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Who owns the MZ-RH1?

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sharpsony

Who owns the MZ-RH1?  

88 members have voted

  1. 1. Dou YOU own the MZ-RH1?

    • Yes, I do.
      230
    • No, I don't.
      45


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Being a huge RH1 fan, I'd like to know how many MDCF members own this most perfectly realized Minidisc instrument to date. So don't hesitate to vote... :D

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How does one vote twice when one owns two RH1s? Be indulgent with me and pardon my disguised boasting , I'd been out of MD use for a while and got back into it in a rather over-enthusiastic way, as one could say...
The wizard of oz's description fits me exactly. Nobody liked MD more than I did from the very beginning, but SCMS "no digital copy allowed of a digital copy" defeated me in the end because it allowed no maneuvering room. I paid a lot in 1993 -- $599 for the recorder, $15 for 60-min and $17 for 74-min discs -- for such wonderful engineering only to put up with its being hobbled and disabled in its most powerful and useful point. I bought knowing the system limitations but the hopeless nature of the constraints, in practice, gradually overwhelmed its great benefits and led me to abandon the format in 2002. The irony was, even with the great 'Move' capabilities of MD I felt unable to Move anything off of a disc (digitally, the only way that interests me).

I was thrilled to learn about the RH1 January 23 of this year -- literally a dream come true. I had no intention of buying two but ... if I bought one, I needed a spare battery. $45 for a battery is outrageous but $270 for an RH1, which includes a battery, is nice. It's like getting a $45 discount on an already low price. And the second unit already has its spare battery -- the first's. I always had multiple players anyway -- since 1993 2 Sanyo MDG-P1's along with my beautiful AMD-100.

The only shortcoming I have noticed in my first month with 2 RH1's is the inability to record in mono. (I have not been bothered by the eject button zero-ing the display when jarred, although it has happened). Yes, 45 hours on one disc seems like it should be enough, but why not have 90 hours if the system is capable? Entire audiobooks (or more than one) would fit on HiMD 80's. The Bible (72 hrs) would fit on a 1GB disc with room left for plenty of music as a change of pace. Greater track-accessing problems because of the increased content don't apply, at least for me, with audiobooks. I rewind a sentence or two, or a track, regularly but other than that I go through them pretty linearly.

Edited by Karl Myer
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I have a black RH1, and seriously considering buying a silver one. Almost impossible here for any money, but I don't give up my hope yet. Although I may probably end up buying another black one for my service mode experiments (and, YES, for the spare battery).

And that $350 bonus last week seems really handy in this situation...

Edited by Avrin
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I own one and i'm amazed by everything it's capable of. MD has come a long way, but what i don't get is why it hasn't taken off, especially here in the UK. I wonder if it's because of the price or because people just opt for the most popular and marketable product and buy an ipod?

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I have a black RH1, and seriously considering buying a silver one.
I wish I could have a black and a silver to differentiate them. The black is very nice but my personal preference runs to silver. I stick a flourescent dot to tell them apart. I didn't have a choice of finish with my Aiwa AMD-100 either. I never saw a Sony MZ-1 in my area. Only the silver Aiwa was available, and only at one store. It was the only one they ever had, to my knowledge, and it was in the showcase a long time before I bought it. But the price was never reduced. Edited by Karl Myer
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I own one and i'm amazed by everything it's capable of. MD has come a long way, but what i don't get is why it hasn't taken off, especially here in the UK. I wonder if it's because of the price or because people just opt for the most popular and marketable product and buy an ipod?

If this ever goes down to 249.99 this thing would fly off the shelf.

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If this ever goes down to 249.99 this thing would fly off the shelf.

The price of a RH1 in the UK (average price over 200 GBP) compared to a 30GB Ipod (189 GBP) makes it more viable to own an Ipod. With the cost of IGB disc to boot, not cheap. To my mind the minidisc has always been expensive in the UK, but at least they had lower end models for the likes of myself

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:wub: I've got one and I agree with Borat regarding the lack of display on the unit and no AA battery attachment. Otherwise it's the greatest thing since...
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I own one. best portable audio player i've had. I think it's well worth the cost if your usage is anything to go by.

I use it quite alot for storing/listening to learning material, recording net radio session (can fit an amazing amount on hi-lp hi-md ;)), also store some data on a disk off-site for emergencies.

