lamewing

Many companies do this. Cowon (iAudio) from Korea does this and goes so far as to allow you to add any firmware update without issue. PLUS, their players can display Kana, Kanji, Hangul and Chinese. AND you can go into the menu settings and change the radio frequencies to match Japan, U.S., Europe, Korea, etc. NOW that is streamlined. WHY can't a company like Sony see the value and ease of making a single product for all markets???

The sound quality is excellent (especially with Wave and OGG. FLAC I think as well?, as is the build quality. The X5L has an aluminum body and the Cowon (iAudio) A2 has a thick, heavy plastic body. No creaking when held. The X5L is extremely scratch resistant due to the powder coating.

I also have an X5L (and Cowon A2) and love the thing. It is built like a tank and handles day-to-day listening very well. It is too bad it doesn't record in PCM/WAVE/AIFF. Nor does it have an optical in, but the line-in recordings a very nice.

Actually, a fake cart could just a easily damage a portable game machine. Too much resistance, too little, a short circuit in the cart, etc.

They are probably cheap knockoffs - ie. pirated copies. Just like the "New and Sealed" gameboy advanced games I got through an online etailer last week. They work fine and the games are out of print, so I don't feel any guilt (I would rather buy the real thing if they were in production)...well, not much. So what to expect? Probably a battery that will have (at best) half the life-expectancy of the real battery. It that worth $5.00. Maybe so, but I haven't been willing to take the chance yet. Anyone else?

I wouldn't suprise me to see Sony change the firmware and remove the kanji and kana capabilities. WHY? If we don't use that part, fine, but SONY, STOP WASTING TIME and sell the thing as a RECORDER. Ha, we will probably never see it here, just like with the A-series players. I just don't understand what Sony is trying to accomplish by ignoring the U.S. market. It is obvious that this device isn't going to compete with Apple's brainchild. I just HOPE Sony UNDERSTANDS this and instead just sells the recorder to the recording crowd.

Thanks for the heads-up Jaylen.

Has anyone seen these Sony units around? I know audiocubes used to have them (Sony DS-HMD1), but they stated that they are now discontinued recently. If anyone can give me a lead I would appreciate it. Thanks. Joe

My addiction is on-and-off. I can leave for a few months (to try new devices), but I always come back to minidisc and all of its silly limitations. Heck, today I drove to Fry's on a whim and they were selling two (2) Sony MZ-DH10P for $99.90 each. Yep, bought them both. There are three price stickers on them: 1)$499.00, 2)$199.00 and $99.90. Yeah!!!!

Hey, at least you can buy one of the RH1's. They still aren't sold here in the U.S.

Stuge, There is absolutely no guarantee that we will get anything better than an A-series player. The Aseries was supposed to be an upgrade to the HD5. Look at what we lost: eaisly removeable battery, metal body, standard usb connector, battery life (?). What I mean is that some folks would consider the A-series a loss compared to the HD5. Could the same thing happen with yet ANOTHER new Sony walkman product?> I think the A-series was a nice machine overall, it was the software that trashed the A-series reputation. Sony should have just made a few design changes on the A-series to improve it. I would at least have enjoyed the chance to actually buy one of the devices. Instead I am stuck with importing the thing (no real warranty options - or at least exaggerated time for repairs due to shipment back to Japan) from Japan or Canada. Sony's big mistake is to trash the player and start anew, instead of just fixing the software!!! It would be nice to see a HD5 sized player with color LCD and video capablity, etc. But who knows.

I was able to bypass that problem by using iTunes Japan and just buying iTunes cards on ebay. The funny thing is I used Apple's address as my own when I registered (needed a Japanese address) and all went through fine. Can you do the same thing with the U.S. Connect Store? I can help you get the cards if you can get the software end to work. Well, People who buy music will continue to buy music. Peple who can hear the difference will always buy the better quality music. People who are too dishonest not to support an artist they downloaded and now listen too are bad people no matter what. There are a couple of issuse not taken into account by the RIAA. The total number of files download means nothing to the number listened to. ie say I download 100 songs, but I only listen to 15 of them (and delete the other junk) then I only need to pay for those particular songs as that is what I am enjoying. Yet the RIAA claims all of these downloads are potential sale losses. No No and No. It is only a loss when the person who downloads the song decides to keep it. At that point they need to pay for it. How is this any different in me going to the library and borrowing music or buying mucsic from the local used CD store? The royalties are only paid once. Also, the problem also lies with the music industry raping the singers/bands by taking 70%+ of the profits. Maybe I am from a different time and am just getting old, but I believe in paying folks for their labors and will do so. Maybe it is the current gereration of kids who don't care? I hope not as that would be a rather broad and terrible generalization...especialy if it is true. Edit: Zizone, enjoyed the conversation, but real life calls. It is now time to brave the big burning ball in the sky...!!!!

