dex Otaku

As I have used neither, I can't comment on their build quality or testify as to their sonic characteristics or usability. I would say this though: [in agreement with Reactive Sounds] I'll note first-off that this is my understanding of how these work. It has been years since I studied how op-amps work and I can't be absolutely certain that my thinking is correct here. Perhaps Gerry from Reactive or someone with more background in analogue circuit design can correct me if I'm wrong. Gain is how much the preamp amplifies the incoming signal by. A gain control lets you control how much amplification is taking place. This can be considered true impedance-matching, if I'm not mistaken, because the matching is done at the amp's input, not its output. A level control, on the other hand, allows you to attenuate the output of a fixed-gain preamp. By fixed-gain I mean that gain is set at a single level; even with preamp like the SP model with 3 selectable gains, the gain is basically fixed to those three levels only, with only one gain applied at any given time, so I would call it fixed-gain - especially considering the fact that the only fine control you have is an attenuator on its output. With a variable-gain preamp, its own noisefloor is determined by how much gain you're applying. As you increase gain, you increase the preamp's audible noisefloor along with the incoming signal. If you have very low-noise, high-efficiency amp in there, the noise can potentially be lower across the board, at all times. With a fixed-gain preamp, the preamp itself is always applying a specific amount of gain and creating a specific amount of noise. The level control at its output can only attenuate the signal coming out of it, so both the signal and the noise are varied. Also, the fact that gain is fixed at a specific level at any given time means that more power is likely to be consumed at all times [unless gain is zero] as the preamp is always doing the same amount of work, with its output potentially being "wasted" by attenuation. In the end this doesn't really mean that either is inherently lower-noise than the other [since noise varies along with signal in both cases], though variable-gain I would say is simply a more "proper" way of designing a preamp. Variable-gain, I would say, is a far more efficient way of doing things. The preamp in MD and HiMD recorders appears to be fixed-gain [with two setting, low and high sensitivity] with its output variably attenuated, just like the SP preamp. Again, I'll state that this is my understanding, and I'm just as likely wrong about how things work as right. My personal feeling is that the Reactive preamp is likely the better design, for the reasons stated above. I would rather have variable input gain than variable output attenuation, myself. The only thing I see as a potential con with the Reactive preamp is its coiled cable; I would rather have a simple output and choose a cable of appropriate length, myself. Anyone, please correct me if I'm wrong.

It makes perfect sense that I was having problems with EMF noise being picked up by my mic cables from the remote cable when recording on my RH10 [remote LCD display updates were audible in the recordings]. I tested the same with my NH700 and it did the same thing. I'm about to go record fireworks this evening, so I tried swapping the RF choke [the ferrite-core snap-on thing on the remote cable] with one of the other included ones, and it is now much improved, with there only being audible noise is I coil the cables together for their full length. Strange thing is - I replaced the original with a core of the same size. They're identical. Note that the 40ELK remote has certain recording functions on it even though it lacks a record button: * P.MODE acts as the TR.MARK key * DISPLAY alternates between time recorded [in current track] and total REC.REMAIN * one of the keys [i can't recall which at the moment] allows entering edit mode while recording or in rec-pause, presumably to title or erase tracks without getting the actual recorder out to do it with Notably missing: * record meters * a way to force the creation of a new group if you using group recording mode * menu access to enable/disable manual levels [from what I can see so far; the menu access is very limited] If anyone else has problems with their mic cables picking up buzzing/beeping sounds from their remote cables - try swapping the RF choke on the line and see if it fixes it at it did in my case.

I've done live sound for bands [funk/fusion and hip hop] who brought their own MD recorders and discs with backing tracks. Never had any problems doing things that way, as long as the bands gave me clear instructions for cueing.

I still have some of my great-grandparents' ceramic 78s from the early 1900s. Pretty much afraid to play them without proper equipment at this point.

I've done a bit of recording like that [documentary-type, of parties, events and such, maybe 100 hours' worth] in HiSP . The compression isn't enough to affect what's mostly speech and sparse ambience, and the upload time is that much faster. What do you use, Low Volta?

well.. 1 - are you transcoding from another format? [especially low-qualtiy mp3?] 2 - what bitrate/quality are you using? LP2 is the best quality that can be transferred to NetMD, and it's not the most fantastic encoding format [as done by SS at least] to begin with..

Of course it's okay. I was just making suggestions. Good luck on finding what you need.

