A440

It really depends on what you want in a music player. MD units are twice the size of little flash units, like this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00066EK2...5Fencoding=UTF8 MD does sound good, though, and I haven't heard what that Sandisk sounds like. The other advantage of MD is that the discs are removable storage, so you can have more than 1GB of stuff ready to go, or different discs for different moods, etc. If you have friends with minidiscs you can trade them (but don't expect to copy them--it's possible but it's a pain). And to get technical again: If you are copying CDs directly to MD, you will get good quality. If you are copying mp3 files to MD, they have to go through a conversion to get onto MD, so if the original mp3 files are low quality (128 kpbs or less) they will lose something on the way to MD. I have the MZ-NH600D because I do a lot of MD recording, and I want to save wear on my recorder, so I use the 600D for playback. I do think it's a great bargain for a player, especially if you have any friends who also use MD. But if all I had wanted was a player, I might have started with a flash player instead. Not a 256K one, which would mean swapping music in and out all the time, but something with at least 1GB capacity. Decisions, decisions....

The MZ-N520 is an old unit. The most you would be able to put on an 80-minute minidisc is 320 minutes of music, maybe 4 or 5 CDs, and it would be in very low quality. But that unit does have a radio if that matters to you. The really low-priced one, the $49 one, is used--I wouldn't get it, it could wear out quickly. The MZ-NH600D does not have a radio. But because it is Hi-MD, it packs a lot more music onto a disc: about 12 albums on one 80-minute MD in decently listenable quality. It also plays Hi-MD discs (1 GB storage) that hold 34 hours (yes hours) of music. (The MZ-N520 cannot play the new Hi-MD disc.) And you can find them on Amazon for $95 and maybe even cheaper elsewhere. I've had one that has taken a lot of use with no problems. It's a real bargain for a music player.

Ryan, That static shouldn't happen. Get an new cord and try it. Either it's a problem with the cord--an easy replacement--or the mic jack, which would need a repair.

Is is possible that SonicStage is the problem and not the unit? Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling SS 3.3? Also, if SonicStage is working, sometimes it can reformat a disc that the unit itself can't read. So you might be able to reuse those discs, though not rescue what was on them. If replacement is in the cards, unless you're really smitten with the RH10 you could always get one of the incredibly inexpensive first-generations from minidisc canada. My NHF800 has been working steadily for more than a year. http://www.minidisc-canada.com/shopdisplay...iniDisc+Players http://www.minidisc-canada.com/shopdisplay...iniDisc+Players

Is SonicStage recognizing the player? Do the Transfer options list Hi-MD? Or are you just getting a Windows Explorer window that shows the disc as an outboard drive? Also, look in Settings/Control Panel/Add-Remove Programs and see if you have FFDShow codecs listed. Remove them if you do, and let windows download codecs as you need them.

Ah, the MZ-R900: still the most elegant looking MD unit ever. I'm not sure what you mean by "mp3 to PC recording"--the mp3s are in your PC, aren't they? For recording tracks in your PC onto the MD, look through the REC-SET menus and see if there is Sync Recording. Sync Recording, if it's on that model, adds a track mark when it detects silence of certain length--not sure if it's 1 second or 2 seconds. If you have Sync Recording, and you set it to ON, you could put a playlist of mp3s in something like Winamp, play them to be recorded into Line-in, and get track marks for them.

The lure of the Pro version is PCM recording. The basic version only has mp3, though you could use Lame Alt-Preset-Extreme and get very good mp3s. Otherwise, the big feature is the timer: you could have it record Web radio. That might be worth it for some people, not for me. The pro version also has sound editing features, but you can do editing free with Audacity.

With some mics, a battery module like this: http://www.microphonemadness.com/products/mmcbmminminc.htm will let you record loud amplified music through Line-in. Unfortunately, it seems the ECM 907 isn't one of them.

What SammyBean did is the right way to deal with the problem. Adding track marks in the machine to isolate the problem is OK. And as pointed out above, it's easier for SS to upload shorter tracks rather than monster ones. The bug comes up when you try to join tracks by REMOVING track marks that are already there--leaving the remnants of a track mark in the middle of a track. That joined track won't upload. Things get messed up even worse when you do this: With tracks 1, 2 and 3 on the disc, delete track 2. Instant unreadable disc in the unit--though it turned out that somehow SS could still read it. Played it back with SS, recorded it with Total Recorder and got it. Total Recorder quality is compressed--for .wav you have to get the Professional Version. With mp3, you have to fiddle with the defaults a little to get high-bitrate recording.

Audacity, which is in Downloads, is a sound editor that will (among other things) fade in and fade out tracks. Then when you have the faded .wav tracks, you can burn them with: SonicStage: Import them to My Library (make sure you're importing them As Is) and under Transfer find Create an Audio CD. Winamp (www.winamp.com) Burn from Media Library. Windows Media Player (probably in your computer) RealPlayer (www.real.com) If you want a sound editor that burns, well, you might have to pay for it. But saving the files to a folder and burning them with one of the free programs above isn't that difficult.

Your problem may have been editing on the disc. If you have Track 1, Track 2 and Track 3 and decide you don't like Track 2 and erase it, you can trigger a bug. It's even more likely if you then remove the track mark between 1 and 3. But tommypeters is right: Use the disc for something non-critical. I've had glitches on the black discs that may have been my fault during recording and may have been disc errors. I've had no problems so far with the blue ones. $7 is pretty cheap for peace of mind.

