Xeys_00

I just bought another 30 80 min discs off amazon... A little pricey(total of 54 bucks), but they're sony and brand new. I just have this fetish about liking brand new. So far, I have 20 80 minute discs, plus 1 that came with the dn430, plus the 4 coming with the new 707 unit, and another 30 coming next week from amazon. I'm thinking this might be enough. To complete my stock, I'm considering adding a minidisc deck that will play my mdlp discs. Can anyone offer any suggestions? I'd like it to be a nicer unit, with scrolling titles, group names, optical in and out. This will likely be my last major purchase for a long time. And by the way, what is up with ebay people charging an arm and a leg for new in the box hi-md units? 249? 275? Prices like this just tell me to never think too seriously about hi-md. It seems all the good equipment got snapped up by resellers who refuse to even consider lowering thier price. I emailed one of these and just said that you are killing the market for these machines, that people who might switch or are curious will never purchase at inflated prices, and that they eventually will have to sell at a lower price or eat the cost. I'm sure someone will, but new mdlp portables are fairly available and at a reasonable price.(rant over)

Ok, cool. I am surprised that transcoded high quality mp3s sound as good as they do on my player. I had read of "reduced quality", and had expected them to sound bad. They sound just fine. Has it always been this way, or did mp3s at one time suffer significantly from the transcode process?

The first 2 seem like average dance tracks for filler between songs, actually. The dj probably fades these in between tracks, and fades the next song in as he fade these out. Just guessing, but that's what I'd use these for. And the 1st piano piece, no idea, but I KNOW I've heard the 2nd piece. Have no idea what it is, but I have heard it before. Sorry I couldn't help, but thanks for sharing the tunes!

I'll make it short. There was a huge song in the discotheque when I was stationed in Germany. It was called Hymn, by Music Instructor. Amazing track, you've gotta try it. I found it, and it sounds GREAT on my player. Bassy and loud without being too loud. Hard to explain. Look it up if you like trance/rave/dance.

Oh yes, I have a macbook pro with(i think) optical out. This could prove useful.

At the risk of annoying everyone else, I thought I'd post about my experiences so far with my new gadget, my minidisc netmd player. Now, I know everything I'll talk about is old hat with 99.99 % of the people on here, but it's a forum for self expression, and I like to express myself. My fiance is getting a bit tired of hearing about the minidisc thing. Because I plan on marrying her, I thought I'd save our relationship and talk about it on here instead. So... A few random observations. Sonic stage recognizes just about every CD I put in the computer. Itunes didn't. I thought they used the same database, so where's the problem? Ripping to LP2 seems a lot faster than ripping to mp3. Not sure why that is either. As far as sound goes, the lp2 files sound differently based on where they are played. The player makes them sound a lot better than the computer does. Same file, different sound. I showed my fiance, and she asked to listen to something she knew, in her case, it was Meatloaf's "Bat out of Hell". She said it sounded a lot better than it did on her ipod nano I got her for Xmas. But said she would keep the ipod and not trade it out, thank you very much. "Burning" a minidisc is pretty easy, except for that annoying space remaining gauge in the upper right hand corner on Sonicstage. It reads how many minute left on the disc in SP mode. Which I can't record using that software, as far as I can tell. I wish I could. But as far as I see, there is only fake SP, which just pads the bits on the track and makes it compatible with old minidisc players. Is line in(via optical) SP better than LP2 to the point of being obviously noticeable? When I get my 707, I'll check that out. Battery life is very nice, burned 10 discs 2 days ago, and the same battery still reads full. Downloaded a bunch of MP3s is high bitrates(192 and 320), and they transcoded just fine. Sounded great. In the event that I record 10 or 11 tracks in SP on Ah, the discs themselves. Seems to me a disc equals a playlist on itunes. But it's pretty easy to just flip thru my discs and get my workout mix vs hooking up my ipod and downloading that playlist. Also, it's kind of neat to actually have a physical, tangible object(the disc) in your hand. It makes the music seem a bit more "real". Now, I understand that some have said hi-md is a better way to go. I want brand new equipment, and now that I've gotten on ebay and looked, for the most part, brand new hi-md recorders are rather expensive compared to brand new net md recorders/players. For netmd, A player only unit runs about 30 brand new. A recorder with line/optical in but no mic will run brand new between 50-80. All 3 inputs on a brand new unit will cost more. If I were willing to accept used, I could get better prices, I know, but I want it new. So, anyways, I guess that's my random muttering for today. Any thoughts? Should I just shut up?

