batfastad

I agree. If it's Sony it gets panned with a factually innaccurate report. If it's Apple or iPod, gets praised even if it's total pants. Ah well, got to follow fashion havn't you

Still available May 25th!

Hi everyone I've been trying for the past couple of days to create an Atrac CD for someone who's Sony portable CD player only supports Atrac CDs and not MP3 CDs (honestly Sony, what were you on??). Problem is though after about half an hour of converting the MP3s in the CD creation process, I get a Windows error message... OMGJBOX.exe encountered an error and needs to close I'm using the latest version of SonicStage, and successfully created an Atrac CD about 6 months ago. I've tried uninstalling and re-installing and still it happens. It seems to get stuck whilst converting a file, but it's a different file every time. I've not got access to another computer at the moment to try it on. And I'm not sure anyone would appreciate me installing Sonicstage on their laptop spreading itself all over their system. I was wondering if there's any other software out there that can create Atrac CDs? This is really annoying and has wasted so much time. Thanks Ben

Still available on Feb 26th.

Yeah a Hi-MD full-size deck - equivalent to the MDS-JB980 deck - would have been awesome. Though Sony must have done some licensing to other companies since there's those units by Onkyo... http://www.minidisc.org/part_Hi-MD_Onkyo.html

Just for everyone's notice, this item is still available for sale. Thanks Ben

Anyone? Thanks Ben

Hi guys I was just wondering what the maximum length of RCA / phono hifi interconnects is? All mine are Cambridge Audio Pacific 1m long, but I was wondering if there are any longer available? Basically I want to hook my mixer (Pioneer DJM600) up to my surround sound receiver that's the other side of the room. Probably about 15-20m away. I'm assuming it would be better to do this digitally though, as I guess these digital standards can have a longer max cable length than conventional analogue interconnects. What's the maximum length of digital optical / coax cable you can get? What are the max lengths I could use without having quality loss? Also are there any adaptors that can convert an analogue RCA connection into a digital optical / coax or something? I know I could get a full-on DAC, but I was wondering if there's anything smaller / cheaper? Out of interest, are there any other digital cable standards that might be useful for this and give a longer transmission distance? Using ethernet cables or other fibre optic standards for example? Anyone know of any sites I can look at some longer hifi cables? I'm in the UK. Any comments / suggestions on how best to do this? :D Thanks Ben

Hi guys I'm looking to sell on my used but greatly cared for MDS-JB980 minidisc deck. Just thought I'd ask on here before I put it up on eBay - I want it to go to a good home and to a community member here so it gets looked after!! It's the silver one with an aluminium body, and is from the Sony QS range of high-quality hi-fi components. When listening to this unit I'm blown away by how good original minidiscs sound! Here's the full specs... http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MDS-JB980.html The best features for me... a PS/2 keyboard socket on the front (great for track titling!)USB connection at the rear to connect to a computer so MP3 files can be converted and transferred onto conventional minidiscThere are a couple of light scuffs on the top where other hifi components have rested, and a small scuff on the silver plastic just above the disc slot.Still looks and works great though. As an extra bonus, I'll throw in a large selection of used minidiscs (50-100), some blank, others with music on that you can erase yourself if you don't like my taste! Though most have labels applied / removed on the various surfaces and the slip case. I have mainly Sony Premium 74min ones... http://www.edigitech.de/shop/images/epimages/0203475.jpg And 10 TDK 80min coloured blanks. And 10 Maxell 74min coloured ones as well. Item will be in original box with manual (will dig out the original SonicStage CD as well) and original basic phono leads that came with it (unused). Price... well I'm looking for £170 Seems to be just below what a few have gone for on ebay recently. I'm located in the UK (Kent) and the buyer is welcome to collect, or I will post if necessary. Though it's a heavy item and might cost a bit to send... £20 but I'll refund the difference of any postage. If you want to check my ebay feedback... http://feedback.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...ad&items=25 PM me if you're interested or have any questions! Let me know also if you want me to shoot some photos of my actual item. I'm going to be really sad to let this go, as it's a smashing bit of kit and has always drawn oohs and aahs from visitors when they see it tucked away in my hifi cabinet!