I cannot agree with you on the more restrictive files. It won't matter how restrictive you make the files on the player, all you are doing is making it impossible to copy them off of your players. Have you seen the nightmare that happens to the folks here when their HD crashes and all their files are gone (or the SS database is corrupted?) and all they have are files on the player. Of course you can't pull those files off and transfer them back to the computer, so you are generally screwed. The REAL piracy takes place on a much larger scale then people realized. The average Joe who trades a few files isn't the problem. Heck, my downloading of jpop (now I can use itunes japan to test new songs) has opened up my music tastes considerable. AND I have about 100 Jpop CDs due to the downloads, not to mention the 600+ CDs my wife and I own that are standard western music. Sharing music is a way to allow others to experience more choices, more styles of music. Why would you want to keep the downloaded files once you get a CD of the music. The downloads are terrible anyway! Heck, the legal downloads are pretty poor as well. I just burnt a CD from some songs I bought on iTunes and the Master > 128AAC > CDR conversion process basically created a music CD with absolutely NO life to it. Terrible quality. Try going to East Asia (Seoul for instance) and see the real pirates hawking their copied CD on the street corners. No amount of DRM on the players is going to stop that. You stated that Sony lost to Apple due to file sharing. That isn't at all correct. Sony stated that they didn't want to get into the DAP business because they didn't know how to "balance their interests". This wait allowed Apple to provide a solid product that worked seamlessly with iTunes for an extended period of time. This "Balance" everyone speaks about doesn't exists. The RIAA and it proponents suggest strict music control, but that doesn't solve anything. Why, because no matter how restrictive the software makes the files or whether the CDs are copy protected or not, the REAL pirates have hardware that can make a single digital recording (and strip any protection from the digital stream) of a CD. Once that copy has been made, poof, the CD is in the wild. Heck, I can use my Sony CD to CD dubbing deck and make a copy of ANY copy protected CD and then use that new copy protection free CD as a master. Sony SHOULD allow folks the option of hooking their players together and sharing music from one unit to another. Not quite tape swapping, but close. The more music you expose folks too, the more they will buy. The folks who don't buy music are not going to buy it anyway. This isn't going to change (except as those folks get older and appreciate what the artists really do), so Sony should take advantage of this mentality instead of trying to waste resourses to fight it. Heck, sony is doing the same thing fighting the homebrew folks who write emulators, etc for the PSP. Sony's biggest competition isn't Apple, but Sony itself.

I am really suprised at the software problems they had with Connect. How hard can it be to program software for music management? iTunes is a great product (if you like the design and UI) and is generally very stable. I simply don't understand why it's so hard to accomplish this task. Are the programmers that Sony employees totally incompetent or did it have to do with a lack of communication withing Sony itself? I still cannot believe that they 1) released the software knowing the poor condition it was in and 2) that they gave up on it and instead just added some extra features and support of hardware to the venerable Sonic Stage. Edit: Your comment about Sony continuing to fall behind is spot-on. Sony needs to just listen to the customer base and give them what they want. Look at the competion now. Video on a music player with a not-to-distant full-fledged video iPod in the works. Sony needs to reconsider their options. The HD5 was a nice machine (eaisly removeable battery), but sported a monochrome screeen. The Pocket Vaio had that lovely color LCD, but the G-sense was a bit quirky and would go spastic every so often. What Sony needs to provide is a solid player (aluminum body), with a color LCD, video playback (mulitiple codecs -divx, xvid, mp4, etc), removeable battery, great sound quality, true drag-and-drop (at least as an option for consumers who don't like software to transfer files). If they remove this DRM nonsense they will open up their players to a larger audience (and accept that piracy will still exist no matter what happens). Remember the PSP can accept files just copied to the memory stick and play them with no trouble...and still use the ID tag info. I don't think Sony is really up to the task as they seem to be betting it all on the PS3. Think how much R&D has been put into the PS3! If only a small portion of htat could be used to focus on a competitive DAP. /sigh

I just found something using search that mentioned a new player in the U.S. by MARCH 2007. So we are expected to wait longer than a year without Sony offering a HDD player? Wow, that is crazy. You think the A-series will skip the U.S. completely? If so is this new player going to replace the A-series throughout the world? I would hate to see Sony only provide a localized product further weakening their product base. I can understand Sony not wanting to get spanked by Apple here in the U.S. (at the local Brick and Mortar stores), but at least they could sell it via Sony.com. Are we even going to see the new E-series here in the states? Oh, thanks for the link, but 169 pounds is a bit much, when sony Canada sells it for $250.00 Canadian. What is that, around $230.00 U.S. right now? I had hoped that minidisccanada.com would sell the thing, but no luck. Does Sony realize that they will NEVER (near future) gain back their lead in the U.S. ??? I just won't happen unless Apple royally screws the pooch AND Sony comes up with a miracle product. Can't they just accept 2nd place and just make a solid player with good software (UNI UNI UNICODE!!!!). I think this is Sony's big problem. They are always trying to find a way to gain 1st place again.

