Damage

To Jumpstart this dusty area of the forums, I've been kicking around several ideas for awhile. Unfortunately, I've hit sort of a roadblock in coming up with anything decent, so I'll open it up to everyone. 1) "Official" MD Community Forum meets. Organized by yours truly (in the metro Los Angeles area) or willing moderators across the globe, we can meet up every quarter to trade discs, show off and try other people's gears, etc. This should be a great way to expand the community. 2) Theme trades. For instance, for the upcoming Superbowl/Winter Olympics/World Cup Tourney/Other major sporting events, we can initiate your favorite "Jock Jam" type trades. Seasonal trades also, including one for the blistering summer, and the holidays. 3) Trading Blanks. Help your fellow MD.org poster obtain that NEIGE or HOs with a trade. 4) Original works. If you're a budding musician, DJ, master mixer, why not trade your work amongst your peers? And that's about all I could come up with the last few days. I'm looking for your help on this matter. Looking forward to your ideas as well. Note: This is a duplicate thread in the Hi-MD Section, but feel free to post your replies here as well

Smells like bunches of marketingese speak to me, and immediately brings up D.Sound by Panasonic to mind... Which added nothing but harsh brightness to the audio. Bah-humbug.

I'd so wanted the NH900, if I didn't have two NH1s already.

Ehehehehe, that would've been my post... Seems like I forgot to log in or such...

With the crappy firmware they're (currently) packing, good luck and good night. It's slower than a 486 trying to encode MP3s for goodness sakes, and they're going to challenge the almighty iPod? Most likely, they'll employ drag and drop functionality with WMA PlaysForSure-Janus DRM Scheme.

Looking forward to my second RIO Carbon/CE2110 unit, which ever I decide to get that is. Though, I'll probably be dropping bucks on this event: http://www.ocnye.com You know, why can't I get just one !#$!

Favorite every-day beer (other than my own homebrew): Don't drink beer everyday, but if I had to, I wouldn't mind drinking Pilsner Urquell, or Asahi. Favorite beer to pound at a bar: Guinness Draught. Newcastle Brown Ale in close second. Favorite Import: Guinness, Newcastle, and Boddington's Golden Ale. (I guess I'm more of an ale guy) Favorite Pilseners: Pilsner Urquell. Groslch occassionally. Favorite underdog beer I love to try: Czechvar, my friend Favorite beer I love to hate: Bud Select. Heineken. Favorite mass produced beer: Michelob's Amber Bock. Favorite non-alcoholic beer: Virgil's Root Beer and Henry Weinhard's Root Beer/Cream Soda. Can we get to the favorite hard liquor (Meukow Vanilla Cognac) ?

I can say that it plays all my MP3s without issues. You might have been confused with the earlier line of PCDPs which played MP3s but not ATRAC files...

I'm going to restate that it chokes on any high bitrate files. I think it's a firmware bug, something that should've been caught. I've readjusted my score to reflect this, and get a big stinking F for it. Shame.

Reminds me a little bit of the Sega Genesis/MegaDrive game Comix Zone (SIC?). That game was rather unique (at the time) in that the entire game stage was a page or two out of a comic book, and this game has a bit of that underground comic feel to it.

I wouldn't consider the new D-NE00X series part of the ATRAC CD format, since they don't support ATRAC. Neither is the MP3 support uniform on these units. I would dismiss those until the D-NE00X series start support the ATRAC codec. By the by, the D-NE005 or 6 looks like the D-EJ series in the US, complete with the shiny puck. D-NE730 was already added in a previous update along with D-NE830 when it was initially Japan only release.

Aren't there Radioshack in Canada? I think they might have something that big to use as earfoams. Personally, I find the foamies on the SR60s comfy as is.

Say bye bye to your wallet, it'll hate you all the more for visiting head-fi. Trust me on this.

At the moment, probably the Grado SR40s by a hair. They are not that portable though, big as a brick. And ugly as one. Though not as bad looking as say the SR60s. At least these you can use in public and not be embarassed.

Firmware needs work. A lot of work. As for the sound, it sounds comparable to a lot of the MP3 players, like the Rio CE2100 and other loads of MP3 players that runs on SigmaTel chipsets. As for the SR40, it's closer to Porta Pros in terms of sound (more closed, slightly bassier) vs. SR60. Take that how you will, they are quite hard to find, mind you. Even harder than SR60s, in terms of brick and mortar.

