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It depends what you will do with them and what the source represents. I am assuming that you already recorded SP, because MDLP (LP2 and LP4) will be uploaded "as is" meaning they have had the minimum done to them. As such, MDLP will be transferred and played back without further modification (transcoding). Even if you convert them to WAV files, it doesn't matter what you have the setting you ask about set to, since the conversion will take place AFTER the transfer. So, to SP. If you plan on converting SP to WAV files then you should use the PCM option. It won't make a huge difference (and it will fill your disk real quick), but this is the least amount of messing with the bit patterns of your music. Don't forget to decrypt everything using the File Conversion Tool, or those PCM files stored in Sonic Stage will be completely useless (if you have the automatic conversion to WAV turned on, then you can actually delete the sonic stage files, of course). If you "only" want to listen to them (either from puter using SonicStage/Windows Media Player, or by transferring to HiMD) then by all means upload them to 256kbps (Hi-SP) since this will now represent the least transcoding of your music. But keep them in this format after that, if possible. Every time you change the format you risk significantly degrading the sound. The only way to be sure is to try it and run A-B comparisons to make sure you can live with the result.

Sorry this is a bit off topic, but I am lucky enough to possess the MDX-CA790X, one of the relatively few car head units that plays back MDLP. The problem is that this unit was (I think) never sold here, and there appears to be no way to fix the digital tuning to the North American defaults. FM, there's no problem, there are channels more finely granular on the unit than what's used here. But AM is set to change in 9Khz steps rather than 10Khz. This means that more often than not, the channel setting is "off". It's not terminal, just mildly annoying. 1. Does anyone have a service manual for the MDX-CA790X? 2. Is there on any Sony head unit, a code (key or remote) that somehow enables the change? I'm sure I saw it on one model in the manual but cannot recall which one. Perhaps a code from one unit will work on other models. It's no big deal but it bothers me from time to time, and the board seems very quiet at the moment, maybe we need something to toss around Stephen

I think I take the NH700 over the NH600. Both use AA but the NH700 can actually charge itself. It also has a mic input, and a bigger display. There's been a problem buying the '700 in N. America, but the UK market seems to have had plenty getting resold. None at the moment, a couple 1 week ago each around 50 quid.

Just a note in closing: the differences between the 700D and the 750 are quite numerous. In general the 700D looks better made with a "sparkly" metallic finish rather than the plasticky-looking shiny finish of the 750. - The Word "SONY" between the LCD and the mics is raised metal on the 700D, on the 750 just white paint. - The 700D comes with a charge stand (fits the 750) but no spring-clip microphone stand like the 750 - The earbuds with the 700D were ok (not as good as the ones with gold-plated jack from many MD units), the ones with the 750 dreadful, though they looked externally the same. Maybe just luck. - Rechargeable batteries were supplied with the 700D, though the 750 will in fact recharge batteries if you get some. - The mic/linein connector on 750 is a bit recessed, not flush with the body on mine, whereas on the 700D it looks more solidly built. - The carry bag is superior on the 700D. Looks like they tried to save money to come out with something competitively priced. What worries me a bit is if they skimped on the microphone quality compared to the 700D (which I made some nice recordings with). No data yet, but I have my suspicions. I also had a look on Ebay and found there are ICD-SXnnn models going up to 8GB (the 4GB is available here but the 8GB only from Japan). Meanwhile there are definitely PCM-M10's on for under $300 US. However there's "only" PCM and MP3 recording - the ICD series has this impressive array of choice of codecs for different applications, and the LPEC STHQ 128kbps beats (IMHO) the MP3 codec easily. I should not be surprised if the MP3 recording on the PCM-M10 was about the same as MP3 recording on the ICD-SX700D, not all that good. However I cannot properly comment, this is pure conjecture. The only annoying thing about the software is that there isn't a way to batch convert from OMA (md) to LPEC. I can do it with Sound Forge but it takes a while, and there's no batch convert (at least in the bundled version). Using the Oma->MP3 batch converter from Sony I can definitely tell the difference between the MP3 (default bitrate chosen by Sony) and the LPEC, the latter being better at 128kbps than the former at 160kbps. Moral of the story - you don't get something for nothing? Noted 7.06.2010 - there's ICD-SX950 on Ebay for $225 with 8GB on board, I'm tempted.......

Agree with all your assignments, especially the NH900 which is also good at recordings from said stereo. I have to say that I've been won over by the ICD-SX700 and successors in combination with Sonic Forge. For me it's all about capability. Also neither of you gents mention a car changer (or head unit). The B10 is mainly used for easy division of long performances. For example, if I could be bothered, I could divide an opera into arias. I might have to title them on the PC because lo-MD doesn't have quite enough titling space for this. But my off-radio compilations divided into songs only really worked because of the B10. Otherwise I would have pushed the buttons on some other unit to breaking, as I have seen people report here from time to time. Stephen

Dunno, those are of the same generation exactly, but the service manuals aren't on the site. You can probably find one by paying for it. Stephen sent you a PM

Too bad, I paid extra for the Dragon stuff I didn't even want, and then on top of that for Sonic Audio Studio 9. So it goes, sometimes to make an omelette <blah blah blah>..... The only conceivable criticism (and it's minor) is that the MOVE function isn't very precise. You can move stuff into a given folder but it will always put it at the end (which is good enough in some cases - ie moving into the present folder will move the track to be that folder's last). My line in recordings sounded, if anything, better than yours. I will cross check with some piano, but I think so far I only transferred or converted piano from ATRAC or WAV. And I definitely think that LPEC/128k beats MP3/192k for actual direct recording from microphone.

