Sparky191

MP3's aren't the native format for an ipod, and the iTunes store is a completely different subject. How well is a native MP3 played on a HiMD? Poorly. Even a 320 as you suggest can be played natively or tanscoded. A lot of people transcode their MP3's to ATRAC probably to HiSP 64kps out of ignorance. Basically theres a lot of ways to encode ATRAC theres even HQ settings and lossless and the bugs with that. IMO Sonically a good rip in either format is indistinguishable from each other, and the CD in the majority of cases.

But they handle other encodings fine. Besides it only certain iPods. This does't mean Lame MP3's are bad. It means you need to know what you are doing.

Oops my bad. Sorry.

Well I'm confused to what you meant. Windows/iPod is successful because it dire and that its just good marketing? That SS/MD is unsuccessful because its a great product and is marketed poorly? Sorry I can't agree. If you prefer one sound over another, and can pick it out consistently, say 80% in a blind listening test than thats good enough for me. I'll admit I don't have golden ears, but I'm not deaf either. I don't have the best gear aswell. But as someone else said on Head-Fi, if you have to look that hard to find a difference then its neligible enough not to be significant. Anyway this is all gone off topic to a certain degree. I apologise for that. Would you really buy a 3rd Gen HI-MD? Well I would just for recording though, as I prefer other alternatives for playback. I'd also buy it because I love the techo gadget blackness of it. I prefer my old metal MD's to my HiMD as a gadget. But the HiMD is soo much better to use.

I should have said "most" DAPs.

The units are still very expensive from official channels. 2nd they are resonable. But for us in Ireland a NH1 is still almost €400. Thats more expensive that a new 30G iPod. I couldn't justify the price of a new one myself. Yes I don't get that either. But I cassette decks, walkmans and car stereo's are a lot cheaper than a MD. A lot Audiophile's (at least the ones on Head-Fi) realise that theres little point in lossless formats on a portable. Yes you can do it, but hearing the difference between a high quality rip and a CD is nigh impossible in a portable scenerio. This is people who consider portable to be a HD DAP, with a line out to a mini dock, portable amp and full sized set of open backed earphones. The other point is that cache on portable players simply isn't big enough to hold lossless formats so HD is going all the time, or the CD is spining all the time which destroys the battery life, and increases wear and tear. Obviously you avoid this with a flash based player like a 4GB Nano. But then you can't hold as much. So then you go the route of portable CD walkman with analog or optical line out. The new ones compress everything in the anti skip buffer, so you use a old vintage unit. By this time you're carrying a small suitcase around. Then you realise in a ABX blind listening test you really can't hear the different 90% of the time with 90% of your music. Lots of rigs to consider over here... http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showpost.ph...8&postcount=374 http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showpost.ph...0&postcount=113 http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showpost.ph...5&postcount=117 http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=155048

That would make sense if he was doing it to all of his MP3's so thay all playback at the same volume. Which is why Mp3Gain has a feature to do that. But hes not. Hes remastering his CD's. I had the same problem where I did it across albums/tracks with too large a difference in volume. Mp3Gain is great if you want to play a mix or your MP3's for portable use. But the volume difference on tracks is part of the music. So sometimes you want to keep the difference, especially for classical stuff.

I don't agree. Before MP3 was even mainstream. They failed to replace cassette. They drove lots of MD users and potential users away with poor software and overly restrictive DRM. High cost was an issue and still is IMO. Even with new unit its going to be expensive. No idea which product you are talking about. Most companies seem to get along just fine. All computere products have some problems. Thats simply the nature of computers and software. Humans create it all. Anyway complaining about MS products on a MD forum is ironic. Given the horror that SS was until recently. What DAP's don't support MP3? Even the current Sony units too. MP3 support is universal on old products or products based on older technology. For example nearly every DVD player has MP3 support now. Really CD players (unless you are taking about HiFi that don't support MP3 are obsolete.

AA is more useful in the field.

