Artstar

I plan to do that for my long plane trips ... the only thing that sucks about living in Australia - 24 hour flights to other parts of the world! Just 4 x AA lithium batteries and I'm laughing 3#-)

Another way (the way I do it) is with CD Wave (draws up a .cue file) for the splits and then CDRwin or Alcohol for the burning. I'm a bigger fan of Alcohol than Nero lately.

Having read through the service manual, pin 1 of the proprietary connector accepts a 6V feed. So if you want to charge the battery as well, then I would suggest sticking to the 6V nominal value. Furthermore, given the fact that the nominal 12V line does fluctuate somewhat with respect to engine revolutions (the regulator of an alternator is far from ideal), I would strongly recommend the use of a regulated 6V car adapter. Now as everyone else has suggested (or at least hinted), it is possible to power and/or charge the battery simultaneously with a modified Sony cable. However, having closely examined the schematic and IC block diagrams, the other conclusion I have come to is that charging and USB data transfer cannot occur simultaneously (once the cradle has been modified to suit) because it's not just a case of 4 wires (+6V, GND, USB+ and USB-). We also need the USB +5V line to be fed into pin 3 which serves the purpose of supplying power to the NH1 as well as serving the purpose of a logic signal to switch the unit into PC mode. What is unclear due to the the non-existent IC block diagram of the system IC (IC801 - most likely because it's so complex Sony felt that there was no value in publishing it) is whether or not there is an isolating mechanism within to prevent the connection of the 6V supply to the USB +5V supply thereby preventing any damage to both the NH1 and your PC. Furthermore, even if we were to split the 6V feed into pin 1 and an LM7805 voltage regulator then feeding pin 3, the system control IC will either be confused as it has now a PC and a power supply plugged in so it won't know how to handle the charging and powering process at the same time (because Sony would not have accounted for it) or otherwise, it will simply have the unit powered but not charging because it is in PC mode. Or in the best case scenario, it could all work but given the lack of information in the service manual, I'm not prepared to prove my theory wrong by risking damage to my NH1 and PC so screw that!! It's a shame. I was quite looking forward to charging and transferring at the same time. No big deal though.

If that is true, then Stringer is a moron to put it mildly. The last I checked, the reason why Sony became such a huge force in the electronics industry pre-2000 is because of their innovations and innovations come from continued research and development. To do away with that means doing away with the company as a whole IMHO. Having being in the broadcast industry prior to his recent appointment as CEO, you would think that if anyone has a greater appreciation for innovation, it would be him considering we in the broadcast industry like to have equipment that's quick to setup and provides results that would surpass our competitors and keep the public listening and or watching our product! I suppose it depends to what extend he does decide to reduce the R&D. If it's to the extreme, then major broadcasters who have contracts with Sony (NBC for one) will have something to kick Sony's (and Stringer's) arse about. Personally, I hope that HiMD innovations begin to flourish at least before he swings the axe. Or in the very least, another company takes the initiative to continue providing HiMD product to satsify the masses. Onkyo? Are you reading this?

I've still got my old Sevired leather cases from my old MZ-R50. Now, ordinarily, I would say that they would be the best spot to look at because they custom-make cases to suit. Unfortunately, my experiences with Martin of Sevired have not been pleasant and since ordering a case for my MZ-NH1 in September 2004, I have yet to see any delivery or even a response since Martin last promised me to resend the items registered mail back in February this year. Needless to say, I'm cheesed. So in the meantime, I've been using my MZ-R50 case which is perfect width-wise and actually does suit the NH1 provided that I cut the hole out to suit the mic plug since the NH1 is about 1/2" shorter than the old R50. I blame myself for not examining this option before I lost my money to oblivion.

Don't worry about it at all dude. Just plug in and away you go. Personally, I prefer not to use the AGC in my recordings because the dynamics in a concert can be so unpredictable that you don't know the next stupid thing the sound guy might do. That's where I leave it to my Soundforge to flavour the dynamics just how I need to, with hard limiters, gated compression, etc. But, having said that, I do recall recording an Anthrax concert last year on my MZ-R50 using AGC and it didn't turn out too bad, but that was mainly due to a well behaved audience in my vicinity and a decent/consistent job by the sound guy - he basically had it right the first time and it was unchanged. But depending on the expected volume at the gig, make sure you choose the right socket for the job - line in or mic in. Given the fact you're using a battery box, if it's a moderate - loud environment, I would strongly recommend you plug into the line in. If you are going to a comedy club or something, then the mic input with low sensitivity would be the way to go. Nice choice of mics too. I have the Core Sounds premium mics (before he released a low cost version - 1998!) which have served me well at the loudest of rock concerts but now I want to take it the next step higher with his mucho $$$ stealth mics. Best of luck dude.

