ZosoIV

The NE410 actually came after the N505; it was a further price-reduced model and can't even do line-in recording, which the N505 could. Discs made in the N505 will play in any MDLP capable unit, whether it came before or after. (By the way, the files are no longer MP3's once they are recorded onto the MD; they're converted to Sony's ATRAC3 format. So there's no difference in file type between different songs). Either 1) your N505 was out of adjustment when it recorded the discs, or 2) your NE410 is faulty. I suspect the latter. Have you tried erasing a disc and re-recording it in the 410? By the way, I have a silver N505 laying around someplace, unused for a long time, that I'd be willing to sell you for cheap. PM me if interested.

Also, make sure that your MP3's are not variable bit rate (VBR) or at sampling rates other than 44100Hz; SS seems to hate those.

All Hi-MD recorders can record in Hi-SP, Hi-LP or PCM. Just make sure to format your discs as Hi-MD (which you apparently have if you've been able to record in PCM).

I was expecting the addition of 2003 UB313, since it's purported to be larger than Pluto, but Ceres and Chiron are a complete surprise. According to what I've read, the preliminary definition of a planet includes that 1) it must be a body that is spherical due to high gravity and 2) doesn't orbit another planet as a satellite. That opens up the possibility of a LOT more planetoids being added once we do some more exploring in the Kupier belt region. I'm surprised that Sedna wasn't counted as one of the planets that would receive instant recognition, yet Ceres (an asteroid, up until now), was?

Songs purchased from the iTunes music store are in the MPEG-4 AAC format and wrapped with Apple's "FairPlay" digital rights management. For those two reasons, the file can't be opened or transfered in Sony's software. To get the song onto an MD, you'll have to burn the track to a regular audio CD in iTunes and rip the resulting disc in Sony's software to convert it to a non-protected, MD compatible format (ATRAC3 for NetMD). Alternately, you could also record the line-out from your soundcard into the line-in on your MD recorder; this would give you the option of using SP mode, which will do the best job of preserving the sound quality of the iTunes track.

ATRAC 1 is pretty awful - no short blocks, lots of quantization noise, bad DACs, lowpass at 15kHz. In short, sort of like a Blade-encoded 160kbps MP3!

I'd be willing to trade a MDS-JA20ES deck for either your NH1 or RH10.

I wonder how many of these "new members" are spammers - we've seem to have ViAgRa! or "Great Business Opportunity!!!" threads just about every day as of late.

Bumpitty bump....... Anybody want to just buy the damn thing? After hearing ATRAC make a jumbled, pre-echo ridden mess out out one of my favorite LP's, I am definitely done with legacy MD.

Since the E900 reads MDLP discs, all you have to do is format the disc as "NetMD" and transfer LP2 or LP4 tracks to it. NetMD discs look like any other LP-encoded disc to your E900.

Modern codecs should be quite transparent by 192kbps (most, like Vorbis and AAC, are reaching transparency in the 130-140kbps range these days; even LAME is rated highly using the -V5 (130kbps VBR) setting). Unless AT3 really sucks, there should be very little difference between 192kbps and 256kbps.

To the poster above: does the Onkyo sound as good as your JA20ES?

IMO, LP4 is only good for voice recordings, especially if you use a mono mic and a plug that balances the signal across both channels. Music encoded with LP4 sounds like cacca - yeah, it's nice to have so much music on one disc, but good will that do when you can't stand to listen to it?

I don't even think that Sony expected Hi-MD "to go," and that's why you saw no advertising. Hi-MD was probably a nod to the MD niche (i.e., us) more so than an attempt to resurrect a format and concept (removable media) that was met with yawns of public disinterest since its inception. Let’s be realistic here, a lot of people don’t need recording capabilities and don’t want to be bothered with removable media, so the returns from advertising might not have been worth it.

More bits doesn't necessarily equate to more quality, and likewise, not all DAC's that claim to be 24-bit produce 24 bits of resolution in reality. The fact is, 16 bits has more than enough dynamic range (96dB; ~110 dB with dithering) and S/N ratio (96dB) for the end-user, especially considering that CD's are 16-bit and most modern, compressed pop recordings have about 6dB of dynamic range. Many of Sony's decks came with 24-bit hybrid-pulse DAC's and ADC's, but in practice, the effects from ATRAC probably result in greater differences in sound quality between the CD and MD than there would be from one deck's DAC to another DAC. A good DAC offers an imperceptible noise floor and doesn't color the sound.

I bought a legendary JA20ES deck on eBay a few weeks back and really think it's time to start backing my LP's up to Hi-MD (in PCM) as opposed to old-school ATRAC. Would anybody be interested in trading an excellent to like-new NH1 or RH10 for a JA20ES? The JA20ES is built like a tank, has a drawer-loading mechanism, ATRAC Type-R, VC filters, and high-end 20-bit DAC's. It still stands as one of the best decks Sony has produced. The deck is in VG condition; the only things of mention are some fading on the flourescent display (common to decks made that year), a bit of fiddliness in the AMS knob, and a few minor scratches on the rear. I'd include the remote, manual, and some cables. PM me if you'd like to talk more.

The N10 had an early digital amp, but not the "HD" version, IIRC. I also recall that the N10 sounded like mud - the NH1 or RH1 would be better.