We're pretty sure. The one thing that might change this is customer pressure on Sony - and MD and HiMD are pretty small and fragmented markets, comparitively speaking. Yes, MD has been around since 1992, but keep in mind several things: * widely-available high-quality low-cost digital audio workstation-type hardware and software are relatively recent developments * MD was created predominately as a consumer format * MD, outside of Japan and the UK, basically flopped as a consumer product, but * it succeeded [again outside of Japan and the UK] with widespread adoption in various segments of the broadcast industry, where analogue-to-analogue copying is [or rather, was] the norm, and professional equipment is far more common [such as HHB's portadisc with open USB copying of SP mode discs, or internal MD drives that allowed direct copying to PCs - both of which cost thousands of dollars] * perhaps most importantly, that at the time when MD was developed, the only consumer standards for digital transfer were coax and optical SPDIF, limited only by the weak content control system of SCMS The rest of my reply should perhaps qualify me for Low Volta's tagline, "professional nag." Any step forward [enhancement] such as MDLP is going to cause incompatibilites. NetMD itself is not incompatible with the original format, per se. HiMD is supposed to be a replacement format, not an enhancement. As I've said elsewhere before, I feel that backward-compatibility is more a courtesy than an obligation on Sony's part. I wouldn't necessarily call Sony disinterested, either. With legacy MD we are dealing with a format that's 10+ years old and has long since lost any claim at being called 'state of the art.' Even MDLP doesn't qualify at that. And HiMD, being limited to 16-bit audio, I would refer to as a format aimed specifically at consumers, as 20+ -bit systems have become widely prevalent in professional use. I would consider the dearth of updated pro equipment a testament to this opinion. What formats are you referring to, here? As far as physical carriers go, the only truly prevalent formats in recent years have been CD [been around since the early 1980s] and DVD [since 1996, which saw the fastest widespread adoption of probably any media format, ever.] The LP record was introduced in 1948. Cassette was introduced in the very late-1960s, and didn't really penetrate in other than professional use until the introduction of the Walkman. As far as being distribution formats, cassette and LP are both more or less dead in most majour markets. For specific uses they are still available, but you don't see them in record stores any more, do you? For that matter, neither do you see prerecorded MDs. You're talking apples and oranges here. MP3 is not a physical carrier; MD is. Name a single prerecorded physical medium that actually uses MP3 - there aren't any. Electronic distribution has the ability to change more rapidly, though playback devices have to keep up to that hectic pace. Keep in mind also that MP3 is as old as legacy MD is, and has seen widespread use in online distribution, whether legal or not, only since about 1997. I'm not going to disagree with you, in principle, but in all honesty the only "stable format" that really exists is 1/4" analogue tape, which hasn't seen majour distribution in prerecorded media since the 1970s. CD, in those terms, is a huge success and is likely to stick around for a fair while more. Bollocks! For widespread distribution we now see competition building between SACD, CD and HDCD [relatively dead in the water], and DVD-A. Remember, if you're talking about formats you can actually buy, you should only really be talking about those based on a physical carrier of some kind. Optical discs are the current trend, yes. As for all online distribution requiring the same equipment, bollocks to that as well. Online content formats are diverging into AAC, MP3, WMA, and other encoding and container formats. These are just encoding and container formats though. The equipment to play them is hardly stable or consistent by any stretch of the imagination, unless you're running Windows. Throw DRM as part of the container format question into the argument, and further problems are introduced. Competing container/DRM formats aren't even compatible across widely-available playback devices, even when the use the same encoding format. While it may be disheartening, it is reality. Consider that 1/4" tape, LP records, cassette, CD, and basically every format you can think of were introduced by specific corporate interests at one point or another over the last 60 years, and you'll see the paradox in your argument. While it's tough to decide, it's in the best interests of media distributors, equipment manufacturers, and the buying public for there only to be so many choices in terms of [physical] formats. Fragmentation in the industry produces duplication [in terms of having to make multiple formats] which drives up costs for everyone. Anyway.

I'd look on eBay, and be sure to use the --> Minidisc.org Equipment Browser to compare between models. Don't forget to check out the --> Classifieds Section here periodically for private sales. Make sure to avoid models with the 'D' designation ["downloader"] as part of their model number, as these do not have line or mic inputs, rendering them completely useless for recording purposes. I would suggest using HiMD, as you can upload your recordings [within certain limitations] if you have a Windows PC [not linux and not Mac]. Also check out the --> HiMD Uploading FAQ and --> its equivalent for MD/NetMD to be sure you know what methods are available for getting your recordings off the media once you've made them. As an aside, I would suggest that if you're on a budget, the NHF-800 or NH-700 [look them up in the equipment browser for more info] would be the best "budget" recorders available, as they support HiMD modes as well as recording to legacy MDs if you need backward-compatibility. They are somewhat difficult to find now as they are last year's models, but if you dig you should be able to find them still. Depending on where you are, the NH900 is also available at great prices [this seems to be the case mostly in the UK].

How about, "It does what I need it to. End of story."

