Xeys_00

Please ban Dair or whatever his name is. He's gonna ruin this forum!

Yea, I'm on the fence right now... But getting 3 dh710s for about 279 total is looking more and more like the "final solution". I could use my existing 116 80 minute blanks, and save my n707 for strictly mic recording. It all depends on if I win a n505 for 40 bucks and 10 shipping, sealed in the box new. If that doesn't go, I'm pulling the trigger on the 3x dh710.

When I record discs with Sonic Stage, they are never as loud as when I record with line out(optical). Is this just a limit of Sonic Stage, or can I do something about this?

Been a little bit since I posted on this thread, but wanted to let y'all know how the recording is going. I'm using Itunes, turning the internal volume(in the itunes program) to 3/4 volume. The computer volume is on full. It does this immediately when I plug in my optical transfer cable. It isn't that accurate on trackmarks, but I'm not labeling the tracks or marking the songs in any way. I'm just treating it like a cassette recording. And it's going well.

For those who care, I will be starting my rerecording run on Thursday night. Realtime, from the macbook optical out, straight from the CD. For what it's worth, I am enjoying my music now more than I have in a long time. Sure, I had millions of songs on my ipod since 2004, but I can actually hear things now. The cymbals, the high hat, little riffs on the guitar that I have missed all these years. The last time I heard all these details was when I had a nice sony cd player back in my first year in the army, and I'd just pop a disc in, and have a good listen. And I like the sound of the electronics. I know you can encode an mp3 in 320, but I just plain like SP at 292. I'm a bit worried that I'll wear out my recording unit(new mz-n707), so I'm trying to find new in the box units like it. My used mz-r70 will be my mic recording unit, and I'll stop recording lectures with the 707. IS there any difference using a mz-r70 to record sp vs a newer unit like the 707? Did the atrac hardware encoding stuff change? It's silly, but I'm doing the recording like I used to with a cassette. Just record the whole cd as 1 80 minute track. And fast forward to the next song. I'll eventually put track marks in and all. And I may try to scan the cd cover and photoshop it and make something I can print out and stick on the minidisc. So, I've gone from millions of songs(actually thousands), to 30-40 songs per minidisc, to about 12-15. I've made the decision to embrace quality and a physical medium over quantity and a flash drive or hard disk. And I've taken Sonic stage out of the equation entirely. Incidentally, SP stereo records my marketing lectures very nicely, and transferring it out via line in gives me top notch results. I may end up converting my professors to recording using minidisc simply because it's so easy for a "non techy" to get. Put the disc in, plug in the lapel mic, and slide the record button. Click the hold button, put it in your jacket pocket. It's that easy. Sounds almost like it could be an Apple product. Ok, mindless blathering over.

However, I think they are a bit overpriced, being download only units . Thoughts?

Hmmm. I can hear the high hat very clearly now. To be fair I could hear it also on the 707. It's nice. I'll manually rerecord my stuff, I think. It'll take a while, but I think it will be worth it.

Well, logically, yes, I get that part. But I had felt pretty good about my lp2 stuff. I am actually reconsidering how I feel about it now in light of sp.

Just for fun, I thought I'd do the optical out from my macbook to the mz-n707 and record 2 albums in SP. They were my fiance's, and we both like older music sometimes, so anyways... Heart's greatest Hits and Cher's Greatest Hits. I recorded both in SP. Aside from recording all as one track(which I am fixing currently as I listen by hitting track mark at the end of each song), the process was remarkably easy. I just set the volume at 1/2 on the recorder, and itunes had a maxxed out volume(although the optical out prevented any volume changes from using the controls). I slid the record switch, it waited for me to start the cd, and easy peasy. I had recorded all my cds using lp2. And I thought they sounded fine. But... Listening now to the recordings made in SP, it seems that the sound is "more alive and just a bit better" than what I'm used to from LP2. I thought there wasn't that big of a difference between how the 2 would sound. But I am afraid that I can hear a definite difference, and definitely in SP's favor. It's not distorted, and it's clear as a bell. Is this just a sound setting I've set by accident or something? I'm starting to reconsider rerecording all my stuff like this, because it sounds very good. The volume level is very different from what I recorded in sonic stage(louder, but in a good way). I monitored the original recordings, and the recordings sound identical to the cd. Is this what everyone's talking about when I read about the LP2 vs SP debate?

Ok, thanks! I am enjoying my mz-n707 very much however.

I am considering getting a mint condition(from original owner) MZ-2p. The reason is that it has an optical out, and would let me record on another unit in SP, and then use the 2p to run it in optically on my macbook pro. Any thoughts on this? It looks like a viable alternative to getting the RH-1.