Funny that somebody brought up Miles Davis; SP was terrible at encoding things like trumpets. I remember wanting to throw the disc at the wall when I heard a bunch of weird, electric-sounding artifacts on "Kind of Blue!" Hi-SP is better at this, but still not perfect - sharp clicks and attacks sound metallic and artificial to my ears. I've given up on ATRAC, personally, and only use PCM for serious listening on my discs. Once you know what to listen for, artifacts can be heard even at 352kbps with ATRAC3plus on certain signals. For portable use, though, who cares? In a noisy environment, Hi-SP is just fine, if not even overkill. If I had an RH1, I wouldn't even bother with ATRAC3plus, and would instead use LAME -V0 or --preset insane (great sound, a universal format, and the ability to use better rippers like EAC).

Flash cards also are subject to competitive pricing and rebates; Hi-MDs generally are not. If anything, discs seem to have gone up in the recent months - I haven't seen any 3.99 deals or anything like that for a while. I HAVE seen, however, 1GB SD cards for as little as $8 after rebate! Prices are falling every day for flash; even 4GB cards are under $80 now.

According to the MDCF entry for that deck, the MDS-JE510 (like the 500) has ATRAC 4.0. Though everybody's hearing abilities are different, I personally find ATRAC Type-R to be leaps and bounds better than 4.0 in two areas: pre-echo (smearing and "fattening" of sharp sounds like acoustic guitar or clicks on an LP record), and HF ringing (especially at 16kHz and above). I came to these conclusions after lots of playing around with different decks and portables, as well as blind ABX testing. In short, Type-R would be better at handling high frequencies and would sound crisper than 4.0. Will you notice? That depends on your equipment, hearing abilities, and sensitivity to artifacts. I personally can’t even stand some recordings made on my MZ-R900, which has ATRAC 4.5, because I am very sensitive to pre-echo. If you're happy with your 510, keep it. If not, grab a Type-R capable deck on eBay. Look for the following models: MDS-JE530, MDS-JE630, MDS-JB930, MDS-JB940, MDS-JE980, MDS-JA20ES, MDS-JA333ES, MDS-JA555ES. The 400-series of decks are really cheap and don't have a phone or optical output, so I would personally avoid them. If those aren't important to you, you could also look for the MDS-JE440, MDS-JE470, or MDS-JE480 series of decks. The 900-series and ES series of decks are the best quality and correspondingly more expensive. They also don't pop up as much anymore, whereas the 400-series are quite common and can still be found NIB. Oh, and your MZ-N510 has ATRAC Type-S, which uses Type-R for SP encodings. If you find problems with those too, maybe ATRAC isn't the codec for you - try a Hi-MD unit and record in PCM (uncompressed) mode instead. (Other codecs which are better than ATRAC and MP3 at HF content and pre-echo are Ogg Vorbis, AAC, and Musepack (MPC)).

I still ask: why is this so surprising to everybody? It's 2006 and your average American doesn't give a hoot about MD's anymore; they didn’t in 1996 or 2000 either. MD was never popular in the US to the extent that it is/was in Japan; I'm a musician and have known many other musicians who had no idea about them or think that they are a "new" format if they see them today. So, to expect that stores will keep carrying media for an all-but extinct format in the US is silly - stores don't waste shelf space on products that nobody buys. Save for a comparatively small minority, Americans are not interested in MiniDisc, or arguably even removable media when it comes to audio. The average Joe just wants a single device that can hold all of their music. The average Joe doesn't do any sort of recording - recording was something people did to shift music from LP's or CD's onto another type of media, namely the cassette tape. With the advent of HDD or flash-based compressed music players, the average Joe isn't going to be bothered with swapping discs, using SonicStage, and waiting for 500KB/sec download times. In short, the average Joe doesn't need or want MiniDiscs, and Wal-Mart has responded by pulling them. Remember, other stores did it a long time ago. Thankfully, for those of us Americans who do use MD, there will always be a plentiful supply available on the internet, and at least that’s just a few dollars more of my money that won’t feed the Wal*Mart beast

Not surprising, since MD has almost completely fallen off the radar with the general US public. Remember, MD never took off in the US, and its populace are smitten with iPods (and the like) and have been for some time now. I've always purchased my blanks online, as they're significantly less expensive than those purchased in B&M stores (such as Wal-Mart). I attend graduate school in an area with about 120,000 people and the only store that carries any sort of MD blank is BestBuy. Even when I'm home in the Chicago area, I never see anything MD-related, either. I don't even think Target or RadioShack carry blanks anymore. The 1GB Hi-MD discs never appeared on store shelves, and MD players are now impossible to purchase off-line, as Wal-Mart was the last place I knew of that carried them.

Yes, that's the one. I always thought that the pre-PC link MZ-R900's came with one too, but perhaps I was mistaken. In any case, your picture does show what I am looking for. Thanks

After acquiring a like-new red MZ-R900 for my recorder collection, I would like to have a charging dock/cradle for it to sit in. Does anybody have one of these that they would be willing to sell?

As I've said in other threads, SP and Hi-SP each have their strengths and flaws, and since they really are two different codecs, are not easy to directly compare. Old SP had problems with ringing and smearing sharp attacks, while Hi-SP has a tendency to become grainy and electronic/metallic sounding when it's in trouble. Both will be transparent on the vast majority of things you throw at them, though. Honestly, I'd use 352kbps ATRAC3plus over both old-school SP and the newer Hi-SP, as it sounds better than both of these.