Addendum: My initial reviews of the SR40s has been posted on my blog thingy. You can access it here For your consuming pleasure: Finally, the name of the game:

You, of course, realize that all ATRAC CD Players can play back redbook CDs and MP3 CDs. Always had that ability, always will. Guess this is more of an incentive to stay in MP3 format then isn't it?

EX71s require something on the order of 100+ odd hours to sound properly broken in, and even then, they're out classed by the Panasonic HJEs or the JVCs, I'd assume.

I'd say either try the usual big shops (ShinSaeGae for instance, and I forget the ones run by the usual suspects, the LG, Samsung affilated stores), or if that fails, one of the holes in the walls in Yong San will probably have what you're looking for. If not, hit the good old web shops.

Mmm, I remember that unit. I never got around to getting it though, so I'm afraid it'll remain "undiscovered." It looks very interesting though, and it has the ability to play WAV and MP3 files off of a burned DVD... To bad there won't be any follow ups by anyone in this regard however.

If MP3 playback isn't high on your list, then I'd recommend NH900 above the RH910. The two units are fairly similar, except the NH900 has partial metal construction and is equipped with HD Digital Amp, which improves the sound output quality somewhat vs. RH910. The accessories that come with NH900 is better overall (dock, remote, etc) as well. As for the Jog Scroll on the RH910, it's very close to using a jog-wheel on the 910. UI shouldn't be that much of an issue, though it'll be a slightly higher learning curve (not that much) vs. the Pod

If you need on-unit display to be backlit, you should just go with RH-10 and save yourself the grief. However, having said that, if you can get yourself a RM-MC40EL on the cheap, say about $50-60 USD, then go with the RH910. Outside of the OLED display, the two units are virtually the same when it comes to the critical stuff (Digital Amp, HiMD compatibility, MP3 and ATRAC playback).

To answer couple of questions: 1. About 20-30 seconds for initial boot. It's the same for all Sony MP3 CD units upto the D-NE20, so I didn't write it up. 2. Regarding the Media problems... Yep, Pata2001 has it right on the nose. It struggles to keep up at certain points, stops and restarts, with very loud noises during this process. Something was added between the 2nd gen and the 3rd gen, and it only seemingly affects MP3 CDs only. Which is strange. I was wrong, it chokes on ATRAC CD as well... I think, the way to improve the D-NE20 is to do the following: Add MC-40ELK remote compatibility, or redesign the nav into something functional. Add HD Digital AMP. Use the LiIon Removable Battery for even smaller PCDP.

Go to your nearest Ratshack (Aka Radio Shack or any electronic parts store) and ask for heat shrink tubing. Idea is to cover the wires with said heat shrink tubing and shrink the tube with a hair dryer. You may have to cut and resolder the wire as necessary.

