ZosoIV

Agreed - the Pentium M processor in my laptop (1.4GHz) appears to do calulations like encoding about as fast as a 2GHz desktop P4.

If only Sony would open the format up, there could be the possibility of a group of people tuning the codec for better quality, as is done with LAME or Ogg Vorbis. Somehow, I don't see that ever happening if Sony feels that ATRAC3plus is already "good enough" for its engineers! I'll beg to differ on that point.....

I'm excited even as I wait for my MZ-NH1 to arrive!

Well, I finally broke down - after two years of resisting, I finally purchased a silver MZ-NH1 on eBay! Being that my legacy discs are used with my decks, which will soon include a new JB-940 (also recently obtained for pretty cheap on eBay), I’d like to purchase some 1GB blanks before the recorder gets here. So, what's the consensus on who has the cheapest Hi-MD discs? eBay has 5-packs for 24 USD, plus about $8 shipping, which seems to be the best deal I've found so far. Am I correct?

I still maintain that Sony would be far more successful in the event that it spun off its media arm and refocused on consumer electronics, as in days of old. The multi-headed hydra that represents the present company is hopelessly twisted and complex, leading to obvious infighting between different divisions. Connect, Memory Stick, OpenMG, SonicStage, et al are frankly embarrassing products for a company once praised for its innovation and technical prowess. Upon dumping the media wing, how about listening to consumers and giving them products that are pleasant to use? Sony's paranoid fixation with rights protection is why I've effectively banned MiniDisc, Connect, OMG, et al from ever interacting with my computer. I use MD in the same manner as I did 7 years ago: as a replacement for tapes in my home rig. MD still is the most convenient, editable consumer format ever devised. I wish Sony hadn’t “re-invented” MD as some half-assed imitation for an MP3 player and just focused on its obvious strengths as a recording format. Don’t people listen to music at home anymore? Also, if the 5 free files I once obtained from Connect are any indication, they also need to reconsider sound quality; I'm not going to pay $10 for an album's worth of 132kbps ATRAC3 files that sound like transcoded Xing MP3's. Yes, Apple's rights-protected MPEG-4 files don't sound that great either, but Sony's are clearly the worst out of any EMD service I've ever tested. Catching up to do, indeed.

None of my current gear (two units I've held onto for years) is MDLP compatible, so LP2 isn't an option. Besides, it sounds awful to me - I can pick it out in a blind test or A/B comparison nearly 100% of the time. The lowpass on LP2 is too low (17 or 18kHz), and on many of the recordings I did with LP2 when I had MDLP-compatible equipment, there is annoying HF flanging/ringing/swishing on high-pitched instruments (cymbals, drums, high vocals, brass). Considering that SP is not transparent to my ears (but usually close), LP2 isn't worth my time - even LAME-encoded mp3's at 128kbps sounds better to my ears (but still awful!). That's why I wish Sony would offer a Hi-MD deck: 94 minutes of re-recordable, editable PCM! Hi-SP currently has SQ problems, but in the future might be "tweaked" enough to compete better with old SP - and that would give almost 8 hours of recording time. Guess I'll have to keep dreaming, huh?

That was probably the now-defunct "MiniDisc Secrets" page you are referring to. While I never knew anybody who had one of these discs, I don't think you would be able to get much more than 86" on them, as there are no ADIP (address in pre-groove) values past the lead-out of the disc. Plus, there's not much space between the edge of a disc and where the end of a normal recording occurs, anyway (certainly not another 30 minutes, anyway!). The other non-contiguous parts of an MD, if added up, would only give you a minute or two more recording time, IIRC. Thus, the MiyaDisc probably represents what would happen if every allocatable block on the disc was added to the freelist: 86 minutes. If Sony would release a Hi-MD deck sometime this century, I wouldn't have to play around with oversized discs to squeeze another minute or two of high-quality music onto a disc. (And no, MDLP doesn't count in my book).

Yes, that's it! There's no "purchase" button on that page, though, so I'm assuming they are no longer for sale. Still looks like I'll have to get a clone of somebody else's....

I hope that the relative lack of all things Sony at CES simply means they're waiting to release some neat things later in the year. I mean, a book reader? Come on! I'm still hoping for a Hi-MD deck along the lines of my JE-530; perhaps I shouldn't hold my breath, though

Back in the day, I used to own an experimental MD that was something like 86 1/2 minutes long, and I remember getting it through the MDCF around 2000. I also recall that it worked fine in my MDS-JE530 so long as I didn't do a "disc delete." Lately, I've been using my old deck again for home use, and have several albums where an extra minute or two on a blank would save me from having to use two discs (Quadrophenia and The Wall are two that come to mind). As for my disc, I think it must have accidentally been erased, because I can't find it! Does anybody remember what I'm talking about? If anybody DOES have one of these things, would it be possible to clone me another one if I sent along a blank?

Probably for the simple reason that they still have the stamper lying around in their production facilities. Plus, not everyone needs an 80-minute blank every time they record - heck, I wish they still made 60-minute blanks and would price them cheaply at .50/each. For SQ purposes, I still use SP and hate wasting 1/3 of an 80-minute disc (not to mention the extra pennies) on an album that only needs 50 or 60 minutes.

