aeriyn

I second Nismo's recommendation of the E2/E2c to anyone with a DAP that has an equalizer, which the NH1 has. You should be able to equalize the earphones as they have a slight high-frequency rolloff and tend to sound a bit muddy un-EQed. Not the headphone of choice for iPod users, however. There are many other headphones that work well with this unit. I would look into the E2cs however, at your budget. If you do not need an isolating earphone, I would also suggest Sony E888. They sound very nice, aren't that expensive (can be had for 40ish on eBay), come in short cord, but are a bit fragile and prone to breaking. Edit: Koss Porta Pros do sound very nice for the price, but they aren't earphones; they are supra-aural (on the ear) headphones. Any of the 60-ohm Koss KSC drivers also sound good for the price (if you like bass that is).

Eww. Stay away from that. =P Better suggestion is to buy a CMoy headamp. Drew of Shellbrook Audio makes a really nice CMoy in a tiny little Hammond aluminum enclosure. It's rather sexy. If you're handy with a soldering iron, you could also make yourself a maxed out CMoy for about 40USD. For about twice that, you could make a respectable MINT amp, my portable amp of choice. :rasp: http://www.tangentsoft.net/audio Check it out, and search the Head-Fi DIY forum for more information.

Usually 3 hours; one hour fast charge plus two hours of trickle charge.

Well, that could be a problem because D/A converters don't understand ATRAC. :laugh:

I wouldn't pay any more than 140USD for any of the JE series decks; IMO they aren't really worth it anymore. If you need an MD deck, its going to be for the editing features, and the JE series are lacking in those features. The JB series is good, and of course the ES are also good. But I had a JE330 and it was really almost useless for anything involving live show recordings or such (although it can have a DIY optical out put into it for like 30 bucks). If you absolutely have to get a JE series deck, check out the JE630s, they have most of the JB functions and generally go for about 130ish on eBay.

Gumsticks don't last as long as the high-capacity NiMH AA cells, but they come pretty close. They are Nickel Metal Hydride cells, which means they do have maintenance requirements (you have to cycle them once ever three or so months, and they don't like lots of partial recharges like Li-Ions do) but they are very inexpensive. You can find them on eBay for 5 or 6USD apiece. To answer the other post... Ironically enough, your experience with your iPod was the exact opposite for me. It's been a while since I used UselessStage; back to the days of my first NetMD unit (N505). I hated it then, I hate it now. From there I went to the old-fashioned real-time recording method using a JE330 deck and playback with a Sharp MD-DS8 portable (best sound quality =P). However, this is a pain in the rear to do. When you add it all up... the cost of the MD recorder, the cost of the discs (everytime you want more space, gotta pony up more cash), the thought of carrying around lots of discs (ugh), the inability to operate every control on the unit with one hand (I dropped many an MD unit, but I've never dropped my iPod nor any of my flash MP3 players), the annoyances of UselessStage (or SonicSh*t, or SonicSludge, etc ad infinitum ad nauseum) and the transcoding/re-ripping of dozens of CDs... My iPod Mini was such a breath of fresh air. From a codec standpoint, AAC totally blows away ATRAC/3/+ encoded in UselessStage (I'm not going to knock Type-R ATRAC encoded on a good MD deck, because it's very good). Ease of use, build quality, appearance, ergonomics, SOUND QUALITY (iPod has no "bass" because it has a relatively flat response; if you want bass with zee pod, then get some basshead headphones, like DT770s or Westones =P) and general all around cuteness... oh yes, the iPod Mini was already gleefully defiling the fallen corpse of MiniDisc. While I admit Hi-MD was probably slightly easier to deal with than old MD, it's still light-years in the past when it comes to intuitive controls. There's no playlisting on Hi-MD at all. Group Function? Give me a break. That's so lame. What if I have 2 albums that share the same song? I have to put two copies of said song onto the MD. I sold all my legacy MD equipment to buy my iPod. I got very little money from it; thankfully I got very good deals on most of my MD equipment and I bought my MD deck broken for next to nothing and fixed it myself. This was luck; I could have very well had very expensive MD equipment and got nowhere near what I paid for it when I sold it. However, I'm pleased you're happy with your NH900 and I hope you enjoy lots of music to come. Just ditch the remote, order some Shure E3cs/E5cs or Westone UM-2 and you'll be fine. =P Edit: Stymie, don'tcha hang out at head-fi? =P