Dude, how long does that battery have to last? You do know that you can record up to 8 hours continuously in Hi-SP mode and 9 hours in Hi-LP mode, right? If it really is that big an issue, you can always do what I did with my MZ-R50 and that's carry a spare (fully charged) battery. But otherwise, I would've thought that amount of battery life would be ample for a day's worth of recordings?

Luckily for me, I don't have to worry about this bug with my NH1 given that I simply record and then dump on the PC. Nevertheless, I find it quite distressing that even my old theory, of buying Sony's high-end product in order to obtain what should be a quality product, is being disproven!! It's no secret that Sony's low - midrange gear is pretty cruddy and in a lot of cases, it's rebadged equipment too (that doesn't apply to MD of course). But to let their sloppy work go as far as the high end is making me lose faith in this company more and more. I used to be a major advocate of theirs for 2 decades now but that has been slowly diminishing, at least in the consumer market. I'm still an avid user of their professional equipment, having a DSR-PD170 video camera amongst other equipment. Here's hoping the shift in management will actually help the company's electronics division turn a new leaf and actually concentrate on creating quality innovations like they once used to as opposed to listening to their God forsaken legal counterparts during their design process. Otherwise, I'll be purchasing spare optical units for my MZ-R50 and MZ-NH1 and hang on to them with a passion. Not that I really need to upgrade from the NH1 now that I no longer have to worry about swapping discs during that critical moment at a live gig.

Which is why I've only ever stuck with devices that use lithium ion/polymer batteries - longer running time, lighter and no memory effect. I love my NH1.

Depending on the sound card? It (Total Recorder) is definitely the best money spent on a piece of software of this nature because I get a 100% accurate digital copy of my recordings. The software works as another sound card and merely takes the sound data in from the source and dumps to a file, so I can't see how it could be sound card dependent? Nevertheless, the quality of my first ever recording on it turned out superb. The Megadeth live concert sounds brilliant and there's no way I'd risk it with Sonicstage.

Now all we need is Onkyo to release a component deck unit that can compliment (or even replace) my MDS-JA30ES. We're taking a step in the right direction it seems ... FINALLY!

Of course they wouldn't dude ... more money in the spare parts game

Can't check it out as it looks like you need to sign up and it's currently too full to accept sign-in's. Can you post the .torrent file here instead? I'm curious as to how this sounds so I can then ask you some questions about the settings on your unit. I haven't had a chance to test my NH1 in a loud live environment just yet as I've been doing it all with my R50 until now.

Input impedance does not have any effect on the actual cut-off frequency of a filter. Fact is, only the filter itself is based on an impedance that bears an effect on the frequency being fed through it. In the case of the input impedance of the recording device, the last thing we want is for the input to function as a filter as well and so by design, the impedance does not have an effect on the unit's intended frequency response hence the reason why mismatched impedances do not affect frequency response directly. In theory, the input of an operational amplifier has infinite impedance to prevent loading of the output device feeding it the input signal whilst the output is of zero impedance to ensure maximum power is fed out of it. So it is this operational amplifier and its resistors which contribute to its overall input impedance - not a network of caps and inductors (as caps would be used for DC blocking purposes but nothing more). What does affect mismatched impedances, however, is the maximum power transfer which affects the entire frequency spectrum as we're now talking about an amplitude related phenomenon. So irrespective of what the bass roll-off filter's characteristics, whatever properly designed input it is plugged into, the characteristics of the filter remain the same leaving only its overall output power transfer affected.

Heh ... that would be a giveaway eh? You make a very valid point for your application though about the choice of your recording format as it stands and if stealthiness wasn't my issue, I'd be lugging around some pretty serious gear myself. But the MZ-NH1 will have to do. I'll finally have the chance to put it to the test in a month's time when Megadeth come to Sydney for their show. \m/

Relax dude ... you're only talking about 1.55V being fed so there's definitely no risk in it at all. Although it is unusual that they would have the + feed going to ground, but that could very well be their idea of decoupling (it is another way to do it, as unusual as it may seem). In which case, just plug it in. I'm 100% sure it will be fine. Don't forget, after all, even Sony sell battery-powered tie-clip mics etc so it's fair to say that they wouldn't be inclined to risk their own product like that.

Better? It's a lossy compression algorithm so of course it won't sound better than PCM. BUT ... will you notice the difference is the better question? In which case, I'd be amazed if you did spot any differences (i.e. if you noticed that it did sound worse than PCM) considering that it is an analogue source that is of a bandwidth even more limited than the recording format itself. That's like asking if you took old Super8 footage, would it look better recorded/transferred to DVCAM or Digital Betacam. Regardless of the format, it will look the same to at least 99% of the audiences out there.

