bhangraman

I see Hi-MD media being useful in one main way for people who keep music on discs permanently. I used to file album -> MD and ended up with 1000+ discs at one point, but with Hi-MD using Hi-SP (which is the best compromise by far) I can have one artist per disc (it's going to be rare I have more than 7 albums by one artist). In Net MD times, I always found ATRAC3 132K a slightly annoying codec to use. Not better than 128K MP3 in many respects, and for me that's a bit low. It would be nice to see the equivalent of 192K MP3 in Hi-MD (164K ATRAC3+?) which is a universally OK quality I think for portable use, but it probably won't appear.

It will work. Have you tried it?

I've had worse. "Incontinent Chit Chatter" for example... (and I brought that one totally on myself).

http://www.connect.com/download.html

OK... what you'll need to do is to go into Sonicstage, and the Transfer window (selecting Hi-MD of course) with your disc (blank or otherwise) loaded. Then click in MD Mode control (which will say Hi-MD) and set it to Net MD. Now, click on the Transfer Mode button in the centre Transfer section, and select SP Transfer Mode. That's it.

overeditor... I like it.

2.1 now offers Divide & Combine, you're right. Rejoice, edit'ers!

Heheheh. I thought arguments were what forums were for :rasp: But seriously (even if just for a moment), I frown at misinformation in forums, whichever way the bias goes. When it's a moderator, I'm doubly frowny. I'd also mention that he doesn't even own a Hi-MD. I'm definitely not commenting on the NW-HD1 until I get one. And last but not least (pout) he started it! waaaaaaaaah! :laugh: (Excuse the multiple edits for attempting to achieve a concise read.)

Ah... an iPod fanboy, eh? I like it, which I suppose makes me a fanboy. It has a line out. One of the best around for a portable actually. The only problem is that it's on the dock or via a third-party cable such as the Sik Din... but it is most definitely there. If you actually owned iPods as you claim, you would know that of course. Call me weird, but I think it's highly inappropriate for a moderator to be seeming to 'fake it'. I'm left wondering who the actual fanboy is. Profile... I haven't bothered to fill it in. Portables: Current: MZ-NH1, MZ-N10, D-NE900, D-555, D-E555, D-25S, D-33, IMP-550, iAudio M3, iPod Mini, Nomad Jukebox 3, VAIO PCG-TR series laptop with Echo Indigo. Recent Previous: Assorted old D-xxx, D-NE10, D-NE1, D-NE800, MZ-N1, MZ-N707, MZ-N710, MZ-N910, MZ-E10, MZ-E900, MD-MT170H, MD-MT888, MD-DR7, IM-DR420, D-EJ2000, iHP-120, iPod 3G, Creative Zen, etc. Headphones: Stax Omega II, Audio-Technica ATH-W2002, Audio-Technica ATH-D1000, Etymotic ER-4P/S, Shure E3c, Shure E5c, and many others. Previous: Quite a lot: highlights include Sony MDR-CD3000, Sennheiser HD650 / HD600, Grado RS-1, Audio-Technica ATH-A100/W100/A900/A1000/W1000, etc. As well as the Stax, I own a range of home sources appropriate to listening with it. And I ACTUALLY own all of these.

I don't think it's 'choosiness' of the amp. I used a large variety of phones to test sound quality and the differences between Hi-MD and other platforms were consistent. I must admit I was disappointed by the HD amp, especially in the sound-critical Line Out tests in how much the output of the NH1 deviated from the original, despite a codec that should preserve the original. The differences are therefore I believe not particularly related to the codec used on the Hi-MD: The core problem as I see it is the Hi-MD hardware itself (i.e. the amp) in rendering any codec that it supports. I think that various interpretations of sound quality are dependent on the experience of the reviewer and on their equipment. For example, phones like the Sony MDR-V700DJ are IMO very 'nice' phones to listen to (and I do so regularly in the absence of the Sennheiser HD25-1) and rather practical in their way but hardly instruments for measuring sound quality. I think most will find the headphone output just fine, and it is tuned as default to be slightly more 'agreeable' than 'flat & accurate' players like the iPod. With headphones that don't resolve much (such as the MDR-V700DJ) the differences will be negligible, and many may prefer the Hi-MD due to the 'flavour'.

I think that's another mode they missed an opportunity for in Hi-MD, especially now that multi-hour recordings are even more feasible. In Sonicstage, you have a track slider which you can tweak to go almost directly to where you want. You'd have thought another intelligent way of using the scroll wheel on the new machines would have been track navigation, wouldn't you? Alas, holding down tiny FFWD keys is the best you'll get.

Sonicstage offers no editing facilities, including track mark. You'll have to divide the source file, or insert track marks manually later.

I'm having serious soundcard grief since Thursday. That the Emu turned out to be faulty didn't help. Hopefully I will be able to get one of my cards working in my PC today. I HATE COMPUTERS

While they've been approved for such use as having DRM systems that comform to required basics, there's no guarantee that they'll actually come out with it.

To clarify: No, and no as things stand. You can't burn an Audio CD of the uplaod either. WAV converter (if released) will convert the secured PCM file into WAV.

To date, at least a product manager. But you'd be surprised how clueless they can be too... Or maybe not, if you know the role of product managers in general. With Sony, there's also the additional element of language. It's rare but misunderstandings can happen. It's not like a permanent thing for me as far as Sony product promotion is concerned, so for a particular project it could well be that the nearest I'll get to Sony is a very attractive and genuinely clueless PR girl. In which case, (or if there's an NDA involved) you're unlikely to hear as much from me as you do with Hi-MD. Also, because - I'm not actually Sony staff - I know several people at Sony apart from the ones that I might be dealing with occasionally, I have to tell whoever I'm talking to about a Sony product something that I know that they know which I know that non-Sony people don't know in order to draw out the answer from them for something that I don't know. Fun, huh?