First, make sure the write-protect tab of the blank disc (bottom left or top right, depending on how you look at it) is closed. Never hurts to check. Second, what music are you trying to import? It may have digital-rights garbage attached that's preventing you from copying it to the disc. You would be able to play it with SonicStage but not move it from your computer. Go to http://www.epitonic.com and download an unprotected .mp3 from some incredibly hip indie band like TV on the Radio. See if you can transfer that. Alternately, install Simple Burner (from Downloads if you don't have a disc), connect the MD, insert a CD and see if that will transfer.

Why don't you try an experiment? The time and price of sending something back to Sony probably isn't worth it. Note the time where the problem was on the first recording. After you format, plug in your mic and just let it record all the way through the disc with the recorder stationary--maybe just let it roll overnight. Use Auto Track Marking at a sensible increment--10 minutes?--so you can find the spot where the problem was, and see whether it recurs. Just out of curiosity, was it a black Hi-MD or a blue one?

It shouldn't have anything to do with P2P--as long as they're good mp3 files SonicStage will transfer them. It can't tell whether you got them from P2P. But a lot of P2P files are low-quality. SonicStage sometimes chokes on low-bitrate (48 kbps) or variable bit rate files. You might as well convert them, and make sure you get higher-bitrate versions of whatever you're downloading next time.

AV-710 is internal, for a desktop. The others are outboard via USB.

You should be able to find this for $80 or less. http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Transit-focus.html Or this will simply give you a line-in and mic-in input, which is all you need. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006BAL...glance&n=172282 Is the music recorded on the disc itself very quiet? You have to figure out a way to get a louder recording: higher manual volume, a more sensitive microphone, etc. Or is your MD unit possibly a European model with limits on output volume? Search for "hack" in the forums.

The frequency response of your 907 is 100-15,000 Hz. That's not bass rolloff, that's bass cutoff--it's just not picking it up. A mic with better fidelity, which goes 20-20000 Hz, will, yes, pick up enough bass to overload your preamp. But if you use little clip-on omni mics with an attenuator through mic-in or, if you're really worried about high SPL, a little 2" x 1" battery module like this one through line-in http://www.microphonemadness.com/products/mmcbmminminc.htm your kit will be more compact and easier to hide than what you're carrying now and your recordings will sound so much better you'll be astonished. Separating the mics gives you better stereo, full frequency range gives you richer music. And you won't be holding a mic in your hand begging to get caught.

Zombi-- The "optimized files" in My Library have already been converted to .oma or (for your older unit) .omg files. There's probably your original mp3 on your computer and an .omg/.oma version in My Library. Upgrading SonicStage runs a small risk of screwing up My Library, which is why you should use the backup tool. It won't affect the mp3s if they're elsewhere on the computer.

Really, atrain? My understanding--and reading here about the woes of people who made .oma backups that got stranded by DRM--was that each SonicStage installation is tied to its own computer, and that the .oma files can only be played by that particular installation of SonicStage in order to prevent the dreadful possibility of piracy. Have you actually transported a library from one computer to another and played it with a different installation of SonicStage?

Before making any changes you should use the Backup Tool, which is under Start/Programs/SonicStage (not within SonicStage itself) to burn what's in My Library to CDs. There's some small possibility that upgrading SonicStage will mess with your library, but if that were to happen you would be able to restore it from your backed up files. It doesn't happen to most people, and it hasn't happened to me through upgrades from 1.5 to 2.1 to 3.1 to 3.2 to 3.3. If your mp3s are stored on your computer outside SonicStage, then you don't have to worry about them. You might want to back them up anyway, though--computer hard drives do fail every so often.

First, take a look at this and see if it answers any of your questions: http://www.mdcenter.nl/redirect.php?file=h...0preview_en.php As for question 2: you can transfer data to a Hi-MD as if it were a hard drive--it's plug-and-play for Windows as a USB device. However, if you want to transfer music to play from an MD, you're stuck with SonicStage. Update as soon as you can to 3.3 (and follow the uninstall instructions for 2.0 under Software FAQ). If you don't want the camera, and don't care about recording, you can get a much cheaper downloader that's comparable to your N420: the NH600D. You can find it new at www.jr.com or on Ebay for under $100.

Download SonicStage 3.3 from Downloads and install that. Simple Burner needs it.

I like these IF you can fit the mic in. It's a tight squeeze on the (tapered) back end of SoundPro's BMC-2. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller...oughType=search The ones below offer more flexibility: just wrap some wire around the mic to hold it. This rotates, the ones above don't. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller...oughType=search

Did you do a full uninstall of OpenMG according to this? http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=8071 Even with reinstalled Windows, unless you reformatted the entire system there may still be OpenMG junk in there. FFDShow has been known to fight with some versions of SonicStage, so make sure that is completely uninstalled as well. The blank discs on the 505 are worrisome, though. It may mean the unit itself is wearing out. For a test, don't start with your existing mp3 files. Once you get SonicStage 3.3 installed, also install Simple Burner (from Downloads). Then insert a CD, open Simple Burner and see if you can transfer from the CD to your MD and your borrowed MD. That eliminates the possibility of problems with your mp3 files and tells you if the transfer function is working.

The Sony software was horrible and has now been upgraded to moderately annoying. It's the only software available for transfers to and from Hi-MD. Before SonicStage 3.2 you could only upload your recordings (from minidisc to PC) once. Now you can upload without limit. Your unit may come with a SonicStage 2.x disc. Use it for a coaster or a Christmas-tree ornament or a mirror, but don't install it--get SonicStage 3.3 here (under Downloads) and start with that. Putting things onto the MD, erasing, etc. has always been unlimited. If you go into My Computer/Tools/Folder Options/View you can have all file extensions revealed. This is a good idea on general principles, so you can see exactly what files you're opening. If it's 40MB per song, you probably have .wav files. 40MB per album could be anything. But reveal them and see.