Azureal

That's awesome! My wife would do the same, they just don't seem to understand. You scored big time!

This is one reason I am so disappointed that there is no way to transfer ATRAC3plus 128Kbps onto an MD. I think it would be the perfect combination of space to SQ. Any idea why there are a few such ATRAC3plus endoding levels which cannot be transferred to disc? Stephen, regarding the additional information in your post, I have also read all of your other details of LP4 use as well, and I look forward to having the time to test it out for myself. The music I listen to is different in nature from what you are encoding and i'll be interested to see if I can produce acceptable results in the same fashion which you have accomplished. Have you made a comparison between ATRAC3 LP4 (66Kbps) and ATRAC3plus HiLP (64Kbps), both stored on a HiMD formatted disc? If so, what is your opinion of that comparison? As for archmonde11's desire to reproduce the highest quality CD like sound on MD, IMHO, he should stick with SP on MD formatted discs, HiSP on HiMD formatted discs, or PCM on 1GB HiMD discs.

I was watching that same sale a few months back and you're right it did go for over $300 dollars. My wife would have killed me! That unit is very rare, I remember reading that it was only sold in the Japanese market, it came with a docking station as well. I think one or two folks around here may own one and cherish it as well.

Hello and welcome archmonde11, Regarding your questions about MD/HiMD formatting. You are correct, this is a choice of the format placed on the disc. The original MD format using MDLP (ATRAC3 CODEC compression options) was designed for storage of 80 minutes of music at 292Kbps (SP mode) very good sound quality, but limited duration and capacity, 160 minutes of music at 132Kbps (LP2 mode) decent sound quality but with compression artifacts being more obvious or 320 minutes of music at 66Kbps (LP4 mode) so-so sound quality, not acceptable to some. With HiMD, you are able to place the HiMD format on an older 80 minute disc, the HiMD format allows for the storage of higher duration of source material. The comparison is not apples to apples because Sony began stating the capacity of a disc in MB or GB versus minutes of storage space. An 80 minute disk prepared with HiMD format has access to the newer ATRAC3plus compression options as well as the original ATRAC3 options. Using ATRAC3 you can store approximately 5 hours LP2 and 10 hours LP4, using the newer ATRAC3plus CODECs for compression, an 80 minute disc prepared with HiMD format can store approximately 2 hours 30 minutes of 256Kbps (Hi-SP), 10 hours of 64Kbps (Hi-LP). There are some other ATRAC3plus CODEC options as well, however some cannot be transferred to MD regardless of the format placed on the disk. Using a 1GB HiMD disc, which can only be formatted using the HiMD format, you can store many more hours of ATRAC3 and ATRAC3Plus content. The disc is has roughly 3.25 times the capacity of an 80 minute disc and can hold around 8 hours of ATRAC3plus 256Kbps (HiSP) which is great. It can also store around 16 hours of ATRAC3 132Kbps (LP2). PCM can be stored on both disk types as well, although at the cost of capacity. An 80 minute HiMD formatted disc can store around 30 minutes of PCM, a 1GB HiMD disc can store around 94 minutes of PCM. I personally use new old stock 80 Minute MD disks in two modes, optical recording of SP (292Kbps) straight to disc for fantastic sound quality, but only 80 minutes of storage (same as CD). I also frequently use two other combinations of format and CODEC. 80 minute MD prepared with HiMD format using ATRAC3plus HiSP (256Kbps) for about 2.5 hours per disk with great sound quality as well as 80 minute MD prepared with HiMD format using ATRAC3 LP2 (132Kbps) for about 5 hours per disk with decent sound quality. I own around 10 HiMD discs but find that I do not use them often. Have fun figuring it all out, the RH1 is a sweet unit, I love mine and use it nearly every day.

I second that vote of appreciation jmsla. I keep a list of bookmarks for retailers who sell MD blanks and other accessories. Next time I buy blanks, particularly HiMD blanks, I'll check them out again. Thanks for sharing!

The first oldie looks like some sort of cartridge tape player, a portable. It's funny that it has a "REJECT" button! :-) Sony must have decided at some point in the past how negative that sounded ... The second oldie seems to be some sort of long/medium wave radio tuner/amp with speaker, also portable. The dial looks like it has two bands long wave 950-2500 KHz and medium wave 200-550 KHz. From the looks of it, it was not something sold in the US. Do you have any details of either unit? I have never seen the MS11, is it some sort of flash DAP?

