The Low Volta

I guess that you might have bought a European version...check this thread and for 2nd gen Hi-MD which I guess you have this one ...which you would have found yourself if you searched a bit or read the advise when posting in this forum

Here's some reading material... if you still have questions, you could perhaps bring that thread back to life with them, but let's keep this thread reserved for finds on "cheap MD's in UK" greetings, Volta

I also use the Senn MX450's (and also the MX350's) but I do think my opinion differs a bit... Ok, without eq'ing they do lack bass (not as much as the 350's though), but with a bit of eq'ing I really think a lot of this can be restored. Mostly I raise 100Hz -> +6dB; 250Hz -> +3dB and depending on the music I sometimes also lower 10kHz -> -3dB (or on the six-band eq of the NH900, utter left stripe two notches up, the next one, one notch up and sometimes the right one one nudge down) If you do eq them, at least they will have bass (some bass-lacking phones will never have, even when q'ed to max), while as the sony stock 'buds (who indeed are more bassy from themselves) will always lack the clarity of the Senn's even with extensive eq'ing... But the main point here is: "what have you bought them for?" I got them as a cheap replacement for the stock buds... first I found the 350's (for €7) and was impressed by heir brightness, but a bit disappointed by the lack of bass and the asymmetric neckstrap style. I was going to search on for better buds, but I couldn't really see any good+strong+cheap+easy to find ones. Then I came across the 450's (for €15) which were symmetrical (yay) and could have the bass raised by eq'ing (as I had noticed with the 350's in the mean time) so I got these to accompany me on 'my travels'... Sure you can find better sounding buds or canalphones...but not under $20! And they do sound better (with eq'ing) than a lot of more expensive ones IMHO. I only use bud's when I'm traveling by train or walking (and riding public transport) through Brussels...and I really think that the X450's are good bud's for that use (just crank up that bass and believe me, they will sound much better than the stock buds). For extended listening or more hifi-allowing surroundings (a quiet living room or something alike) I use my bigger Senn HD497's which do sound better. If I'm going to spend more money, I have other priorities than buds, first I need a decent pair of mics (still haven't decidied which ones ) and an upgrade for my more hifi headphones (perhaps to something bigger but still portable enough for on a train like the eggo's or something)...after all that is done I will start looking for high(er) quality buds... So bottom line: - With he MX450's you get more than you payed for, but you did only pay very little! They are cheap but decent replacements for the stock buds and if you eq the bass, they sound (at least to me) much better than the 'generic' Sony buds. - If you want something sounding really good, be prepared to spend more money... greetings, Volta PS: they do start to sound a bit deeper after extended use (or it could be that my ears are getting more used to them ) but I don't think it is necessary to really 'professionally' burn these in (heck the wear on your machine from burning in would cost more than the buds themselves )... just use them and see if you can hear any changes gradually

ehm, erasing a trackmark=combining two tracks, the one before and the one after the mark in question... I don't think Fluffcat1 did anything else than you, just make one long track in sequence out of the marked mess..;the only thing he did do was to add marks at different points afterwards, but those didn't give any upload errors... but please Killroy, let's not extend this discussion: I know you don't pretend that your method will effectively work or everyone...and I know about at least one case in which it has ruined an uploading! So just to be on the safe side and to prevent other threads like Fluffcat1's, I just would like to recommend the one safe way (until proven otherwise) which is Dex's... You, like anyone else, can use whatever you want, but only if you are aware of the dangers and you all promise not to come complaining if it goes belly up... greetings, Volta PS: as far as I'm concerned we have clearly answered the poster's question and this topic is closed

have you read the thread I mentioned? Fluffcat1 writes: so I would really advise to use Dex's way if you want to be safe... greetings, Volta

I have PM'ed mrsoul and he wants to do the test, but he hasn't got a battery box any more, so it will be 'mic->mic in' vs 'mic->boostbox->line in'

welcome to MDCF z_survivor... please read the faq's and the stickied threads and search these forums a bit before you ask these questions again... these are already answered a lot of times before! (I even believe they are both answered in this one thread) but real quickly - no, there is MP3 playback on 2nd gen Hi-MD but no drag and drop - slower than USB 1.1 greetings, Volta