Thanks for a great review. Now something is puzzling me - what is the difference between 750 and 750D? The 750D seems consistently to command a higher price. What magic feature from the 750 is missing (it's the one I just bought 2 of) that is in the 700D and 750D?? I have looked through the manuals. No joy yet. Just in the interests of full disclosure, my positive reviews so far were for the SX700D. I'll blow a gasket if the 750 is in some way inferior. Edit: looks like the only difference I can see is that the D model doesn't have the inbuilt folding stand (not the charge stand, that is a separate dealy). I also noticed there is some confusion about the Sonic Forge (or whatever its called now) software. Did you get it included? I paid $250 for a machine with 1GB, no stand, and no Sonic Forge. The $123 to Amazon looks like it includes the stand and the software and 2GB onboard memory. Where's the catch? If there is none, I am definitely pulling the trigger on the money-back guarantee.

$123 for the ICD-SX750 (weight: 2oz plus 2 AAA batteries) is hard to beat. Take a look at this thread (sorry to be a bore) http://forums.sonyinsider.com/index.php?showtopic=25486

Nope. But I have done very nice recordings in both modes.

Even better with optical out. If you have a sound card that produces it. For laptops you may need one of the USB->Optical cards/dongles, of which there are at least 2 brands. For desktops, you can buy a card with optcal in and out for not much money. Then set up your soundcard as the output device for Windows and away you go.

Sure does. The mic input doubles as line in. I've tested it. When you insert something into the socket it pops up and asks you whether it's an external mic or line in. (see the bottom of p.50, item 7, in the manual)

You won't succeed. One simple route - go back and get the premium version of 7. Another - get Virtual Box or VMWare (however no idea how that coexists with 7 - badly is my guess) In either case you would run the 32-bit Windows specially to allow SonicStage/Drivers to work. It's not a specific issue for the 980, but one that applies to ALL NetMD products. The drivers simply do NOT work in W64. Sorry. The last question you raise is an interesting one. Many people believe that the type-R processing (forget Type-S that's on playback only, and only LP modes) only kicks in for real-time recording. OTOH the power of CPU's may mean that the on-PC encoding does a better job. The one thing I have learned is this: don't go via WAV files on the PC unless you know exactly what you're doing - the result is way worse than would be expected (assuming that you used Sonic Stage to rip the CD to WAV files), for reasons that are currently still unclear. via Atrac Advanced Lossless works fine (at least for me).

I sent you a PM

I still haven't done a proper test of that aspect. Both my live recordings had the unit in my breast pocket. Sounded good, though.

Did a stealthy recording last night (Not that stealthy, it was in my pocket whilst I stood there with a handheld camera and took a video) and will be working on it today to splice together. It's with the inbuilt mike and there is pocket rustle (not to mention me chuckling a couple of times) but I suspect it will be quite adequate and way better than the sound picked up by the camera. We'll see what happens to the solo singers, initial impression being good. I played the opening of Tosca to the subject of the farewell gala, the retiring conductor of our choir (he got snapped by the video/recording singing 2 funny songs), and we've agreed I am buying him one as a parting gift. He lives in the US so I just ordered 2 more from Amazon and will pocket one for myself when I drive down there to set it up for him. I also stuck the same in the ears of an audiophile friend at the same do - his eyes lit up and he clearly wants one. "Sony" he said. "Metal body", says I. Just reflecting - for downloaded music (to the device) I can discern the order CD > MP3/256 > MP3/192. I think that LPEC STHQ is somewhere in the middle there, my impression is between the last two, closer to the 256k. However it has a different sound profile from ATRAC or MP3, which is clearly seen on the waveforms, and it may turn out to be better than ATRAC LP2. Don't know yet. Just as I wouldn't try to do a serious live recording on MD without using LPCM (and the 2GB unit will now cope with 3hrs 10m of that!), I will probably use decent mics and the highest rate in future. But STHQ seems pretty good both as a download format (after conversion from ATRAC) and as a non-critical recording medium. I get the impression that transfers are very fast from the recorder. I drag&dropped the results of last night over to the PC, totalling 160MB, and it took under 20 seconds. Going the other direction (I dragged about 160M of MP3's) took a little over 3x as long, about 70 seconds, which isn't surprising for flash memory.

yes - as long as you only need HiMD, it should be fine. NetMD will not work unless you have WinXP 32 bit compatibility mode. HiMD is using only the file system over USB, essentially. NetMD has its own protocols and drivers (being from an earlier, and coincidentally, more paranoid) era. You'll only get WinXP compatibility mode in the non-base versions of W64. (note: this information is now out of date, there is a NetMD 64-bit driver available in our downloads section).

