A440

The H140 has a line-in jack and isn't made to record with an external microphone. That's why you need the preamp. Most minidisc recorders are made to record with an external microphone, and have a built-in preamp at the Mic-in jack. A minidisc unit will record nearly exactly what comes through your microphone. It will not add noticeable noise unless you are trying to record something as quiet as birdcalls. What your ears hear (and your microphone detects--I don't know what microphone you are currently using) will be recorded through the mic jack. You don't have to get the RH1 if you can find the NH700, which wouldn't cost you much more than a preamp alone (around $150). It has the same recording quality, microphone input and ability to upload your recordings, though the RH1 has some other nice features.

First, get a better version of SonicStage. Look in Downloads (upper left) for the 3.4 installer or get the 4.0 installer from here: ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/PUB/Downloads/SO/...01198200-UN.exe You may have a firewall preventing SonicStage from installing or from loading fully. Once you get the installers downloaded, disconnect from the internet, turn off all Internet Security/Antivirus/Firewall etc. and try running the new installer. (Don't forget to turn on the security software before you reconnect.)

They're both Sony software. Maybe they're both trying to use the same software module. You should ask Sony support--I'd be curious about what their answer would be.

You're asking for a AA battery headphone amp. I suspect that won't have much power. Chu Moys or Cmoys use one or two 9-volt batteries. I have one of the homemade ones (not made by me) using an Altoids tin with 2 9V batteries, and it has helped me on occasions when a recording turned out too quiet. Look for them on Ebay, where electronics engineering students make and sell them. The key is the Op-Amp, which they will probably name in the listings. Put that part number into Google--mine is an OPA2134--and you can get an idea of the quality.

Sony claims you can rewrite the MD a million times. If it's even half of that, you should do pretty well. Hi-SP records just under 8 hours. On my MZ-NHF800, I have recorded for more than the length of a disc on one AA battery. The rechargeables may not last as long, but the only way to find out is to try it. Why not put it on record overnight?

Weren't you the one complaining about blanket statements? Playing a 320 kbps mp3 through Ipod earbuds is not going to sound the same as playing it through a home system. And the digital-analog converter and amplifier power of whatever you are using for playback are also going to affect the sound quality.

M200 is the RH1 plus a Sony ECM-DS70P microphone, a large, limited (no bass), noisy mic. If you already have mics you don't need it. And for the price difference, there are better mics. Maybe the Sony people told you that because the RH1 doesn't have a built-in mic and so their manual told them "recording" needed the mic.

Once again, Sony salespeople are clueless. MZ-R200? What is that? There's no such model. Do they mean the MZ-M100, which is the Mac-compatible RH910 plus a mic? It won't upload your MZ-N707 recordings, and you're on a PC anyway. All the Hi-MDs except the two Mac models have H (Hi!) in their model number. The one and only recorder that will upload your old recordings is the RH1. And for recording your band, it has true one-button recording--holding all your previous manual settings without going through any menus. Incidentally, you don't need to get it from Sony, and can probably save a few bucks elsewhere. www.minidisco.com, www.minidiscaccess.com, www.soundprofessionals.com, www.jr.com, www.bhphoto.com and lots of other places have them.

Can you try making another recording at Hi-SP or Hi-LP and see if that will transfer? Also, have you transferred the files before with an older version of SonicStage?

Which model of Sound Professionals mic were you using? Was it a one-point stereo mic or a pair?

The RH910 most definitely records and uploads, if that's the unit you mean, and so does the NH900. Sony salespeople don't have a clue. You have to go to a Sony store with your own information. And you can probably do better on price elsewhere. www.minidisco.com, www.minidiscaccess, www.bhphoto.com, www.soundprofessionals.com, www.jr.com--you have lots of choices. I live in New York City, and on a recent visit to the SonyStyle store at Sony US headquarters they didn't even have the RH1 for sale. Anyway, to recap Jaylen's information: Live recordings and upload: NH600 (Line-in only; NOT THE NH-660D, which is a Downloader only), NH700, NHF800, NH900, NH1--all first generation, 2004. Second generation, 2005: RH 710 (Line-in Only), RH910, RH10 and M10 and M100 for Mac users, the Mac-compatible versions of the RH910 and RH10. Outdated? Depends on what you mean. First generation (NH) units record in all MD formats, new and old, but need to have mp3s converted to ATRAC to play on the unit. Second generation (RH except RH1) only record in Hi-MD formats and play back mp3 without conversion--but with less than optimum sound. RH1 records in all MD formats, plays back mp3s without compromised sound, and uploads all MD formats, old and new. It's Mac-compatible, too. It's also the thinnest and best-looking Hi-MD unit by about a mile. So in a way any unit before RH1 is outdated. On the other hand, the first-generation Hi-MD units (NH) have every bit as much recording and uploading capability as anything since. Those aspects were not improved between generations. I think the second generation's low-quality mp3 playback was a worthless trade for what was lost. Also, the 2d-generation units are broader than the first generation units and get scratched up just about the instant you handle them. If you've got the money, the RH1 is the one. If not, the NH700 does everything you need.