Killroy, that would seem like a good way to erase unwanted trackmarks, but some sort of bug with this has been known to cause errors when uploading later (read this thread)...so I would really advise against using this technique! Please read and use Dex's technique I referred to in my previous post! It really is the safest way to upload for anyone, not only ppl who want to burn gapless CD's... greetings, Volta

indeed Killroy, I already corrected my mistake in another thread (I never use optical in myself as I don't have any machine with optical out, so that possibility escaped me) and have also edited my post above now... as Veezhun also pointed out, you can convert these digital reocrdings to wav by using Marc's Hi-MD-renderer (see this thread) greetings, Volta

I guess I'm LV sure the track he erased from his PC was OMA, but it originated from an analogue recording -> uploaded by USB -> SS and not directly imported from CD->SS or MP3->SS or anything like that... I just mean to say that as far as I understood fishstyc's explanation of his program at the time, it only works for tracks that were erased from the PC (music library) and that SS wouldn't allow to be uploaded again from Hi-MD because of DRM-reasons but that were previously imported in SS (from CD or MP3's or anything, but not by USB uploading) then downloaded to Hi-MD. There are some essential differences between restoring tracks imported in SS and tracks recorded analoguely (through line in/mic in) then uploaded to SS, as Marcnet states in the same thread as I've mentioned above: so simply put: because the resulting OMA in SS isn't exactly the same as the original recording on the disc, HiMD_xtract won't work here. as I said, I could be interpreting all this wrong, but I doubt it very much, because if it would allow recordings to be restored, a lot of the more tech savvy ppl here on MDCF would already have been promoting this method for saving ruined uploads... and they haven't. So as far as I know, the T-R way is the only digital possibility to restore your own recordings from Hi-MD after you've had your one and only USB-upload. greetings, Volta

I don't think it would work here...hippiect is talking about a recording he erased from his PC, not a track he downloaded from SS and then erased. Fishstyc wrote about his HiMD_xtract program (here): as far as I know it doesn't work for analoguely recorded tracks...and if I'm wrong, I'm really wondering why noone uses this to save their recordings and we still promote TotalRecorder as the only digital option left. greetings, Volta

I believe I read somewhere that the frequency responce also benefits from being fed a decent voltage...but don't kill me if this is utter gabble, as I only vaguely remember it and I'm not very wise in the way of mics and audio besides, if Mr. Soul has a battery box as well, he could do: - mic->batt box->mic in (=MD pre-amp + 9V) - mic->boost box->line in (=external pre-amp + 9V) if this makes sense (and doesn't introduce extra noise by adding a battery box) all we need is Mr.Soul and we have ourselves a test Volta

I must agree with greenmachine here... when I listened to the sample, I just increased playback volume for the last 10 sec so the birds sounded equally loud but the noise level increased with that, so I too noticed very little difference in noise (volumewise)... (and greenmachine's adjustment shows that pretty good) strange, as I always thought an external pre-amp would make such a big difference ...perhaps we could ask Mr.Soul who has got the Boostbox to record a continuous low volume signal (or the same track played through the same speakers at the same low level twice) once with and once without the extenal pre-amp so we could get a clearer sample to compare (at least we could make sure that the incoming signal was just as loud/quiet...so we can use that to precicely match the levels of both recordings and compare noise). Or is this a bad idea? greetings, Volta

darn you're right...I forgot about that part (as I have no optical out I never used real SP yet) PS: I've edited my above statement about digital not being uploadable