I bought a new dn430 in the box, and won a new in the box(it's BLUE!) 707 minidisc recorder kit(with car adapter, optical cable, ac adapter, the whole bit). I am considering getting a new in the box MZ-1 S2 for insurance. My thinking is that the dn430 is my "cracktown" player, the mz-1 for working out, and the 707 for keeping at home hooked up to ac and strictly doing home recording. Am I being a bit unreasonable? I have just kind of gone nuts for this minidisc(mdlp) thing, all in the space of a few days. And I know it sounds unreasonable, but LP2 is just as clear as any bitrate of AAC or mp3 ever was for me. I just want to make sure I have backup players and recorders. And incidentally, I am having no problems with sonic stage. NONE. I just plug in the player with USB, check the battery level, start up sonic stage, click album, click arrow, rinse and repeat. And the sound seems punchier and just better... I haven't heard non distorted bass like this since my old mega bass auto reverse player I had when I was a kid. Why doesn't the ipod sound like this? I'm sorry for my comments, but it seems that my minidisc player sounds better than any ipod I've had. And all this at lp2. Sony could just dominate the low end of the music player market if they would bring this format back(mdlp). Sell the players for 25 bucks. Sell the recorder for 45. Make just the 2 models. Maybe MD-P(minidisc player), and MD-RP(Minidisc recorder). Make sure both run on AA, and market it as a feature. The recorder would have optical/line/mic in and have a big fat lcd screen on it. the player could have a small display like the dn430. Oh, and backlights on both displays. There is an opening for low end music players! SONY ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! As Dick Jones and Clarence Bodicker said in the American Classic movie Robocop, "Good Business is where you find it." Ok, I guess I've embarrassed myself enough for one day. Oh, and by the way, I INTENTIONALLY did not buy hi-md stuff. Net-md equipment and blanks are MUCH easier to come by, even brand new.

Well, my minidisc player is here... I'll continue with my impressions and such in some other thread, I think I've played this one out. Thanks to all for the info!

Agreed. I will be getting my dn430 hopefully today in the mail, and I already got my 20 minidiscs 80 min from amazon yesterday. I would like a unit that I can just leave hooked up to ac mainly for recording purposes, and only take the cheap dn430 outside. Maybe I'll bite the bullet and get a new unit for about a hundred bucks(net md with ac and line in optical in and mic in). The only reason I can think of that he doesn't want to show it working is that maybe it's had issues before and he's worried it won't perform. I never buy off craigslist unless I see the item working.

I've asked him to show me the deck works. He said it's too much trouble and that he won't do it. That bothers me.

http://houston.craigslist.org/for/964508841.html

I got back on ebay and am currently bidding on a new in box 707, as per the suggestion. Am also bidding on a "slightly used" green 700, with all the accessories. I think I'm gonna be fine. I'm so glad I gave ebay another chance. And it seems that the prices of standard minidisc(not hi-md) are pretty low, even for new equipment. So, I'll have a player only netmd unit, a 700 in decent shape, and a brand new 707. Now I'm on the hunt for 80 minute discs in bulk new. This is gonna be alright!

Well, I found sonic stage 4.3, and after a good nights sleep, am about to start ripping my cd's into the atrac 3 format. I took a listen to some samples of 64k and 132k atrac vs the original wave file, and I'm impressed as to the sound quality. How come this format was never released by sony freely, and handed out to people? They could have been the itunes/ipod killer; they sell the devices or get profits from licensing the tech, and everyone else has mp3 type tech years earlier. I'm assuming my george carlin stuff can be encoded at 64k. Is there some sort of limit to how high encoded material can be before I put it on the disc? For some reason, I thought that since I read that the player supports atrac and atrac 3, that meant I was limited on bitrate. Must investigate. On another tack, I was thinking about that rootkit that sony put out a while back on one of the cds they were selling. Wouldn't this have been defeated by simply recording a cd from standalone optical out to optical in, or even analog out to analog in? In the event that audio media ever gets copy protected to a large extent(cd, or whatever), wouldn't just running a line out defeat it? Seems to me that if someone had a minidisc back in 2005, casual copying would be super easy. I also read up on something called "Trusted Computing". Scary stuff, but those who would have older tech would be able to get around it fairly easily. This experiment has already yielded dividends, insofar as educating myself. I am also(even before I have received my player only unit)considering the purchase of another unit that will have mic, line in, and such, to experiment with my fiances mother's old vinyl records. Could it be that we as a culture are blindly embracing new tech that can be used to limit what we used to do with the older tech it replaces? Sorry for the ramblings, but I'm learning new things, and that is always exciting.

