The Low Volta

I find them noisy as well (perhaps in another sense than mrsoul meant) but when I (carefully ) shake an old/dark 1gb disc I hear close to nothing, when I (carefully again of course) shake a new/blue disc, it clings and clangs like the actual disc is just loosely thrown in its casing and the shutter as well still, never noticed any specific drawbacks of this (had a gap in recording twice, once on an old and once on a new 1gb disc)

the RH1 like the ones quoted in the post above can play MP3 without the need for conversion to atrac... unlike the 1st gen HiMDs (NH600/700/800/900/1) that need SonicStage to convert MP3->atrac(3+)first

the 65 days of static albums have arrived... and really, they are great! the fall of math one time for all time

currently listening to my 65 days of static disc @ LAME 3.97 -V4 --vbr-new / HiSP (for live-gapless) the fall of math one time for all time live @ domino 2006 (my own recording) [attachmentid=2009] live @ pukkelpop 2006 (my own recording) [attachmentid=2010]

2. well, the iTunes library is actually just a simple folder structure and you can just drag the folders in the 'music transfer' screen and they will download to the HiMD... provided you keep your music in MP3-format and you have an MP3-capable HiMH (the RH1 is one of course) I haven't tried to import playlists yet

don't open the software before plugging in the RH1... if you do this the other way around, it will work fine

HiMD only records in 44,1 (the atrac types as well as PCM use 44,1)... so resampling will happen... always

well, as you didn't even care about it when you bought it I really don't think it is fair to blame Sony now that they didn't implement it then (maybe they just didn't have the tech yet at that point) there are a couple of HiMD decks (midi sized) from Onkyo and the RH1 (while meant to be portable) works great as a micro-deck too (real line out, built to be very easily usable on a desktop,...) most pro users interested in MD at the time were happy with SP, now HiMD offers PCM... the extra's the yamaha offers in terms of SQ are simply overkill for all but the most pro user do not get me wrong, you are free to move on from MD and I do not think that (Hi)MD is the ultimate technology (I'm sure flash-based recorders will replace it in the not so far future) but to state that the technology is obsolete while you haven't really researched it + do not offer real alternatives (the yamaha is a non-portable deck that costs £500 for the cheapest model) is kinda harsh what real alternative is there for portable recording with the same ease of use + same SQ + price-range + size + battery life + storage space (including removable media) + also useable as a micro-deck + also useable as a standalone portable player... I don't see a point in throwing aside a technology before there's an alternative now, do you? disclaimer: please don't get me wrong, you ARE free to do and think what you want and I do not want to start the "MD is dead >< MD is not dead"-war again... but please don't simply generalize your own personal experience (ok so you got a deck that can't upload but was never intended to and now you need other functionality without portability and while you could go for HiMD, you can spare some money so you have found an alternative that works for you)... that is really interesting info, but it is not 'true for everybody' peace and I hope you do post your impressions of your new machine once you get it! we're not afraid to learn

glad to see you got that rant of your chest... but really, if you had looked into the specs you should have known that NetMD is one-way USB (Sony never pretended it was two way) they reinvented MD as HiMD which is two-way and now there is even the RH1: a HiMD recorder that can also upload legacy recordings to PC through USB BTW, they have dropped almost all DRM/copy-protection stuff as well

I convinced myself I needed the RH1 when my collegue and friend and my girlfriend (who is also my collegue) started borrowing my NH900 more and more to record interviews... so yeah, it's a very good reason just don't expect super-duper-it'll-blow-holes-in-your-eardrums-bass

well, sometimes even SS just works... I updated (without manually uninstalling) from 2.0 -> 4.0 (with every step in between) and I have never had any problem at all then I reinstalled my PC (XP-pro instead of home) and again, installed 4.0 (without previous versions) and no problem whatsoever but then again... I am now experiencing probs with the mac software (or with my MP3's) but that is a different story

the humming is not related to malfunctioning of the charger but to bad earthing of the recorder... different issue, still irritating and I do not know how to fix it (you could try to earth the recorder, but how?)