Have you ever read any posts in these forums? There are a lot of ppl here begging for more Hi-MD stuff like decks, car-units,... and also worried/complaining about abandoning a number of features without obvious (non-commercial) reasons (like line out or backwards compatibility) Well, you can still use old type discs and play previously recorded MD's as well, even on 2nd gen Hi-MD, and SS allows backwards compatibility... I can see that for a lot of ppl that isn't enough backwards compatibility, but I can also see that Sony thinks it is and that ppl will have to follow (this doesn't mean I agree with them!). Perhaps I understand you wrong, but you still can download from PC in the old formats. Depends on how sinister you think everyday corporate decisions are... Sony sure isn't the only company making 'strange' moves. BTW...cryptonite? So you feel restricted by the mods on these forums? You think you can't say anything negative about Sony? I have to ask again: have you even read any of the posts here? Half of this forum is dedicated to helping ppl cope with the crippled software and the other half helps to solve all sorts of problems. That sure doesn't sound like they're all defending Sony, does it? Perhaps if you stop and think for a while you realize it's not Sony we're defending here... it's MD and the potentially very beautiful Hi-MD format. It isn't 'Sony community forums' but 'Minidisc CF'! Even kurisu (the administrator) has expressed his hopes of Sharp making a Hi-MD player. But no you're right... boo us who defend the positive aspects of Hi-MD (and Sony as they are the only ones producing Hi-MD players for now)... Yelling, damning Sony, complaining all the time and coming up with conspiracy theories will save the format. If only we type enough in capitals or use enough emoticons...then Sony will listen to us...and if not, at least we scared away the last MD-users so the format will definitely die and we can blame Sony again for their malpractices that eventually killed MD. Perhaps you could take a minute to contemplate about your posting style here on MDCF (typing in capitals, militant tone, over the top punctuation and emoticons,...). Could it be that your posts were removed 'cause of that? There are a lot of ppl saying almost exactly the things you're shouting and their posts don't get removed, do they? IMHO Hi-MD rocks. Sure it has its fair number of child diseases, but please realize that you can hold in your hands a very portable machine that can record in CD-quality, upload it to PC and play music as well and all that for under $300! I've said it before and I will say it again: - those of you who like the Hi-MD format: speak out, show your friends and families and especially the we-puddle (aka i-podders) why, work with the positive aspects (and there are a lot) and demand further steps by Sony, but stop whining all the time, 'cause if I was Sony, I would kill the format just to get rid of all these negativists - if you do not like the Hi-MD format (for whatever reason), don't buy it, period. But don't scare away other users, 'cause there are ppl who would like to see the format survive. ...if you say, hey but you didn't mention me: "I hate Hi-MD as it is, won't buy it or regret I did and now I will scream and be negative till Sony comes up with a better version and a full range of machines so I will like and perhaps even buy it", you're right. I didn't mention you, as I think you should choose between the two options stated above. Either you're constructive in public or destructive on your own... but don't kill the format for the rest of us, please. What do you really think Sony would do if we all adopt your negative stance? They could listen to the small Hi-MD and MD users-group who are a bunch of whining, impossible to please 'pro'-sumers and make all your wanted adjustments or just kill the format and bring out another i-pod-alike success that will please a lot of 'easy' consumers...hm? But if we keep a small but strong users group who work with Sony in a constructive way and point out to them the niche markets (with a lot of cash) they haven't even thought about (what will happen to all ex-DAT-pro's?) the format might survive in the HD-world... Greetings, Volta PS: sorry for this ranting, but I'm really fed up with negativistic conspiracy gabble... buy it or don't, if you do enjoy it while it lasts if you don't have a great life over on i-pod-forum or something...they love to hear "MD is dead"-stories Mods, feel free to remove this, but Hair Old...I hope you will think a bit before you post another of your anti-Sony slogans

hey atrain, I just had something alike for supper... BBQ'ed lambchops and couscous and a lot of fresh vegetables (including a mixed salad with rocket) but my dad cooked (and he doesn't read MDCF, so I didn't steal your idea )

You mean recordings made through 'optical in'? I did not know that...I thought Sony was so paranoid about copying music they even wouldn't allow that. (does this mean that you could record a CD on a NH900 in real SP, upload and put it on a different disc as real SP? I would love to try it, but I don't have anything with optical out )