The beta 2.0 allowed people to burn CD's... and the beta has been out for quite a while from the Connect site. I was using the Sonicstage 2.0 which would have been / is now bundled with the NH1, and I was also using it on a VAIO TR series. Nothing has changed regarding the upload vs rip burning with the release of 2.1.

http://forums.minidisc.org/viewtopic.php?t=5614 The above thread might provide some clarification of what you can and cannot do.

As I said elsewhere, the primary reason to be of a digital amp in portable and other battery-powered equipment is power efficiency. It's also a nice selling point if you can talk up digital amp technology as better quality while extending battery life. I don't believe there'll be much if any of a sonic difference in the core sound quality between an NH700 for example and the NH1. I'll be able to tell you this for sure when I receive the NH700 / 900. If I am wrong, if it is different and the NH700 sounds actually worse than the NH1, then it means that lower model Hi-MD sound quality would have taken a significant step back compared to MD given the results of my previous post. I do not believe Sony would do that. What all this comes down to is that the character of the sound has changed a little... it may be a more pleasing tone to many. But the quality has basically not changed that much, and the HD amp is not responsible for additional quality in any sense. One thing I definitely don't know at this stage is how much difference there will be in terms of EQ and the (crappy anyway) 'virtual sound' capabilities between the digital and non-digital amped machines... but I would not expect a huge difference. The E3c doesn't have an overtly sharp high frequency response. Their main fault is a pronounced midrange with some (the black tips in particular) tips, resulting in a nasal, harsh-edged sound on occasion. While it works very well for portable use, and the midrange does help to cut through background low-frequency noise, even then I sometimes found the midrange caused me concern. The EQ of the NH700 or the NH1 would be able to deal with this, so that's not a particular factor for the choice between the two. Look into the features between the NH1 and the NH700 (apart from the HD amp) and see whether it's worth it for you.

I don't think so. You can burn ripped PCM-OMG files to Audio CD. The same with Hi-SP. You can't burn uploaded versions of those to Audio CD. In fact, if you go into the Properties of the uploaded files, they'll say "Remaining ATRAC CD Transfers: Unlimited, Remaining Audio CD Transfers: 0". The ripped PCM-OMG files have both attributes set to Unlimited. Clearly we're not dealing with an addition of code/setting that's required, but a subtraction. I for one would like to see this hacked, as it really is a silly limitation. Looking at it with my Sony hat on, it's not silly... but my Sony hat is, er, old hat :grin: Actually looking at the whole situation, ATRAC-only for MD is actually a silly limitation as far as I'm concerned: Hi-MD's would sell like hot cakes if they included an MP3 codec alongside an ATRAC codec (even if the MP3 codec was limited to, say... 192K to preserve Sony's 'ATRAC sound best' mantra).

Here we go again! When are you going to stop misleading people?

With all the talk about the yet-to-be-released-or-officially-confirmed Wave Converter, one things been forgotten. The fact that you can't write an uploaded track to Audio CD seems to be a totally artifical block. I.e. it's somewhat blatantly obvious that the Sonicstage software WILL write uploaded tracks to Audio CD, but it's 'knobbled' from doing so by some software setting or extra code. The thing is, if Sony won't 'flip on this switch' for us, then does not the existence or release of Wave Converter make a mockery of that block? And what implication does this have for the actual release of the Wave Converter? I've had trouble getting concrete sense over this matter from Sony, and I can tell that even the people I'm talking to get confused at this point. Discuss, speculate, etc.

The particular N10 package I was given was a 'special', or rather unusual. There's some stuff that doesn't quite square with shipping N10's. PSU, remote, earphones, etc. These were all clearly replaced prior to shipping. However Sony would never specifically tweak a batch of players so that they sounded 'better'. Where did you buy your N10?

Will you stop confusing people with inaccurate information, please? Sonicstage 2.0 or 2.1 will NOT write uploaded files to Audio CD.

There are no incompatibilities between the E3c and the Hi-MD (or any other portable, for that matter). I did the iPod vs NH1 comparison... so now there's a footnote, the MZ-N10 vs MZ-NH1 comparison. (A word of warning: From what other N10 owners who have tried mine say, apparently I have a particularly good one. However, I didn't feel it was any significantly better than the other N-series MD's I had... which means that some N10's must have been really bad?) I've spent some time comparing the output of the MZ-N10 and the MZ-NH1 using SP (N10) and Hi-SP (NH1) recordings as my base comparison point. The optical digital recordings on both machines were made from the same deck (the Sony SCD-XA777ES) and the comparison CD used for the in-depth testing was Diana Krall's A Night in Paris. I'm using the Etymotic ER-4S earphone out of the Headphone Out mode, and also the Stax Omega II's through the Line Out modes. The HD digital amp definitely seems to smudge the highs a little, and balloon the lows. Staging seems unaffected. The overall performance seems to be infinitesimally woolier than the N10. I will stress that the differences are very small... but what it boils down to is that there seems to be no measurable improvement apparent with the HD digital amp in terms of sound quality. There is a slightly different character in the base sound, but rather than being able to clearly say 'it's better than the N10', I can find more ways of describing it as worse, or at least undesirably different. Should people be worried? I don't think so... as I said elsewhere, in isolation it sounds pretty good. But in terms of the new hardware, I've said it before and I'll say it again... I would not read anything into the 'HD Digital Amp' moniker.