Leland

In theory, you do need to ensure at minimum the 500 milliamp spec to keep the adapter from overheating. Probably overkill, but that is the principal. (V=I*R). For the record, I have used Japanese adapters in the US with no ill effect, but I have also bought 100-240 V capable ones to travel with (Sony makes some compact ones in various different voltages), so eventually I was covered. I think the unit will detect the excess voltage and warn you if it is a problem. Sony started adding this feature several years ago. The error message is "Hi DC in". That should give you some comfort in using the supplied Japanese adapter. Of course, only you can determine how risk tolerant you want to be.

I think Mystyler is right. If Lustral is using it over a 3 to 4 week period, unless he is logging his usage, then his estimate is very subjective. From that standpoint, it may indeed "feel" like 60 hours. I had this experience with my N505. I would have quoted the battery life as infinite. It seemed like months before even one segment in the battery display was depleted. My sons E909 is the same. It seems to last forever. I have tested the Sony times, usually when I get a new unit (didn't do this with all of them) and I think they are often on the high side. They are going to claim as much as they can.

One other plus for the N10 over the N1: The user interface, the little joystick for foward/back FF/FR Vol Up/Down is incredible. I have not used a better interface on any portable unit. You can use it flawlessly every time, even in your pocket or in the dark. This is a big plus for the N10 that can only be appreciated by using it for a while. Rehearsal divide is also a great benefit that is only found on the N10.

Regarding sound quality, the biggest limiting factor is the headphones. I think all units will sound excellent once you couple them with headphones that suit your tastes. I have used many different models (see my sig) and sound quality never seemed to vary much in my experience.

Thanks, that is interesting. For me, Sonicstage takes many seconds longer than Open MG to do its stuff. Once the program is loaded, it is sluggish and unresponsive. It might be my install, as I did not un-install Open MG Jukebox before installing Sonicstage. I will have to experiment when I have the time. OpenMG Jukebox has been very stable since installation of the patches, so perhaps I should let sleeping dogs lie.

Yes, Roy and HG. And in my defense, I don't mod this forum. Be careful, don't get me fired! But yes, the wombat became famous and that is exactly what is so cool about Australia. Whenever I go to Australia, I get some great new music that I copy to my MD (keeping us ON topic.) Ever hear of Goanna Band? Great stuff.

Or, study hard, get a good job, grow older, be responsible, make pretty good money, and all your toy dreams will come true. You don't have to be rich. Fine if you want to, but don't be trapped. OR, have an idea, start a venture, make it work, or the next one, make pretty good money and all your toy dreams will come true. Now as to veteran, I think unless you experienced the time when a minidisc outlasted your battery, you are not a veteran. :wink:

How about performance? Do you find SonicStage significantly slower to load and respond to many commands? After applying the patches to Open MG Jukebox, it doesn't crash often at all. I am interested in hearing how responsive you find Sonicstage 1.5 incase there is something wrong with my installation.

Excellent, thank you Mystyler. That makes perfect sense. Sounds with extreme phase information has been problematic for me also, although I have noticed it most in LP4 mode. Examples are Brown Eyed Girl, by Van Morrison at the beginning or The Prophet's Song, by Queen. (I realize these examples date me, buy I already confessed on the age thread) I wonder if the movies have problems due to dolby surround encoding, either 2.0 or 5.1. OT (bad form for a mod), yes I know what cricket is, remember I am an Aussie in-law. Will be in Melbourne next Saturday for the holidays. Your humourous sports commentary reminds me of the tapes I saw of those guys sending up the olympics, you know, the ones with the wombat!

mAjEsTiC, did you bite the end of your tounge off or something? It is hard for me to understand your message. :roll: I think I agree with you, OpenMG Jukebox seems more stable after applying the patch.

Well I am relieved to hear the common opinion that MP3 generally sounds worse. We aren't so many miles apart in our listening tests then. Whew. Mystyler, if you had said something positive about MP3, I would have lost my mind for fear of it being scrambled. I would be interested in what the albums you record in mono (you described as mixture of speech and music, do you mean rap :wink: ) actually are.

I have installed SonicStage 1.5, already having OpenMG Jukebox on my computer. SonicStage1.5 seems very slow and unresponsive compared to OpenMG Jukebox. Does anyone else have this problem? Second question: What would any of you say are the benefits of Sonicstage 1.5 over OpenMG Jukebox. I am hard pressed to find them.

