Sparky191

SonicStage CP 4.4 is it Japan only. Has anyone here tried it. http://www.sony.jp/support/pa_common/download/ss_dl_03.html

It hasn't been released yet. Its the release candidate. SP1 RC

Be helpful if your talking prices, you actually say the price your talking about.

I'm not 100% certain. But even Sony has different product pages for them. Check out the tech spec tab. You can probably pick up a A808 which is closer to what you want. http://www.sony.ie/view/ShowProduct.action...egory=NWA+ATRAC http://www.sony.ie/view/ShowProduct.action...ategory=NWA+WMT In fairness dropping ATRAC and SonicStage has made it more popular. I'd prefer the 818 myself. atraclife.com probably has more info on the details. http://www.atraclife.com/forums/index.php?...aded&start=

I'm only seeing this thread now. I'm confused. Why parallel SS (Audio App) Nero (CD/DVD bruning) and Windows (an operating system). They are completely different types of software. Do you mean you encode/rip using each of these?

Theres two versions of the A8xx players. AFAIK the differences are. The older A808 (and 806 etc) supports ATRAC but requires SonicStage and can play gapless with ATRAC. The new A818 (and 816 etc) doesn't support ATRAC but doesn't need SonicStage and isn't gapless. I've read theres some difference in the menu options but I haven't read a definitive list of the differences. Hardware and earphones are the same. None of them have a line in AFAIK. iPods can play some form of gapless. I don't know the details. I've heard that its sounds the same, (A818 vs RH1) but I've also heard the RH1 is better. I don't know which is true. Perhaps they sound different? For example. http://www.atraclife.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=4380 But the A818 is half the price of the RH1. The ideal would be to buy the A818 for commuting, throwing in a bag etc. But keep the RH1 for at home and recording. For me I already have a MZ-NH700, which I only use for recording. So I couldn't justify a RH1 aswell, they are very expensive, and there have been reports of some units failing. I expect the A818 sounds better than my MZ-NH700 though as some of my other MP3 players are better than it for playback.

Good workaround.

Except a remote is cheaper than another MD. Also depending on remote, you get easier navigation, and a backlight. Personally I don't like the MD remotes and prefer using the scroll wheel on mine.

I hear yah. But I try not to use EQ at all tbh. I find when I listen to classic rock stuff I find playing with the EQ like that to compensate you complete lose some of the guitars. Especially with stuff you know real well . Stuff like dance, pop isn't that much effected. YMMV

Is that a phone, radio, mp3 player, camera, camcorder, voice recorder, torch etc... in your pocket? http://www.cellular-news.com/story/28746.php

Good find. Whats the price and is it UK del only?

I replaced mine with CX300's which I found much better. I used the tips from the RP-JE50's to get best fit. Microphonic's not as bad as the RP-JE50's but the CX300's are not a phone I'd use when moving around much.

Sorry to drag this thread up. Just thought I'll add. I have a set of PMX100's. Comfy phones, I find them waaay too bassy. Can't use them for music, bass just dominates everything regardless of player/source. I have a set of CX300's and they are far better. Different type of cheap phone though. I use the PMX100 on the computer, for games and stuff.

Do you listen to music on a mobile phone? If so which one. I've started reducing what I carry with me, and sometime I use my W810i with a set of CX300's. Ok there are issues with it, but for none critical listening its not bad.