There are three kinds of minidisc units. They all play back minidiscs. There are recorders, which have Line-in (and in most cases mic-in) inputs that let you record in realtime. Recorders made since 2002 also allow you to download music from PC to disc. First came NetMD (models beginning with MZ-N*), which was one-way--PC to disc, not the other way--and then Hi-MD (models beginning with MZ-NH* and MZ-RH*) that allowed you to upload your own recordings to your computer as well. There are downloaders (they have D in the model number), which only allow you to download from PC to disc. No realtime recording. You can rip tracks from your own CDs, convert mp3s (wherever you got them) for minidisc use and, as a desperate last resort, buy from Sony's online Connect store. And there are players (beginning with E), which only play back discs made on other units. Those would be non-recordable. Here's information on virtually every minidisc unit: http://www.minidisc.org/equipment_browser.html In my own opinion, anything before Hi-MD is obsolete. You can make better quality recordings and put more music on a disc with Hi-MD. The top of the line Hi-MD is the MZ-RH1. If you want to make realtime recordings for the lowest price, get the MZ-NH700, on Ebay (check feedback, etc.) or here: http://www.minidisc-canada.com/shopexd.asp?id=675 For just a player/downloader, you can probably find the MZ-NH600D for under $100. But if that's the only functionality you want, you might be better off with a little mp3 player.

If it were me, I would use Simple Burner to fill the discs, and then, if I was sure I wanted the CD on the computer, import it directly into SonicStage. That way you're not wasting space storing tracks you don't want. And you're not losing any time. I don't have the fastest computer--it's a laptop, just 1.4GHz--and for me a new conversion is still faster than a USB 1.1 upload.

This is Sony's pathetic attempt to prevent so-called music piracy. Why, if your CD tracks could be uploaded you might give your MD to someone else and they might upload them! Heavens to Betsy! You're going to have to import them to SonicStage from the CD to prove you own it. Look under Tools/Options/CD Drive Settings/CD Importing/Select Format and uncheck "Add DRM," which should give you a little more flexibility with the imported tracks. It will also be quicker to simply import the CD to SonicStage, a conversion, than to upload the tracks back from a disc, which would be a slow USB transfer.

Line-in plus attenuator is probably going to give you too weak a signal to get any recording. Attenuator is for mic-in.

Congratulations, you got a great deal. Sorry to raise your anxiety level! Enjoy the MZ-RH1.

There's a saying among the audiophiles: "No highs, no lows/must be a Bose." I've tried Bose triports, though not the noise-cancelling ones, and the best way to describe them is weak. Look on Ebay for the Shure E4c. There are a bunch of dealers with shipping to Canada, though some charge a big premium for it. Try these guys for instance: http://djdeals.com/shureE4.htm Or try this: Go to http://www.google.com/ncr which will give you US Google--and I assume US Froogle--to look for prices. And if you can't find an affordable pair, then the E3c are still pretty darn good.

Without having used those mics, it's impossible to suggest settings. The best way to try calibrating is with your stereo. Crank it up as much as you can and play with the settings of Manual Volume and the attenuator. The attenuator helps keep the preamp from overloading. But if the mics themselves overload, you're stuck. I always use the attenuator turned all the way UP and adjust volume on the unit. But my mics are powered by the unit from the Mic-in Jack--plug-in power. If I turn the attenuator down, then the unit provides less plug-in power to the mics and they will clip sooner. However, since those are battery-powered mics, they might not be drawing power from the MD unit, so you could try playing with the attenuator. It's possible that you are running into the limitations of the mics themselves. They just might not be made to handle loud music. The specs on the Radio Shack site are not informative--they don't include frequency response, sensitivity or maximum sound pressure handling. But it looks like a microphone for voice, which means it may not have either the lows or highs that make music sound good, and it may be quite sensitive. All you can do is experiment. Or get some hi-fi Sound Professionals BMC-2 and try the attenuator. Even better, spend another $50, get a battery module and go through line-in, where you will probably never have to worry about mics overloading again.

