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I have been planning to buy MZ RH1 for a few years but my being student budget/education expenses excuses hadn't give me chance to buy it until now but I have slim papers that makes people work for it for life .

I want to buy silver color but it is available only on Japanese retailers . I have checked SonyStyle JP , Kakaku , Rakuten and no chance , it is out of sale or something like that , because I can't read Japanese and Google Translate doesn't help that much , can someone confirm that if SonyStyle JP is still selling ? Thanks .

I have checked also Ebay and there are only Hong Kong Black editions ; are HK Black and JP different or made in the same factory or the one is made in China and the other is made in Japan ?

Also , let's say I have a CD album and ripped music tracks on mp3 format to my computer and then to MD player (Atrac/PCM format) and I ripped , converted the music tracks from CD to MD player directly via SonicStage software on computer ? Is quality of music tracks going to be different ?

Can anyone suggest me japanese retailers where I can buy a silver MD player ? I might use forwarded shipping .

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I can't help you with finding a silver recorder.

But regarding ripped CDs: Both mp3 and ATRAC are lossy formats. That means that when you convert music to them you lose part of the original. So if you convert to mp3 and then to ATRAC you are going to diminish sound quality. And there is no need to convert anyway because the MZ-RH1 will play mp3 files.

If you are starting from the CD and ripping it directly, then PCM is lossless. You will get full CD quality. But you'll only get 90 minutes of music on a Hi-MD 1GB disc. If you want smaller files, then take your pick between mp3 or ATRAC--use Hi-SP or SP for good lossy sound quality--but mp3 files will play on a lot of other players, and ATRAC won't.

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Hi, sorry to hijack this topic. Feel free to delete it.

Im pretty sure we have a bunch of mp3s as i do. My question is, Im listening to those mp3 (mostly 320kbps) converted to SP due to my bookshelf only support SP. Is it possible to get good quality in SP rather than i preserve to mp3 format and listen to my comp?

This matter always playing in my mind. Hope sifus could help.

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If you want to listen to SP on your bookshelf, the best way is to get a CD-MD deck (or another CD-MD bookshelf). Converting **via** uncompressed on your computer will not work well with what Sony supplies (Sonic Stage), you need to use the open software EAC to get good results for the import, in fact. Converting **from** that to SP is a poor process, and only gives you the effect of 132kbps on MD, in terms of quality.

Many people (but not all) believe that the "good enough" route is direct from CD to LP2 (132kbps), using SS or SImple Burner. But that doesn't help you, since you can not listen to LP2.

Your RH1 would be able to listen to any MP3 without further conversion. But don't bother with the earlier MD revisions, the MP3 support was not very good. Instead of spending (as you say) $$$ on RH1, why not get a bookshelf unit with HiMD? There a couple of good ones made by Onkyo, see link here. The trouble is going to be finding one.

Finally, I would suggest to listen to tracks from your computer (the optical out from the PC), but because you say your bookshelf is SP-only, this means probably it does NOT have digital input. There are some later models which do, but all of them after the year 2000 also support LP2, getting over your other problem. Depending on where you live you may be able to get a replacement bookshelf unit for $100 or less. What model do you have at the moment?

And the "other colour" of MZ-RH1 is grey, not silver.

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I am not that sure that buying an Hi-MD recorder to finally record in PCM format is a good solution nowadays, IF you don't have / or in the next future don't find many 1 Gb Hi-MDs blanks. That could be a very expensive pleasure. Why not with classic MD blanks ? But then you must get a lot of them AND being ready to change discs as often as you did a long time ago with LPs. Hi-SP recording and CD-MD deck / bookshelf are other stories.

Think of how much that will cost you finally, that will help you to make the good choice.

With time you will forget even to download any MP3 on your Hi-MD units.

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PhilippeC I want to listen CD quality or lossless music while mobile without sacrificing beatrate , There is Portable CD player and MD Player as mobile and MD Player can fit into pocket easily but that is right , that is an expensive pleasure , I have thought to but a dozen Hi-MDs and a few rechargeable batteries but I might change my mind and get a mp3 player of Sony and buy a deck just sfbp suggested , I am searching about Onkyo B7/8 now , at least I can listen to music in my house .