In a post far far away, I promised to post a review of each generation's top of the line ATRAC CD player. I'll eventually have to get to it, so I'll start with the D-NE20, the current top of the line ATRAC CD player. Information on each unit can be found in the CD Player section, so I'll leave it to the reader to dig that info up, it's very hard to miss. D-NE20 is the current top of the line ATRAC CD player. So by Sony's standard, it has to have the following to qualify as such: Full Metal Construction, smallest form factor, heaps of accessories, unique problems that doesn't plague other players of the same generation or such. Whattya mean unique problems? We'll get to that in a moment. The player comes with the following accessories: Dock, 1x 1200mah Gumstick, 3V AC Adaptor, RM-MC53 Remote, 1x AA battery pack, cloth carrying case, Earbuds (909SP earbuds, iirc). This player builds upon the improvements found in D-NE900, what is probably agreed by most as one of the best PCDP offering by Sony since D-EJ2000, a high compliment. It uses the same "UFO" design, that it tapers off at the bottom and is no bigger than a CD Diameter wise, and no thicker than 1.5 - 2 jewel cases. In fact, Sony touts the D-NE20 as the world's lightest and thinnest full-sized CD Player. And it feels incredibly small in your hands, especially compared to other, cheaper, PCDPs. Make no mistake, most of your money's going to the size of the CD Player, or its lack of. Only the "silver" color is available in the US, and it's more reminiscient of iPod white than Silver (as was the D-NE900's iPod mini Silver color Silver). But it's the "anodized" aluminium white, not pure white. As such, the CD player itself doesn't pick up any scratches that shows. It's a rather beautiful player to behold, especially sitting in its matching dock. Now, the second thing that comes to the mind after "gee whiz it's beautiful" is how do you control these thing? Thankfully, a set of control buttons are located on the bottom of the player (!). With all 8 buttons, you can control the volume, stop, pause/play, skip your groups forward and backward, and tracks forward and backward. However, these controls lack any way to alter the SQ or do advanced searching. That requires the brand spanking new RM-MC53. With the remote, you can search through the disc and find individual tracks, apply your favorite parametric EQ settings, make remote do fancy animation, and control your disc's playback amongst other thing. First new button you're bound to notice is the Search Button. And it stinks. You have to use the volume jog and the group jog wheel to control the search function. Counter-intuitutive isn't the word to describe it, it's nigh unusable. Even with fumbling with it for months on end, I've still not gotten the search down pat. The RM-MC40ELK's remote was a joy, this is torture in un-named prison camp in that forgotten country best left unspoken. It stinks. Talk about another thing that stinks: Media compatibility. If it pukes on a Japanese made CD-Rs, I'd hate to think what it would do with cheaper media made elsewhere. Oddly, it seems to hit the first few and last few tracks (seemingly), especially on MP3 and ATRAC CDs. It pukes on good media burned at 12x, 16x, 24x, so I hate to see what it does with generic media made elsewhere to save on labor costs... Update: Running the disc with low bitrate files (64kbps) has no adverse affect on the playback. That is, it doesn't stop unexpectedly in the middle and respins the disc. This has a hallmark of a bad firmware bug and should've been caught in the QA process, considering it is next to impossible to upgrade the firmware with D-NE series. Huzzah! Having said that, the main thing that counts is the sound quality, isn't it? And it lives up to the D-NE900 and D-NE1 quite well. The redbook playback is pretty good, with strong and fast vocals. The instrumentation plays the supporting role. Not to say that the trebles or bass lines get lost in the playback, not at all. In fact, with Clearbass turned to 3 (and with proper headphones), the bass get nice and deep without the obvious distortion that Digital Megabass adds. However, you're listening to the singer and the instrumentation rounds out the entire presentation into a singular experience. The Redbook playback just emphasizes that experience here-the singer/vocalist is the main attraction and the band is... supporting cast. The parametric equalizer, once you get used to the remote's quirks, can help you round out your listening experience. That I consider gravy on what is a pretty good experience. But who really listens to CD these days right? After all, who listens to Vinyl? So, here comes a bit of a contentious part, the MP3 and ATRAC playback. As you may or may not be aware, RH line of HiMD players seemingly "handicapped" MP3 playback by a bug where the higher frequencies of MP3s are clipped. Is this the case with D-NE20? No. At least, not to my experience. However, you're going to get angry here, as the unit is very finicky about media and formats... So, if you can find good media that the D-NE20 likes, and plays without major problems, you'll generally like the sound quality of the D-NE20. It's certainly better than RH910's default MP3 playback, though I'd say it won't compare to redbook nor other mp3 player's playback. For instance, those of you who likes the bright sounds of iPod's playback will notice that it isn't bright as iPod. Not to say that it isn't "detailed." Two different things. Brightness to me is that subtle harshness in the extreme high ends. Think cymbols and that ssshhhhh sound. iPods have more of a metallic ring to it whereas it's more softer and rounder on D-NE20. Oh, yes. More bass on the D-NE20. It's that traditional Sony sound that you're used to by now. Nothing fantastic, but nothing dramatically wrong either. As for ATRAC3plus playback? I'll say its par with other ATRAC products that has the Digital AMP. If memory serves, the non-digital AMPed units have bit more bass oomph at the expense of bit of background noise. And both of these units can't hold a candle to the HD Digital Amp flavored NH1. It's what you'd expect from ATRAC products, so I won't go to that much detail here. However, the SQ on the D-NE20 can be improved with the Parametric EQ, I think, better than the standard 6-band EQ. And, again, ClearBass goes a long way in adding that extra oomph in bass. Oddly (or expectedly?) the choice of media fares better here vs. MP3s. Overall, the D-NE20 is the most advanced PCDP devised by Sony thus far. However, the unit is hampered by crappy UI with the poorly designed remote. If you have a 2nd generation ATRAC CD unit, you should probably do well to stay away from them. Good: Digital Amp, ClearBass, Redbook Sound Quality Bad: Finicky about MP3 and Media Ugly: RM-MC55 and its useless Search. Showstopping Firmware Bug (see below). Score: 50 (F) Update: I'm running the disc with some of the low-bitrate files that I burned several eons ago. Surpringly, the disc doesn't puke as it would with high-bitrate file. I'd chalk that up as a firmware bug and a bit of a showstopper one at that. I've readjusted score to reflect the bug...