From what I've heard, DVD-R DL discs have significantly more compatibility problems than do their +R cousins, because the booktype on DVD-R DL discs cannot be set to "dvd-rom," only "dvd-r." DVD+R DL does not have this restriction, apparently.

In my experience, it's probably best to just stick with Verbatim for DL. I haven't had any problems with their DVD+R DL discs on any drive/player I've thrown them at, though they are a bit pricey at 3 for $11.99. As an aside, I would stay away from those new 25-pack spindles of DL media by Memorex that go for only $50. I have heard mixed reviews of them already, and my experience with their single-layer discs hasn't been very impressive. DL discs are still too expensive IMO to be taking chances.

Unusually warm for this time of year (at least by midwest standards). It's been getting up to 4 or 5C the past few weeks, while the "average" high this time of year should be around -2, with lows around -11C. Not bad, considering how cold it was in December - one night actually got down to -28C!

There's ways to make a mono mic record on both channels, including plug adapters.

There's not much to gain in terms of birate reduction by offering a mono mode when joint stereo coding is being used at such low bitrates. To get the same objective quality from a mono stream compared to one using mid/side (MS) frames, you can only drop the bitrate by about another 20%, not half, as MS coding already resulted in about a 30% reduction in bitrate compared to using independent stereo (LR). Thus, a 32kbps (64/2) mono file would at best sound like 48kbps joint stereo, not 64kbps. Things are different when using full stereo - SP mono mode is simply half the bitrate of SP (292/2=146), but results in similar objective quality because SP coding is dual-channel, not mid/side. Judging by how 48kbps ATRAC3plus files already sound, 32kbps mono would be practically useless for anything but audiobooks. With 45 hours recording time at 48kbps, there's not much benefit in offering such a mode, IMO.

Some of us "old-timers" don't even use MDLP or Hi-MD - who really needs three days worth of crap on one disc, especially when they are so cheap? (Of course, I don't use MD for portable listening/recording anymore, either, so I can see the other side's point.) I'd personally like to see a reasonably-priced Hi-MD home deck and $2 Hi-MD discs before larger capacity ones are introduced, as I still use MD at home like a tape deck. I have a feeling that home recording, though, is a dying hobby, making such a product unlikely.

Like it or not, homosexuality is an extremely taboo subject in most cultures, even in 2006, and is likely to offend many people. At the very least, it stirs up many questions about morality, religion, lifestyle, etc. that are difficult (if not impossible) to answer objectively. Such topics are perhaps better left to discussion someplace other than on a MiniDisc board. At least we can all agree on liking MiniDisc, even if Sony's latter-day tactics are about as unappealing to me as seeing a movie about two male cowboys

eBay Catch Of The Day: Sony MDS-JA333ES Deck, NIB

My experience(s) with SonicStage during my brief ownership of NetMD units and a Sony MP3 player (one of those neat little 1GB "lighters") was not impressive to say the least - I will not be using NetMD or HiMD again with a computer until they release something less slow and aggravating. Perhaps as a result of SS, I'm back to using my remaining MD recorder like I always used to - in real-time, set at SP, and like a tape deck. LAME-encoded mp3's are much nicer to work with and transfer for portable use, IMO.

Type-S improves the SNR of MDLP recordings about 3dB upon playback, IIRC. It makes a tiny bit of diffence, but being a staunch "old-school" SP guy, not enough of one to make me use LP2 or LP4. Drastic changes in sound usually require tuning the encoder, not the decoding end, whose basic design is fixed. It should be pointed out that while the Type-R codec found on Type-S chips is probably the same as that found on the first Type-R DSP chips (such as those used in the MDS-JE22ES deck, etc), the electronics have continually improved such that I wouldn't be surprised if SP encodings made with Type-S DSP's exhibited a bit less quantitization noise than those made on the oldest of Type-R chips. The ADCs and DACs have certainly improved as well. (Again, though, we're talking very small, if even perceptable differences.)

Let me add another vote for Grados; I swear by them. Although I now own the $300 SR-325's, which are absolutely incredible, the SR-60's are one of the most detailed headphones you'll find for the price ($60). They might be a little light on the bass for some, but it's all a matter of taste: I myself greatly prefer to hear every little detail and grain on the master tape as opposed to having ear-shaking bass. YMMV.

I also have an iRiver and will agree that it makes respectable, artifact-free encodings at the 320kbps/44.1kHz setting. Be aware, however, that the MP3 codec on iRiver's DSP (Xing's, I think) exhibits a hard lowpass at 16kHz, even at 320kbps (verified by spectrum analysis). While most people can't reliably detect a 16kHz lowpass with regular music, it's at least something to think about. Hi-MD should capture all 22kHz of allowable bandwidth when using Hi-SP or PCM (provided your mic’s are of good quality). Hi-MD will also allow for higher-quality editing when using 16-bit LPCM, or at least without as much loss as a decoded 320kbps MP3.

iRiver's IFP-800 series of flash players has an option to change the line input into a mic one. It only encodes to MP3, however, not LPCM, and I've found that the software codec in iRiver's units has a hard lowpass at 16kHz, even at 320kbps.

Nice review! I'm still debating whether to get the RH10 or the older NH1. What do you guys think?