Fat Tires

Sony Ericsson is realeasing their new mobile phone the W800 Walkman phone and it looks great. A disturbing thing to any longtime MD user is that the phone won't support ATRAC3Plus. It will only playback MP3 or non-DRM AAC files (yes, iTunes support). Sony may add support for ATRAC3Plus so Connect.com customers can take advantage of the phone too, but they seem to be treating Sonicstage users poorly in my opinion. LINK

Search eBay or Audiocubes for TDK Bit Club.

I wish I had a friend at the Sony store. Can you say WEGA?

Well, a DJ on another forum...

They're easier to get in Japan than anywhere else. The MDR-D66 "Eggos" are a Japanese product. I only wish they were easier to get here in the USA.

You are basically stuck with analog from the MDs to your PC in realtime. If the MDs were made via analog or microphone originally you could use a deck with optical output to record on to the PC, but that would be in real time as well.

I've sold a few more blanks, but many are still available.

Yes, those remote will control basic funtions of the NH600D, but if you wish to get full funtionality from the remote you'll want to get a RM-MC33EL or newer model remote.

All those are playback only units. Do you have a minidisc recorder available already? You are going to need some way to get music onto minidiscs for use with any of those units. As far as Sharp vs. Sony goes, I owned a Sharp unit for some time, but never owned a Sony with the HD Digital Amp. I found that the EQ on the Sony, pair with nice headphones was just as good as anything I could get from the Sharp with similar EQ settings and headphone combinations. If I were going to buy a playback only unit today I'd go for the Sony EH930 since it has the HD Digital Amp and has the possibility for using HiMD media in the future while still being backwards compatible with current SP or LP2/LP4 recordings.

What are the functional differences between the EH1 and EH930?

I've put the 20 80min Memorex Crystals up on eBay for those who are interested. LINK

I don't blame you for being frustrated. I know that the EX71s are very well known for their frail build quality. I can't tell you why my stuff has lasted this long other than my care of the phones and luck. I hope you enjoy your Panasonic phones, I tried out a pair a while ago too, but gave them away.

Aeriyn is right, I've got a pair of EX71s and a pair of E868s that have seen a lot of use. The EX71s are over two years old and they've seen over a thousand hours of use. At least 30-40 hours by me so far. My E868s are even older, they're about eight years old give or take, and they've seen thousands of hours of use. In fact I still go to the E868s before I go to any of my other phones, even for home use at times. There may be build quality issues from time to time, but generally, if you take care of your gear it'll take care of you.

I use my phones when traveling, shopping, sitting around at the PC while my family is asleep. Basically I listen with headphones most anytime I'm alone.

Mikami, those tips are very much inline with the Steven Covey ideas.

Unless you plan to do a lot of Mic recordings and need time/date stamp on your recordings, I'd suggest getting the NH900 because it's cheaper and it has better battery options.

arb226, the new units will come with new remotes.

DJ_SpaRky is a great buyer. He paid promptly and was great to work with. I'd deal with him again without hesitation.

There are a lot of tips that you can follow for better time management and productivity. I've found that I needed to write every appointment down, and I've created certain time brackets for daily routine items. I use a combination of Outlook and my PDA to keep my schedule straight. I also use a hybrid of the Steven Covey and David Allen time management philosophies. I'd recommend looking into the Covey book, "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," I've read it, I'd mail it to you now if it wasn't in storage where I can't get to it for a month or two. Allen has written some books too, but I can't comment on them, I just leech tips from his site. There's a Yahoo group dedicated to Allen's philosophy of time management. Here are a couple of links to tips that have been useful to me. Ways to make a PDA useful as a time management tool David Allen's Getting Things Done site I hope that some of this helps you out.

WOW! That's quite a sight 8track.

Best Buy's selection of MD is pretty bad, in fact Circuit City's selection isn't any better really. I just mentioned al lthe locations that I've purchased MDs from up until now.

That's true Kurisu, I bought some MDs there. but their site seems to be long gone now.

I bought minidiscs at a few places. 01. Circuit City 02. eBay 03. The classifieds section of online forums 04. Outward Sound Unfortunately we don't have as many options for buying minidiscs locally here in the US.

Georges, I'm sorry to say that the answer to your question is no. You'd need to run Sonicstage on a PC using a minidisc recorder to make a MD for use with the EH930 (a playback only unit).

A lot of cute girls are popping up in this thread.