Christopher

I've had success using toothpaste [preferbly with whitening] + a cotton swab. Slightly dampen the tip of the swab, and put a smidge of toothpaste on the top. Work that into the LCD screen [like you'd buff a car] preferbly in a circular motion [and make sure you press down slightly whilst doing so] and let it idle for a minute. Dampen the other end of the swab with water and use that to remove the toothpaste. I'm sure you get the jidst of what I'm trying to say..just make sure you don't do anything in excess. This method worked wonders on a scratched mc12elk remote I used to employ a year back. Honest. You don't have to dampen the cotton swab too much, anyways. The main bit is to make sure that you work that toothpaste in, and even if some gets in the crack between the LCD + the unit it's easy to get out and doesn't affect the paint. End result is usually a clean LCD and a minty unit! Some scratches [thinking severe] cannot be removed with the toothpaste method, no matter how many coats you apply. It can lessen the obtrusive appearance, though.. It stunned me at first how I transformed a slightly scratched MC12ELK to super-mint [haw haw :rasp:] condition with this method. If you have a heavy scratch, you may want to consider another coat of 'paste to see what occurs.

Original Topic by Aeriyn of Minidisc Community Forums: Best Headphones Under $100 US I don't make a lot of money but I managed to get into the hi-fi lifestyle and it did not cost a fortune. Everyone knows that Head-Fi is bad for your wallet, which is definitely true and is the reason for my extended absence from those forums (along with World of Warcraft, haha). Anyhow, I thought I'd like to share this little piece with you folks at the MDCF as a sort of "I'm coming back and I'm done pouting" thread. =P Okay, how I'm going to do this is in four parts separated by type of headphone. If any of you folks have a headphone that you'd like to add to the list, feel free to send a message to kurisu or nismo96. Let's get started. Please note that all prices here are street prices, not retail. Brick and mortar stores tend to sell these for more than the prices I list. Use Froogle, young Skywalker. eBay is also a good place to find these phones. ::Earbuds (open intra-aural):: These are the headphones most people think of when thinking of portable audio. Problem is, there is a metric buttload of bad earbuds and people buy them all the time. Fortunately for us, there are a few great earbuds that are not that expensive. Sennheiser MX400/MX500 - $11-15 These guys are really, really great for the price. Xin Feng raves about these headphones and says they are the best portable phones "anyone can buy." I tend to agree with him; they are simply the best under $20 headphones I have ever heard, period. The MX400 are actually the best to get here because they lack the little attenuator which degrades sound, and they are five dollars cheaper on average. They are harder to find (nigh-impossible in a brick and mortar store) but they are the better of the two. MX500s are still nothing to sneeze about if you can deal with the little volume slider catching on things (which it tends to do). Neither of these earbuds have a lot of bass so if that's the type of sound you are looking for, I suggest you look elsewhere. Sony MDR-E888LP/SP - $45 To my ears these are the best earbud type headphones under $100, sound quality wise. They have a very nice warm and detailed sound signature with surprisingly lush midrange. They are rather fragile though and tend to start sounding bad after about a year of heavy use, and I find the "neck-chain" type cord to be very annoying as the right-side driver tends to pull out of your ear when being active. They come in the remote-friendly short cord style as well as the normal length cord, which is very convenient for users of MiniDisc. Audio-Technica ATH-CM3 - $60 To my knowledge, Audiocubes is the only e-tailer that sells these outside of Japan. They have a nice sound to them but lack the bass impact of the E888s. They come in many different colors and it's fairly obvious that Audio-Technica designed these phones for use with iPod/iPod Mini since the colors match up perfectly. Somewhat plasticky highs prevent these from being my favorite earbud headphone (the honors there go to the E888s). ::IEMs/canalphones (closed in-ear):: Sony MDR-EX71SL - $40 The ubiquitous EX71s... love 'em or hate 'em is the prevailing attitude. Personally, I kinda like these phones. They're totally low-fi... bloated bass and midbass, recessed midrange, exaggerated highs, but they sound "groovy." These are the budget groovalizers of canalphones and it shows in their sound. These phones benefit TREMENDOUSLY from burn-in; I used to hate them to death but I've recently listened to a pair that my best friend Nika has had for over a year and I was shocked at how groovy they sounded. After a good lengthy burn in period, these phones can compete with MD33s and E2cs in the realm of low-priced canalphones. Recommended, but make sure to burn them in for around 100-200 hours before serious listening. Like the MD33s, these do not isolate very well and fit is fairly loose. The annoying "neck-chain" cord comes back again and tends to pull the right-side phone out of one's ear when not using a remote. Also, the supplied extension tends to make the cord fairly long to the point of being difficult to manage. A carrying case/cord wrapper is included with them, fortunately. Sharp HP-MD33S - $50 Again, the only e-tailers that carry these Japanese-made phones are Audiocubes and bluetin.com. However, these are perhaps the best "overall" canalphones for under $100. The E2cs come close but cannot hold up against the MD33's better sound without the use of EQ. They do not isolate very well just like the EX71s, but they do have a nicer, more detailed sound than the EX71s. These aren't exactly groovalizers but they're fairly close to the EX71's sound signature, with less bass, better mids and they're less bright. Just like the EX71s and it seems all MD-designed phones, they're "neck chain" style which causes problems and the extension cord is far too long. Please note that these phones have a proprietary dual-mono miniplug when used without the extension which is only compatible with Sharp Auvi MD players. Modding them for standard operation is simple enough; search Head-Fi for "MD33 mods." Shure E2c - $65 These are the some of the best under-100 phones availabile... IF you can EQ them properly. Un-equalized, these phones are terribly dark and muddy with no discernable highs and way too prominent bass. I do not suggest using these with iPods or with any MD unit or DAP that does not have a good parametric EQ. They are extremely well-built; these phones are like tanks. The cord is nearly three times the thickness of standard portable phone cords and the