Stratman

Well one thing I can say about the noise issue. If you have bought an MD and it came with the Australian bundle, the bag that comes in the bundle is absolutely excellent for muffling recorder noise. When out and about I usually wear pants with deep pockets, so the bag doesn't worry so much and usually where I'm recording there aren't many people about to notice me. I do however think the amount of noise can be variable though. I have had it that if I take some of my md discs out and then put them back in at times that the sound of the noise heard has changed. Discs that are fuller sometimes seem to sound a little noiser to [guess it's seeking etc] Having recently got a MZ-NH900 to compare with my MZ=NH700 I don't think I'd assert that the 900 is louder, well at least mine at any rate - I'll have to wait and see if it's an age thing... Stratman

Things I would like to see [yes I'm probably repeating things others have suggested, but anyways, but this is the view of a NH700 user ;-]: Backlight backlight backlightWireless transfer would be nice Recording settings saved - This is a real annoyanceCompressed PCM [double time! well almost]Perhaps some crossloading feature [send pictures / data from phones or other devices to my md]A software based solution of the kind of quality of something like Winamp [something which supported winamp plugins would make some people very happy]The software could allow people to "dj" with an md The ability to playback pictures and or audio from an MD disc in a slide projector type wayBetter quality analog recording, I use my MD for audio recording of natural sound sources and other related things, being able to do this better would pretty much guarentee I bought another oneI don't want a camera in the device. Keeping view finders etc clean is an issue when I usually record with the device in my pocket. Something of a low resolution with highly visible barrel warp etc would not appeal at allLess recorder noise. At the moment I use the bonus supplied bag etc to muffle/remove it. I'd also prefer if the accessories bags didn't have "MD" on them in such huge type to. A microphone from Sony which works with MD which has a fuller range 20hz-20khz or 80hz-20khz please!I quite like the wheel on current units, so don't go killing the thing and putting in a huge number of buttons insteadThe ability to transfer with a few clicks without having the whole sonicstage businessStratman

As someone who bought their first MD/HiMD earlier in the year I'm somewhat disappointed to be hearing all this. I bought an MD because I wanted to be able to record things in wav format, and play music. My NH700 does this better than any of the cheap mp3 players my friends and even my sister have bought. Why? Well I'd say that the DAC's on the Sony units are probably superior. An mp3 that sounds terrible no matter what earphones you use isn't something I want [we're taking CD ==> mp3 128kbps at least]. I can put up with ATRAC and other things so long as it sounds good and doesn't cost 10 x as much as anything else. The other thing with MD is the recording business. MD was the cheapest thing I could buy into that I could strangely, more easily buy than other items, well at least at the time. Failings of Sony: Problems with Sonic Stage. I found reviews that said it was good and bad The whole DRM thing with personal recordings. After reading these forums I became a bit paranoid about how I'd go about uploading my tracks back to my PC. But that stopped being a worry with the new version and I've never had a serious problem with it ever. My interest in bootlegging things with my MD is NIL. My want of recording ambient sound etc, is not however. More problems with Sonic Stage. When I first bought the thing I could never get Sonic Stage to download completely. The process kept stalling, no matter what. Till I visited this place I couldn't get any further, till I downloaded the version you guys put up. Why in the heck can't they sell a decent stereo microphone for MD's??? My friends don't really know what an MD is. I had to explain why I bought one rather than an mp3 player, and why I like my MD better and what I do with it etc. Over 6 months ago an MD was great compared to things like flash memory based solutions with such small amounts of memory, and in many ways compared with many products still is [battery use has always seemed excellent compared with my sister's static state player, and that player of hers doesn't come with a recharger/NiMH batteries either]. Other stuff I've been thinking about taking my MD to the gym with me, but now Australia seems to be going into limbo I'm not sure I want to take the risk of doing something to the laser servo, as I can't go to the store and buy another obviously and I'm frightened that my warrentee repair opportunities may have gone out the window to [not that I intend to soak it in water or stand on it, it's just so far the thing has been mollycoddled [partly to reduce the sound of recorder noise when recording] and I'd rather not find out if there are any issues with it the hard way. More money to be spent on something else I guess in the end. I've been trying to save up for an RM40ELK remote [i didn't realise how irritaiting it can be not to have a backlight on one of these], and now this is going on I wonder if by the time I have enough if I'll actually be able to buy one. Why I want to keep my MD The discs are cheap. I can afford to have a few GB's of wav in my hand. I can't do the same with a flash player at the moment. If a HIMD discs stuffs up I can throw it in the bin. I loose $4. That's so small an amount.It sounds good!It does what I want [except for the DRM thing, but now SS allows infinite personal recording uploads I'm not bothered anymore].It records wav.It's easy to use. Another thing I can't say about every other device on the market.It's small.I'm into photography and if I take my Sony camera somewhere I can crossload my images into my MD if I need to.Maybe there's something wrong with me, but I would probably buy another MD of some description in the future if the concept was advanced further etc.Reality Stuff I used to own a Superdisc, from Imation, and my Dad still owns a Superdisk 240. Laser-Servo-Magnetic recording is pretty much dead in the consumer arena to the best of my knowledge. Sony feels bad about the whole iPOD thing and is probably heavily concentrating on busting that bubble. Sony has a fight on their hands in the realm of digital phones and digital device convergence I expect my gear to go out of date etc. I just think from buying something less than a year ago, that I'd expect a little more life out of the product in the marketplace, considering it is a pretty nice reliable and not incredibly expensive product. The other week I cleared a store out of its stock of HIMD disks as they had been slashed in price. To think before I was happy with owning two 1gb HIMD discs and a normal ones! Ultimate Worry Windows Vista is not all that far away really, and I'd like to know that there is a chance that my MD will still be able to transfer on windows using SS in the future [or some other program]. If Sony dump the whole MD concept entirely I'd hope that there is some kind of software out there that will still function properly for as long as I have a device that works. Delusions/Conclusions I can understand much of what people have been saying in this thread, and I can but suggest a few things: Don't go OTT till we know a bit more.If you see HIMD things for cheap etc, it's in someways a good thing, a few extra discs or accessories you wouldn't normally be able to afford isn't a bad thing.The players will continue to operate irrespective of what Sony does (it's not like there's a worldwide kill switch which the devices will respond to).Stratman

