Skradgee

^--...what he said.--^ I'm very happy with my Sony MP3/Atrac/AM/FM/TV/WEATHER BAND unit. I just wish had a jack for remotes. Oh well.

Wait, wait wait. Now this has gone off on a totally different topic of couse, but I'm going to Italy in a few months, and I'd really like to be able to charge my MZ-NH1 while I'm there. I have a North American model made for sale/use in Canada. Will the charging stand work with European electricity or would I have to buy an adapter to make the charger work?

Thx for that link. Very useful if I need another battery for muh R55. Now all we need is a bargan batteries for the MZ-NH1 and NH900.

In terms of hardware, does anyone know enough about the MZ-NH1 or NH900 to know if MP3 playback would be possible with a firmware update? Can the MP3 playback feature be added with software, or does a unit have to physically have a decoder built into it?

I can't verify that there is less noise with the MZ-NH1, but I would think that there is very very little to no difference between the two units when it comes to that. I'm happy with my NH1 but if you want the more inexpensive way to record go with the NH900.

I just find this to be a pain because I combine two mono mics into a stereo signal with an adapter on the end of the plugs. Now if I want to use just one mic for a simpler setup, the signal is forced to the left channel instead of both channels. So now I need a mono adapter for muh headphones for listening to those recordings, or I can just cheat and pull the plug out of the jack a little bit.

Oh! Well then why didn't you say so...I looked up the defenition of 'seperate' as a noun. I haven't seen anything about any stacking component Hi-MD models.

I think in a deathmatch of Hi-MD vs. iRiver, Hi-MD would be victorious. However, then it really becomes a tough choice choosing between the top two Hi-MD models. The MZ-NH1 gives you a clock/timestamp feature, but you can't use AA batteries with it. The MZ-NH900 lets you use AA batteries, but no timestamp. Ugh. I agonized over the two for awhile and eventually got the MZ-NH1 for the magnesium body and 'cooler' remote, but I guess in the end when it comes right down to recording, the NH-900 is the champ simply because it gives you the most battery life. edit: So, my advice, stick with Hi-MD.

Maaaaaannnn, what the fudge are you talking about? An MD magazine??

No extra software is necessary. At most, Windows might have to install some USB Mass Storage device driver, but on Win2K/XP it should be recognized right away without having to reboot the computer. Win98 will prolly ask you a bunch of questions first instead of just installing it, but these days any computer that can't recognize a USB drive is a machine that's in sad shape. Keep in mind that at a lot of coffeehouses, libraries, etc keep their computers locked down so that you can do just minimal web browsing, word processing, etc.

I'm quite sure that that...thing Apple makes can be used as a USB drive for storing any type of file on it.

Woo Hoo!! Recreational drugs! Thanks for the idea Dex. I only have experience with onmidirectional mics. The next time my budget allows, I'd like to pick up some unidirectional mics and experiment with those...although I imagine that they're not ideal for stealth recordings of everyday sounds.

Agreed. Anytime that you can skip a step and make less transcoding/encoding/reencoding happen, your ears will be better off.

I see no problem with playing a disc while it is in the charger. It might take longer to recharge the battery (like playing a Gameboy SP while it charges), but it should still play fine and not cause any problems. This is such a good question...II haven't tried this yet with my unit so I'll have to try it tonight and get back to you. -Nathan

Using original ATRAC3 @ 132 kbps seems to be the 'best' compromise between disc space and sound quality (in my humble opinion). MP3s that were encoded at VBR or 192kbps will still sound good like that, but I'm sure there are people who will disagree with me on that. If sound quality is all that matters to you, stick with Atrac3plus @ 256 kbps. -Nathan

I have used a disc recovery service that worked well for me. I must say that it took forever (3 months) to get my recoverd disc back in the mail, but it was well worth the wait. Eventually my disc was fixed with the TOC cloning procedure, and for an additional cost of a few extra $ the audio was burned to a CD . http://www.utahdesign.com/mars It looks like their site might be down now , but I thought I should share my successful disc recovery experince with you people. Good luck. -Nathan

I'd say that you have a good purchase in mind. The NH900 will offer the best option for battery life. I own an MZ-NH1, and wish I had the option of using AA size batteries with it (it was a compromise for the built-in clock/timestamp feature). Everything you want to do is possible with what you've mentioned in this post. Just make sure that you upgrade to SonicStage 2.3 once you get your deck. Happy Minidiscing. -Nathan

Well :whatever: I'm not so sure that is recording in true 292kbps. I read another post that said recording in SP in MD on a Hi-MD recorder is resampled 256 kbps (a fake SP)...just so the recording can be played on an old MD player. Therefore, as I understand it, you'd get better quality recording on an old MD player in SP than you would with a Hi-MD player in MD mode (also SP). Can anyone else confirm that this is true?

When I first heard Atrac3plus @ 64kbps, I was very surprised...and maybe even a little impressed at how good it sounded. I almost can't hear any swishy-swashy compression sound. Everything sounds good except high-end sounds like cymbals. I've used it a little bit just to try and reach the best compromise between sound quality and disc space, but there are defenitly some songs/recordings that I will NEVER encode in Hi-LP. For some things though, Hi-LP is tolerable IMHO.

OK, so I sucked it up and checked through the user manual for the MZ-NH1 to find an answer to my own question. It looks like you can record in mono only when the unit is in MD mode and not Hi-MD mode. Is this correct? If so I'm a little disapointed that this didn't carry over to Hi-MD.

Could someone answer this question please? :smile: I am also unclear as to whether or not recording in mono is possible with Hi-MD. Thanks.

Hi Nito. I'm still new around these boards but I think the answers to your questions are no, no, and manually. I've just recently discovered that tracks recorded throuch SS from a PC cannot have track marks added to them. In your second question, if you mean naming a bunch of tracks at once in order (File1, File2, File3, etc.), I haven't seen any option to make that happen. As for fastforwarding, I don't think there is any way to fast forward through a song on the disc using SS. I could be wrong though. I hope this answers your questions. Anyone with more insight or knowledge than I have can chime in on this.

I got another set of Sony headphones for my MZ-NH1 since the ones that come with the unit definitly, definitly have a cord that is way too short to be useful. I'm sure they were designed to have the cords go behind your head with the remote clipped to your shirt, but anyway... I always check the frequency range on the back of the package before I buy a set of headphones. Of couse, the wider the range the better. Check out the Sony MDR-E828 earbud style headphones. They cost about $10 and I've seen them sold with and without a circular case. The frequency response is from 12-22,000hz and to me they sound great...better than the earbuds that are shipped with the unit. I've always bought Sony headphones...never had a reason not to. I've only had one pair that sounded bad (the w.ear kind). Is it really worth it to get the Shure headphones? Am I missing out?

Using non-gold-plated plugs defenitly will not ruin the ports/jacks on your portables. I honestly have never noticed a difference in sound between gold and non-gold plugs. I have however noticed that after awhile, the gold will wear off gold-plated plugs and pretty soon you have to buy more gold-plated stuff. Hmmm. :whatever:

I just double checked the back of my MZ-NH1. My girlfriend got it from Datavision and it was made for sale in Canada (the sticker has French and English on the back), :cool: and it was defenitly made in Japan. I think all the models made for North America are the same. They just change the label on the back for whichever country it is being shipped to for sale, so it can be stated that the device complies with the FCC and whatnot. Happy Minidiscing, yall.