jonny mac

Is this new?

My sister's Vaio laptop needed a minor repair (a key replaced on the keyboard). She shipped it to Sony Europe (Belgium, I think), they replaced the key & shipped it back... But it disappeared after that, no doubt purloined by someone along the way. She got a nice shiny new Vaio from Sony.

There I was thinking the EU were the only folks dictating what you can & can't do with your MD unit. Whenever past hacks have been released it's always been strongly stated that if you mess up anything whilst in service mode then it's on your head, not the board's. People need to understand the risks & that it's their responsibility should anything go wrong. I find the above statement very condescending, as if the people here are not capable of judging things for themselves. I don't mean to get anyone's back up with this, perhaps it's just the way it was worded, but I think it's a bad precedent that things like this are withheld from this community because you can't get everyone to sign waivers that the board won't be held responsible. However, I don't imagine there would be any noticable difference between 4.8 & 5 mW of output, though I echo the sentiments of other in that, if I had an RH1, I would hack it anyway just because I wouldn't want to have a unit I knew to be crippled, however minorly.

Wow, cool. Don't you think you owe the guy for it then, as it's not broken? What kind of battery does it take? If it's standard ones then that's fine, special LiIons may be hard to come by. How does it sound compared to modern units?

There's no point in cranking every EQ band up to the maximum, you'll achieve the higher volume without the distortion by just raising the volume. On the plus side, I certainly welcome a review of these phones. Given the popularity if the S70X series that come with these it's good to know that the headphones upon which they're reliant can hold their own. I think you're right about the unusually long cord, I can't see that being useful to anyone, these aren't generally for home use after all.

Perhaps in 2 to 3 years there'll be portable players at 150 - 200 gb or so but most people will ot buy one of them & use lossless. Instead, they'll buy high capacity flash players (say 32 gb) & continue using mp3 etc. This is because the flash players will be smaller, lighter & more convenient. And what's portable music about if not convenience? Really high capacity HDD portables will be a vey small niche market.

Originally MDs were only available in 60 or 74 minute so really old player/recorders have problems. As to whether or not it's actually recording... I suggest you try playing the disc in some newer equipment & see what you get.

I would suggest disassembling hte unit & checking that there's nothing interfering with the thread that moves the head to the correct position. Sounds to me like this is the problem.

I'm guessing from this that you're messing around with service mode then. Never a good idea.

I don't think it needs a reset. I think it's broken. I've never heard of any MD unit being able to be reset.

Discount Discs are a great retailer, can't recommend them enough. Shame they don't carry much MD stuff any more.

If you have a charged gumstick in the unit while it's operating then you can switch AAs as & when they're needed, even while recording or playing.

The way I get around this is to insert a small piece of paper over the write-protect tap thingy when inserting a disc. It's not pretty but it works. I fear my NH900 is on it's last legs anyway, the front metal plate is now completely detatched on one side. I've consigned it to at-home use only & may look into some kind of replacement for it if it bites the dust. Maybe an RH1 or maybe something else.

Err, why not just use the AA battery add-on pack?

I eventually went into a Sony Centre last time I was home in the UK & they very helpfully provided me with (& fitted) a spare screw, no charge. However, they weren't able to provide me with any spares for the future. Smekma, I don't know where you are in Spain but there are Sony Centres here, in Madrid at least. You could try them. Below are a couple on online retailers in SPain, both specialising in Sony stuff. Maybe you could contact themto help you out? http://www.tiendasony.com/index.php http://www.sonygallery.com/

Well, no MD recorder will sound that bad, not even the very first ones! I suggest you go for HiMD as it's very useful for the ability to upload recordings to PC (from where they can be further edited, written to CD etc). HiMD will also give you greater storage speed, transfer options (bitrates) & transfer speeds. In the US, the lower-end models don't have line or mic-in so you'll need to go up a model, that may make it a challenge to find one (new) for under $100. Avoid the NH600D, DH710 & DH10P as you can't use them for live recordings. That leaves you with the NH700, NHF800, NH900, NH1, RH910, RH10 & RH!, all but the last of them are old models but you may still be able to find one. The only current recorder, the RH1, will probably set you back around $320 at least but, as I'm sure owners here will testify, it is regarded as the best-designed MD unit ever for live recording.

I'm not sure what the problem is, there are a lot of reports of write-heads breaking on N1s as they can't handle the speeds needed for NetMD but this doesn't sound symptomatic of that. If you're still Using OpenMG I suggest you upgrade to the newest version of Sonicstage, 4.2, a link to which can be found in the Downloads section of this forum. Good luck

1. Unrivalled SQ 2. Unreliability of HDD 3. Capacity limits of flash 4. Physical size limitations of CDs/mp3 CDs 5. Recording capabilities 6. Reliability 7. Remotes 8. Battery life/removable batteries 9. No sheep factor 10. Great coolness factor

So you can change the volume, but not with the volume buttons? This does sound like a button mapping problem. These faults sometimes develop spontaneously, they can also be caused by people trying to hack units in service mode and then making a mess of it. If you can get everything to work as it is, I'd recommending leaving well alone.

Not necessarily. The N710 volume increases all the way & it's heavily volume capped. Some later models (such as NH1) were limited by simply not allowing the volume to increase from 24-30. Two diiferent systems, of which the R909 is most likely to have the earlier as it's closer to that generation.

If it does nothing at all it's probably a broken/loose connection somewhere. Check the battery & make sure it's making good contact & if that doesn't work then either send it to be repaired or at least open it up yourself to have a look. Can't hurt if it's completely dead can it? Have you tried another battery to be sure the one you have is not at fault?

As far as I know this is a bit over dramatic. The future of high fidelity is simply not represented by iPods, portable MD or any other such system. The difference is that these things are more available to the general public (especially wen you consider the price of decks). Anyone who thinks that the iPod docking station with integrated speakers that adorns their living-room bookshelf is the cutting edge in high fidelity music enjoyment is mistaken. Decks are still freely available and as big and expensive as ever.

Yes, these two are one and the same.

You have to install SS, I'm afraid, but that doesn't mean you have to use it. SS is a cumbersome program but unless it's running it won't hog the system's resources.

I don't like the tactic but don't finger point at DDs alone for this, it happens a lot on Amazon and E-Bay too. Simple solution is to ignore it and go direct.