Hi everyone I wonder if anyone can help. I bought an MZ RH-10 Hi-MD unit back in June 2005 from Amazon. But over the past 6 months it's developed some very annoying problems. 1) If I jolt the unit heavily, like running up stairs, the unit just cuts out completely. Sound stops and it turns off, even if the battery has plenty of energy left. Then turning it back on takes it back to the point the disc was at when I turned it on previously - not at the point when it turned off. 2) Copying music across, even to a brand new Hi-MD disc sometimes fails. The files appear to copy across correctly in SonicStage, but then when I try and play them they skip or don't come with any sound and an error saying Access Error comes up on the unit. I recently tried with 2 brand new discs, and got the same problems with music copied over to the device. 3) Deleting music from the disc in SonicStage... the disc contents refreshes but the files are still there. Sometimes it takes 2/3 attempts to clear off those files. I'm guessing that's a SonicStage problem though, I'm not running the latest version released on these forums, but the previous version. But I think it might also be when deleting files that failed to copy properly above. But these problems have only surfaced in the last 8 months or so. For music playing I've been eying up a 4GB Meizu MiniPlayer for a while and I think I might go for one in the next couple of months. For the past year or so I've only really used my RH-10 for MP3 playback anyway. ... so it might be time for me to move on Is there any way I can get this fixed / repaired by Sony? I'm guessing I'll have to pay to get it done, I've not checked my warranty or info in the box that it came in. Anyone have a ballpark figure of how much it might cost? Who should I contact? Anyone else experienced these problems? I'm in the UK, in case that makes any difference as to which department I should contact. Thanks Ben

Nice review. Looking at the back of the unit though, I can't see a USB socket. Is that correct? So I guess the unit doesn't interact with SonicStage to allow import / export of recordings from discs. Thanks Ben

Well this is great news! A MediaWiki equipment browser would be very cool. I was looking at some of the earlier MD decks in the equipment browser the other day - 19" rack mount minidisc deck!! Now if only there were decks available for Hi-MD...

I can't help thinking that this is the last hurrah. Such a shame with so many players and discs out there, and so much money spent on R&D over the years. With companies still coming up with new designs for conventional MDs - you would have thought there would still be some mileage in it. Maybe there is - they've got the heads up from Sony and so have released another batch of new designs until another exciting development. Who knows. If I was in charge of personal audio at Sony, I would have skipped Net-MD entirely and just gone straight for Hi-MD. Not released any new models for a year, 18 months but with a promise of something good. And boom. 2nd gen Hi-MD straight off. I remember thinking at the time how limited Net-MD was. If they released a Hi-MD deck this afternoon, I'd buy it tomorrow. I hardly use my lovely MDS-JB980s any more apart from as a temporary DAC! I mean just look at this rackmount beauty... http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MDS-E10.html And the Denon dual MD deck for DJs. Imagine all that for Hi-MD!

Just thought I'd add that the app works with the MZ-RH10, even on my beat up old G3 running OS X 10.3.9 I like the interface - nice and simple. Shame you've got to install that beast of a program called SonicStage on PCs

The only problem I see with this (and the RH1), is the screen. If sony are so insistent on using a (ridiculously arranged) menu, then you need a bigger screen. Imagine if they'd slapped the screen from the RH10 onto the top of the RH1. The frustrating thing with Sony is with their products, they never release one that has all the feature highlights from the previous years / generations. There's always a brilliant feature that's only on one model, but not the others. Full USB charging though, that sounds pretty good - is that present in the RH1 too? The 'limited' USB charging of the RH10 which gets it up to 80% charge is great but a 100% charge would be awesome. I carry enough power adaptors and chargers with me when I travel!! Now what we need to start seeing is standardised power sockets on planes / trains / airports / cafes / cars - which are just USB connections but designed for charging only. But that will never happen.

This is getting ridiculous. Companies still producing conventional minidiscs! Why would anyone put their faith in a format, when the old minidiscs are far easier to get hold of - you'd be forgiven for thinking that Hi-MD doesn't exist. Go on Sony, just give us a reason to stick with Hi-MD and we'll do it Seriously though, these look proper nice. If they we're Hi-MD I'd be all over them. Unfortunately I've got about 400 conventional minidiscs that are sat gathering dust.