Two more points - the PCM-M10 weighs in at 13oz, the ICDSX7x0 series is under 2oz. Metal body, too. - Amazon has them on for $123 (that's the 2GB model)

Here's the "real" list of features from the help file for Sound Forge 9. A surprising amount of new stuff. I was particularly impressed that my favourite format AAL is included in the capabilities, as well as being able to read all my SonicStage (.oma) files and even (it is slow but what the heck) "Export to NetMD" for any file in the editor. I tried all of the above, CDDB works for titling a single track! I shortened it quite a bit to make the summary readable.

That's what I thought when I saw this in the drugstore 5 months back. And dismissed it. I was surprised though. It really is eminently suitable for music. Just the way they packaged it makes you think it isn't. Of course how much below 50Hz does one really hear, given that 50/60Hz is the frequency of mains hum? Drag and drop makes up for the 1GB capacity. The STHQ mode (17 hours in the 1GB, 34 hrs in the 2GB) is really quite decent. There's no apparent roll-off at the lower end; perhaps that 50Hz might apply to the inbuilt microphone? I exported to WAV just to check, and it looks pretty normal. These are both from the same 10-second passage in the first movement of Scaramouche (2-piano music by Milhaud). First the "raw" WAV as ripped from CD by Sonic Forge Then the "exported" LPEC STHQ file (after conversion to STHQ and back to WAV). 2-piano music can be pretty taxing on any system with poor reproduction. This sounds perfect. I know there is some "ripple" above 14K but the shape of the curve looks very very similar to me. The opening of Tosca sounds quite full-bodied and overall, excellent. I suspect this is simply a matter of a product being marketed (targeted) to a particular audience for a particular purpose. It certainly meets Sony's standards as set with MD, and has none of the restrictions or drawbacks. I have yet to do a recording with LPCM 44.1kHz sample rate, but even the 22.05kHz LPCM sounded quite decent of a (live) symphony orchestra. All I can say is, go buy one from somewhere with a good return policy. Sound Forge Pro is up to version 10, so this (9) is the LE, as you say. But lots of nice new features in the Lite model. Some in the ICD series include it anyway, just my bad luck that the one I got did not.

This has to be the quietest I've ever seen the board. Sigh. Continuing on (maybe some admin would like to change the title of the thread or sticky it or something) I also found out that the latest version of Sonic Forge Audio Studio, available (by download) from Sony for the grand sum of $54.95 speaks ALL of ATRAC/3/+ as well as MP3 and also the "native" format of this ICD recorder, .MSV. I used Sound Forge 9 to convert from Atrac3, from Atrac3+ and from Atrac Advanced Lossless, to MSV on the flash recorder. Pretty darned good, none of the artifacts we have learned to avoid with SonicStage conversions.

I don't need to tell you what these are 110533750608 200472563454 120569876221 All underpriced, my guess is suitable as backup unit. The RH1 is known for having "issues" with the buttons, it will be the luck of the draw whether the vendor(s) wore them out before putting on sale. UK only, but you never know......

Hmm... looks like this could have been imported from England and will need 230V power supply. There may be minor differences in FM stations but that shouldn't matter. Or is this a genuine 110 volt (or 100 volt?) model imported from Japan? Interesting looking machine, though.

Set the Artist's name on each album. They are considered all to be by Mr. Anon. And HE only has one initial.

There's definitely a Manual mode for recording. Independent of the headphone volume, two different pairs of buttons BOTH operable during recording. I paid $249 Can, and there seem to be models available in the US for a lot less than that. There's a 2GB version at Amazon US for $160, so I am feeling (like you) somewhat ripped off right now. But hey, it's a nice piece of kit. http://www.amazon.com/Sony-ICD-SX750D-Memory-Digital-Recorder/dp/B00387E5DA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1273973012&sr=1-1 I think the LPEC codec STHQ at 128kbps seems like the ATRAC 128kbps codec many here noticed was missing from recordable rates on MD. Not that it IS ATRAC, just the combination of space and freq response is decent. Some more notes: Atrac converted to 256K MP3 can be played (after transfer) and sounds good. 128K MP3 not so good. I also noticed that the "native" MP3 recording mode at 192 wasn't as good as the STHQ. LPCM 22khz sample rate (Fs 11.05 Khz of course a significant cutoff) is acceptable for live recording. Symphony orchestra sounded quite good despite the supplied mic lurking in my pocket. Not good enough to use, but that was not the recorder's fault. Editing on the recorder (divide, anyway) is really trivial. Titling can be done either through Windows Explorer (presumably Mac too) via USB, and also somewhat more easily using their supplied software (Digital Voice Editor). Conversion of STHQ to MP3 directly (WAV I already mentioned) works fine. I haven't tried the other direction, if it can be done. When you connect something in the input socket it always asks you if it's a mic or line in. Nice.