Noise cancellation headphones are close to a scam. They are supposed to sense the noise around you and cancel it out by generating their own counter-noise. But they add noise to the music you're playing, and you can usually hear a high whiny sound. Also, they need power, which means a battery has to be somewhere on the cord or on your head. Instead of trying to do it electronically, the better way is to do it mechanically: put earbuds into earplugs. So you should look into in-ear monitors, or IEMs. They reduce noise BETTER than noise-cancelling phones--if you look at specs, noise cancelling phones get rid of fewer decibels--and they can sound quite good because they are deep inside your ear. They're what rock musicians use onstage now instead of monitors so they can hear themselves. An arena concert stage is probably louder than your neighbor. At least, I hope so. I have the Shure E4C, and they are wonderful--a big wide soundstage, very realistic instrumental sounds, a sturdy cord. They're dark gray--the E4 is the same thing in white. If you look around online you can find them for around $180. For somewhat less, Shure also makes an E3, which is quite good but a little less three-dimensional-sounding. List prices for both are high, but with Froogle you can find steep discounts. They arrive with about half a dozen different kinds and sizes of earplugs: soft rubber, harder rubber, foam and flanges. You should try all of them, because the plugs make a significant difference. Mine only sound good with the large gray soft rubber plugs, but everyone's ears are different. With the right plug, they are very isolating and very hi-fi. I wear them on subways and airplanes, which have some serious bass. Etymotic, which gets a lot of praise, has weak bass and a weird, noisy, fragile twisted cord. I tried Ultimate Ears once and didn't like them, but they may have had the wrong earplugs for my ears. Other people are very fond of them as well.

This would be to make a realtime recording. There's no way to simply transfer files onto the R55. So you can record to it through any of its inputs from any of the computer's outputs--just match the plugs.

As atrain said, you do need to have SonicStage installed so that Simple Burner can use its codecs. But you never have to open SonicStage. You could discard its shortcut icon from the desktop. And just using Simple Burner will not leave copies of music in My Library, so you won't be filling up the laptop with songs. I fully agree with you that it's cumbersome to have to install a big, slow program so you can use a small efficient one.

Not really. Old formats are largely for backwards compatibility. For people who have old MD units or home MD decks, it's important to have discs they can play. ATRAC isn't only 132 kbps. ATRAC, like mp3, has different bitrates. SP was 292, Hi-SP is 256, LP2 was 132, LP4 was 66, Hi-LP is 64. Presumably experience has helped Sony improve the performance at each bitrate through the years. For a while they were indicating improvements by naming them Type R and then Type S. Since Hi-MD arrived in 2004, Sony hasn't had much incentive to improve the old formats since then. Some old-school MD users are very fond of the original SP at 292 kbps. Whether or not that's nostalgia, I can't say. LP2 and especially LP4 just don't compare to the Hi-MD format of Hi-SP at 256 kbps. And PCM is better than all the other formats because it's not compressed. Since you can fit almost eight hours of Hi-SP onto a 1GB disc, I don't see the point of using the legacy formats with Hi-MD .

So it does. But since pushing any other button does the same thing, and a long press on the Backlight doesn't keep the backlight on, it seems a little redundant.

As I said, I've had no problems with SonicStage since 3.2. But you can indeed compare iTunes and SonicStage. Both are music library/playback software that intend to become the default player for all music files on your computer--and will, if you're not careful on the install. Both have online stores attached (Connect for Sony). Both rip CDs to their proprietary formats. Both export to your DAP. I only use SonicStage to upload. But that's not all it pretends to do.

I suspect the remote is defective. I use it with the NHF800 all the time, though I don't have the unit with me at the moment, and I don't remember ever having to set anything on the unit. When you click the wheel or push any buttons, the backlight just lights up. I do have my NH600D with me, and it's the same thing: plug it in, hit a button, it lights. Oddly enough, the Display button on the remote is also labeled Backlight, but I can't find any menus. Clicking it goes through the various displays. And since you're navigating menus with the remote, obviously the remote's hold switch isn't on. You might want to click that switch back and forth a few times, just to make sure that it's connecting fully. Edit: Just for the heck of it, I tried the remote with my MZ-N707. Backlight goes on with that, too.