The idea of not having to juggle any kind of media would make it very difficult to steer people away from iPods and the like. Fact is, 20 - 80GB storage in the palm of your hands is definitely a winner over a 1GB disc. MD can do better than it is now, but to switch people back from the iPod? Personally, I highly doubt that would ever happen. That's why the Sony Ericsson effort to download tunes directly onto your phone is their aim so they can get it from their PC or they can download while on the go. Now that's an iPod on steroids if I ever saw one. But I wouldn't expect that of an MD unit dude.

Hopefully TDK will be making them soon because I'm not a real big fan of Sony's MD's. I've found that TDK's standard MD-XG's work flawlessly whereas the Sony's I've used have either been prone to dropouts or not even reading at all. The sooner TDK makes them the better I'll feel.

My ultimate list of ingredients: Portable: Must have record button on remote with access to manual level control from it too (keep the backlight on it!!). Higher capacity 3GB to allow for long PCM recordings such as concerts. No bullsh_t DRM restrictions - I want unlimited transfers of my own analogue recordings thanks (I know it's software, but that'll be the reason to upgrade my hardware from the NH1 I have now) A cradle that will function as a complete docking station so I'm not messing with cables every time I want to connect to my PC or other moments when I just want to charge it up. A STANDARD DC SOCKET for charging on the go!! Car: All I need there is a HiMD version of my MDX-C8900 (and therefore still support my XM-210EQ DSP) Component/deck: JUST FRIGGIN' MAKE ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!! A nice solid one just like my MDS-JA30ES will make me a very happy boy.

It's a very interesting article but it doesn't seem to cover anything in the way of what he's aiming to do in order to achieve those goals mentioned. So far, it's more a discussion of politics and how to shuffle people around rather than actually suggest which way technology should go, other than challenging their competitors rather than throwing in the towel. What it really comes down to is how protective they become with their content. As said before and as noticed in his responses in this article, Stringer is still very content-oriented. If he can let go of his obsession with the content and simply implement logical ways of putting that content to use (by way of easing up on the DRM's, etc.) then I think Sony will already be on the road to recovery. Add to that their latest range of products have been somewhat lacklustre compared to their efforts in previous decades where serious advancements were made and not only that but those advancements were worth having and the units were that well built that they left their competitors wondering wtf just hit them. I miss the days when Sony could make a decent MD head unit for my car, with the last of the dying breed being my MDX-C8900. They just don't make them like that any more and that's truly disappointing. And if they do make a nice unit, they're all stuck in friggin' Japan!! There's definitely a lot of work to be done and hopefully this time, they'll take the time to listen to their customers and produce the kind of quality equipment they used to in addition to their cheaper (and generally rebadged) stuff to appease the consumer on a shoestring budget.

Great set of mics but crap for stealth recordings

You will have to define "very quiet". I'm assuming that it's not so quiet that if you crank the volume to get it to the "normal" level, it will bring up the noise floor along with it. I've always been conservative with my recording levels and usually have them set to an average volume of -9dB. This 9dB headroom allows for unexpected peaks that will keep below the 0dB mark so I can then do the appropriate post-production work on my PC. I whip out Cooledit Pro first, using it to flavour the sound with the 30-band graphic EQ and once I've got it to where I want it to be, I then whip out Soundforge which is used to normalise and then hard limit (if necessary) the recording to make the levels just how I like them. So are they quiet on the MD? Yeah, definitely but not down to a whisper either otherwise I'll end up amplifying the noise floor to the point that it is noticeable and that means the slight high-pitched buzz of the spindle motor becomes more than just slight. Ultimately, the only way you'll know for sure dude is to try it in real world applications. Cranking your stereo or TV for a sound check won't do it. If you have any musicians as friends (especially a drummer like me), get them to slam their instruments while you mess with the levels to find what seems to be the maximum you can go and then reduce it by anything between 6 to 9dB to allow for headroom in case there's an unexpected peak that would otherwise clip.

No. They're a more basic unit with only digital mega bass for playback and not much else. The audio stages are just as clean as my MZ-NH1 so there's no difference there either. Why are they considered king? I answered that question before dude ... they're SOLID and RELIABLE.

They're not MDLP-capable (i.e. only MD-SP) and they're probably pretty hard to find these days but I being in Australia, I don't have that good an idea of how the 2nd hand market is in your neck of the woods. But yeah, they're definitely better than the R700 IMHO.