pata2001

Since when Sony "understood" their customers? Sony's current goal is pure profit. So much that they are releasing an iPod adapter for their Car CD decks, but no support at all for Sony own brand portables. Sony is focusing on profit so much, that they forgot that if they had improved their existing product lines and listen to customers, they might actually make more profit! Simple big corporate stupidity. Seems to be no different under Sir Howard (even worse with the lack of availability of the NW-Axxx series and connect fiasco). The time Sony wake up is probably when everything is too late.

In the PCDP models, some users note that units with digital amp have less noise than those with regular analog amp. IMO, for a casual user, it would be quite hard to notice the difference.

There shouldn't be any difference since the internals (DAC, amp, etc) of both units are presumably the same. What I miss in 2nd gen units is the line-out option.

We can talk about codecs all day long, but do we listen to the algorithm, or the music? Still want to find out which codec sounds better? Just do ABX yourself, and pick your favorite codec. After all those lengthy discussion, whos's going to get the RH1? Still no news whether sony is going to release new HiMD player only units?

When using MP3gain, pick a db that won't have clipping. There's no point making things louder but adding clipping. Actually, people want the other way, to remaster their CDs to reduce loudness, thus reducing clipping and improving dynamic range. Also, this method will reduce quality since you're involving a lossy compression, even at max bitrate.

It will be interesting, and can go either way. Assuming that this is really sony's last HiMD unit ever: 1. Many MD/HiMD users will buy it, leaving scarce inventory and high prices. 2. Nobody cares, and a couple of months later the unit can be found for cheap (eg. the DH10P, dropping from the $500 asking price to $250 online). I just want a metal slim HiMD player only unit with MP3 capability. If this is really Sony's last HiMD unit, I might actually get it (metal, quite slim, HD-amp).

Aside from the colors, the unit seems to be quite durable. You can't beat the included purse. Nice pics!

Maybe 192kbps and 352kbps, but I don't think all the new bitrates will be available, unless Sony decided to unlock all the bitrates in this unit's version of SS3.4. Any news on player only units? Maybe sony should release a player only version of this unit (would be nice with the LCD on it).

You can simply re-arrange the order of tracks/albums on the HiMD/MD in the transfer screen by simply dragging them to wherever position you want.

Well, the question is when will Sony wake up? Feb 28 is getting closer and closer, and if Apple really released their touch screen iPod, Sony might be in trouble. Forget about MD, Sony cannot even focus their Netowrk Walkman development and connect. If Sony cannot even get a hold of their local market, they need to act, now.

Do you mean regular alkaline AAs? For 2nd gen HiMD units, DH710 accepts AA. RH910 and RH10 accept AA via an attachment.

Transcoding is is "bad," especially from MP3. There was a comparison at hydrogenaudio comparing degradation of quality from various lossy compression in transcoding, and MP3 is pretty much the worst (OGG surprisingly ended up pretty good). If you must, avoid transcoding to higher bitrate than the original source, since you end up only wasting spacce. If your MP3s are in 192kbps range, then use either 192kbps Atrac3+ or LP2.

Well, EAC is the best secure ripper out there, and the fact you can use ANY encoder with its command line option makes it very versatile.

Memory stick micro is just another smaller version of memory stick to compete with trans flash and SD micro. Flash memory has 1 remaining disadvantage, price. MD/HiMD and HDD still have the advantage of $$ per GB.

Yes you can.

I hope so, but don't think it will happen. Besides, I prefer Sony concentrate in making SS better first, since it is the primary software since it is used for HiMD, NetMD, Network Walkman, and AtracCD.

I doubt it, unless Apple does something stupid in their future iPod lineup. Blame it on Sony. All the features we have now with SS3.4, especially the uploading stuff, should have been there in the beginning. If Sony had dished out all SS 3.4 features right form the start, coupled with MP3 support right of the bat and appropriate marketing, HiMD could have been big, especially before the release of iPod nano, when flash players are still in MBs and expensive. Now, it's all too late, especially with prices falling down. The problems with Connect player and availability of the A series are not helping either.

Sonicstage: *Unicode. *Create 1 universal offline installer that works for every language/region. The differences in the various installer seems to be just some registry settings (eg. for connect store/mora) and language pack (which should'nt be a problem if the program is unicode) *Remove the regioning of devices in Sonicstage. It is a registry setting. What's the point, except to disable non-Japanese users to display kanji? Is kanji evil or something? *Enable transcoding from Atrac lossless. Don't keep Atrac lossless as a useless format. *Gap killer (ala foobar) built in, so I don't have to go from MP3->foobar->Image->rerip->Atrac just to get gapless. Have the option for SS to automatically apply gap killer when converting MP3s. Really, I'll be extremely happy if sony could just make SS unicode.

I don't understand why people are so fascinated in defragging MD. What's the point? You're only going to bust up your HiMD recorder's head by forcing it to read, write, and move back and forth like crazy during the process. Also, there is no "performance" issue in HiMD/MD, especially in music use. The unit has enough buffer to read ahead, preventing skipping in case the track is "fragmented." So, unless you want to shorten your recorder's life in a significant way, I don't see any point in defragging. Even if you use HiMD solely for data, its sub USB1.1 speed is the bottleneck.

Have you tried a closed headphones, or IEM phones (like the shure)? Really, if you cannot even hear your music at full volume, it's either the environment noise is too loud, or you already have hearing damage.

Why didn't you use 352kbps? The sound is "stunning" because you have a lossless version of the song, which means zero quality loss, and the quality is exactly the same as the original audio CD. However, as for now, Atrac lossless is only usable to listen your songs with Sonicstage, nothing more.

Unfortunately, Atrac lossless pretty much fails on most of those aspects. 1. It is larger in size compared to other lossless codec since it also stores a lossy version of the file. 2. It only works with Sonicstage, unlike other lossless codecs like APE or FLAC. 3. No Sony portable/audio devices support the format. All iPods except the shuffle support Apple lossless. Plus, more and more DAP support FLAC. 4. You don't have to transcode, IF you are going to use the exact bitrate you chose while ripping to Atrac lossless. Other than that, you still have to transcode, and worse, Sonicstage use the lossy version instead of the lossless one for transcoding, resulting in worse quality. If you must use lossless to store your music with Sonicstage, it's better to use WMA lossless, so that at least during transcoding, you're transcoding from a lossless source instead of a lossy one.

So far, there is no Sony device that support Atrac lossless. The good thing is, now user can rip to Atrac lossless + 352kbps. Still, Atrac lossless is not really useful if it's only playable with Sonicstage.

How about the issue of transfer? In SS3.3, SS will use the compressed version for transcoding instead of the lossless version, which really makes it useless.

I beg to differ. Transcoding will always reduce quality. You won't get improvements by simply transcoding to Atrac3+ 256kbps. In fact, you might be wasting space if the MP3 is froma lower bitrate. I don't believe Sony "intentionally" make MP3 sound worse. Atrac has been refined a lot with Type-S decoder and such, while MP3 is pretty much brand new for HiMD.