What is that massive thing next to the new RH1? Is it the new Hi-MD deck we've all been waiting for??? :D That's big progress in 10 years! Although the screen on the old one looks larger than on the RH1. The screen's the only let-down on the MZ-RH1 for me, I'd have loved a decent sized screen on the top-surface. A black/white OLED thing would have looked killer. The other day when a 2GB Pro Duo memory stick I ordered arrived I looked at it and compared it to a 1.4MB floppy disc. Incredible!

I'll definitely give that a go and try plugging it directly in to the back of the minidisc deck. I will also boost the recording level by 1dB on the minidisc deck control. I find the output distorts past +5dB. Unfortunately though the peaks don't get past -8dB. So there's no way to actually amplify a line signal itself? Because an amplifier only amplifies what comes out of the speakers. Thanks Ben

So there's no way of solving this with the kit I've got. My turntable's got a built-in pre-amp. Does a pre-amp actually let you adjust the level of the sound?

Thanks guys. Always wanted a proper explanation of the RIAA stuff. The turntable (rubbish!) is a Pro-ject Debut one. But in the manual section "connection to the amplifier"... So I guess what I need is a new decent turntable, plus a pre-amp. Any product suggestions? Thanks Ben

Hi guys For the past few months I've been experimenting with recording directly to my computer. I managed to pick up a pretty decent video editor box which has massively improved my sound quality etc as well. It's a Creative Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor Normally I rip my records to my CD recorder, Sony RCD-W3 but I want to try and phase that out and eventually get rid of it on ebay. My turntable is connected to a stereo input on my Marantz PM4200 amp. Then a stereo output on my amp goes to my Sony MDS-JB980s minidisc deck. About the only use it sees these days is as a DAC! Without a disc in I hit record and it lets me use it as a DAC. Then the optical digital output on the back of my minidisc deck goes into my creative video editor box on my music server shuttle box I've built. The recording software I've experimented with is the smartrecorder software bundled with the device, and audacity. The problem I've got is the volume of many records is low. And I was told that when recording, it's important to record as loud a volume as possible. Unfortunately with all the dials and level settings turned up to the max, it's still too low. Monitoring the decibel display on my minidisc deck, the signal going through the deck generally peaks between -12 and -8dB. My understanding of digital recording is that I need to get it as close to 0 as possible, without going over into the red. I also monitor the volume on my computer using a great little volume meter... http://www.darkwood.demon.co.uk/PC/meter.html And that shows the same. All the input levels are turned up to the max in the creative volume control and the creative recording software. How can I amplify that signal? Obviously when I turn the volume control on my amp, it amplifies what I actually hear out of my speakers. When I mess around with the recording level on my minidisc deck it increases the volume, but makes the sound scratchy and distorted the higher it goes. Is there a way to adjust and amplify the volume of my turntable source, before the amplifier? Without creating any distortion? Is that what a preamp is for? How can I solve this? What do you guys do? Apologies if this is basic music / recording stuff but it always was a problem when using my Sony CD recorder as well. Only I didn't notice the distortion as much - even though it was there!! Thanks Ben

15hrs battery life sounds decent. That's been my main concern about the possibility of wireless remotes. I mean noone wants to be replacing those stupid expensive little button batteries. Cool!! I'm pretty happy with my RM-MC40ELK though.

There is absolutely no reason for not having an anti-virus program Get the superb free version of AVG from http://free.grisoft.com I have the paid-for version of AVG and it's ace! Doesn't take over your entire system like the Norton, Symantec and McAffee ones seem to. Ever tried uninstalling one of those?

I just find it incredible that there isn't a Hi-MD deck. To have made everyone go nuts about the new format it would have been great to have a batch of decks released when the first portables were put out there. A couple of weeks ago I was looking through the decks in the equipment browser pages at minidisc.org and the range semi-pro / pro rack-mount minidisc decks that were about is absolutely stunning. If Sony had played their cards right there could have been a Hi-MD rackmount recording deck out there in every DJ booth!! From my point of view that would be awesome. I'm a DJ and I've gone completely digital now (Pioneer CMX-3000s) (apart from when I need to rip vinyl to CD of course), and I still make great quality recordings for mates on my MDS-JB980S. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE SONY!!!!

This is great news! I cannot wait to get one of these here in the UK!!!! I was in Montreal the other day so just for a laugh went into Maison Sony and tried to quiz a bloke about the new RH1. He didn't have a clue, never heard of it. Wasn't showing up in his catalogues either. Was a similar story when I recently asked in my local Sony Centre.