at identifying.

Generally though, it does seem to address all reasonable requirements - at last.

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I dont understand why people are still complaining about the battery life. Think of those sucking Ipods. They somehow managed to get a 10-12 houts life. For years they supplied juice for 8 hours. Constant battery problems and you had (have) to send them back for battery replacements. 9 hours of non stop recording! what do you want more? God's wrath? Get a spare battery. Over the years I had more than 10 recorders/players (Sharp and Sony) and I have never used AA battery pack. They become bulky and I dont like the look with that attached.

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The provision of a "spectrum analyser" on a display that small is a bit of a joke. I can't imagine it showing my eyes anything that my ears wouldn't be better at identifying.

Your ears and your microphones/mixing console can hear two completely different things. If you were to record off the soundboard at a concert the monitor/tape sends are different then what is being sent over the PA.

-Greg

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Hello to all, I'm new here but quite familiar with MD stuff, does anyone knows if Sony planning to build Hi-MD separate deck like they did some decks of ES series?

I know about Onkyo's deck but it only works as a part of midi-sized system, can't really find even this one to buy...

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No plans for a dedicated Hi-MD deck as yet. We can only wish for now...

Anyway it will not change my decision of buying RH1, hope that the use of "digital" output amp will deliver decent quality for hooking up to my system. I just can't listen to headphones for a long time - prefere more open sound - hence is my interest to a deck.

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Great. Just great. I just recently got my hands on that Nh1, and this comes out. Well, I knew it was coming out, but not with the features it has. Ugh. :-P

Well, at least I can afford it when it does come out. The question is, will I? After all, I don't have tons of old live sp recordings that cry out to be uploaded to my computer. I'm not constantly recording bands and live shows outside. My md units are primarily used for recording music from my cd's and from other peoples music (be it digital or analog), and as my personal music player, as well as my file tranfer device (love those iGb disks... that' pretty much what I use them for). I was planing to record my piddling little online radio show with my Nh1 though... maybe I should jump on this model for that purpose.

Not to mention that I am just a tech geek anyways, and any new cool toy just calls out to me to nab it. Especially since I've loved the md format for a while now anyways.

I can sorta understand the whole argument against Sony using the LIP-4WM batteries, instead of the other NH-14WM ones, or just plain AA's, because of the battery life and such, but I can also understand why they decided to use the more expensive format. For one thing, they do last longer in the long run. For another, the higher voltage helps with true line in, as it was stated before. Plus, having spare battieres is the professional thing to do if you are going to be making long live recordings anyway, thugh it's not exactly all that atractive with these, because of the cost and difficulty in charging them on the fly (I STILL don't know if there are any chargers for this kind of battery around yet). There is an often overlooked reason for using these batteries and keeping the whole slimline look though: Sony's main market. Let's face it, the western world isn't exactly sony's main market when it comes to minidisc. Japan is pretty much their main bread and butter, and the japanese love their tech as sleek and sexy looking as possible, otherwise they aren't interested. That was one of the main reasons why the first X-Box did so badly over there (besides the fact that it had games that the japanese weren't really interested in). Sony is simply working with that trend, making their recorders look as atractive as possible to the Japanese market, especially since the iPod is making a killing over there. Come to think of it, the iPod's invasion there may be the reason why all the things we've been asking for are begining to show up: if Sony wants to keep their customers, they had to start giving them what they wanted, especially since the Japanese are now grabbing stuff from Apple. They might be just focusing on the recording and profesional market though: notice that we're seeing a new recorder, but not a new player.

It is annoying that we still don't have recorder to recorder transfer yet, nor can we upload mdlp files from one computer to another (that copy protection crap is really getting annoying Sony... if you would just make the minidisc format the truly open detachable media theya re supposed to be, like cassettes were, people would be more receptive to them). And don't get me started on the fact (one that you guys all have been griping about) that we STILL don't have a HiMD deck yet. But who knows. Because of the constant demands of consumers, Sony finally delivered on most of the things we wanted, so it may just take a little more noise to get those other problems squared away too. So any Sony reps, if you do happen to be reading this, keep that in mind: we want a HiMd deck, and we want true detachable format capabilities... that means no more anti-copy crap. Period. Oh, and as one more personal request: car md players. I would like those back, so that I can get one. I really don't feel like paying ridiculous amounts of cash just to import one for my car. Start making those damn things for the US again, please. I know we're not your best market over here (the nationals here tend to be... well slow), but some of us here do buy the stuff you know. So make us happy to keep supporting the format please?

Anyways, still rooting for this thing, and the md format at large of course.

