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I think the main problem is with using a set of headphones to load the output down is that they are an active load and will introduce distortions in the frequency repsonce. If you want to load the output with a headphone like impedance then you need to use 2x 64ohm resistors in the stero plug. Using headphones will put an inductor inseries with the output and cause different resistances at different frequencies, depending in the headphones used you will get high points and low points in the frequency graph on anything but a high power output device that can over-drive these problems (exactly what the wrong graph shows).

If you did pay by credit card then contact the card vendor and put your case to them. Inform them that the shop has shipped it off to sony because they wish to "inspect the device" but you feel that this will bias your clame to a refund as the unit was origianlly provided to you faulty and you have not even used the unit yet. This will put a note on your credit card account that you may want to dispute the charge at a slightly later date but also make sure that the card company knows what is going on. The worst thing I can think the shop will do is when the item is returned from sony and Sony say "The unit has not been dropped" is to turn around and say "You are now outside of the 14 day exchange period and the item will need to be sent away for repair and we cannot refund you". If that happens then contact your credit card company again and dispute the charge on the grounds of faulty equipment, breach of contract and consumer law. They will ask for all reciepts and possibly the item to be sent to them but they should also reverse the charge that was made making sure you are not out of pocket. This all assumes you paid by creditcard.

AFAIK the HD from sky uses Mpeg4 and not Mpeg2. Also they are higher bandwidth channels than the older SD ones On the audio front, the MiniDisc cant decode DD signals so you must have the optical output set to stereo to record directly or feed the signal throuh a DD amp that can decode the signal. Also, Sky+ has optical DD output exactly the same as the HD boxes.

Blame the record companies and their "Louder is best" compression techniques. Almost all the CD's released now have the dynamic range of a sponge pudding and are constantly pushing the upper limit on CD's, this causes them to sometimes clip (the crackle you hear) but because someone decided that the louder a song sounds the more sales they get from radio play thats what we have to put up with. When CD's were originally released they had a dB range set out to go from infinited upto +6dB to allow for peaks, music was supposed to sit around 0dB and only peak once or twice into a soft limit at +3dB and never the hard limit at +6dB. Now we have them constantly banging into the hard limit at +6dB and anything less than +5dB is counted as wasted volume.

The RH900 had a HD Digital amp the same as the NH1, the RH910 had a standard Digital amp the same as the RH10. I prefer the amp in my NH1 over the amp in my RH10, it sounds alot clearer.

If you carry an MD in a loose leg pocket or jacket pocket then the anti skip will have problems because the unit is always in fluid motion, also walking speed seems to coincide with the unit re-positioning the laser and then just as its about to re-read the area it gets knocked again. Basically the unit cant stand alot of swinging motions but moderate sudden shocks it can cope with alot better. Best bet is to keep the unit in a snug trouser pocket or hold the unit with your hand while its in a jacket pocket

I doubt 3v will work as the battery needs a minimum of 3.2v to charge it. It may have a voltage doubler in the box to raise the voltage to 5v or 6v though in which case it will charge the battery.

No, infact the Li-ion batteries last longer if you dont flatten the battery between charges. Discharging a Li-ion causes more damage the further its discharged so frequent top-ups are good and deep full discharges are bad.

Pop along to your local mobile phone shop and get a car Razr V3 phone cable. The V3 charging wall block has been noted to work with the RH1 so I see no reason that the car version wont work. If you want to look on ebay you can buy them for next to nothing.

The volume level on modern discs is awfull. In the old days before CD became the only medium to use the master tapes were made at the reference 0 level (cd allowed for upto +6 db of level for peaks). Modern music pushed the level upto the +6db limit and now they have started to use compression on music to make it sound "Louder" but it just makes it sound more flat in the process. Compression reduces the volume in the peak and increases it everywhere else to make the other sounds even louder. This has the effect to make drums etc sound dull and cause any other sound when a drum is hit go quiet. This introduces distortion in the original waveform. If you take an old disc and use an old MD to re-record it it will still sound quieter then modern music because of the use of compression to distort the sound and make it louder. As for how good the RH1 is, someone with one will have to answer that.

Yes transcoding is bad but MP3 quality on Gen2's is worse. If you transcode try and go for same or higher bitrate. I usually use 132 or 192 for MP3's. If you go for 64k (Hi-LP) the 2 codecs interfear and it causes some weird effects in the audio.