right-angle miniplug is appropriately bulky and tough. There's not much style with these phones; they resemble large, old-fashioned hearing aids when inserted into the ears. Shure has found a wonderful solution to the problems of cable microphonics by wrapping the cord up over top of the ear, preventing vibrations in the cable from traveling up to the earpieces. It really works well actually. These IEMs isolate very well with both the foamies and the silicone sleeves although the foamies do a much better job. The silicone sleeves are rather painful at first, but after using them for a few weeks, the oils in your skin permeates the silicone material and softens it up considerably. At first I wasn't able to use the silicone sleeves but after a few weeks of using them I got to where I liked them better than the foamies. Etymotic ER-6 (not ER-6i) - $70 I've seen the original version of the ER-6 being sold for this price on the internet several times. Supposedly there's something that makes the original ER-6 worse than the new 6i, but I'm not sure what it is. The ER-6, to me, is the poor man's ER-4P. They don't exactly sound the same... in fact the ER-4P is much, much better, but these phones still have the same Etymotic sound signature... light on the bass, good midrange and fabulously detailed highs. These phones are the exact opposite of the Shures in sound signature. They are not nearly as rugged as the E2cs and more care must be taken when handling them. They come with two types of sleeves, tri-flange silicone and foam. The tri-flange sleeves are automatic ear-destroying torture devices... personally, I can't stand them. The foamies are much better although the tri-flanges isolate better. The foamies tend to muddy the sound a bit, which in this case is good, since the ER-6 has highs and detail to spare. The foamies soften the sound a bit which I liked. Future Sonics EM3/Sennheiser IE3 - $100 A face only a mother could love... these phones take the ER-4P/S's title for "ugliest IEM ever created." However, as I've had a chance to listen to these at my local musician's store (I was shocked they carried them) I've been firmly convinced that these are the best canalphones ever. They have a sound signature that is a happy medium, to my ears, between the Shure E5c and the Etymotic ER-4S. I'm not shitting you. They sound like super EX71s, or a canalphone version of Beyerdynamic DT440s. They are the king groovalizer of canalphones. Of course, not everyone will like this type of sound but for those that do, these are a great pair of phones. Future Sonics sells them for $99 every so often (retail price is $159) and when they do, scooping up a pair is always a good idea. I'm set to buy myself a pair of these as soon as I get some disposable income. On another note, these seriously are the ugliest phones ever created... painted a neutral beige color throughout with no attempt at style or design; these phones are very obviously designed for stage monitor use. However, they worked wonderfully with my iPod Mini at the musician's store. Also, the ugliness of these phones is a great theft deterrent. XD ::Portable/Clip-on supra-aural:: Koss KSC 60ohm driver - $15-40 Koss makes a whole lot of really bad phones, but they made one driver, the 60 ohm driver used in their KSC-35 and KSC-75 clip on phones, Porta Pro/Sporta Pro and UR40 phones that is really very good. They're slightly on the bass heavy side and there's noticeable rolloff in the treble, but not as bad as Shures. Any of the Koss phones that utilize their 60 ohm driver is always a good budget choice. The ironic thing about this driver is that it becomes a savage beast of impact and roaring lows when amped. There are people who will use these $15 phones with $500 portable amps such as Ray Samuels' SR-71. These phones are seriously incredible for the money especially if you are a basshead. Add an inexpensive cMoy amp to these or one of Xin Feng's Supermini amps, and you've unleashed the beast. Sennheiser PX100/200 - $50-60 I haven't heard these myself but many others have. The PX100 seems to be the standard for portable-use supra-aural headphones. Compact and foldable with plenty of style, the impressions I get from owners of the PX100 and PX200 are that these are fairly bassy phones. I can't really say much about them as I've never listened to them myself, but they always seem to be an old standby. ::Full-size supra/circum-aural:: Grado SR-60 - $60 The best headphones for rock under $100, period. These are the groovalizers of Grado, being both inexpensive and having the signature Grado rock-friendly sound. At 32 ohms impedance with a fairly high sensitivty, they are some of the best unamped phones available as well. I personally don't have a lot of experience with these cans, but the few times I listened to the pair I bought my brother, I was really impressed with them for alternative rock and classic rock, which is all he listens to. I found them to not be so good for the brighter 80's female vocals, J-Pop and J-Rock I tend to listen to, however--my Beyers toasted them in that aspect. Audio-Technica ATH-A500 - $99 These cans are 90% of the A900s at 50% of the price. I have not listened to the A900s myself, but that is the typical phrase associated with the A500. These closed full-sized headphones, to my ears, are some of the best headphones you can use unamped. The addition of an amp offers small subtle improvements, nothing like what amping other phones tends to do. I personally don't like the sound signature of these phones, but then again I'm a groovalizer girl, and the A500s are nothing like DT440s. AKG K240S - $90 The "new groovalizers," these phones have not been listened to by yours truly yet, but I intend to get my hands around a pair as soon as I feasibly can. Owner reports suggest that they have the typical groovalizer sound signature paired with AKG's famous lovely midrange, but slightly rolled off in the treble. These cans are well-made and lightweight, very comfortable even though I'm sure that pleather pads would get annoying after a while on a pair of open headphones. Not sure why AKG didn't use velour pads. Sony MDR-CD780 - $99 Yet another headphone I once owned briefly. These have an interesting if bright sound signature. They're fairly comfortable and not very heavy either. They have the typical Sony stylish look to them, but the way they stick out makes the attempt at style sort of fall on its face. Anyhow, I found these phones to be reasonably good for industrial and metal but I didn't like how they were for J-Rock/Pop. Yes, I know that's not very many, but most of these are ones I've either used or ones that are standby recommendations for newcomers into the headphone world. Anyone want to add to the list, sent chris or nismo or myself a message. I'd rather this thread stay clean; keep additions to the list to PMs please.