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[本体で再生可能なMP3ファイル形式]フォーマット:MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3、ビットレート:32-320kbps(CBR/VBR)、サンプリング周波数:44.1kHz(MZ-RH1は32/44.1/48kHz)

I don't understand japanese....

But does this line says that RH1 is able to play MP3s at 32/44.1/48 KHZ sampling rates?

Can anyone confirm this?

And is the black version limited to anywhere or limited to any number??

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So, let me get this straight...

With this new unit I can finally upload all my old SD recordings. Or can I? Will it allow me to upload music that was originally copied from a CD?

Then once uploaded to my pc - what can I do with the music? Can I convert it to mp3?, wav?, burn it to a CD?, put it back onto SD minidisc?

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It is annoying that we still don't have recorder to recorder transfer yet, nor can we upload mdlp files from one computer to another (that copy protection crap is really getting annoying Sony... if you would just make the minidisc format the truly open detachable media theya re supposed to be, like cassettes were, people would be more receptive to them). And don't get me started on the fact (one that you guys all have been griping about) that we STILL don't have a HiMD deck yet. But who knows. Because of the constant demands of consumers, Sony finally delivered on most of the things we wanted, so it may just take a little more noise to get those other problems squared away too. So any Sony reps, if you do happen to be reading this, keep that in mind: we want a HiMd deck, and we want true detachable format capabilities... that means no more anti-copy crap. Period. Oh, and as one more personal request: car md players. I would like those back, so that I can get one. I really don't feel like paying ridiculous amounts of cash just to import one for my car. Start making those damn things for the US again, please. I know we're not your best market over here (the nationals here tend to be... well slow), but some of us here do buy the stuff you know. So make us happy to keep supporting the format please?

Anyways, still rooting for this thing, and the md format at large of course.

I wonder if Sony would ever consider creating an interface akin to Simple Burner on Windows to only upload tracks directly to WAV format, like they are doing with the Mac converter. If people are that against SonicStage (or what they think of it from reading stories on the Internet), perhaps people who need to only record with this can go "oh look, this MD recorder doesn't *require* Sonicstage to get my recordings. I just need to run this little app and pull my stuff off and away I go, not tied to any DRM.

Again, this is all great and amazing news. Perhaps little things like standalong upload software will come later if the market demands it. Good job Sony!

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[本体で再生可能なMP3ファイル形式]フォーマット:MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3、ビットレート:32-320kbps(CBR/VBR)、サンプリング周波数:44.1kHz(MZ-RH1は32/44.1/48kHz)

I don't understand japanese....

But does this line says that RH1 is able to play MP3s at 32/44.1/48 KHZ sampling rates?

Can anyone confirm this?

--> RH1 supports Mp3 sampling frequency of 32/44.1/48 kHz.

And is the black version limited to anywhere or limited to any number??

I will reiterate what we have written earlier in the main post of this thread: The black RH1 is a SonyStyle Japan exclusive - limited to the Japanese domestic market but needs to be ordered via SonyStyle Japan. No word with the number produced. However, kurisu did mentioned in one of the earlier posts that the US market may receives the black unit. Stay tuned!

So, let me get this straight...

With this new unit I can finally upload all my old SD recordings. Or can I? Will it allow me to upload music that was originally copied from a CD?

Then once uploaded to my pc - what can I do with the music? Can I convert it to mp3?, wav?, burn it to a CD?, put it back onto SD minidisc?

SP 292kbps file can be uploaded to the PC but needs to be converted to either PCM or ATRAC3plus 256kbps (Hi-SP mode). MDLP tracks will keep their 132kbps and 66kbps bitrate, repsectively.

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Anyone else think a one line display is stupid? I mean, why go backwards after having a 6 line display with the rh10? Heck I don't even see a jog dial, sony could've done much better with this one.

Edited by RobA
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Anyone else think a one line display is stupid? I mean, why go backwards after having a 6 line display with the rh10?

Every model has its advantages & disadvantages ...They have included many new features that were not present in RH10 but at the same time they have made the screen so small .Even I also agree with you that they should have continued with 6 line display but we don`t know what prevented them to drop it ..

Heck I don't even see a jog dial, sony could've done much better with this one.

Until i use the player i can`t say whether they shpould have inculded Jog dial or not

Edited by stuge
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Can I assume that we'll be able to use a car power adapter (and, for that matter, an AC adapter)? I don't record live often or long enough to care about the lack of an AA pack, but I drive long distances.

How will the unit handle normalization? Will it save settings on each MD? Will it work as it should by allowing adjustment of the volume of each track? If so, the last obstacle to my buying Hi-MD may have just vanished. If it's just a volume limiter, forget it.

I would still like to be able to have the option for fade in and fade out when editing tracks in SonicStage, but I can live without that.

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