Not heard of any bigger capacity 4WM batteries, need to wait a bit for them to get more popular and then maybe china etc will start to produce cloans that have more capacity, doubt Sony will release anything.

But the way things are going, that drive will prob cost you £40 in fuel. I would guess Reading to Portsmouth would be more like 2 hours each way with all the traific. Back on topic, I am just waiting for the price to drop below £190 before I order one. Don't want to do the same as I did with my NH1 and RH10 and pay full price days before the price goes down.

Used to go through this alot when I worked in a few IT shops. Stock gets recalled by the manufacurer so that it can be sent out to places that need the stock desperatly. It may just be that the supplier has a big order or some other target to reach and has offered to take them all back for a full refund so it can supply its other orders. This would then make it pointless for the shop to put them on clearance as they get more by returning them. Personally it does not matter if the shops stop selling blank discs as Ebay is always there and the blank discs seem to last for ages (not had any faulty in the 10+ years I have used Minidisc). The only thing that would make me stop is if all my equipment broke that I use the discs on. I just hope, if this is the end, that I can get an RH1 (or more likely 2) before it goes.

I have no problems charging from USB BUT the manual does state that it will not fully charge. I think the main thing is that it does not charge at the fast rate the mains adaptor can, I think I had to leave mine connected for 2 days to fully charge it from 0 to full using USB. The battery display eventually went off signifying a full charge.

Be very carefull with the remaining charge time, if its the same as the NH1 then this will only be 80% charged and require a further 2-3hours to get it fully charged.

The easiest way to solve your problems is to install the latest version of Sonic Stage. This alows you to import your files and then convert them to WAV files which dont contain any DRM restrictions. If you want them in other formats then I suggest you look at Hi-MDrenderer (I think) as this has the option to transcode from the Hi-MD file to MP3 etc. As for what is currently happening, when you import the file from your NH1 it is encoded with a key on your PC. When you send the file to a friend via email you are sending it without the key so its not playable. Also, SonicStage is a Windows only program, afaik there is no version for Mac.

Well, I have just rated it as a 1 & sent some feedback to the author about his lack of research and pure reliance on hearsay.

As has been stated. 1h fast charge to 80%, this is what the display shows the time for further 2h to charge to 100% on a new or nearly new battery. Older batteries may take longer than 3h to charge if they have never been fully charged. Personally I would leave the unit on charge overnight to make sure it is fully charged. Li-ion chargers automatically stop the charge when the battery is full no matter how long it takes so it is safe to leave it charging for extended periods (e.g. overnight) as long as you do use it frequently.

If memory serves me right, there was a prolem with SS and MP3 conversion a while ago. One of the downloadable codecs does not play well with SS and causes pops and clicks on MP3 tracks when converted in SS. 2 ways around this. 1) Convert your MP3's to WAV and then import the WAV files into SS 2) Remove all MP3 codec plugins except the Farenhof (spelling?) basic one that comes with windows and then re-install SS to put its own codec in. I even think that the downloadable SS 3.4 from the downloads section removes the known buggy codec in the options for installing. I know the 3.3 version did. Sorry I cant be of more help but the only MP3 codec I use is LAME and that plays nicely with SS so far.

They are connected in parallel. If you put an ordinary AA dry cell in the external housing then it charges the internal NiMH at the same time as running the recorder, if you put a rechargable in the holder then they both discharge together.

If you want to record from line-in in SP / LP formats then you can use a gen 1 Hi-MD or the new RH1. (MZ-NH1, 700, 800, 900. The 600 did not record in some regions). If you only want to make fake SP or LP2/4 discs using sonicstage then any Hi-MD will work for you (Gen2's can only transfer from SonicStage to a NetMD disc, they can record from line-in using Hi-MD discs only). If you want to copy SP / LP recorded discs to your PC then you will need to wait for the RH1 thats due out very soon or use an anologue recording. Yes, you can title an MD within SonicStage using any recorder so far.

Be thankful its not a non LCD remote, that would really be stupid.

I think the 3rd point may be wrong. If you look at the Japan website for the RH10 it lists the 40ELK as an accesory so it looks like its going to be the same as the RH10 in that the european model wont work but the Japan model will so all thats needed is the same hack as the RH10 to change the location the unit thinks its in.

It would be really nice to have something like SB but instead of reading the files from a CD, it would list the folder structure of your HDD or network and allow you to click and transfer the files (MP3, WAV and ATRAC).