Well, after sleeping on it, I will go ahead with the experiment. What would be a good model of MD player/recorder that has all the inputs on it(mic, line in digital and analog) that uses only a standard AA battery? Also, just to clarify about what I saw yesterday, the 2 models were Sony MZ-S1 and Sony MZ-N510. The s1 looked real tough... Like you could drop it off a building and it would be ok. The other, not so much.

It looks like this little experiment may end as soon as I get these items that I've ordered. There is no clear and easy way to upgrade to new equipment, as it seems to be horded by those who don't care if it sells or not, and will only part with it at inflated prices. I'm questioning my reasoning at this time for thinking about this format.

I did buy it new for 50. I guess I'm a bit sore that these places have no decent pricing for a new unit with full features thats not a hi-md unit. I thought by settling for a non hi-md with all the inputs, I still could get away with 100 or so, new.

Amazon is a ripoff. I'm looking for a new unit, one with a mic in, line in, and usb, and Amazon and it's little marketplace stores are asking ripoff prices. The prices are so far out of line with reality that I'm considering returning the 50 dollar simple playback only unit and discs I've ordered that haven't even arrived yet. Someone has told these online retailers that they can scalp people looking to get into this hobby. It's almost like they don't care if they sell them or not. I'd like to try this hobby out, but it's looking ridiculously expensive on it's face. It doesn't make sense, I know, but I'm getting mad about this idea to price obsolete old tech like it's brand new stuff. I'm realistic, and know not to throw money away, especially these days. I get upset because the thought of still useful technology rotting away in some warehouse till they are so out of date they will be landfill material is ridiculous. Sorry for being upset, but there is no reason to be pricing these units this way. And don't even get me started on the HI-MD units.

Well, a bit of an update. I met with someone today who had 2 md units and 20 discs for 50 bucks. They sounded good. I left empty handed. Why? Well, first let me tell you the units. First it was some sort of a sport netmd unit that had seals all over it, and it was built like a brick. Had a line in, no mic in, and no remote. The second was a unit that has a remote and same specs as above, but it was a plastic gray unit. I don't have access to the unit designations right now. The sports walkman looked like it had had a hard life. The internal battery door barely closed, although the outer door sealed good on top of it. The guy claimed it was hardly used, but it had a noticeable scratch on the front, and it didn't close all the way. I was suspicious. the other unit didn't have the remote, and the guy claimed it never had one. I told him of my research, and he claimed it was an early unit that only had the remote as a separate option. The remote/headphone jack was a loose fit for my headphones, as I'm sure it was not designed to fit in the first place. The no remote kind of killed my interest in that one unit, and the fact that the other one looked like it had had a hard life already made me less interested. I did ask if he'd sell everything but the remoteless unit and he told me no. So I walked. I may get back on ebay, although I hate paypal.

Well, I'm trying minidisc for the year of 2009. I have had all sorts of mp3 players, from the original 32 mb diamond rio to the ipod touch, and I have decided to try out minidisc, as I have kind of gotten bored with the "standard" mp3 player. My fiance now has my ipod nano(great thing about that is it's still ours, lol), and I ordered a new Sony MZ-DN430PSWHI Psyc MiniDisc Network Walkman (White) off one of the little stores affiliated with amazon. I am doing this as a 1 year experiment. I ordered 20 discs, so I should have plenty of test material to work with. At least I won't be worried about getting mugged on the bus, as no one will know what this is anyways. I will probably make youtube recordings of my experiment through the year. From what my research tells me, I will be able to put music on this device in one of 2 atrac formats: atrac and atrac3. I will be putting cds on here through sonicstage 4.3, when I find it. I will be making a deliberate effort not to transcode other formats; cd to atrac only. I will probably be using my flip mino hd to record my classes, and then clean it up in editing and send it to atrac for listening on a special "lecture" disc. I figured this would be a logical place to get help and advice for this project. I look forward to all comments and advice.