The Low Volta

huh? my mobile phone (Sony-Ericsson W810i) IS a genuine drag-n-drop audio player... just plug in the USB, drop the MP3's or even AAC's in the correct folder on the Memorystick and disconnect...ready to play! (it also supports any standard 3,5mm minijack outfitted headphone and sounds pretty decent) or perhaps that wasn't what you meant... if you meant a drag-n-drop MD, I guess it (as oh so often when discussing the MD format) is rather a techological limitation and not so much a software decision... all music on the disc needs to be written in the one big file that contains all audio info and the correct data has to be added to the TOC. Even the mac software for the mac-compatible machines, which comes pretty close to drag-n-drop just pretends to as it still needs to write it all into the same structure as well (so it takes some time and Sony can design limitations as well)

aw darn... I spent all this time coming up with this elaborate reply... and then it all could be said so much better in just a few words PS: really dancicero, I can honestly say that A440 and I (and others) might sound harsh but we really do not mean to offend and we bear no grudge or anything...I'm the first to agree we are having a bit of fun at your expence, but after so many rants of ppl wanting NetMD to be something it isn't (just have read here on MDCF) it is just a way of letting off steam I guess.

yes and no... you are indeed just and there really is nothing against that whatsoever... but there really is no need to get angry because 'the devices and media you already bought and paid for' will unfortunately for you only do what they were intended to do and not what you would like them to do... NetMD was not designed for two way USB-tranfers. It is a hardware limitation and not a copyright conspiracy from Sony. I'm not saying that at the time NetMD was designed the restriction might not have been instigated by their copy-fears! I'm just saying that NetMD couldn't do it, can't do it and never will be able to do it as the restriction is hardware fixed. Why then does anyone have the guts to call you a whiner? Well because Sony never lied to you about the USB-transfer abilities: they clearly stated that it was one-way only and everyone seemed to grasp that notion... until now... It is only now that HiMD allowed two-way transfers that all of a sudden everyone (remember, this is not about you alone... you'd never get a strong word like 'whiner' thrown at you if you'd been the first to bring this up) expects that NetMD 'magically' should be able to do this as well "just because it has a USB-port as well" Get over it: you bought something (a NetMD recorder) at some point in time (2003) for a certain price (a fortune) and it did exactly what it was supposed to do and still works just fine unless I have missed anything... now (4 years later) you see something better (can do what you would have liked in the first place) and you demand that your older (read pre-technologically possible) purchase should be able to do this as well even though it is technically impossible... and we are not allowed to call you a whino? Who am I to nag you like this... well, I have been in your shoes even though it was a slightly different feature-issue and a very different reaction on my part. I bought an NH900 in 2004 and was fully aware of the non-mac compatibility. I was mainly a mac user, but I needed the HiMD functions and I started using a newly bought PC so I could use it as I needed... one year after there was the release of the mac-compatible M-models... should this lead me to wine about the inexisting mac-functions of my NH900? No but just like you now lots of ppl did! I didn't think the new mac-features (at that time MD -> mac only and PCM-only) warranted investing in a new MD-recorder, so I didn't... end of story at that time. One year later the RH1 was released. It offered not only two-way transfers to and from mac, but also compatibility for all HiMD bitrates and as a bonus it remembered recording settings as well and had a lit display. I again didn't whine about my older unit not posessing all these features, but I simply invested in an RH1 because this time I did reckon the new features warranted the expense... bottom line: - either you did not know about the limitations of what you bought and this history should teach you to invest a little more time researching your investments - or you did know about them and it is simply part of the everyday technological evolution (what you buy today is old tomorrow) and if you feel the need to whine about that... fair enough, but that means it is only fair for ppl to point that out to you as well no hard feelings! PS: the fact you can't play those DRM-ed audiobooks is another issue, mainly the fault of 1) the codec designers and 2) the library as they chose an unaccessible closed and stupidly protected format (heck, providing audiobooks and/or podcasts in a format that most portable DAPs can't play is just plain stupid) but it certainly is not Sony's fault