And oh yeah, * If there's no real reason [such as simplifying the record head/optical block for DWDD only] to get rid of 100% backward compatibility, i.e. NetMD mode with realtime true SP recording, then KEEP IT. This is probably the most-criticised loss of function in gen2. * Enable uploading of MD recordings via USB, even if it uses some kind of SPDIF emulation and realtime playback * In accordance with whoever else posted it, A REMOTE SPECIFICALLY FOR RECORDING, with [at the least] record, play/pause, stop, "new group", meters and rec. remain displays, and a rec-menu button or better yet, buttons that toggle rec.mode and manual levels/AGC [in total, that's only 6 keys]. All this could be done in something the size of the 40ELK.

Scuffage plainly visible: [attachmentid=407] The ones near the rev/scroll/fwd buttons were from simply putting it in my pocket and taking it out, only once.

I couldn't agree more, though I hope the posters quoted above didn't take your statement personally. My personal feelings on the matter are very much along the lines of your one line there, "get the main function right first." Icing roses on the cake are wonderful, but really, I'd rather just have a better cake with plain icing.

For good measure .. [attachmentid=406] Note: that's my SV-100, sitting on top of an old Sears 8-track cartridge recorder that I was using to copy irreplacable 8-tracks until its motor decided to speed up to about 1.75x normal speed. /sighs

An SCMS stripper, handed a clean audio stream, will put exactly the same audio back out with the SCMS bits reset. It should have no affect on audio quality unless there's a problem with cabling or clocking at some point in the chain, which is unlikely to happen unless you have really shoddy equipment.

Please note that while I have been griping about this, I don't actually consider it so big an issue that I'd rather not have the RH10. Compared to the lack of timestamping, the scratchability of the RH10's face is very unimportant. Like I said in the same post quoted above, I fully expect to wear this unit in. I'm not that afraid of the scratches, they are simply an annoyance [especially considering the comparably indestructible face of the much less expensive NH700].

* Increasing the availability of and hopefully lowering the pricing of 1GB media * Timestamping - in all models. There's absolutely no reason why a $200-400USD recording device can't include a $0.000001 clock function. This is 2005, not the 1970s when pocket calculators cost as much as cars. * A manual levels setting that is 'remembered' between pressings of 'stop' * A way to completely disable auto-trackmarking when recording with line-in * The return of speed and pitch controls, as well as a-b looping for musicians and people listening to dictation * For those of us who use [as I always do] group-rec mode, a way to create a new group without hitting stop [and having to re-enable manual levels et al] .. a possibility would be pressing the 'group' key for 2 seconds * A return to the old-style record button which was a slider, or * To maintain the pause-record layout of the RH10, and if pause-record is held for 2-3 seconds, toggle the AGC/manual levels mode rather than ever having to use menu functions for it * At least 2 more custom EQ settings, or -all- custom settings [i never use *any* of the presets, as I find all of them useless] * Line out is completely superfluous for PC users at this point, but enough people complain about it that it's still important. For those who are too simple or lazy to figure out that turning up the volume and turning off the EQ is all that's required, a single menu setting would help * Macintosh support for uploading at the very least * FLAC or WavPack lossless playback [recording would be too intensive, I know] * Transcoding support for any format that has a Directshow plugin * MP3 playback with correct [not crippled] frequency response * More focus on the units as recorders than as players * Marketing that isn't just hype which overemphasises aspects of the format which are weak, and which doesn't nearly outright lie about its capabilities [i.e. claiming WMA support when it's by transcoding] .. Ad campaigns on MuchMusic/MTV and the like are great, but you're aiming at the wrong crowd. HDPs serve the portable listening crowd with existing large computer-based libraries much better, IMO, than HiMD does. Marketing to the amateur recordist crowd through musician magazines, even on the SciFi channel, travel channels [start a revolution of environment recording/soundmarking!] and related magazines, touting HiMD as a portable RECORDER rather than a competitor for HDPs... The recording abilities of HiMD are the best things it has going for it. Show it off in that light! Get some product placements on CSI or something. But show it as a recorder, not just a player. I'll probably think of more. Note that much of that list are things that have been on the wishlists for YEARS, and aren't show-stoppers like asking for in-the-clear uploading of audio; these are mostly basic functions which GREATLY affect usability and are simple to implement.