Hey folks, I have been scratching my head after looking at the locations where I can buy a A-1000 or A-3000 player. Japan check. Canada, A1000 check, A3000 no., etc etc The Sony site in the U.S. has a few flash players and that is all. NO HDD based mp3 players of any type. Sony U.S. is tightlipped about when and if these will be released in the U.S.A. even though they are being sold in Canada...grrrr. Could one of you guru's enlighten me at to when and if Sony is going to provide a HDD player here? Do we have to wait for the Z1000??? If Sony has intentions of ignoring the States (even after the Sonic Stage CP - grrrr no unicode after all these years) does anyone know a way to order from Canada? Perhaps I can work something out with a Canadian on this board? Any and all help and information will be appreciated. Joe

Hey folks, Due to the funky nature of the search engine here, I may have missed a thread dealing with this. My apologies if this is the case. Onward. Simple question. Is Sony going to release the RH1 in the U.S. or are we going to be skipped over just like with the A-series players? Right now Sony practically has nothing but flash players for sale in the States. NO HDD for sale (some can be found in odd shops or ebay) and a tiny selection of MD/HiMD on the Sony website. It seems to be a disturbing trend. Even minidisco.com doesn't have the RH-1. Should I just give up on the idea of the RH-1 being sold in the U.S. or is there a late summer release that I am unaware of? Thanks.

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Has anyone heard anything regarding a release in North America, the U.S. in particular? We are getting pretty much ignored by Sony as of late. Heck, we still don't have ANY of the A-series players (flash or HDD models). All we have are Beans and E-series flash units. To top it off the HD5 isn't offered by Sony either. The RH910 and RH10 are the only MD models sold by Sony as well. I think Sony has pretty much abandoned the U.S. market in regards to their portable audio products.

Okay, this may not seem important, but the term is Mac, not MAC.

Stuge... Wow, and I thought I was the only person on the planet to use JetAudio!!! Joe

Was the purchase the NH3 and EH1 that was ebay last week? Just checked on ebay and pretty much confirmed it. You are the guy who picked those up. I just didn't want to bid on a zero feedback seller. Good luck. Joe

Yes it is. A very wise move. I have a PC that I built last year for gaming. Go figure, but I have not installed but one game on it...and I no longer play that game. So I am stuck with a pretty loud machine (even with the fans turned down) for day-to-day use. I have looked long and hard at the mac mini as a simple desktop machine to complement my PC. It seemed that a PC was still necessary for programs like SS. Well, that is no longer the case. Heck, I am heading to Fry's today to buy an intel mac mini. By the end of the day, my computer room will be deathly silent. Listening to music through my Tivoli desktop radio will be so more enjoyable without the constant whine of Silvermax's (my PC) fans!!! Ah, Silvermax, you were a good friend. Now you will be a simple, headless, storage server. /cry I hope SS has no issues with the mac running windows. By the way, has anyone ever used a Tivoli desktop radio? Joe In regards to the Tech Triumph or Ceasefire nonsense. Naysayers have been predicting Apple's demise since the mid 80's. I don't see the going anywhere, anytime soon. It would be nice, with all their profits, if they would improve the sonic capabilities of their iPods.

Well today Apple release the now beta software, Bootcamp, which will allow anyone to eaisly load and dual-boot Windows XP on an intel Mac. It now seems that anyone can run Sonic Stage natively on a Mac. Sure, you don't have OSX support, but at least you can use the same machine. Probably too late to matter for minidisc, but at least it will make things easier for those who want to hook up their HiMD units to a Mac. Joe

Some of the folks who use iPods and mp3s aren't kids. I have used MD since 1998 so I am not speaking as a "noob". This really depends on usage, and that is something that really needs to be taken into consideration before downplaying the mp3 and iPod users. I use an iPod, a shuffle in particular. It has very clear sound and is perfect for carrying around at my university and when riding my mountain bike (not on the street, mind you!). This cheap little device acts as my flash drive and music player. Just press play and go. No worrying about playlists (I use autofill) etc. Does this make me unintelligent or uninformed because I chose this device? Nope. I just don't want to waste a great deal of time when putting together some music for the day. Also, by the time the battery is totally worthless (easily 3 or 4 years), I will have upgraded to something else. Heck, many of my MD units only lasted 3 or 4 years before balking at my use (and I am careful with my electronics). Moving parts..what do you expect? Now, I don't buy music online as I want the physical CD as I grew up on 8-track, LP, cassettes and CDs. Something doesn't sit right about buying music that is so easy to lose, corrupt, etc. Especially if it is compress at a bitrate I wouldn't normally use. My point is that there are many reasons to buy many players. No matter how good a unit reproduces sound, it is rather pointless if you don't have great earphones, earbuds, etc AND you don't listen to your music in a very quiet location. For that type of listening, if you have the ears (I don't thanks the the army and a few-too-many duece-and-a-halfs), minidisc can be a fine choice.