I was speaking of Sony DAPs, not Sony products in general. But I can say that in general, Sony products are more expensive and focused more on tiny size than on quality. Sony loves to make things small, but small is not always better. There are alternatives that perform just as well if not better, for less money. With Sony, you pay a certain amount for the brand name, and today, in 2004, the Sony brand is not as powerful and wonderful as it once was. Btw, I like old Sony PCDPs. =P D-555... *drool*

Anyone who uses an iPod alongside a Sony DAP will most definitely choose the 'pod over MD of any type, or rather, anything Sony at all. Sony doesn't seem to know how to make intuitive, easy-to-use products.

Until Sony gets a music manager software that's on par with iTunes, or allows simple drag-and-drop a la Rio, I doubt they'll be actually competing with Apple... ... unless you mean "competing" in the sense of "being left in the dust."

From posts I've read over at Head-Fi, it appears that the MP3 compatibility is only accesible if you use a standalone Sony utility to wrap the MP3s in a DRM shell... ... essentially removing the usefulness of a feature by not allowing the feature to function in a simple fashion. Yeah, you won't have to transcode MP3s anymore, that's good, but you'll still have to have two entirely separate libraries of digital music... I would have to admit that I almost chose the pink HD2 over the iPod Mini, but the added cost (twice as much) and the various downsides for my personal tastes (low 5mW headphone out, confusing interface, SonicStage, ATRAC3+ only at the time) prevented me from taking the plunge.

milliAmp hours. :laugh: That is the measurement of an electrochemical cell's capacity (not gravitic energy density, which is in Watt hours).

No, you didn't. The avatar option was temporarily disabled while kurisu was messing with the forum backend.

oi the titles bit was skyther's doing, most likely. :rasp:

Gumstick batteries are prismatic in composition and always have a lower energy density than cylindrical form-factors.

Agreed.

I found some on Head-Fi. :happy:

Build it! :laugh: Building stuff is fun. And it sucks all the money out of your wallet. I recently built a PIMETA headphone amplifier. Now I want to build moooooreee...

Oi, Chris, that's 73 dollars shipped. I know about that already. I'm trying to NOT pay 73 dollars. :laugh: I r broke.

portable audio > portable gaming, kthnx. :rasp: I already did my "omgblowatonofcash" purchase for this year. *pets her cute pink mini* Now only if I could find a set of decent used canalphones... CLEAN used canalphones. :whatever: And btw, watcher, North America usually has to wait too. Everything's out in Japan first, then the US and Canada, and then Europe. Game console makers traditionally release their hardware and software in Europe last, because Europe has a history of being big-time software piraters. Oddly enough, so does Taiwan and Singapore, but they seem to ignore this fact.

Budget = 55 usd shipped. Come on. I know one of you MD fans have to have a pair of E2cs that you're not using anymore. Make a cute girl smile and give her lonely iPod Mini some good buds. :happy:

I'll speak for Chris and suggest an NH900 since you already have the battery box and mic. For the very specific needs of a device that doubles as a high-quality recording unit AND a digital audio player, Hi-MD is probably impossible to beat. However... you will learn to despise UselessStage. Trust me.

Record in analog! :laugh: How about that Edirol CF recorder? It looked interesting.

Moving to correct forum...

As hackneyed and as "cheapo" as it sounds, the ability to use standard LR6 alkaline AAs can be a HUGE advantage. :laugh:

I've done it. :grin: Shortened the cord of several pairs of inexpensive earbuds as well as put resistors inline with the wires to raise impedance, to prevent my brothers from destroying their hearing prematurely. :laugh: I'm planning on making my own P to S converter cable as well. Audio DIY is addictive.