I have asof yet not had any problems with uploaded HiSP material, including at track breaks, from either my NH700 or RH10. That's from, in total, probably around a thousand tracks since last August. Describe what you mean by "sound artifacts," corduroy. It's possible that, if you're using AGC, it's something caused by that, or by HiSP compression itself - which is lossy, and will exhibit data-reduction artifacting when content becomes too complex for it to compress well. I have noticed when dumping [via analogue] older MDs that there are occasional chunks [anywhere from a single frame to several frames in length, a frame @SP being 11.6ms IIRC] where the phase of one or both channels is/are inverted. This results in clicking sounds in the recording. Sometimes it's single frames but the phase-inversions occur many times in a row, giving an almost static-like effect. I've seen this happen when playing from at least 3 different MD recorders as well as my NH700, with SP material only [i've never recorded anything on an MD in anything but SP mode], and it's not connected to track marks in any way. It's possible that it's cause by read errors and/or faulty error-correction, but there's no real way of knowing.

Sorry to hear of the disappointing performance, but thank you [sincerely] for sharing your experience. Those of us who aren't Mac users can't lend the benefit of any experience to those who are and ask questions.

I wish I knew how you managed this. The first thing I did when taking mine out of the box was wipe it off with a soft, clean t-shirt [i am accustomed to cleaning my glasses and photographic lenses, so I know what materials are usually scratch-safe] and scratch the face over the display. A few days later I put the unit in my pocket and when it came out it had several scuff marks on it. I've since learned that the only way to carry the RH10 around and not get it scratched is to keep it in the grey felt Sony pouch at all times. Otherwise, almost any material will scratch the face. Don't even think of putting one of these puppies in your shirt- or jacket-pocket without that pouch. I've tried the trick of putting a PDA cover on, but I find it interferes with the readability of the display too much, and with repeated insertions into pouch or pocket their edges pick up lint and dust and start to lift very quickly, making the effort a total waste of time and money. This makes recording with it interesting; I have been using my [still scratch and scuff-free] NH700 since the beginning of last august and have grown accustomed to being able to put the unit directly in my jacket pocket or a hip-pouch. Not so with the RH10 - there's not a chance in hell you could do so without constantly scuffing and scratching the face. This basically means that every time I make a recording with it, I can expect new scuffs and scratches on the face. Otherwise I have to accept not being able to access the controls at any time because it's inside the pouch, and connecting the remote while recording [to have access to a pause button at the least] with a mic means the mic cable picks up the remote's activity as buzzing and beeps [even with the RF choke on it]. I accepted from the first moment out of the box that my RH10 will end up being a true "character" unit, since it is going to wear fairly quickly regardless of how careful I am with it. I have my plans already set out for how to repolish it when it gets unreadable.

Why would there be an issue? Yes, it charges while connected by USB. If you don't want it to, open the battery door. USB ports should all supply the same voltage and current worldwide, so that's not an issue. All HiMDs are powered by USB when plugged in that way, though not all charge the battery that way. There were so many requests for this as a feature after gen1 that is was included in gen2. I find it annoying, myself, but then, like I said - open the battery door, problem solved.

Why is this here?

The bit-for-bit concept applies to 44.1kHz stereo audio, since it's the only format that both MD and HiMD actually use. Any other sampling rate [22.05kHz here] or channel number [mono, correct?] gets converted to 44.1kHz stereo, regardless of what format [PCM, LP2, LP4, HiSP, HiLP 64 or 48] you're storing on the disc. Note that SS should not be modifying the original file in any way. Only the copy that is converted and/or downloaded should be resampled et al. The same applies to recordings made using the optical input; the unit automatically resamples audio [though only within the range of 32-48kHz IIRC] to 44.1kHz/stereo [including resampling/reclocking audio that is already 44.1kHz] for recording. The only possible exception to this would be recordings made on older MDs via optical to MONO modes, which obviously won't be converting to stereo.

I can't purchase things online. If it's not somewhere I can walk through the doors of and put cash down, then I can't deal with them, basically. Trying to convince someone else to mail-order a single blank from Montréal is ludicrous, too. I can't afford more than one at a time, and the shipping would be insane.

Why would you need it? SCMS mainly inhibits the making of successive copies on consumer equipment. If your source isn't copyrighted [by SCMS flags], you can duplicate it [but not dupe the copies]. If your source -is- copyrighted, you can't duplicate the copy. In any case, all of this only applies when you're trying to make successive copies using coax or optical digital links. If you're trying to dump MDs to a computer with optical in, SCMS will likely be completely ignored. There are also SCMS strippers available, ostensibly for use by home studio users who combine pro with consumer equipment and occasionally run into difficulty caused by SCMS. [slaps self on wrist for mentioning that] Why are you so worried about it, anyway? Unless you're deliberately trying to dupe commercial CDs, you shouldn't really run into any problems. So few people actually use SPDIF-only equipment now that SCMS has really become a non-issue for the vast majority out there. If you involve a DAW at any point of your process, for instance, all the SCMS flags will likely be junked [though this does depend on who makes the adapter you use for digital I/O; some companies restrict any copying at all from a computer's output, for instance].