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Thanks for the reply.

Im using this ( CD-MD bookshelf) since 1997 im not so sure the exact time. It has optical input my i never use before. It fed my ears very well until last year which the cd player became faulty. Now I only use comp -> MZ-M100 via usb then converted to SP and listen to my bookshelf. All my tracks are in uncompressed format and only for last 2 days i did some research in forum about AAL format. (for storing purposes).

But all these format is useless (for me) because i never listen to comp before and my bookshelf only supported SP. So all my collections i converted to SP.

Regarding the mp3 format, I had converted recently from 320kbps to SP. It acceptable actually to my ears and i couldnt appreciate any different in term of quality BUT i do realize that i need to volume it up to make sure the sounds is crispy. (WAV to SP i only need "10-12" range in volume but MP3 320 kbps to SP i need " 13-16" range in volume). If using earpiece, some track is clear (thanks to the acoustic engine) but some track is totally crap.

Im not sure, SonicStage performs well to me until today and i think only SS would only do all my needs.

To buy a Hi-MD deck or bookshelf like Onkyo is too expensive.

PhilippeC : I am planning to go to Vietnam in this December and looking for the bookshelf.

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PhilippeC I want to listen CD quality or lossless music while mobile without sacrificing beatrate , There is Portable CD player and MD Player as mobile and MD Player can fit into pocket easily but that is right , that is an expensive pleasure , I have thought to but a dozen Hi-MDs and a few rechargeable batteries but I might change my mind and get a mp3 player of Sony and buy a deck just sfbp suggested , I am searching about Onkyo B7/8 now , at least I can listen to music in my house .

I think mp3 player from Sony also supports AAL format. I was planning to get one also but definitely I might loose "enjoying" something to do with MD if I own a mp3 player. Thats what i think.

The sifus are right. If you are a collector, burn $$$ for MD/ Hi-MD portable and enjoy lossless format. If you are only enjoying quality track, buy mp3 which support AAL for mobile and Hi-MD deck for home and enjoy lossless format.

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I want to listen CD quality or lossless music while mobile without sacrificing beatrate

I truly believe there is no portable (Sony) player now or in the future where you can experience lossless playback. You will hear no difference. Same for automobile. The subtle extras you might get from the sound being uncompressed are guaranteed to be swallowed up by road noise. Sony's ATRAC compression technology (the reason we are all here to begin with) is amazing, and way better than MP3.

The other disadvantage of uncompressed playback is that it eats memory. Why carry 160GB (currently not possible anyway) when you can carry 16GB, given the compression factor of ATRAC?

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Thanks for the reply.

Im using this ( CD-MD bookshelf) since 1997 im not so sure the exact time. It has optical input my i never use before. It fed my ears very well until last year which the cd player became faulty. Now I only use comp -> MZ-M100 via usb then converted to SP and listen to my bookshelf. All my tracks are in uncompressed format and only for last 2 days i did some research in forum about AAL format. (for storing purposes).

But all these format is useless (for me) because i never listen to comp before and my bookshelf only supported SP. So all my collections i converted to SP.

Regarding the mp3 format, I had converted recently from 320kbps to SP. It acceptable actually to my ears and i couldnt appreciate any different in term of quality BUT i do realize that i need to volume it up to make sure the sounds is crispy. (WAV to SP i only need "10-12" range in volume but MP3 320 kbps to SP i need " 13-16" range in volume). If using earpiece, some track is clear (thanks to the acoustic engine) but some track is totally crap.

Im not sure, SonicStage performs well to me until today and i think only SS would only do all my needs.

To buy a Hi-MD deck or bookshelf like Onkyo is too expensive.

PhilippeC : I am planning to go to Vietnam in this December and looking for the bookshelf.

You can increase the quality of your recordings with MP3 if you record

- in real time from your computer + a good audio card + optical out

- use players WMP, Winamp or foobar2000, not Sonic Stage !

- plugins like Wincue (Winamp) or Post-track silence (foobar2000)

- DSP audio output like Asio4all or Kernal Streaming with settings 24bit/192kHz (if the audio card is able to)

- and above all, the DFX audio enhancer (free version) plugin for these players

- you can also use that plugin with lossless quality files but with recent music (high dynamic), the sound will be metallic and distorted, so listen before and power off DFX if it is worse before recording !

