MDfreak

I was just fooling around with the headphones I own and was trying to get my Sennheiser MX400's to sound nice with my RH10. The MX400's are nice headphones but to my opinion they have a little bit to much highs in them and a they lack a nice punchy bass. With the standard EU EQ-presets I didn't get a nice sound. Suddenly the "lack" of highs during mp3-playback came into my mind so I put some mp3's on a disc and plugged in the MX400's and guess what: almost a perfect match: Nice bass and nice highs. It seems like they almost match perfectly to get a natural sound when playing back mp3's. Maybe personally you like a bit more or less highs, lows or whatever but with slight changes to the EQ-settings I'm almost sure you will get a nice personal preset. I also tested the standard presets and for the first time I think I found some use for them. With other headphones like the EX71's or my MDR-G82 they sounded ridiculous and are useless. So maybe a tip for people in Europe that only have the standard 4 presets and want to get mp3-playback working nicely without the need of the EQ: find matching headphones with an inverse frequencyresponse to the RH10. For about 11 to 15 euro's the MX400's are a nice try! So my conclusion: - MX400's + RH10 + Hi-SP playback: can't get the sound "right" because of the lack of bass. - MX400's + RH10 + mp3-playback: nice "basic" sound that is easily adaptable for personal preferences. So if you buy a RH10 mainly for native mp3-playback, search a headphone that compensates the loss in high frequencies.

We had a prototype DH10P for testing but sadly the mp3-playback wasn't implemented yet (gave the message "cannot play" when trying to play an mp3). So sadly I cannot comment on the mp3-playback-quality of the production DH10P.

We don't know if other units have the same problem. The RH10 is by far the most popular model so almost everyone has a RH10 so that's probably why you only hear the problem of RH10 owners.

While the NW flash-players have stored their mp3's in separate *.dat files, on the second generation Hi-MD's mp3's are incorporated in the HMA-file that is also used for ATRAC3(plus) audio so the whole filesystems are diffent and mp3-filemanager will therefor not work on Hi-MD's.

Hi people, Got myself the program "EncSpot" today to figure out which codecs where used for the mp3's I have. I came to the conclusion that about 90% was made with some version of the LAME codec. Luckily I also found some other encoders. Now I tested the FhG (Fraunhofer) Fastenc @ low quality versus Hi-SP. It was an mp3 with a bitrate of 256 kbps and got these results when playing the original and Hi-SP version on my RH10: [attachmentid=328] Hi-SP: Green line Mp3: Blue line Clearly when playing mp3's with the FhG codec on a RH10 the roll-off is also there. I will try to do some analysis of some other codecs soon. Adding some results for the "Xing new" codec @ 192 kbps (according to EncSpot): [attachmentid=330] Still same result, the blue line is Hi-SP, the green the original mp3. So I tend to conclude that it is a problem with ALL codecs but that it is not equally noticable with all mp3's because some mp3's have both highs and lows and some have more highs and some more lows.

The tracks from which I know which codec is used are LAME to. The other mp3's come from the internet so no idea how they were created.

Even the Service Manual doesn't reveal the method of updating the firmware so I realy think Sony wants to keep that feature for their own technitians. To bad though. I love the possibility of e.g. upgrading the firmware of my KiSS DVD-player.

I tried a random selection of my mp3's and had the problem with every one of them (I think). Off course it is worthwhile trying if it is an issue with particular encoders but I think that would be real strange. Hmm, I have to get al list with well known mp3-encoders soon (or programs that use particular encoders). P.s. maybe you do not hear the problem with some mp3's because of the characteristics of some mp3's. If there are e.g. less highs or less lows in a mp3 the inbalance is hard to hear.

I did some freqencyanalysis of my own (including the +10 dB suggestion) and came up with the following result: [attachmentid=322] Here the green line is the original Hi-SP format so that is used as a reference. Then the blue line is the mp3-version that clearly undershoots the original (better sounding) version in the higher frequencies. Then the purple line is the +10dB suggestion for the 10 kHz band. It matches pretty nice but it clearly overshoots at about 13 kHz and undershoots at about 8 and 18 KHz. Not totally satisfying to me. Therefor I tried another EQ-setting: +3 dB @ 4 kHz and +6 dB @ 10 kHz. You see the result in the red line. Clearly it does not match exactly but it follows the green line more evenly. Also to my opinion it sounds more natural because there is no peak at about 13 kHz. I hope this is of some use for you people.

