OldMojo

192 kbps works with the HD1 AND HiMD - it's what I use, but it's only available with SS 3.2 or higher I believe.

First of all, hello to everyone. I've been lurking this and the other MD forums for literally years, but have never posted until today because just about every question I've ever had has already been asked, and it seems like every possible topic germaine to portable audio gets discussed frequently and at considerable length. That said, I'm amazed that I can find very little on the topic of the HD1 firmware upgrade. I bought one new-in-box on Ebay a couple of months ago, and so far I'm quite happy with it. Playlisting would be nice, and perhaps a bit more volume. I'm an MD user as well, therefore I'm used to transcoding to ATRAC and have no problem with it, in fact I prefer it for it's efficiency among other things. Thus native MP3 playback is not an issue with me, so I'm wondering if there is any other compelling reason to do the upgrade on this player. The Sony website says "Improvement in sound quality when Recording level, Equalizer level, and Volume level are all set to 'high' or 'loud" For those who've done the upgrade, what's your take on this? I'm all for increased functionality, I'm just wondering if it's worth it to spend the $20 and have to tranfer everything back onto the player if MP3 is all I'm getting out of it. Thanks for any replies, and here's a contribution for the MD users here..... Every so often I see a post asking about where to get the best deals on blank MDs, particularly Hi-MDs since they're virtually absent on shelves anywhere. The best deal I've found (and I've seen none better posted) is at Total Media they sell Hi-MD (5 packs only) for $24.95 plus shipping I'm not an employee or a spammer, but I frequently see posts by people paying considerably more than that with the usual MD e-tailers & figure I'd pass the tip along. Thanks again!