toxaco

@ melmel I am not trying to pick a fight with you, it was just a flippant comment about apple cornering the digital music market! I agree with you that OS X is a much more aesthetically pleasing and stable environment to work in. i am the same, I used PCs for many years and have been using Apple for 6 years. My experience is that a lot of people don't even know where itunes keeps their music files! and we did get OS X running on a Dell Mini 9! Apple or PC they are all the same know Apple uses Intel processors ;-) Peace & Love Sony still Rock in 2012

Ok, of i said that Apple computers have always been aimed at computer illiterate people, ie: graphic designers & musicians etc, ever since they came out with Macintosh in 1984, would that make more sense to you Melmel?

thanks sfbp, i knew there was a reason everyone has them, i'm green as a pea to minidisc, i went straight from recording on cassettes to recording on a PC & burning CDs, I remember my brother had a minidisc machine in the mid 90s and i did use it, but was not impressed with the sound quality. I don't know what version of atrac it would be, 96/76. and there you have it, why apple seems to have won, simplicity! you make something simple to use for non computer literate people and you can conquer the world! I do like itunes for it's simple straight forward design, especially on the Mac where you can drag tunes out from itunes and it will copy the file onto your desktop. I still think my NH600 or 900 sound better than any ipod i have heard! Hi-Sp all the way tho, after years of listening to 128kbs mp3, Hi-LP or MDLP doesn't really cut it for me. It has to sound alive. I like the comment from Joanne Chen saying that her Minidsc sounds better than lossless files on a mp3 player. I concur Hi-Sp on my NH900 sounds better than WAV on my ipod!

I know what you mean! I was considering getting a RH1, but as they got for £200 second hand and £££s new still, i didn't think the advantages were that great! Ok you can use it with a Mac OS X, but only to transfer PCM not atrac, i believe?, and even though it has USB 2.0 the transfers are not THAT much quicker? Yes / No, i've never used one! Regular HI-Md transfers aren't even USB 1.0 full speed. Having said all that, i like to build computers for fun, Hackintoshes all day long ;-) and i like to study electronics when i get to college, and i have had no major issues with Sonicstage, i got the 4.3 Ultimate release from here, and find it absolutely fine! Having had to deal with Windows Media Player and iTunes over the last ten years Sonicstage seems a breeze, you can transfer songs to your PC (or Mac running XP with bootcamp) transfer songs from PC to Hi-Md unit in any quality you want PCM, Hi-SP, or Hi-LP, and make playlists and even "dynamic" playlists, i like the play random music for 30mins or more like 2hrs for me It seems very much like a cross between iTunes and WMP, with all the bad bits removed! imho Ok when transferring PCM it's only about x2 compared to realtime recording, but what's the hurry ? go make a cup of tea or read a book or walk the dog etc, If you value your sound quality as much as i do, it's worth the wait! I even found a handy way of transferring 2hr mp3 DJ mixes to minidisc, with track breaks every 15mins and no glitches between tracks. You have to use a combination of Nero 6, Nero Image Drive, and Simple Burner. (read this post ) As you can fit 2hr20min on a standard minidisc when formatted to Hi-Md, i find Hi-Md perfect, cos i like to listen to a good mix over and over, all i need is my NH600 a couple of discs and i'm set! I guess Sony over estimated the public's ability to deal with digital recording! It is a lot more complicated than pressing play on a tape machine :-( which is where Apple stepped in with the ipod and just removed the ability to record, the public are all to happy to throw their money away buying low quality mp3s!!! What a load of rubbish! lol Excuse me for the rant, i've been up all night! HALLELUJAH!