Can someone tell me of their experience was with this unit? Does it make a lot of noise recording? the idea is to start recording, put it in my pocket, and then record the class I am in. Would it be too noisy for that?

Well, I am using netmd currently. But it seems I can take my 66 minidscs(mostly 80 minute type), and double how much lp2 music I can put on there. And that sounds kind of cool.

Does anyone know if this model has a loudness problem? I'm thinking of getting one, maybe. http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-SONY-MZ-DH710-HI-M...%3A1|240%3A1318

By the way, it looks like Minidisc Canada has it for about 300 after tax, etc. Does anyone know if it will have problems at the border? Extra tax or anything?

Well, I keep coming back to the idea that if I continue with minidisc, eventually, I will have to get one of these. But, for that kind of money, I need it to last. So far, I haven't had to invest much into minidisc, but this is a serious investment. How long could I expect this to last, if I never took it out of the house, used it only to upload recordings made on my older recorders, and kept it put away in a drawer when not using it? I'm antsy thinking about spending that kind of money, and if I do, this will have to last for a LONG time. Any opinions?

Yea... I mean, I bought my 707 brand new in a kit with nice mic, and all for 170... I just can't see paying that again unless it's for a similar unit in brand new condition. And I am not that interested in hi-md. the only use for that I can see would be transferring my recordings from the 707 to the computer digitally, and I'm probably gonna get a deck eventually that will have optical outs and be mdlp compatible. I was kinda upset when I saw that price, because I would actually use the damn thing. But if he never lowers the price it will sit until it's of no good to anyone. People sitting on something like that because they think it's worth a ton infuriate me. And they always say it's a collector's item. These are the same people who sell prerecorded minidiscs for 25 bucks each because they "don't make them anymore"... Ok, rant over.

I had considered buying a older MD recorder unit off ebay, just sp, no mdlp. Since I like new as opposed to old, and because I figured it should be cheaper, I punched in minidisc new on the search for ebay. and I came up with this: http://cgi.ebay.com/BRAND-NEW-BLUE-MZ-R70-...3%3A1|294%3A200 Is there something special about this model, or is the guy just being unreasonable?

All I need now is a good mdlp deck with optical in and out, brand new. Yes, I know it will be more expensive, but I like my stuff new.

I will keep it in mind. I dual boot with a macbook pro, but have not really used the music making program much... I originally got it because I was going to be doing a lot of video, and 3d gaming on the windows side. But thanks for the offer, very kind of you!

Yep, I'm even looking into how to make some sort of label for each disc, rather than just writing on the cheapo little sticky labels that I get with my blanks... Be nice to kind of get the cassette case/label thing going on, with the names of all the songs on the disc.

Sorry, I just noticed that. I'll get right on that. How embarrassing! LOL It's the mz-n707, and I'll edit the review right now. Sorry guys!

I am considering my next md purchase... A hi-md recorder. But not for the reasons you might think. I want a way to get recordings that I make on my mz-n707 into the computer in wave format. I want to transfer recordings made from the mic, the optical line in, and even ones put there via usb interface with Sonic stage. I plan to never take it out of the house, and just to use it to transfer recordings to computer. Any suggestions?

Sorry to poke my head in here, but am I silly for buying blanks on Amazon? 30 blanks of 80 mins each new for about 50 bucks. Am I making a grave error here? I have 20 now I got from them, I have 30 on the way, and plan to buy another 30 in the next month. Sorry if it's a dumb question.

I recently bought the MZ-N707 Net MD Minidisc Recorder off Ebay. This is a device that records from mic and from line in/optical in. It also plays imported CD files in the form of Atrac files. It will play MP3s in the sense that they are transformed into atrac files when imported. I have had no problems with quality loss, but I am very careful to only import high quality mp3s, meaning, 192 kps and higher. Plug in a mic, and you've got a nice digital recorder. However, get a mic with a cord, so you don't pick up the sound of the disc spinning up. Get this new for 150 on ebay, or used off ebay for 50 bucks in good shape. I bought mine new. It uses a single AA battery. If you would like to get off the ipod train for a couple of years, this would be ideal. You still get digital sound, naming of tracks, and outstanding battery life. The software used to interface with the device is called sonic stage, and although it's earlier incarnations sucked the big one, Sony released 4.3 a while back and while it looks like the last release, it is finally very usable. Now, a few cons. You can't upload your recordings digitally via usb. You must output them from the headphone jack. Hi-Md recorders can do this, but I made the choice to stay in the net-md world. I like having discs with homemade labels. I like having easily replaceable batteries. I like being able to record over the discs over and over. I think it would be a good substitute for a cheapo mp3 player, and it's nice to have the recording option. I hope you have liked this review and found it informative.