- it doesn't display the charge-time when charging from a computer...only from a wal-plug - quickmode does use a bit of power all the time, but startup without consumes a lot as well so it is good to set quickmode on if you're going to turn it off/on a lot and set it to 'off' when you're not going to use your RH1 for a while (at night or something)... or just keep it on and make a habit of charging the RH1 whnever you're not using it (LiIon batteries don't really mind that)

with NiMH batteries it takes a couple of full cycles (full charge, full discharge) till they actually run at their intended capacity so give it a go as I used a 1450mAh GP-stick in my NH900 and I got good results with it (well, better than the stock battery at least)

just a couple of postrock albums... - Tortoise: 'T.N.T.' / 'Millions Now Living Will Never Die' - Mono: 'One Step More & You Die' / 'Walking Cloud & Deep Red Sky Flag Fluttered & Sun' still looking for a (European... I like to save on transportation costs ) place that carries the 65 days of static albums as I saw them yesterday and they kicked some behind (will 'edit' my live rec soon and upload a bit)

I own the NH900 and RH1 (HD digital amps) and my friend the RH10 (digital amp but not HD IIRC) and when I compared the NH900 to the RH10 with the same disc and headphones, I found the RH10 to sound slightly warmer/colored and the NH900 colder/more neutral/analytical remember, these are my personal findings in a side by side comparison and still these were pretty minor. Also whether one is better than the other is still a matter of personal taste... I prefer the clean sound of the NH900/RH1 but someone more into casual listening might like the warmth of the RH10 BTW: the biggest difference between the two amp is in battery consumption I believe

a happy birthday danny! hope you have a great time

great, I have just received my D66SL's ... brilliant! I am currently listening to some Tool with them, but I can't really say I think the bass is too 'thin'... it is tight yes, but it is definitely present... I will give them a day and after that I'll probably decide to do the mod anyway (especially as it is so easy to reverse) one question streamline... were the shiny caps easy to remove without damaging any paint? what did you use (to remove the caps and to make the hole)?

well, it's not really as simple as 'matching bitrates' - FM uses a 'lossily compressed' signal which means that bits are cut out - recording in atrac means another cycle of lossy compression so even more bits are cut out (as it will treat FM as a full info source just like a CD) you are always going to get lesser SQ than the source (in this case FM, which isn't great to start with)... to get the best SQ (i.e. as close to FM as you could) you should use the highest bitrate SP (as it cuts out less info than the others). IMHO, if you know you're going to tape radio and realize that SQ won't be really good, SP is a waste of space and I'd personally use LP2... but it all depends on how close to the original FM-signal you want to stay PS: I don't know whether it is correct to state that FM uses a lossily compressed signal, but from the receivers' point of view, it is 'the same' (bits of info left out whether on purpose or through imperfect transmission) and perhaps even worse, as a good encoder doesn't introduce as much artifacts/hiss/static etc as FM does (or at least does here in Belgium)

1) neither... it is digital, through USB but requires SonicStage (no drag-n-drop) and it should be faster than realtime, but it does take longer than uploading HiMD-recordings 2) definitely as it is impossible to keep SP recordings as SP on the computer (you have to choose between HiSP or wav and SS will convert while uploading) if you save as wav, you can convert to whatever you want with the least loss of quality 3) see both points above, yes, but not through drag-n-drop (SS is required). And you can download them to a legacy disc but max quality is LP2 (it can do fake SP for playback on pre-NetMD equipment, but it is actually LP2 'blown-up' to SP-size without an increase in SQ)

the MZ-RH1 offers (almost) full compatibility with mac OSX, no windows needed! - loads MP3's from mac to HiMD (not atrac) - uploads your own recordings made with the RH1 (not legacy recordings)

there have been issues noted between nvidia cards and SS... do a search for nvidia here on the forums as it has been discussed often IIRC but I can't seem to remember whether installing the latest drivers or one specific driver was the eventual solution... (a search should find this pretty quickly) I hope that fixes it as a windows reinstal is a real bummer

happy b-day greg!!

well... *posh british schoolmaster's voice* ordering either the 931 or the 930 for that price from japan without listening to them first is quite like 'flipping a relatively expensive coin and not catching it in the end' PS: budget is $30... get three Sennheiser MX350/450 (depending on the local price) and learn to resolder a miniplug and make your own short cord (and if you're good at it, you could resell the extra pairs) PPS: there's a trick where you clip the remote to your belt and use a mid-long cord (the senn MX350/450 and the PX100 have a 80cm cord... unlike the Senn HD497 that carry a hefty 3m

jaylen, as far as I know, you could just 'undo' the mod by placing tape over the holes and thereby making the phones fully closed again... I just haven't got a soldering gun so I'll wait till I have the phones with me and see what the membrane is actually made of to make up my mind in doing the mod or not... I'd like a bit of bass and I do not care that much about isolation...well not inside --> outside isolation at least