@ mdfreak! - faster, yes: using SonicStage (if you want to keep an atrac library on your PC) or SimpleBurner (which requires SonicStage to be installed, but then allows you to rip CD's straight onto MD without storing them on PC) - better sound quality, NO: SS and SB do provide SP, but this is actually just LP2 that is sent over to the MD and transcoded on the MD into SP... there simply is no SP-codec for PC, so the best quality you'll get is LP2 if you transfer through USB (and the fake-SP transferred through USB will even be slightly worse as it has been transcoded a second time) so if you do want a faster working MD and better SQ when transfered from PC, look into HiMD and more specifically he RH1 (or the NH700 if you're on a budget) as HiSP is as good as SP and transfers much quicker than realtime over USB but is a HiMD-format

uhm, there seems to be some slight confusion about the term NetMD here NetMD can stand for two different but related things: - the machines that came after MDLP and which included a USB port = hardware - the process of transfering content to MD from PC through the use of that aforementioned USB as opposed to recording = process/content this might seem slightly irrelevant, but it really is not as the RH1: - can upload all (analogue/digital) recordings (which means through line-in/mic-in or optical-in) to PC (whether made with HiMD, NetMD, MDLP or MD) = recording hardware is irrelevant - cannot upload any NetMD-transfer from PC through USB = the process does matter! as you are talking about "recordings made through line-in" we are talking about recordings and not "NetMD transfers" so the RH1 can upload those tracks and there is no need for toc-cloning or anything

@ anastomosis... all these tracks you mention CAN be uploaded with the RH1: ONLY NetMD "PC -USB-> MD" transfers are prohibited

when I bought myself some Sennheiser PX100's I even returned to a flat eq as the greenmachine setting provided too much bass... I guess it mostly depends on taste: I prefer to listen to music and not something boom-booming in my ears

I believe he is unhappy with the lowest band being 100Hz and not 60Hz or something... which is quite understandable, but this inconvenience can easily be been overcome without entering service mode by aaplying greenmachine's equalizer settings (all bands except the lowest -1)

a search would have shown that the sequence is up on MDCF already (check this thread) and even though I do believe you didn't intend to change anything, I really don't think you 'accidentally' completed the entire sequence without faults this thread is again a great example why you really shouldn't mess around with service mode unless you know what you're doing

hi there... have a look at this thread and ... I should have read more carefully what kind of machine you had overthere, so please ignore me and see greenmachine's post for useful info

just search these forums for "greenmachine" and "equalizer" and you'll know how this sony-error can be defeated

the indicator is nothing more than the battery-indicator on your RH1 screen...it is a bit of circuitry in the MD that visualizes the charge left (and in the RH1 also the time left to charge etc.) and it needs to correspond as close to the real battery charge as possible to be of any use (see the awkward NH900 battery indicator that blinks for empty and still allows a couple of hours playback) so letting a LiIon charge for a long time makes sure you've reached 100% and allows the battery indicator to set this level correctly (the first 80% take only a short time, but the last 20% can take up to 2-3 hours more)

my parents happen to be very creative ppl with an excellent taste for classical and complex contemporary music (like most postrock, some sorts of jazz and certain bands like The Mars Volta and Tool...) and I don't really mind sounding like them in that regard... but then again, I'm kinda close to thirty already so I might simply be old in your opinion I personally am not saying I'm against top-40 per se (heck, Damie Rice is in the top-40 overhere) but lots of the things that make up this list are simply 'produced to make money' and what's worse they sound like that as well in general, I crave music that makes me think and/or discover new/deeper emotional levels and I dislike all brainless, soulless (often over-commercialized) dribble