- at last, use ReplayGain plugin so that all songs (of all MDs) will be recorded at the same level (and more with no distorsion, unless you use too much DFX).

Vietnam : fine, note taht I will go in France the 22th december. Pham Cu (vietnamese, living in HCM city) will help you to find what you want or even sell it to you : http://www.5giay.vn/...d.php?t=3360572 . Bookshelves : only SP and MDLP bookshelves in Vietnam. The good area is Nhật Tảo / Nguyễn Kim, Hô Chi Minh, Vietnam" (Google maps). Bookshelves will cost from 1.000.000 (50$US) to 3.000.000 VND, average 1.500.000 VND with the speakers. I bought an MDLP Onkyo FRSX7 (1.200.000 VND) and a SP Panasonic SCHD-615MD (5MD! 2.500.000 VND) bookshelves.

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Whoa, wait a minute! There are lots of lossless mp3 players out there.

A dinky little Sansa Fuze will play back .wav files and compressed lossless like FLAC. Those little doPi players from Apple play .wav and Apple Lossless. Cowon iAudio players play .wav and FLAC. I bet Sony even makes portable mp3 players that play .wav.

Lossless is not a reason to get minidisc. Even if you think you need it in a portable.

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Sorry by "lossless" i meant lossless compression. Of course I accept there are players that play uncompressed wav (even if it's the PCM-M10 or the ICD-SX750 series).

I also challenge whether any PORTABLE will actually give you anything other than worn out batteries, relative to a decent compression such as ATRAC that actually delivers good reconstruction of the sound to headphones.

I totally accept that for a hifi system uncompressed is pretty darned good, depending on Fs. However ATRAC compressed 10x at 44.1 (or A3+ 20x) will beat uncompressed at 22.05 any day of the week, IMO. The major advantage of uncompressed (or lossless-->> uncompressed) is that it leads to reliable editing with few digital rounding errors, and also conversion (ditto ditto). If you already have a good sound already recorded, that data rate can be as low as 66kbps (in my personal experience) and still give decent playback. Quality depends much more on how it got there. I've heard plenty of crappy wav files in my time.

Stephen

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You can increase the quality of your recordings with MP3 if you record

- in real time from your computer + a good audio card + optical out

- use players WMP, Winamp or foobar2000, not Sonic Stage !

- plugins like Wincue (Winamp) or Post-track silence (foobar2000)

- DSP audio output like Asio4all or Kernal Streaming with settings 24bit/192kHz (if the audio card is able to)

- and above all, the DFX audio enhancer (free version) plugin for these players

- you can also use that plugin with lossless quality files but with recent music (high dynamic), the sound will be metallic and distorted, so listen before and power off DFX if it is worse before recording !

- at last, use ReplayGain plugin so that all songs (of all MDs) will be recorded at the same level (and more with no distorsion, unless you use too much DFX).

Thanks for these infos PhilippeC. Will take note and give it a try.

Vietnam : fine, note taht I will go in France the 22th december. Pham Cu (vietnamese, living in HCM city) will help you to find what you want or even sell it to you : http://www.5giay.vn/...d.php?t=3360572 . Bookshelves : only SP and MDLP bookshelves in Vietnam. The good area is Nhật Tảo / Nguyễn Kim, Hô Chi Minh, Vietnam" (Google maps). Bookshelves will cost from 1.000.000 (50$US) to 3.000.000 VND, average 1.500.000 VND with the speakers. I bought an MDLP Onkyo FRSX7 (1.200.000 VND) and a SP Panasonic SCHD-615MD (5MD! 2.500.000 VND) bookshelves.

PhillippeC, I am planning to go there around that week of December. Should I mention your name in case you are not around? I hope I can bring back a bookshelf but Im not sure what brand should I choose. Should try one by one may be.

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If you already have a good sound already recorded, that data rate can be as low as 66kbps (in my personal experience) and still give decent playback. Quality depends much more on how it got there. I've heard plenty of crappy wav files in my time.

Yeah some recording not giving a decent playback. But I havent try with an optical input anyway just via usb. Should try to compare with.

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