Jammin72

This Seems to be the way that folks are proposing this is possible! I'm looking forward to getting the 900's in so I can give it a shot myself. It will be interesting to hear/compare the various outputs on my home system. 1) Digital Ouput from the PC while Playing back through the USB Port. 2) The Resulting CD Made from That Captured .wav 3) From the "Line Out" of the MiniDisc itself! 4) The Simultaneously Recorded DAT (recorded at 44.1kHz). I'm hoping for Limited/No Difference Between 2&4! Ben

The entire benefit and excitement about the Hi-MD lineup is the ability to get the information recorded onto onto another medium while still digital... ie no further processing. If the headphone output of a minidisc recorder combined with the analog input jack and subsequent A/D process of your standard SoundBlaster soundcard are satisfactory to you then there's no real discussion here. The compression that the older minidisc units use is quite effective in reproducing decent sounding tonal information but the soundstage is non-existent! With the ability to write uncompressed data it's now possible to have a portable MD unit capture enough information to preserve a true 3 dimensional soundsatge! We're really talking about taking MD to the next level in it's ability to record and transfer high quality sound. The transfer process is a vital part of that step!! You're right though, getting the data out of the unit is not really a problem, it's about the condition of that data after the transfer.

Yes we're definitely going to be selling the Hi-MD units. With DAT production being on the decline and the HD units not really where we want them to be for what we do at any affordable price point these new units are really exciting! The Discs are the big problem now as the machines start to hit the shelves... right now Sony Direct and a couple of other sources that I've seen mentioned here seem to be about it. We keep checking the price sheets and order entry systems with our fingers crossed. Hopefully the discs will become more readily available soon! For my own personal rig I'm looking to replace my DAT recorder with a pair of the MN-NH900 units... not as finicky as the DAT format and essentially unlimited record time using two units with an optical split out of my external Mic Pre A/D unit. (One of the Edirol UA-5 units that Doug modifies at the shop) Hopefully they'll begin shipping within the next couple of weeks! Ben

You state the exception in the argument... the i-Pod is selling like gangbusters... There's no real difference between it and the I/O options of the Hi-MD Line (assuming that Atrac3Plus happened to be as popluar as .mp3)

OK.... On our Taper's forum we don't mention Dealers, I didn't want to upset any Sponsors. Oade Brothers Aduio http://www.oade.com/

Just thought I'd give everyone a head's up... We just got a shipment notification for our first order of the MZ-NHF800's! We'll finally get a chance to check out the Hi-MD's with the Mic-In here in the States. Ben

Thank you for the reply. OK so we're not really "dead in the water" here for an actual digital transfer. I would be curious to see how another machine sees this "stream" when output from the computer through a digital sound card. For a Japanese company these guys sure do practice "grasping" to an unnatural degree! :rasp:

The copyright argument is rediculous. Sony has already implemented schemes in the past that allow single generation digital copies as outlined by "Fair Use" policies. Look at thier Consumer based CD Recorders and DAT Recorders. There's no reason this couldn't be applied here. The bottom line Sony makes more money on content than gear so what do you think they're going to protect. As a Sony dealer this is frustrating but we have to work with what they give us. A few qestions for the reviewer. There was mention of "Capturing the .wav internally during playback" does this mean that digital capture is possible in real time? If that's the case then this is really just a pain not a major problem. Another question... when sonic stage is not running how does the computer see the recorded .wav files that are on the disc or do the drivers somehow hide the data. Are there actual .wav files being written to the MD? To be quite honest the best solution is to be able access the files without the use of Sony's software whatsoever~! Thanks for any Insight.