Rumz

LOL, it was Auvi in the first place that revealed the crappiness of Lp2 to my ears, hehe. I agree lp2 is far better than the average mp3 at 128k or sometimes even 160k, but my ears have come a long ways since the days that I thought those were acceptable. Part of the problem is that a good portion of what I listen to is instrumental / orchestral, and those types of recordings tend to suffer from artifacts more than studio recorded stuff. So I guess for rock and pop lp2 does quite well for me, but it's the fact that I know how it sounds with other types of music that prevents me from wanting to use it at all. So for me it's Hi-SP. Haven't given PCM a try but don't see the point. The NH1 is my ultra-portable, I guess. My D-NE300 serves me fine in many situations (such as at work and at home) if I want to listen to uncompressed music. That is, until Sony makes a Hi-MD deck

Qwakrz, sorry I took so long to take pics of my NH1, I've had it for a couple weeks now The R900... I guess I kept it well protected, mostly only listened to it at work. It served me will until I picked up the S1 in May of 2002, so I guess it didn't get as much use as it could have, going for maybe 15 months or so. It may look alright on the outside, but it's buggy and unreliable anymore. I should have thrown my R90 into the mix to compare another generation of recorders

It's standard XP Pro (32bit) SP1. Can you recommend a ram tester? I'll update the bios as well. I should be building another system tonight or tomorrow, I'll see how that goes as well (different motherboard, processor, and RAM).

Hmmm.. my friend's NH600D came with a 1GB blank, he bought it a couple months ago.

It's silly that I haven't tried myself as I have an NH1, but from what I've been reading people aren't able to burn those PCM tracks to CD. Have you tried it?

The only other Hi-MD I've seen in person besides the NH1 was the NH600D. It was a bit too chunky for my tastes... (sorry for the noiseyness/bluriness some of these pics. Not the best lighting ) Man. The iRiver looks downright chunky compared to these other units. A comparison of the R900, NH1, and Sharp DS8. I think both the NH1 and the DS8 are good looking in different ways. The NH1 and DS8 side by side. If you've seen a DS8 this'll give you a feel for how big the buttons on the side of the NH1 are (again sorry for the bad photos). The NH1 is hard to convey with photos. It always comes off looking bigger than it is in real life. Honestly, when I opened the box and picked it up I was quite surprised how small and light it was for a recorder, really not that much thicker than my DS8. The plastic control part on the side always bugged me in photos I'd seen, but that's just the nature of macro shots-- it makes it look huge. It really doesn't look bad in real life. Can't deny this thing is sexy

Ah, a good point about that feature-- supposed to be an antivirus preventative measure, no? Chris, tried Simple Burner yet on your new A64 rig? I can't build until my processor arrives tomorrow.

Rich, thanks for the ideas. I am building myself an Athlon 64 system this week. If I encounter the same problems I've been having on the system in question we'll perhaps be one step closer to knowing if there's a 64-bit compatibility issue.

I'm thinking perhaps it is a 64-bit issue with SB. I had a similar problem with UT2004 not running after installation, and fixed the problem by installing a patch which included a 64-bit fix. Guess I'll see if any SB patches exist...

So that's what those filters are for... good to know

Who's to say Sony won't release an "accessory". Of course it wouldn't fasten to the unit, but it could be similar to the external AA pack that my Sony D-EJ925 uses.

I'm bugged that it takes twice the space... I would have liked it if Hi-MD and the HD1 used the same format so your same sonic stage files could be used interchangably.

What other portable devices have you listened to that you can compare it to? I'm amazed at how good the latest batch of Sony CD players sound-- I really enjoy listening to my D-NE300. If this sounded comparable, I'd be very interested...

No blanks at radio shack Worse, in fine print on Best Buy's site it indicates that these are on backorder. Worst, their free sihpping no longer seems to be in force... most of the time shipping is free there. *sigh* the wait for 1GB media continues (though I guess I can't complain too much since I just got my NH1 a day or so ago).