(correcting myself) Did a comparison myself with a real piece of music and came up with the same sort of results (stupid me was looking at the wrong parts of the graph initially). I also tried to correct the roll-off with the equaliser but sadly that only works partially because the EQ only has the 100, 250, 630 Hz bands that do not need any correction and then there are the 1.6, 4 & 10 kHz bands that can be corrected with 3, 6 or 10 dB. Judging from the graph I made the following custom EQ for mp3's: 100, 250 & 630 Hz : 0 dB 1.6, 4 KHz: 3 dB 10 kHz: 6 dB After testing this preset for some time it sounds good although not exactly the same off course, but maybe I like the sound of the mp3 WITH EQ-correction even more than the original sound of the RH10 (but that off-course is very personal). The only stupid thing about this: people that buy an European RH10 CANNOT correct for this roll-off (luckily I hacked my RH10).

correcting myself

About 2: my NH700's manual also does not say anything about the cardreader. Furthermore the MCMD-R1 takes over the controls when connected to a Hi-MD so probably it will work because the HMD1 looks like a "stripped" Hi-MD-walkman. The only way to know for sure is someone who can test it in real life.

Record them realtime via heaphone out of the MD and line-in from your computer (so analog).

nope

Now my last question is answered I have another one: What does "PIT-I......" and the logo mean on the front of the manual (right corner)? Oh, and another one.... does it work with the MCMD-R1 Hi-MD cardreader to create a standalone flash-card copy machine?

I know it cannot play back Hi-MD discs but it is nice to know it can prepare Hi-MD discs with mp3's for the second generation Hi-MD's. It would have been a huge disappointment if the HMD1 was based on a first-generation Hi-MD and would be unable to transfer mp3's right away (only ATRAC3(plus) & PCM). But nice to know it can!

That is not totally true. When I connect my NH700 to a PC with SonicStage 3.1 mp3's cannot be transfered to the NH700 without conversion. When I connect a RH10 however (to the same PC with SS 3.1) transfering mp3's right away is possible, so my question is still unanswered..... is the HMD1 a "NH700-like" or "RH10-like" unit. So transfering mp3's right away is dependant of the unit not of the software. Only a unit that can play mp3's natively let's you put them on a disc, otherwise mp3's are automatically converted before transfer.

Question: I see SonicStage 3.1 is supplied.... So can the HMD1 transfer native-mp3's to a Hi-MD disc so that they can be used with second-generation Hi-MD walkmans? (e.g. my NH700 can't)

Indeed, I is of no use troubleshooting problems that may be fixed in later verions.

Indeed you are right, but the second generation Hi-MD's (I tested with a DH10P) SonicStage CAN transfer VBR and CBR mp3's to Hi-MD without conversion. But because the first generation Hi-MD's cannot play mp3's you also cannot transfer them to a disc without conversion. With the second generation Hi-MD's non-mp3-files like WMA still have to be converted to mp3 or ATRAC before tranfsering is allowed. So the Hi-MD DEVICE "says" to SonicStage if mp3's can be transfered directly. The DH10P accepted mp3's right away. My NH700 (on the same computer) only accepted converted (ATRAC3(plus) files).

My SonicStage 3.1 converts also VBR to ATRAC3(plus) without any problems. Maybe a corrupt mp3-decoder installed on your PC?

I heard too that it is French legislation that limits the volume output so why doesn't Sony only limit French models? Why does the whole of Europe have to suffer from it?

.... sorry useless question....

And then I have to buy another adapter, when I have something with warranty I have to return it to the US and when I'm lucky and the customs check the package I have to pay a lot extra. No thanks, I only buy European stuf.

The RH10 is still rare in Europe but nice to know the hack is already there because using a RH10 with e.g. EX71's without the possibility to have a custum EQ is suicide for the soundquality! Now I can go and buy a RH10 as soon as it is available without having to thing about the European version as a "downgraded" and not real Hi-Fi device. Thanks a lot to you great people! p.s. I soon will contact Sony NL and ask them who I can kick very hard for getting the custom EQ removed from the EU-model. That was about the stupidest thing they could think of. It had been better if they removed the remote at all or but in a NH-10WM. Those things are easy for a customer to upgrade but removing a nice function as a cutom EQ and only having 4 useless standard settings is real stupid. How do they dare to still call it a 6-band equalizer when there is nothing to equalize! Do I sound pissed? I realy am!