I'm no MS fanboy but its good enough for the majority of people and business. Its a good product not the best no. But its no good having the "best product" if you can't sell it. Same with VHS and CD Audio aswell. There are better standards of everything. Its usually the best mix of features and cost that wins out. Both actually. Though I just use a CDRW. Since most DAPs do not support UMS filetree for music, USB ports aren't that useful. The iPod link is better if its implemented well. (not always). But MP3/CD's are more convienent than CD's. I have about 5 or 6 abums on one CD. Obviously means I can easily swap albums without swapping CD's. You could have more with lower bitrates if you want. Beats messing around with a CD changer, and also I don't leave need original CD's in the car. It only costs $150 for a decent pionneer one. I replaced the original cassette unit (which broke) with one. I could have gone MD but really thats just a pain at this point. HiMD I would have gone with had it been available. CD isn't much better. But its a wider standard. No brainer really. And? Universal support isn't a good feature? Sorry I can't agree. Its just common sense that standardisation is a good thing, most of the time. (not always).

Minor point. Lots of people don't have high-fidelity equipment. So MP3 is fine for them.

If you encode your MP3's at 192kps-320kps with lame at HQ or insane most people (95%) will have a problem hearing the difference between that and a CD even through a HiFi. If you do notice it it will most likely be on demanding classical pieces. If you are playing undemanding stuff like pop, rock and dance you won't hear a difference especially if are using low end earphones and are in a noisy enviroment like a street or office. Personally I find my Shuffle and Creative Zen to sound "better" (warning subjective opinion) at comparible bitrates than my HiMD on 256kps or 352kps. Especially with classical stuff. I suspect myself that its most likely because I prefer the signature "sound" of those devices. Mind you IMO the Shuffle/Zen and HiMD are all signicantly "better" (more enjoyable to me) to listen to than any Portable CD or pre 5G iPod I've heard. The main advantage of MP3 is that everything plays it. My PC, MP3 players, my car stereo. So its the defaco standard. For the majoirity of people its good enough. I have started switching to FLAC (Lossless) not because its better SQ. But its a better archival format because I can encode anything I want from that with no loss of SQ. If Sony had given us ATRAC Lossless (that worked) and a means to rip to other formats a lot earlier I think you'd have kept a lot of Audiophiles with HiMD. As it stands its just not a convenient format. Most people suffer it because of the redcording abilities of the MD/HiMD.

Pity. Ahwell. I haven't used SB. Does it pull the track names from the wav filenames?

I'm not familar with some of that. Can you mount the FLAC with a cuesheet as a CD image?

Anyone converting FLAC files to ATRAC for HiMD? How are you doing it?

They used to have MD camcorders. Maybe they've another on the way? Doubtful though. A HIMD deck and Car unit would be great.

Hard to tell. The printing on the top is on a different layer than the display. But it doesn't look right.

I know its a girlie model, but its nice though. Thanks for the excellent photos.

Same here. I really like it.

Well the supplied earphones are rubbish so that would explain why you can't hear any difference with those. The fact you can tell a different using the line out would indicate that there IS a difference. Is up to you to decide what level of compression you are happy with. dgelting - if you aren't using a decent hifi or earphones then they will limit what you can hear. As soon as you use decent a decent HiFi or earphones the difference should be very noticeable. The fuss about bitrates is that you can still get a lot of music on a portable player and retain the quality pretty much close to the CD. Some people prefer quality over quantity. Thats a personal decision. A portable device simply makes your music portable. You decide the quality you are happy with. A lot of modern CD portables actually hsve worse sound than a MP3 player with a good bitrate. So you get neither portability or SQ. As for 35hrs on one disc. Personally it would take me a month maybe more to listen to all that music. A month of listening at low SQ? No thanks. I tend to listen to a few favorite albums for a few weeks then rotate them. Each to their own. Check out http://www.head-fi.org/

Where did you read that?

Personally I only use mine for recording. Nothing else. I have a Flash and a HD Mp3 player aswell.

Why do you need it mastered louder? Can't you just turn the stereo up?

http://www.minidisc.org/part_Recorders_Sony_notes.html Then theres... http://www.minidisc.org/part_Minidisc_UK_M...isc_Titler.html

Thats my point. If its recording it can't copy the titles. If its transfering then it could. Since its via the line in it has to be recording. Your right about the remote control port though. Since you can title using a remote some people build and wrote an interface to title MD's though the remote control port. However I've only seen it for older Sony units. Its also only of value to non NetMD or HiMD units. Because once you can transfer via USB theres no point in titling a MD any other way. The creative app used to be good for inserting gaps between tracks when record from the PC. Thats also not needed with USB transfers.