I considered getting a zip drive, but seeing as I got the RH1 it's best of both worlds. My decision was made easier considering disc life is even better than CD-R :)

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I have an RH-1 :give_heart:

Bought it in January and am in the UK, thought it was about time for an upgrade from my trusty MZN-707 and couldnt be happier :D Its my first Hi-MD unit and am well impressed, although I haven't got my head round all of the features yet :) Bought an RM-MC40ELK remote for it almost straight away. Have since acquired a second HiMD in the form of an ebayed NH1 for either the Hifi in the living room or to take with me in the car - so the RH-1 stays in my flat lol. Funds wouldn't stretch to a second RH-1...I daresay I will get another one before they disappear completely (unless sony improve it and release another version) when I have the cash but at the moment alas no.

Great bit of kit - I dont know why someone doesnt like the controls on the RH1, for me it is much easier to get around than the NH1, and thats me speaking as someone who has a disability which comes with fine motor impairment (i.e fiddly buttons are not for me lol)

cheers

Andrew

PS does anyone have a decent Avatar Pic of the RH-1, as I cant find any in the gallery ?

Edited by AndrewMc1
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MZ-NH1 is my first and only MD recorder. I researched the web and this forum before buying from B&H Photo using their "BillMeLater" service.

I am amazed how neat it is. I'm slowly coming up to speed on its huge feature set. As I have no sound recording background it has been a fairly steep learning curve.

My reason for this purchase is that I am making a Super8 film. Had to have a way to record sound effects and clips from here and their.

My only complaint on the NH1 is that the buttons on the control are hard to see. I used a bit of White-out to hi-lite the letters and symbols.

My eyes are not as young as most of the members of this forum.

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I own one.

I found this video review on youtube about the MZ-RH1.

The video quality is poor but the good points of the RH1 are well put out - I just wonder how many of those who watch the video will still think that having 30 Gigs of mush on a heavy Ipod is better than having 3 or 4 gigs of the best quality on a Hi-MD PCM recorder.

Edited by GregorMD
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I own one.

I found this video review on youtube about the MZ-RH1.

The video quality is poor but the good points of the RH1 are well put out - I just wonder how many of those who watch the video will still think that having 30 Gigs of mush on a heavy Ipod is better than having 3 or 4 gigs of the best quality on a Hi-MD PCM recorder.

I still struggle with this as well. LOVE the convenience of having all my music (Ipod) HATE the sound quality. LOVE the sound quality of RH1. A bit of a pain carrying discs around with me. What's a fellow to do?

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Got a call from the local SonyStyle today. Looks like in a week I'm gonna join the club of the happy owners of two RH1s! Both black. I actually almost bought a used silver one. But didn't like its state, and didn't like the looks. Ordered a second black one.

Well, was it just a momentary lapse of reason or is the third one actually in my plans?

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The problem is I got my trusty RH10 destroyed in a service center (brought it in for laser adjustments, and they burned the main board). Got my money back, which was almost exactly the price of a new RH1 here (which suddenly dropped to $290). So I ordered a second RH1. But there is still that unexpected $350 bonus from last Friday occupying space in my wallet.

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I am a new owner of the RH1 as of last week! It's the only reason I decided minidisc was finally worth giving a try... My dad gave me his old NF810 after he got tired of it and got a new non-MD device for recording his band practice. I thought I would give MD another chance (after having looked into it a few years ago and being disappointed with its shortcomings) and then I found out about the new Hi-MD which were able to digitally upload to a computer finally! I have always been a big fan of Sony products but its also frustrating they don't always listen to what customers really want in their products. I was happy to find out that they finally made the minidiscs cool... They are great recording devices but as far as playback they don't really compete with other players out there, I use an iPod at the moment.

Anyhow, I have one, it works good so far!

Greg

Edited by gregk
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Well I grabbed one.

As far as I know, I was the 1st person in Canada to buy one directly from the Sony Store. As well, there was only 3 in Vancouver when they came out last May. I know I was the 1st person in Vancouver to get one.

Hell I'll prolly get a 2nd unit for home/studio use and one for portability (the sound on this thing just smokes every other Hi-MD model I have yet to hear!)

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I also believe that we may see a new, budget model. Possible ways to cut costs:

1. Plastic body.

2. LCD instead of OLED.

3. Ni-MH instead of LiIon (they may reuse the power circuit of the RH10).

4. No-LCD remote (but this will require trackname display on the unit!).

This may allow creating a $120-150 unit, ideal for portable listening.

But there is a problem. Right now if you want to buy a portable, you have to buy an RH1. If the budget model becomes available, the sales of the RH1 will drop dramatically. One of the ways to make this drop much less dramatic is to make the budget model a downloader. Possibly even a player.