In fairness theres been enough posts on this forum over the years about people loving LP2/LP4 and low bit ATRAC files, with stock headphones and transcoded files. On the other hand if you are not in an ideal listening environment, its debatable if you'll hear the difference from a higher quality source, and sometimes you don't want to carry something expensive on you. Then there's a lot of people who simply can't hear a difference. Either they don't have the ear for it, or their hearing isn't that good. On the flip side some who think they can hear a difference, can't. Its placebo. I would be interested in seeing any links you have on this. The recent Sony players do seem to have some quirks. On the upside its far more robust than a RH1, and where I am less than half the price of a RH1. Useful if you need a robust player. http://www.atraclife.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=4380. The Sony's seem to one of the better regarded DAPs, but not the best. People who are serious about quality I reckon go the route of a external headphone amp and decent headphones. Theres a lot of other DAPs out there other than iPods. iPods are not that well regarded for sound quality, its been that way for 7 years. So why people have to keep on about them here I have no idea. Its old news. If you really want the capacity of an iPod and the advantage of their smart playlists/compilations you can go with an external amp or an iMod. Thats too much hassle for me tbh. I have to wonder though, years ago we used to listen to the radio, Vinyl and cassettes on pretty dire gear but admittedly analogue. But still loved the music. Do welove the music less now, listening to a too hot CD in a club or a low quality recording of a local band. Some of my favorite music is dire quality, but its about more than just the quality. Though I love decent quality too.

Thats cool. I'll play with that some time...

Be interesting to see more specific stats. No of users with zero posts, under 5 posts more than 10, and more than 10 in the last year. Etc. Get a true indication of whats going on.

I don't understand why there is such a disparity between the number of reg users and the relatively low activity on the forums.

One phrase for you. Click of death. It was the plague of DTP and Graphic studio's back in the day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click_of_death I've lost data on CDR's, Floppies, Zips. In fact it was those failure years ago that resulted in my keeping a proper backup, (ie more than one copy) these days. I was thinking I've not lost anything off MD. But then I remembered I've lost recording off MD too. When SS or the player decided not to like the disk. On two of my old MD units the lasers died. Which meant I had to replace the unit. Pretty much everythings editable these days so it hardly much of an advantage. Putting all that aside. If you've hardware you like and it works for you, I'm all for using it as long as possible.

After having cassettes and MD for years, I'm no slowly building my CD collection. Lots of good stuff now in bargain bins and used. I mainly listen to my music as MP3's though. I got nowhere selling my old MD & cassette stuff. Even offered it for free. Eventually I just dumped it in a recycling center. I've hung on to my HiMD 700 and a couple of HiMD discs for recording. Everything else is on HD or CD now. I believe my MP3's are fine for mobile use, but are probably not up to playback through a decent HiFi. But that's why I have the CD's as high quality backup.

I think you are missing the big picture to be honest. If you look at the alternatives to HiMD, storage is cheap, and so its easy (and better) to have multiple backups across different media. So you can use higher bitrate lossy and lossless compressed formats so there isn't any audible difference (for most people) between that and the original. In many cases the higher quality of ATRAC isn't heard by people using low bitrates and poor headphones. In fact most people don't care about sound quality. Sad but true. But for those that do you can equal or better the SQ of HiMD on other devices now. Also people here generalise about MP3=iPods. Thats really having blinkers on. You can buy other makes of player, even Sonys, flash players like the A8xx and A6xx players. Some of which no longer use SonicStage or ATRAC for that matter. I can understand the charm of MD/HiMD theres a retro chic about it, and for those with an aversion to computers its a great solution. For recording I still think its great at the price point. Incidentally I'm baffled why you'd switch to Zip and Floppies as they some of the most unreliable mediums I've ever used.

Is it not a lot more expensive than a RH1/M200 though. Or even a used HiMD unit. I still think HiMD is useful for cheap recording if you can buy the unit at a resonable cost.

If 3yrs ago with HiMD or even with a 300MB SP disk Sony had made any effort to market such a drive then I'm sure it would have sold. As it was no one heard of them outside of existing MD users. Also Sony made them very expensive. You can still buy PC/MD drives here and there. But no one wants them.

I just think with the changes you made amp/MD deck you get more out it with a slightly better set of cans. I bought the HD 202's for practising guitar and am disappointed in them even compared to the PMX100 and CX300's I otherwise use. But they are comfy. You'd probably have to move up in budget a bit I'd guess. Just a thought really. I haven't decided what I'll replace mine with yet. I'll probably lurk over on http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/ and see if theres any sales after christmas.

What have you compared them with. Even my PMX100's and CX300's sound better.