bhangraman

Time to snap up the iAudio M3 then. Dabs currently have 25 in stock at £179.99. However although the auto levels are fine for voice recording but I found 'proper' recording a far dodgier prospect than Hi-MD. I forgot what the limit was, but there's a maximum size for a single recording... pay a visit to iAudiophile.net before you buy, just so that you're clear about the recording limitations. I don't know how much of a priority recording is for you. If it is the overriding priority, then you won't find anything to top MD yet. Apart from that, the display remote is the most informative in the business (it has to be, since it's the only display on-unit), sound quality is decent, has FM radio and a built-in Mic, and drag & drop music loading / unloading. Up/downloads of course are considerably quicker. As for EISA being awarded to the H140, I guess it must have been a slow year, and giving it to the iPod would have been far too predictable. I was somewhat underwhelmed, sonically, design-wise and ergonomically. One strictly for the sandal-wearing geeks IMO.

Should be turning up within the next few days: Bleed Like Me - Garbage The Tigers Have Spoken - Neko Case Government Commissions - Mogwai Infinite Descent - Diamanthian Open Season - British Sea Power Lubricate your living room - The bionaut Outside Closer - Hood Bartok, Dutilleux, Stravinsky - Works for Violin & Orchestra, Anne-Sophie Mutter / Seiji Ozawa / etc Everything is Never Quite Enough - Wasis Diop and Revolver - The Haunted to replace scratched copy

I'd turn the question on it's head and say why listen to a portable at home?

Artificially limited output on portables, even of the same models sold elsewhere.

Specs look OK to me. But the phones look hideous IMO Oh, just scanning your English, one more question... are you South American or European? Because if you're European there might be a problem.

I go by the maxim: "Amplifying mediocrity with mediocre amps becomes louder mediocrity with added distortion." And where possible, I do like to go unamped. It's possible to use big headphones with the limited power of Sony's built-in amps, especially as newer amps seem to be back to the 90's when a 5mw rating was a lot more powerful than the truly pitiful "5mw" players of up to a few years ago. But, you have to select carefully based on impedance and SPL ratings. With Sony amps, the former should be low and the latter should be high. For example, the Sony Qualia 010 that I use semi-portably has a SPL of 100db/mw and an impedance of 70 ohms. It works out of the (non-European) portables, but there are times when I frequently feel that the phones are wanting more power. (which is why I don't use the 010 with Sony gear... it's a shame) In the case of the RP-F300, I'm seeing figures of 102db/mw (usable, but not perfect for direct MD use) with 22 ohm impedance (good). So what you'll get is something quite usable for the most part, but there might be some instances where you might feel that the phones are being underpowered. Provided you keep the volume low, it shouldn't be a huge problem.

I'd like to investigate the possibility of re-cabling an RM-MC40ELK. The main obstacle to this seems to be the remote connector. Does anyone know where I might be able to get the connector separately, or know whether I (or a cabling guy) can strip an existing connector safely? By re-cable, I don't mean the remote is broken. I mean I'd like to investigate the possibility of using Cardas / better cable on the remote.

Nope. I had it for too short a time to write anything up and my personal interest in Hi-MD has remained the same despite the RH10. (and on the note of this thread, generally speaking I'd say it's a much more practical machine to the NH1 for everything... playback, recording, USB mass storage) I might be doing something with the DH10 though, and have asked for one as it seems pretty cool. It's not a high priority though.

I hope this isn't too late, but I'd suggest the RH10 as a more evolved machine.

I don't know if it helps, but here's a review I wrote some time ago. http://phonephile.blogspot.com/2005/01/aud...00-digital.html

The sound quality on the iPod is noticeably better than the MZ-NH1 when compared Lossless against OMG PCM. (and of course, Lossless is taking up half the space of OMG PCM) There are a few headphone issuses, but once again if you're serious about sound they're easy to overcome. I have 80Gb of MP3's... and I haven't yet finished ripping the rest of my CD collection.

They have less sonic 'glare', are much less scratchy and have a warmer sound. I think the thing that fazes a lot of potential users is the size of the buds, and it doesn't fit well in some ear 'bowls'.

The doors were open. I leave the conclusion and the reason I made the post up to you.

Edited. Tell us the sordid facts then, what happened?

Most hard disks have a maximum rated attitude of somewhere around 10,000ft. Having said that, a colleague was enjoying my iPod (3G) without problems onboard a helicopter flying over 10,000ft.