From official sources, Sonicstage 3.2 will arrive in Japan on July 27th. I imagine that will be distributed elsewhere across the world either on the same day or within that week. Nothing has been noted about improved functionality - perhaps an improvement to the MP3 encoder? This topic will be updated accordingly with relevant information once it's public.

From official sources, Sonicstage 3.2 will arrive in Japan on July 27th. I imagine that will be distributed elsewhere across the world either on the same day or within that week. Nothing has been noted about improved functionality - perhaps an improvement to the MP3 encoder? This topic will be updated accordingly with relevant information once it's public.

Asian languages haven't really been done that well for Invision. I did locate Italian + Finnish however, and will load them a in a little bit.

My connection is free.

Hi, If you own either the MZ-M100 or MZ-M10, please reply to this thread. It'd be wonderful if you could share the Apple software that came with these units so we could possibly make it work for other Hi-MD devices. Anyone who is able to turn this software in will recieve a reward.

Hehe I've merged Tips and Tricks with the Technical Topics forum - which is now known as Technical, Tips, and Tricks. I also shuffled a few forums around as well.

Did you ever try anything? No suggestions here but sounds interesting nonetheless..

Thanks NH1, I'll see what I can do. I'd like to formally welcome atrain to the moderating team. I'm very happy to have him as a part of the staff here at Minidisc Community Forums.

No one has surfaced with the unit yet, and I doubt someone will for at least a month - hopefully this thread will raise awareness.

You may want to try reinstalling the Personal Audio Driver, Mr Bass.

Feel free to ask more specific questions once you've read, or search. We're here to help, not shun.. Not sure what's up with #4, maybe someone will take a look at it; first time I've heard of it.

Welcome aboard. State your full system specs according to the rules.

That's all your quoting? There must be quite a few words in that manual that are full of it. Interesting article regardless, I really liked #3 - whilst I've never heard a tube amp it seems as if this person's words are well rounded; perhaps there really isn't much to them and the maintenance overhead makes it an unreasonable endeavor. It's almost like delving into such is like a regular Hi-Fi stereo amp being a cigarette and a Tube amp being a cigar..a difference of taste if you will.

I would assume that yes it will be restricted to those types of recordings only.

"Mean Creek". Not a bad coming of age film..

Now you understand why I'm on here all day.

Usually 30fps, the maximum set by the game. I'm aware of PNG; I just don't have PSP or PS to convert it, and I refuse to use the one in Paint as the size wouldn't be that different.

3.2mbps down/256kbps up with no cap as I work for the ISP I get my Internet from. When I'm accessing the 'net at work, it's straight into fiber, so I'd say it's about 10mbps down/10mbps up.

I'm on a Swoop, it's like those speederbikes the Imperials used on Endor during Return of the Jedi..

Here's what it looks like with the new graphics card and processor I just got cooking. I hope the difference between this and the last screenshot is apparent. I apologize for the size, but this needs to be uncompressed for the full effect.

Leveling takes almost no time if you're with the right people. With my guild, I could powerlevel you two mastered elite professions in very little time.

It's gotta be that Casio remote control watch back in 1994. I owned school, sportsbars, electronic departments in any retailer. It was the best.

6800's are better than a 6600GT because they have more pixel pipelines amongst other things. Remember veez, it's important that you have a nice quality power supply for this card with at least 350W. Remember, these newer generation video cards actually take their own power input, just like a hard drive or CD/DVD-ROM drive.