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Semi related question: Can anyone here comment on the SQ of the ZX2 walkman playing a straight PCM rip of a CD vs the same CD recorded onto a 1GB Hi-MD disc played back on an MZ-RH1? I had an RH1 for a few years and it was the best sounding portable I'd ever owned. Through EX700 IEMs it was bliss playing PCM. I've since gone back to my old standard MD units since selling the RH1 due to job loss a few years ago. I'm now planning/saving to get a superior portable in the next couple of years again..should I go back to the good ol RH1 or will the ZX2 give me equal or greater SQ on PCM? Or is it purely subjective? Hmmm

ah interesting data bluecrab, I didn't actually know the DAC designations before. Yeah I was just basing my configuration on subjective listening, going through the 980 just sounds more refined to me for all sources I've tried so far.

Thanks for your reply Philippe, Yes my CDP-991 redbook CD player isn't a slouch in the DAC department but the 980 is just better so I run optical from it to the 980 then analogue from 980 to amp. Also have my DVD player usually occupying the coax input. Ah yes when I referred to Type S on the 980 I was aware that it includes type R, but wasn't aware that only type R is the active system for SP recordings even on a type S deck. As for re-recording I don't have a lot of the CDs I recorded in the 90s. I was in a Japan club at university in Australia and the Japanese and Australian students pooled their CDs for MD recording. I also joined up at a japanese convenience store in Sydney to rent their CDs and VHS and dubbed a lot of stuff from there.. Since then I have actually acquired the original CDs to a lot of stuff I recorded then (Jpop CDs from the 90s are now dirt cheap in Japan) but now I'm actually more interested in recording live concerts onto MD from laserdisc. I'm happy with the quality of the recordings I made on my R30 and now want to record new and different stuff I guess, just hopefully a little superior on the 980...

I always wanted one of those cool wireless MD keyboards but I actually prefer to do my titling through x-appli and the net MD link, it's the easiest option isn't it?

My current collection, players on the left, accessories on the right. PCDPs include D-E01, D-EJ01, D-777, D515, Tape walkman is WM-RX822, MD units include but not limited to MZ-E75 x 2 (red version is my current EDC), MZ-E10 - dead of course : (, MZ-R30, MZ-R91. Headphones include MDR-D55, MDR-EX700, MDR-V6. Cases are by Sony and Porter

​Me too, my first MD unit was an MZ-R30 in 1997. I tested it out the other day on mains and it still works flawlessly. Wasn't game to test the weird rounded rechargable battery which I still have. I still have all of the hundreds of recordings I did on it from optical on PDCP and they still sound great. Those were great recordings. Definitely a mini deck. Last year after I sold my Hi-MD walkman and discs (ebay prices too good) I bought a mint MDS-JB980 for a good price. I'm still playing with it and as a DAC it is great and I think I can top my R30 recordings with Type S and analogue source from SACD but not by much.

I have a D777 and it subjectively sounds better to me than my D-E01 and D-EJ01s. With ESP turned on, while being carried around. I remember reading various pieces around the internet on ESP, it seems no one really knew for sure what the processing was doing to the data. Some said it just buffered it uncompressed and some said it needed to compress it to achieve this. Then others say it's compressed on early examples of ESP (like the D777) but not on later examples? Or was it ESP vs G-protection? Maybe try searching for that and some articles should come up. One is compressed? My memory is hazy..

Isn't that a myth that freezing batteries actually extends their usable lives?

I sold my mint RH-1 a couple of years back when I lost my job. Still regret it. There is no portable I've ever heard (and I've heard a lot) that sounds as good. With my EX700s and a PCM HiMD recording I was in audio ecstasy every day on the train. I have a minty JB980 now which makes great recordings that I play back on one of my old MZ-E75s..it's not the same though, the gear just can't technically match HiMD no matter how much it's refined, it sounds mostly and honestly muddy in comparison. After all std MD IS a compressed format.. Once you go Hi, it's hard to go back.. One thing you might consider is the Sony X2 DAP, it's getting very good reviews and might be a solution to play back your CD rips uncompressed.. lack of inline stick remote and the price keep me away though..

I picked up this at a pawn store recently along with the VGP-XL1B changer unit. I can't get that to work but that's for another post... Originally the XL100 had Windows 8 installed on it (!?) so I've done a fresh install of Windows XP. Since then I've been messing with drivers and trying to get the various A/V inputs and outputs to function. HDMI works even with no drivers installed. The component video out will not function. I need this to connect it to my main display, a KVHR-36 CRT TV with no HDMI. After messing with settings and drivers (sigmatel audio) for hours I got the coax digital audio to work. However I cannot get the component video to output. I've tried all the drivers on the Sony.co.uk support page as well as Nvidia's drivers. None of them seem to make the video card fully functional. I've thought about a cheap HDMI to composite video converter off ebay but would much prefer the more elegant solution of actually using the machine as intended. Could anyone here offer some advice please? Thank you!

Yes sadly the belief that new always equals better is firmly entrenched in the general public's mind.

Why can't the same thing happen to Minidisc and Laserdisc? Maybe in 30 years..? Is 3D printing our only hope..?

There is no fun in downloading. I'm sick of computers and stuffing around with another link in the chain. Well done on archiving your LPs to the physical media built for sound by people that knew good sound (raw bitrate/depth, isn't everything) I'm having audio problems with my LD player at the moment but soon as I source another one I'm going to start doing a lot of LD recordings. I've just finished transferring over all my out of print downloads on my PC that would otherwise be impossible to get (some only released on cassette tape) to my JB980. Now I'm going back to 1996, uninstalling x-appli, deleting all digital music files, having physical media only and just doing direct recordings, the good ol simple way. I'm not personally interested in vinyl recordings (I'm from the digital era) but I'm sure there are people here that are. I would interested in good MD recordings from live Laserdiscs.

row height: 36mm A, C width: 549mm B, D width: 50mm This leaves a little extra overlap at the end of the spine indent for labels on a disc, more on TDK discs than Sony. I like to cut off the extra after it's stuck on the disc to get a more flush fit. These are nothing fancy of course, I've seen what that guy did with photoshop (has a lot of the same taste in Jpop as me) but I don't have time for that. I like to keep my discs clean too with all the original design and OEM lettering/icons visible. This is for the more mimimalist/purely functional approach to archiving your discs I guess.

That's a key thing imo. Even if you blu-tooth up your mobile as a remote for your DAP you have to look at the screen to pause it. I never have to look down, I can just reach for the remote and feel the stop or pause buttons if I need to. Whenever I walk into stores I like to pause it if I need to talk to staff.