The NH600 i picked up is in great condition considering the price, a bit scuffed at the corners, but not a single scratch on the LCD and actually i'm looking at it now it hardly has a scratch on the rest of the body either! The rubber cover for the USB port is still there and in good condition too ;-) I picked up a NH900 too for £55 which is in mechanically good condition, no loose hinges or anything, but the LCD screen is a bit pockmarked which is a bit annoying when you get reflections. I've been reading a thread about removing scratches with bicarbonate of soda toothpaste, or i might try Brasso metal polish or something similar. I don't mind the gumstick batteries as i already have 5 old ones, and just bought 2 new ones for £10 I've got to say it's a bit of a beast with line-out, adjustable microphone level, speed control etc. I also should mention i "hacked" both units to remove the poxy "french" volume limiter as i like to use big headphones 8-D I am a new convert to minidisc and i don't know if it's just the fun of using removable media, DISCs, or the fact that music sounds like music again!!! I love them, that and the fact you can record on them, without having to fork out ££££s for an iphone.

I just picked up a NH600 Hi-Md unit for £30 UK or roughly $50 i hardly call that expensive, the expensive bit is getting the disks!

If you need any other tips or pointers let me know, i'm sure you know how to split tracks in nero if you've ever burnt a DJ mix onto a CD! lol

Yes that would really make Net MD a quality machine

I've got a copy of Nero 6 for XP if you need it's only 30mb - dropbox / megacloud etc. ? I always have XP running on my intel Macbook

personally as i don't have an RH-1, i just install XP on my macbook with bootcamp and use SonicStage! XP is still my favourite operating system by far, but then i have to use it for electronic cad software (Multisim)

Hi inquisitor, forgot to say thanks for the reply, i find the results to be very good when turning a 256kbps mp3 into a minidisc. I use Nero burning rom to burn a virtual audio disk (.nrg) because i like being able to split up a long (2hr) dj mix into 15min tracks, if you set the expert features on Nero to overburn 120min it doesn't have a problem making a virtual audio cd 2 hrs long! You then mount the virtual disk in Nero image drive and use Simple Burner to put it onto minidisc! It may sound long winded, but it's a real drag having a 2hr mix on a minidisc, one accidental hit of the back button, and you can be ffwding for the next 15mins tryin to get back to 1hr in! I developed this technique, because i found that splitting the 2hrs of audio in audacity (or soundforge i guess) and then creating 8 15min mp3s left you with glitches between the tracks. I read here that the best way to get seamless play between tracks is to burn a CD straight to minidisc using Simple Burner! So that's what i did! Who would guess that you can make a 2hr "virtual" audio CD!

Hello to everyone here, first off i am a total newb to minidisc, i've just got myself a NH600 cos i wanted a portable recording device and was fed up with ipods! Anyway down to business:- i have had no problems using SonicStage ultimate on my Macbook using XP with bootcamp, BUT! I noticed straight away that mp3s i transferred to the NH600 were noticeably worse quality than the original mp3 on the computer. I found that converting them to WAVs first and then converting them to ATRAC gives much, MUCH better results. This also seems true vice versa, ie converting ATRACs uploaded from the NH600 to WAV and then using 3rd party software (dboweramp) to convert to mp3 I don't know if this is common knowledge, I just wanted to share my findings with the community, and introduce myself It seems that Sony's mp3 conversion in SonicStage just doesn't cut it. regards, toxaco (Cosmo) I am very happy to be a minidisc user in 2012, I never want to hear an ipod ever again!!! and where else can you get a PCM recorder for £30

One more thing i have discovered is that Net MDs when using SonicStage to transfer music from PC to MD only have a max bitrate of 132kbps (or LP2) this is a real shame because apparently true MD-SP (292kbps) is even better sounding than Hi-Md Hi-SP (256kbps)!!!

Having just entered the world of minidisc, now that it is obsolete I would highly recommend trying Hi-Md! I just acquired a MZ-RH910 and a MZ-NH600 recording in PCM WAV 16bit 44.1kHz is essential for me, (musician) AND transfer to PC via USB the RH910 will also play mp3 natively :yawn: a word of warning Sony's mp3 to atrac conversion is dreadful and vice-vers,a convert mp3 to WAV first and then use sonicstage to convert WAV to atrac (and vice-versa)