bhangraman

I'd say there are too many variables in the equation to start pinning it on Hi-MD at this time... especially with a USB sound card too (I'm not referring to the deficiencies of the card but with the PC with USB). Have you tried an initial loopback test using Total Recorder in the chain?

It's one of the things that the Sony product managers (at least, those who have got their act together... which actually in my experience totals 0) must be going "d'oh!" especially as now every current iPod charges over USB and firewire. Whereabouts are you now koninc?

Indeed. Transcoding is woefully slow and does suck a bit. The 'native' Hi-SP sound quality is to me (on a PC) more or less identical to a good 256K MP3 rip. No particular differences to speak of and both are very hard to tell from the original CD. My slight objection as outlined before would be the 'HD digital amp'. While pretty agreeable, it just does not excel from a technical point of view... I was surprised that my (Sony) laptop's built-in sound could better the NH1 in technical terms... and I won't mention the iPod :rasp: . However I can see the characteristics of the HD digital amp being 'better' for most people who spend relatively sane amounts on eargear as it has an additional dynamic factor. To this anal retentive however, it's a bit of a disappointment.

**GRATUITOUS PICTURE ALERT ** Despite the fact that my own Lossless player which fits on it the equivalent of 6 ~ 8 Hi-MD discs in PCM and does surprising amount of justice to the 'front end' pictured is not a Hi-MD :rasp: I'm not really inviting specific iPod comparisons. I really want to see what you Hi-MD owners think of it in the way that I mentioned.

Whatever works for you is great. Yesterday I created by mistake a 64K rip of Arcadi Volodos playing Tchaikovsky. I nearly threw up and wondered if I broke the NH1 before tabbing the Display button revealed the awful truth :rasp:

Personally, I'd wait to see what happens in this thread. Analog recording to a PC, you see, is a bit of a bitch (for more or less exactly the same reasons that none of us rate machines like the iRiver for recording higher than Hi-MD) if you don't want mediocre results.

Hold on... all my WAV files are 10.3MB long... has anyone else got this?

I followed the instructions, dragged the resulting file into iTunes, burned an Audio CD and I'm playing it on my regular (Sony ) Mini system as I type. That was a huge favour you did to the Hi-MD community. Kudos to you.

Um... er... actually, OMG PCM files get transcoded to 256K ATRAC3+ at the most (64K if you leave it on default) on burning to an ATRAC CD. Sucky?

One alternative (and this is throwing more money at Sony) is to buy a current model Sony Discman. You CAN burn ATRAC discs from your Hi-MD which are playable in current-model Sony Discmen. (Actually, I'll have to confirm PCM-OMG compatibility with the D-NE discmen.) Having bought a very expensive (compared to those large-capacity recording / drag & drop HDD players) NH1, veins may now be standing on your forehead. Unfortunately as aeryn says, until Sony rectifies this 'minor issue' as they term it, you're stuffed unless you invest in more Sony gear.

To those of you who have purchased Hi-MD so far. I'm just started this thread for you guys to tell me what you think of Hi-MD so far. (NO FANBOY POSTINGS. I WANT A GENUINE CRITIQUE... have a think before you post.) - Do you like it? If so, why? - If not, what is wrong with Hi-MD? - Is it a sufficient improvement on MD to survive in the current market? - What has it got over HDD players in general that swung you to buy one? Did you compare before you bought, or was it more or less an automatic purchase because you were a past MD user? - Would you recommend it to your friends looking for 'an MP3 player' bearing in mind it's limitations? And why? - Did Sony treat you right? Did your shop treat you right? Did the shop try to mislead you in any way about Hi-MD? - What in your opinion could Sony do to raise the public awareness of Hi-MD? (Bearing in mind that the ads aren't having much impact)

I'm sure others could explain the reasons more comprehensively that I can, but I would urge you to stick to DAT. Buy used if necessary. Hi-MD is not yet quite the DAT replacement that it seems to be at first glance.

Is it a Hi-SP vs SP on the NH1 you're looking for, or Hi-SO on the NH1 vs say... SP on the MZ-N10?

What's actually more important than impedance in many situations is efficiency. I can hook up the 110-ohm Shure E5 up to the 1.5mw portables and still (metaphorically speaking) blow my eardrums out. I'm surprised that on your equipment the V700 volume drops in comparison to the Portapro... the Portapros have lower efficiency and a higher impedance compared to the 700.

The NH1 among other things puts out a sound with extended mid-bass bloom which is more suitable for your listening type. That could be why you like it better.

FOCL

The listed sensitivity is useful when deciding your phones, but the quoted frequency response is neither here nor there. It is simply a lab-based measurement of the level of frequencies that the phones will react to. It has nothing to do with what you hear if the ranges quoted are outside your hearing. Do extremely high-range phones make use of harmonic overtones in some way? I don't believe so, but someone else might say otherwise. The fact is that most people can't hear below 20hz. At the other end most young people can hear 18khz, but beyond that you'll find it impossible to make anything out.

I do hope you're not implying that MD is cr*p Or is that NOT a typo? :grin:

Last time I checked, I stand at the urinals. And in my impromptu MD poll recently, the slim majority were women. It seems that they find it too geeky to do the research before buying a portable and they're more susceptible to what the sales staff tell them (shame there is no 'utterly evil grin' icon here... so :utterly evil grin: ). However, I am so totally secure in my maleness that even a pink iPod Mini (or a similar hued MD-DS30) wouldn't cause me any insecurity. Well, with my dress sense there's absolutely no chance of anyone thinking me Gay. (Although there is every chance of thinking me Geek)

Yes.

The E2c's are noticeably more efficient than the EX71, offer far more isolation and I think they're better phones all round... and worth the price difference. However they aren't as tractable nor as comfortable as the EX71, especially with the foamies (which give the best results). I use the PX200 quite often when I don't want to walk around with an in-ear phone. They're surprisingly well sealed for such tiny earcups. They're very quick to fold/unfold and can be thrown into bags without any bagging/casing rituals. Fit and seal is apparently the thing which gives people most problems. My first PX200 had a really stiff last detent and I didn't realise it extended further. As a result it didn't fit my huge head and I got rid of it. A subsequent PX200 revealed that it extended further and it now fits me fine. There seems to be a number of people complaining about a bass suck-out with improper fit, but I've asked several people I know with different sized ears to try these and no-one has complained of it. It's most undesirable sonic attributes can largely be EQ'd out. With a proper fit on top of the ears, it has the bass that most entry-level listeners crave and the overall quality is not bad.

I don't know. Maybe they have a secret agreement with Sharp or something?

It's a pain to have to pause it, wade into the menus and select manual volume control. If you happen to select stop instead of pause to break recording, you have to do it again. I don't know how easy this is te get used to, but I found it irksome.

Wonders at the design sense of some people...

AHHHHH!!!!!!! So sorry... I've got an account on the US site so I wasn't paying attention. This is not a Sony approved fix and I offer no warranty of suitability and no guarantees of any kind, but if you're au fait with Regedit, it's pretty simple to get Connect of your local country to show up within Sonicstage. First of all, launch Internet Explorer and type in www.connect.com. After a while, you'll be redirected to the Connect service in your country. Copy that address from the Address field. Launch Regedit, Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARESony CorporationEMD You should see a key called HomeURL on the right hand pane. Double-click into that key, and Paste in the redirected URL that you got. Close Regedit and whenever you open the Connect service within Sonicstage, you'll now go to your home country site. 2.1 should be available shortly everywhere. I'm not sure why it isn't.