I've got 4.2 on a freshly re-installed 3.0GHz HP and together with my RH1 it runs smoothly and pretty fast... mind you, I only upload stuff... wouldn't dream about keeping a library in SS

as far as I understood it, the lossless file contained two parts: the lossy bitrate specified part (here 352kbps) AND a (losslessly compressed) complementary part that filled in what was left out of the lossy part... together they formed the lossless but bitrate specific file... hence: - the need to specify the bitrate before converting to a lossless file - the reason you need to convert to wav first if you want to convert to another bitrate without only reconverting the lossy part - the fact that the different bitrate lossless files are roughly the same size (which would be impossible if it was a full lossless file + the lossy bitrate specific file as well) and this would enable lossless playback on DAP if both parts are transferred and used for playback... but which indeed negates the use of a specified bitrate lossless bottom line: if you want to have a clearly defined concept like lossless and you want to disrupt its fixed meaning... just let sony have a go at it... Baudrillard eat your hart out PS: all of this is derived from close readings of all tthe test results posted here when Atrac Lossless first appeared... due to the fact that it really was just Atrac Useless (who ever heard of a bitrate specific lossless file...get real) I never went through the hassle of confirming any of this myself

I have recorded lots of concerts (bass heavy as well) with greenmachines stereo mics and battery box without bass roll-off and I prefer it that way: - no distortion (the modded mics + b-box can easily handle the spl) - no info missing (all you hear is in the recording and all necessary editing can be performed afterwards unlike with bass roll-off: you can never restore what you didn't record)

I bet that would be highly supported by the music industry's lobby groups and for a quick guide to the MP3 development history have a read overhere

chris G, even though you might have a point there in theory... reality (i.e. all the succesful cases made by music industry big shots against e.g. 14 year old girls sharing MP3s - not 'exact copies' either - over the net using napster or gnutella etc) proves you wrong I'm afraid you should be able to hear a significant degradation in SQ before you could actually try and use that argument in court I reckon... so perhaps HiLP should be ok just kidding the big shots would easily claim that a transparant file is as good as an exact copy as pirating is concerned... don't you think that someone else would already have thought about this if it really would/could work?

you should put LiIon through one full discharge/charge-cycle the first charge (and according to some once every half year or so) just to (re)set the battery indicator ... but the battery itself requires no such thing (unlike NiMH and NiCd) for more info have a read at www.batteryuniversity.com as it explains lots of stuff about batteries in a very easy to grasp language (and it has a special 'how to take care for your batteries' section that gives a lot of good tips)

audacity... even though I don't know quite enough about it, I manage to use it to edit my recordings without 'destroying' anything (I like to keep everything that was recorded, so no eq'ing nor cutting applause unless it really is needed to fit a cocncert onto one cd)

LiIon batteries always come partly charged as they lose their charge automatically over time storing them uncharged could result in a dead battery from deep discharge... best is to store them at 40% (according to www.batteryuniversity.com) and keep in mind raintheory's remarks on 80% and full charging times as well (which you could have also learned from that strange little booklet in your package called user manual or something alike )

that mic is pretty bass shy actually... try another mic (some of greenmachines binaurals or something alike) as they do record all the bass you hear another option is to upload and apply equalization in a program like audacity on PC/Mac

ah, thanks jaylen... I'm seriously considering getting a second one as I really, REALLY love 'em, except for 2 things: - they are foldable and seem 'portable', but they form an awkward ball that isn't stored easily and the felt bag they come with surely won't protect against any rough treatment in a bag or so... again, if someone knows of a good protective box for them (I transport them in a tupperware box right now, but it is too big for portable use) - as with other over the head phones they do leave strange impressions in your hair, so you won't be wearing them on your way to work if it is a 'public' job

ah... that isn't nice those are the new phones supposed to replace the ol' eggo line I guess (Ishii did a pictorial on them I believe) I know on ebay the respectable seller 'buyfromjapan' sold the D66SL as well, but he seems to have taken a vacation (no items in his shop at this moment... but that could change real soon...) perhaps he still has access to a couple of them (I'd like that, as I'd love to get a spare set now they seem to be out of production) I'll keep you posted if I find them somewhere

thank you greenmachine for adding a bit of extra info and a human touch to my concise words (I knew I shouldn't be posting when I was kinda falling asleep after a horrible day... dented my car, battled the insurance,... but that's another topic)