Since installing the Sony download of SS3.2 and installing it I have noticed that my MD does seem to be rather slow in being found by SS. Not entirely sure why, but there's plenty of stuff running in the background with this version compared to 2.3 that's for sure. If you wait longer than a few seconds you may find it does actually find it, it might take a minute or so sometimes. Stratman

As the terrible person who started this thread, I'd just like to thank Dex and A440 for their replies. I feel I must apologise to, as I've been somewhat busy and didn't mean to sound like I was just posting here to pinch other's thoughts Though, when I last came back this thread had taken on a life of its own! Just thought I might say that I've decided to buy the MM-BSM-8's and put an order in last week and hopefully they'll arrive intact in the next few days/weeks. I'll probably take them through their paces and see if I can't post some clips here, so that people can have a listen [wherever other MM-BSM-8 users lurk I have no clue]. AFAIK the ones I'm getting will probably have panasonic capsules in them, I couldn't really justify the expenditure that would be involved with buying the Sennheiser ones [if I wanted to do this stuff for money I'd probably imagine I'd have to spring for something more expensive than those even]. Haven't heard any sounds captured with the Sennheiser capsules either, even if they were twice as good as the default ones I'm not sure anyone would be able to demonstrate the fact.... Stratman

Hello, I'm in the market to buy a pair of binaural microphones, I've done my homework and the two which I've been looking at and narrowed the field down to are the Soundprofessionals SP-TFB-2 and Microphone Madness MM-BSM-8. Similar price, similar specs. The websites: SoundProfessionals SP-TFB-2 and Microphone Madness MM-BSM-8 Some things I've heard: The MM-BSM-8. and the SP-TFB-2 have the same microphone capsules/mic elements. (True/False) The SP-TFB-2 can be difficult to mount in your ear and the windshields are much tooooo easy to break. Other things: I've only been able to find soundclips of the SP-TFB-2 and some of them are really nice. The MM set appear to have no wind shield???/Are designed to reduce it already? I'd be using them to record ambience/wildlife and the occasional foley effect for audiodrama material [yes I know these are omni mics, but I have a very quiet room to work with]. I'd be using them with a new HiMD so sensitivity settings aren't a problem. I'm leaning towards the design of the MM pair, but I'd rather not buy them just to return them [30day money back policy] because for whatever reason they sound or are worse than the Soundprofessional set. If someone could give me some ideas I'd be very greatful. Stratman