Wow, I'm amazed. I find LP2 much better than that. Maybe the type of music I listen to copes better, or maybe I don't pay enough attention anymore. Like I said, I use LP2 for portable listening, not critical listening. My life has too many interruptions for very much critical listening anymore anyway. I don't listen to too much music with "lots of heavy bass". What blows my mind is, if LP2, which is as good as I know it to be, is considered by you guys to be problematic, then what standards do all these guys have who listen to MP3 encoded files all the time? The level of quality you mention sounds like MP3 to me.

When I mentioned patches, I was referring to patches to OpenMG Jukebox, not sonicstage 1.5.

I'm 45. Do I win?

They stopped downloads of SonicStage1.5 from that site as it was putting them over their bandwidth maximums. My opinion is to stick to OpenMG Jukebox. With the recent Sony patches to this program, it seems pretty stable (relatively speaking). SonicStage 1.5 is really slow, unless I did something wrong on my installs. I would be interested to hear any other opinions.

The other key feature is that when you rip a CD into the OpenMG database, it looks up the titles on the CDDB and enters them into the database. You never have to enter them. This might be obvious, but I just wanted to make sure you realized that part.

Me, if you were commenting on my "two discs" question, it wasn't about SP or LP2, it was 2 x SP vs. 1 x mono. I thought mystyler said he would rather record in mono rather than LP2. I think you lose so much quality in mono (the stereo information adds quality to the music in my opinion) that rather than resort to mono, why not make 2 SP discs.

Agreed about LP4. It is a utility only used for throwaway tunes to carry in bulk on one MD for quick pop fix. LP2 however, let me say one last thing and I will shut up. I don't use it for critical listening with my home component system. I use it when I am travelling on planes or cycling etc. Also, as background music while doing something else. This is headphone listening in general, which in itself is flawed unless you use a processor like the headroom processor to replace the L/R channel delay between your ears. If I am specifically listening, and not doing anything else, I use my CD player and outboard DA converter through proper high quality stereo speakers. I can't figure your mono recording. It seems if you are that concerned about quality, can't you carry two minidiscs rather than record in mono?

Yes, my laptop is USB 1.1 and it works fine.

I'm sorry to hear this, baggers. I fear you are correct.

Mystyler's comment that "CD-->MD in real-time, optically in SP mode lays waste to LP modes, and NetMD quality and is the best way to record. I find that MONO is more useful than LP2." is of course his opinion, but I would disagree with the strength of his statement. The only reason I would worry about the additional quality would be if I was trying to record for a serious demo or something. And you always have that option anyway. LP2 is quite excellent, and better with type S.

The PC Link is a USB device that converted the song on the PC to an optical digital output to be recorded on the MD unit. It therefore would only record in realtime. I don't know if it is still available from Sony, as the low cost NetMD recorders (N505, N707) render it less important for Sony to compete with MP3 players. The Xitel DG2 is the same thing and is available from Crutchfield for $60. Try http://www.crutchfield.com/cgi-bin/S-xZPrb...ephotos&a=0&s=0

I agree with Bazirker, NetMD is worth having. If I was buying my first unit today, I would definitely get it. (I do have it, see my sig.) For recording from the MD to the PC, even in analog recording mode, the WIN NetMD program by Christian Klukas is very useful and gives you contol of your MD unit from your PC using the NetMD drivers. This makes analog recording from MD to PC easier with NetMD than without it. See: http://www.minidisc.org/netmd_analog_uploading.html Some answers and info: Changing the playback speed: some units do this but the pitch changes also. With the N10 (not sure about the N1) the pitch is kept constant while speed changes using digital trickery. I think this would be more useful for your application that one that changes pitch also. The rehearsal track divide feature on the N10 would also be very useful for live recording. N10 download speeds with NetMD really are 2x the N1 which is really cool. Only real benefit for the N1 now is battery life, although I do not have direct experience with the N1 and my R900 was overrated. So is the N10 battery life in real usage. I love the control stick on the N10. This is one of the best controls on a Sony MD unit ever. There is a translation of the N10 manual on the minidisco website now. http://www.minidisco.com/minispecs/manuals.../sony_mzn10.pdf Prices in Tokyo this weekend: N10, 39,000 Yen N1, 35,000 Yen, might be negotiable at small shops as last years model R910, 30,000 Yen I have no experience with Sharp, but sound quality on all units is superb in my opinion.

I forgot to mention, the folks at Minidisco have put a translation of the operators manual for the N10 up on their site. The reference is: http://www.minidisco.com/minispecs/manuals.../sony_mzn10.pdf That should help.