Rumz

The wait is killing me! I hate it when there's a new gadget that I have to have and it's not released yet (stateside, anyhow). If I knew sound professionals would be getting black RH1's for sure I'd go ahead and pre-order.

Ah, but where are these other manufacturers in the Hi-MD game? I would love it if Hi-MD were really taking off in Japan as that would improve the odds of Sharp releasing a Hi-MD player, I would think.

' Very nice, wish it wasn't so pricey. I like Onkyo's components, I have an amp/reciever for my home theater made by Onkyo. Honestly, I just want a Hi-MD deck with optical out to connect to my stereos-- is that so much to ask? Wish Onkyo had included that in their mini deck.

Yeah I confess that I used Lp4 once to squeeze one last track onto a mix once. I converted it to Mono in another program and then compressed it to LP4... I forgot who gave me the idea but doing so seemed to help it not sound so heinous. The first post of the thread did crack me up-- I thought it'd be someone ditching hi-lp or something for hi-sp or higher. Here I thought 256kbps was alright until they decided to make 320-352 available... now I'm hooked. I had a very short jaunt with lp2 before I just stuck with quality over quantity. But, quality is relative and we each have our own standards of quality-- man I wish I could get away with 128kbps. "SP" does denote a bitrate (292kbps) but all SPs are not created equal, I can assure you. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if the encoders / chips used in 1992 units encoded a 292kbps file that sounded on par with current Hi-LP-- it was really new technology and from what I've read in the past, didn't sound that awesome either, but I'll have to see if I can find a reference for that. For my part, I've noticed a difference in encoding quality of various SP encoders in my own use. My R90 has a version of Atrac, then starting with my R900, my sony units encoded in Atrac Type-R. Then there's my Sharp system, where SP recordings have artifacts almost as if it were encoding in LP mode... strange. I can only guess its encoding hardware has an older version of atrac that isn't as clean / good as Type R. So bitrate is only part of the equation. The encoder has a lot to do with it, even if the resulting file format is a standard (like comparing a generic mp3 encoder to LAME-- there can be a pretty noticable difference in quality at the same bitrate). Maybe Sony had taken Atrac SP as far as they felt it could or should go, and have focused instead on a more modern version of the codec which they're calling Atrac+...

No comments on the protests but DAMN those are good pictures for a camera phone. Mine usually look blury and / or washed out (Treo 650). Alas, I can't ditch the PDA phone, I love it too much. Hence I carry around a Canon SD30.

So what's the best place in Japan to import from these days then? I'm in the states.

My question is when will these hit the market?

Thanks You can count on a new Hi-MD unit to bring me around 'twould be nice if there were a program to transfer music *to* HI-MD from Mac, but I guess we can't have our cake and eat it too eh? Regardless, being able to upload to a Mac will be fabulous.

Lost - Original Television Soundtrack

Is this transferring music TO the Hi-MD unit FROM a Mac?

Well, I don't know if a handful of users on an internet forum really represent enough demand to offset the costs of production, development, etc. As far as a car deck goes, I'd love one, but then that might necessitate a more affordable recording solution to get music onto the discs for people who don't already own a previous generation unit. Sure you could build recording into the car deck, but how many people want to sit in their car to copy music? For that reason, a car deck seems less likely to me, as Sony is now saying that Hi-MD is a medium for recording and not promoting it so much as a music playback solution (ie one new unit, the RH1-- not exactly cheap). However, a deck I can see being more usable as it would playback and record.

I really would like a car unit. I'm not fond of plugging in an mp3 player every time I get in the car via tape deck or whatever other connection. Hi-MD would allow me to have a lot more music in my car all the time with those 1gb discs, and they'd be less prone to scratching than mp3 cds or audio cds. I just need ways to enjoy the quality of the highest bit-rate atrac3plus (other than the headphone out of a portable)

All I can say is HELL YES. I wanted one of these before the official announcement... but with being able to upload my old SP recordings from 7 years ago as well as voice recordings sent home by my brother in the field (recorded on an MDLP unit)... this thing is a must have. I'm just fine with Sony keeping Hi-MD as a niche product, so long as they don't kill it completely.

Count me in with those who will buy one of these SonicStage 3.4 also has rekindled some interest in Hi-MD for me-- this just makes it that much more enticing to get a new unit (since I skipped 2nd-gen Hi-MD...) You can also count me among those that wish there was a Hi-MD deck...

After hearing some hype about 352kbps I gave it a whirl (not on Hi-MD) and I have to admit that for me it has the edge that SP had. Hi-SP @ 256k is pretty good, more than enough for most music, but for certain types (like my belovid film scores ) the 352kbps bitrate is absolutely heavenly. Whether you can tell the difference is one thing, how much difference you can hear might be another still. And yet another issue is whether those differences are worth it to you to have larger files. To each his own-- I'll be re-ripping my soundtracks at 352kbps eventually. This is why I still use Atrac.... gapless and sounds amazing.

Might such a kit also contain a small screwdriver fit to screw those things in? Thanks for the help!

I told my brother I'd fix his N707 for him. It works but one of the screws on the side of the unit is missing, causing the clam shell mechanism to not work quite properly. Any idea where I can find a screw that will fit that thing or where to even begin looking?

For reals. Whatever the reason is that CD sales are declining, I still buy them primarily because I demand the quality. Buying off iTunes is convenient, but no thank you DRM and no thank you lossy crap. I have a couple younger siblings that buy primarily indie rock from smaller labels. They buy TONS of CDs. I love that none of that money goes to the big record labels. Of course, their beloved bands probably still have to tour like crazy to try to make a dime.