Part II: Ok I installed Sonic Stage and everything else that was on the CD. Still get a fatal error when SB tries to load up. Per the error message suggestion, I uninstall simple burner. Reboot. Install Simple Burner again. Reboot. Same problem. Any ideas why I'm getting a fatal error with SB 2.0?

Does anyone know if such issues exist? I've successfully installed Sonic Stage 2.0 on 2 Windows XP machines-- one with an Athlon XP 2100+ processor and one a laptop with a Pentium M 1.6ghz processor. Runs fine on both. I try to install this software on my brother's new Athlon 64 3000+ / nForce 3 150 machine and the launcher won't even start-- it crashes before you even see the launcher. I was able to manually install the MD drivers and simple burner since this was all my brother needs for his N707, and it now gives him an MD Simple burner error when he boots up his computer. Perhaps the rest of the SS2.0 software needs to be installed? In any case, it was puzzling that every version of Sonic Stage I tried to install wouldn' even load up the launcher without crashing. THis includes 2.1 downloaded from connect, an atrac3cd version of Sonic Stage 2, the Hi-MD version of Sonic Stage 2, etc.

You don't need to, provided you plug your MD into a powered USB port. Your Hi-MD unit will draw enough power from the USB port to record, etc-- it just won't charge (but neither will it drain your battery).

Note that it's a proprietary USB cable-- one end plugs into your PC and the other end is reminiscent of USB cables for cell phones and PDAs. Now, since the NH1 can only be charged via the cradle, I'd love to see Sony make available an adapter to plug the power cable directly into the unit for travel situations, so you don't have to take that cradle everywhere to charge. The cradle really isn't large or heavy, I'd just be worried about breaking because of it's shape if packed away somewhere. My PocketPC has such an adapter...

Dang. Perhaps I'll do some hunting today to see if any local stores do have them. Not getting my hopes up, but if Best Buy has any then it's possible other major retailers could.

Yeah I can't find them online either, I shall have to stop by a local store to see if they have them. Best Buy vs. Etronics: Is six of one and a half dozen of the other. Best Buy has free shipping, but they also charge tax-- so $8 a pop plus tax = about the same as $34 for a 5 pack and $7-$8 shipping. They both work out to be around $8.40 or so a disc, dang. Must check radio shack. It is nice to see that more stores actually have them in stock still, though. I do wonder how long before we see them at Walmart...

If you have any questions, Chris, let me know. Once I've played around with it a bit and can gather my thoughts I will post some various impressions, though probably not a full-blown review. I'll probably just cover what matters most to me In any case, for the price-- $309 from Datavis-- this was a great deal, considering that's only $10 more than retail for the NH900.

1) No, the dock does not have a USB input on it. You either hook it up to the computer or up to the dock. Disappointing. I can't speak for the other units. I can say that the digital amp is making a significant difference for me over the amp Sony uses in it's lower-end models (I'm assuming the 800, 700, and 600 all use the same amp, though I could be wrong). I listened to my friends NH600 and didn't really like how it sounded. I'm now listening to my NH1 and the sound is clearer with much less background hiss. I like the DSP on the NH1, as well (EQ and presets... not the virtual sound stuff so much).

I know exactly what you mean! We've been spoiled by the great battery life achieved with MD and MDLP. When I got my R90 I was tickled with the battery life, it was still better than my CDp. Current Hi-MD units have similar battery life but expectations are just so much higher now.

To get my tracking number all I did was take the order number (which was in the subject line of my e-mail confirmation), go to Datavis.com, and click "order status" in the upper right. It'll ask you for the order no. and your zip code, after which it'll give you the status of your order. If it's "shipped", there'll also be a tracking number or a link to your tracking number.

Strange. I used a cell # and they didn't call me to harass me. They also never e-mailed with shipment notification or a tracking number. I simply checked my order status the next day and found there was a tracking number. I ordered Monday and used ground, sadly I probably won't see mine until the 16th. I hate ordering stuff from New York because it takes so long for ground shipments to arrive, but the price was just screaming "buy me", hehe.