Edited by Avrin
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I also believe that we may see a new, budget model. Possible ways to cut costs:

1. Plastic body.

2. LCD instead of OLED.

3. Ni-MH instead of LiIon (they may reuse the power circuit of the RH10).

4. No-LCD remote (but this will require trackname display on the unit!).

This may allow creating a $150-180 unit, ideal for portable listening.

But there is a problem. Right now if you want to buy a portable, you have to buy an RH1. If the budget model becomes available, the sales of the RH1 will drop dramatically.

I see it in similar way. Although I don't think that new unit developed in this manner will drive out RH1. It was a bit similar with NH1 and cheaper models from it's generation. They were functioning together. I also think that no low budget model can turn people away from a beauty like RH1 :D

One more thing about this possible new construciotn, I can bet, that if it will have LCD instead of OLED, what is likely to happen, it will not have a backlight or it will not display titles <_< They always screw the display functions ;)

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Yesterday my RH1 suffered a really heavy drop onto the desk, and that in the middle of data transfer (with the OWH lowered). No damage whatsoever to the unit or the disc. These guys are serious! It would have been a certain death for a HDD unit.

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I finally joined the happy army of the owners of two RH1s. Just Euro-unlocked the second one, and readjusted the laser (it was 40, not 41, but still way too high from "my" nominal value of 39). Thorough testing is going to come next. After it is complete, the first unit is going to turn into a testbed. There is certainly something more to it in the test mode. Remember that the prototype could record in MONO!

What is more beautiful is that today is exactly one year since I joined the army of MiniDisc users.

Edited by Avrin
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I got my MZ=RH1 today - free cos I won a teaching award! - to go with my old NetMD and MJS MD deck and my drawer full of legacy SP/LP discs. Really excited at the thought of uploading all those discs to my Mac.... Ah, wait - it doesn't work. Despite the info I got from the Sony Centre, and despite this claim on the Sony UK website: 'What’s more, Apple Mac users can now upload material to the MZ-RH1 just as easily thanks to newly-developed Hi-MD Music Transfer for Mac ver.1.0 software supplied with each unit. This allows you to upload recorded content to a Mac PC in Linear PCM/Hi-SP/Hi-LP mode as WAV files.' Call me stoopid if you like, but I'd say that's seriously misleading.

I've been on this site for about two hours, reading post after newbie post dismayed like me, each one followed by an increasingly intemperate reply from an expert - 'SonicStage DOES NOT WORK WITH MACS',etc. Ok, got it. I also notice that every forum for discussion of the issue is locked, presumably because of all those irritating posts from people who can't be bothered to read the FAQs. So I hope it's not too off-topic (I have just got an RH1, and I've voted too) to ask two questions - I can't see anywhere else to post them. The bottom line is I'm going to take the thing back if I can't get some use out of it with my legacy MDs.

1. Is the problem with Macs and legacy MDs a fundamental thing, or a temporary problem that might be rectified later?

2. If I install SoundStage on my girlfriend's PC and upload legacy MDs onto it, can I then burn MP3 CDs from it and import them to my Mac or has Sony got DRM software keeping an eye on everything?

Sorry if it's not exactly on topic, but I can't find anywhere else to ask!

Thanks,

Greg

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So I got one of these back last late June and may have been one of the first of the first few hundred maybe.

Kinda curious about that if a sn# shows when.

Anyway...

I love this thing and would recommend it to anyone that wants to record their own audio.

Pricy? Maybe. But when you get it and figure out all the cool things it does and what you can use it for, it can easily justify the cost.

I'll use it to record gigs and such with a nice AT822 mic and get wonderful results. I was always one to carry around the old Sony tcs310 recorder back in my youth, having it around to catch stuff esp. in music college at UNT.

The RH1 serves a fantastic purpose. And now with the uploading feature working on both pc and mac it simplifies the listening of original recordings by simply burning a cd from Sonic stage or Toast.

Heck, I even went out and put a Sony car stereo in my vehicle that plays the atrac files burned to cd (rw). I'll record a whole weekend's worth of gigs and load up a 20 cent cd for nearly 8 hours of stuff to listen to.

The legacy thing too is nice. I've got about 90-100 md disks from over the years and now am able to drop them to cd archive.

Bummer about the pc and Sonicstage and it's limitations. If only it was more Mac friendly, but that won't happen.

And I would kinda wish for a way to convert atrac to mp3 without the need to burn a disk. Oh well.

Coming from having some early models, this machine is a blessing.

Greg...just do what you were thinking in question 2 and then rip them as mp3 in iTunes. I take them into Sonicstage to tweak or normalize or fragment if needed.

And try to do all your combining and dividing in Sonicstage on the pc first (drag).

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