Welcome to MDCF, whispering very softly ...almost all you need is presented in the 'help files' of SonicStage... but not all: first thing you should do is to check the version of SonicStage(=SS) you have (in SS->help->about SS) if it is anything lower than 2.3, update immediately to 3.1 from here if it is 2.3 or 3.0 you could still best upgrade to 3.1, but it isn't as urgent (if you don't really feel comfortable with upgrading) if you already have music in SonicStage (ripped CD's) first run the SS-backup tool (it's in the same folder as SS) so you won't lose any music that way... (if you don't have a music library yet or don't mind that it could be erased, just skip the backup tool) to import your wav's, simply open SS, go to file->import and then you can choose 'open file' if you want to add each wav individually or 'scan folder' and select the folder with all the wav's if you want to import them all... they should appear in SS, ready to be transfered to Net-MD (in the bitrate you want) by pressing the blue transfer button up right, select your MD (which should be plugged in by USB of course), selecting the wanted tracks on the left and pressing the big red arrow pointing right, towards your MD if the wav's are from CD's you have with you, you could use Simple Burner (you can download version 2.0 from here). It is a very useful and much simpler (hence the name) program than SS, but you need SS to be installed on your computer for it to run. In SimpleBurner, you just pop in a CD, select the bitrate (LP2, LP4, ...) and press transfer. The tracks are downloaded to MD and they will not be put on your PC, so they won't take up any space on your harddisc. hope this helps (and that I was clear enough in my explanation)...if not, just let us know and I or someone who can explain things better will try again (also if you have further questions) greetings, Volta PS: always good to see a next generation interested in MD

no problem Enrico, glad to help...but I saw you already learned that lesson yourself now (though the hard way, like many before you...me included). I just grabbed the opportunity to promote the correct way of uploading again (as explained very clearly by Dex) so that perhaps others might read it first and not only after they have trashed one (or even much more) recording(s)... enjoy recording and see you around here on MDCF Volta

For lunch I had some homemade hot-dogs with absolutely everything on them (well my folks at least, I wouldn't eat sauerkraut or ketchup if my life depended on it ... so I had Weiner sausages with mustard ) So that was kind of a culinary dissapointment for me, but now I will go and have an espresso in the sun (it's about 34°C here, which is like the most 'Italian' Belgium will ever be!) and a piece of Belgian chocolate covered pudding pie...yum sorry if I made someone hungry

welcome to MDCF Dirtmagnet, - you don't want to erase the disc, what's on it ? downloaded music or recordings? in what format(s)? how much? put on the disc with what program (SS or SB or analogue in)?what type of disc was it (1gig, 80min, 74min, 60min, all)? what format MD or Hi-MD? - does it still play through the headphones? - have you tried formatting a disc in the NH700 itself? (edit/erase/format) - have you tried using Simple Burner? you could give this a try and see what happens, furthermore, please read the rules for posting software questions and post all specifications accordingly greetings, Volta

welcome to MDCF Mortal, just to keep the discussion clear: - PC->MD=downloading (as in the download only D-models like NH600D) - MD->PC=uploading (since Hi-MD possible through USB for recordings) - source->line in or mic in or optical in=recording ok, this restriction and DRM as a whole is questionable at least, but titling on the recorder is very slow, kinda difficult (no keyboard) and IMHO only useful to type in the hour/date after recording something with any other recorder than NH1 (which has timestamp)... so I'm afraid you'll have to live with Sony's quirks, but I don't think this specific problem is really serious... greetings, Volta

I'm sorry to read this...it's always painful when one has to learn a lesson the hard way for future times (and for all ppl reading this, who haven't yet thought about it) please read and follow Dex's instructions for totally gapless burning... Don't think that this is not important for you 'cause you don't burn CD's of your recordings, this is also very useful for anyone who wants to keep a decent wav-'master' of the recordings or actually anyone who doesn't like anything to go wrong while uploading... The first person that has exactly followed these instructions and still messed up the upload has yet to be found So hopefully this was your last trashed recording... Greetings, Volta

a lot of your drawbacks (1, 2a, 2b, 2d & 3) are not present with a NH900 and all you have to give up for this are 'good points' 1 & 2 (but only partly... the NH900 still is quite small and is half aluminum/half plastic) so if you want to invest some more (the NH900's are pretty cheap if you can find them) this could be a nice addition for your work greetings, Volta PS: the RH10 (and RH910) can do most of this also and will play MP3's, but won't record in Atrac3 or any other older codec... (only Hi-SP/Hi-LP and PCM I think)

as far as I know they all use USB1.1, the Hi-MD's as well greetings, Volta