Being the audio whore that I am, when I had a problem with my original pair of Shure E3c I sent them in for repair/replacement and bought another pair to tide me over (can you say obsessive compulsive?) Anyhow, Shure didn't try to repair the other phones, they just sent me a a brand new E3c (which means it's sealed and has all the original package contents such as the different ear tips, etc, unused). Thought about giving them away as a gift but using the foam tips they're a little higher maintenance than some regular cans so I thought maybe I'd just sell these instead and use the money for some different cans.... just a thought.

Glad to see you are enjoying the pocket I pretty much agree with you on your review. I'm the most satisfied with the Pocket that I've ever been with a portable. I find the HDD access a little cumbersome myself, that's one of the only gripes I have-- don't know if it's just the way it's programmed or if it really needs a bit more of a memory buffer or something. The problem is the worst if you have a group with several tracks in it (more than a typical album would, anyways-- like 20 or more tracks). I haven't tried using it with Sonic Stage 3.1 yet (heh-- too lazy to upgrade from 2.3). I would love it if they released a firmware update for the Pocket that allowed for playlists to be created on the PC for the Pocket instead of just on the Pocket. Even some kind of utility that would let you browse what was on your Pocket and let you create a playlist based on what's already on it as you can do from the pocket itself-- that would be great. Wishful thinking, most likely. For me-- I find the sound quality to be just right (add a little bass if I need it, etc.) and, with the exception of not being able to create playlists from outside the unit itself, I like the way I manage music on the Pocket. It's a keeper

I thought about getting an E407. I'd have one but I'm a little annoyed that Sony has chosen to make all the colors available only OUTSIDE the US. Lame. Just north in Canada they seem to have all the color options even. Anyways, I wound up buying an E107 used for $100. The 507 is obviously prettier and maybe a little more compact (though I'm not complaining about the battery life on the 107-- uses AAA batteries). As far as using it-- it's a breeze. If you're already using MD it's pretty much like having a disc that you can hook right up to your computer and put music on. I found transfers to the 107 to be slow (in comparison to how quickly tracks transfer with my Vaio Pocket HDD player)-- not sure if that's an issue with the USB cable but it's more likely that the unit is USB 1.1 (I'm too lazy to check). If you're used to Sonic Stage then no big deal, as long as you have 3.0 or later. I imagine the 507 is higher quality than the 107 anyways in the build department. Sexy player, for sure, that 507. If you decide to get one, let us know what your impressions are. I'm certainly satisfied with the 107 which I mainly use at the gym.

Currently I'd have to say my Treo 650 phone. Mostly I love having a keyboard on my phone for texting and data entry, but it's also fairly cool that I can throw movies, tv shows, mp3s, etc. on there. A 40 minute tv show only takes about 5% of the battery life (assuming you have your cell radio turned off, like you do on airplanes). So yeah-- watching movies is no problem. Oh yeah and it's nice that it keeps track of my to-do lists, e-mail, calendar, etc. Not to mention web browsing and using bluetooth to connect a computer to the internet in a pinch. I would never use a PDA unless it were attached to my phone. (Had a Pocket PC and just never used it much except to play old Atari games on it, heh... speaking of which, I should get some emulators for this phone). Ranks fairly high up there on the cool gadget scale for me.

Just one comment about skipping. I have had mine skip on me once or twice while walking around with it in my pocket. I don't know if that's because I had skipped tracks and thus the memory buffer was empty or what, but it was an otherwise empty pocket of some board shorts so it was moving around a lot. In general it doesn't skip but I'm not sure I'd strap it on me at the gym or not. I prefer MD or flash players for gym use, but I recognize not everyone can afford to have a separate player for the gym. Navigation isn't *quite* as slick as the iPods (interface is fine-- it just feels a tad less responsive, but who knows-- I only ever browse and listen by groups). Oh... and there was one time-- I'm not sure how I did it, but I froze the unit such that I could find no way to power it off. The screen was still on but the unit would not respond. Rather than wait for the battery to drain I had to open the battery compartment (some tiny screws involved) and manually unplug the battery to kill the power and shut the player down. I had to reset a few things when I put it back together, but all the music was still there intact. I spoke with Ishi about this and he's never had this problem, and I had this problem once in the 6 months I've owned it. Otherwise it's been a great player. (I've frozen my iPod Mini a couple times too but it had a way to shut it down manually... Ishi has the service manual for the Vaio Pocket I believe, maybe there is a way to force it to shut down without resorting to removing the battery).

At Ishi's request, some thoughtst about mp3 playback. I understand some Sony players don't always handle mp3 playback, especially that of VBR mp3s, very well... whether the audio quality is distorted or what the problem is, I'm not sure. With the Pocket, I've had no issues playing back mp3s, most all of which are VBR mp3s. Not only do they play back without a hitch (I encode with lame -alt preset standard or alt preset extreme), but they sound excellent-- I was really quite surprised. So from time to time I'll encode an album in mp3 just to get a little more milage out of that 40 gig drive. Just one reason why I'm so content with the Pocket

Very happy that Ishi was the one to create this pictorial My photography skills just aren't quite up to par-- he does do the pocket justice-- beautiful pics. I've had no complaints about the Pocket thus far-- it's actually satisfied me to the point where I use it for everything but at the gym. Sound quality is good, it's small, 40 gigs, awesome screen, easy navigation... the only issue I ever have is if I create a large group, sometimes it can be sluggish listing the entire group. Normal sized groups seem to list just fine though. I do wish Sony would update the firmware one last time to make playlists a reality. As it is you can create on-the-fly playlists from songs on the unit, but not on the PC. Since you can do it on the unit, it does support playlists... i'd just like to be able to create them in Sonic Stage and give them actual names. But being as this product didn't really take off, I'm skeptical of what kind of treatment it will get with regards to further firmware updates...