I love MD and will likely use it until all of my gear dies, or the earth's poles switch. But I sadly do not know one single solitary other person besides my virtual acquaintances on this forum and others who use the medium. It is definitely dead here where I live, I don;t know if it was ever alive. I guess I could count my wife, who I tried to get interested in using MD a number of years back. She did not like to have to deal with "changing" disks, I was like "What's wrong with you woman, that's half the fun"! I'll have to check out your video later today.

I think they made like 10 of these ... ;-) Good luck!

Soundbox, I have been buying up various Sony MD models over the past few years from eBay and now have quite a collection. I tend to like the models of any era which are made with a metal body. I have a few with plastic shells but they don't have the same solid feel, although they do seem just as durable and they certainly have similar or identical functionality. A few of my favorites from each era: MZ-R50 as an SP only unit is hard to beat, it's built like a tank, great sound and dedicated line level output to drive my headphone amplifier. MZ-N1 from the MDLP/NetMD era, light weight, great display, runs forever on a fully charged Nickle Metal Hydride gumstick. From the Hi-MD era, I really like my MZ-RH10, not a metal body, primarily because the display is so fantastic, sadly it has no line level out setting, so in my mind it is really only good for portable headphone listening or as I often do, used for recording and downloading. All three of these units have the AA battery side car, which is essential for longevity with respect to being able to use the units 12 years from now when we can no longer purchase gumsticks or Lip-4mw batteries. I don't think we every really had a notable "peak" for sales here in the US, if I had to guess it was at the point that you could pick up a couple of plastic body "Psyc" units in local Borders Bookstores in 2004 or 2005. Nothing against these units, I have heard they sound quite nice with their Type-S DSPs, particularly with LP2 playback and there seem to be a ton of these units on eBay in the US. From listening to the folks around here, the UK had a much larger installed base of MD units during their "heyday" and you have a much better selection of portables to choose from on eBay.co.uk. I have certainly paid far more than 25 British pounds for many of my units here in the US.

And since you still have the original .mp3 files you can just re-import them into SonicStage ...

I talked to my wife last night about it and she thinks it sounds fun too! We will give it a go soon. We both have iPhone 3Gs phones, so hopefully the built in GPS will be accurate enough to fund some fun stuff!

It is likely that the deck has a higher quality A/D converter than the NH600, but with increases in large scale integration and chip design, it is also possible that the NH600 which is 2 years newer than the JB980 may be on par with the deck but I doubt it. I know I have an older JE20ES and it has very high quality A/D chips for that all important conversion from the real world domain into the digital one and it makes fabulous recordings in SP format, but it is still highly compressed at 292 kbit/s as compared to 1,411.2 kbit/s. As Arvin says, using 1GB HiMD discs will allow you to get 90 minutes or so of high bit rate PCM recording versus 80 minutes of lower rate SP recording on the deck, that may be the biggest determining factor. I think the PCM on the RH600 will be a cleaner sounding recording than the SP on the JB980. My two cents worth ...

I heard about this a few years ago here in the States, it sounds like a great time. I may see if my wife would like to check it out with me this summer. :-)

I am pretty sure if you have DRMed ATRAC files in SonicStage which were imported from MP3 or ripped from CD, the file conversion tool will remove the DRM by running it and removing the check box for "Add Copy Protection". Maybe I am just crazy, but I thought Stephen or Arvin instructed me on the method! Any way, the tool is located in the same install folder as SonicStage for the Ultimate version, should not have to download anything extra. Start->Programs->SonicStage->Conversion Tool or some such similar path to shortcut.

That Honda is almost as cool as the Sony MD with mount device! Great pics, thanks for sharing scarrabri!

Most DRM on files managed in SonicStage can be removed, especially imported MP3 files by running a utility included with SS named "SonicStage File Conversion Tool", after the utility scans your library of files you'll be presented with a dialog to begin the conversion, be sure to uncheck the box next to "Add Copy Protection". The estimate for conversion time is an exaggeration as others have mentioned and the total run time should be n the order of 2 - 5 minutes max. This utility will on ly strip copy protection from files ripped into your library in any ATRAC format from MP3 files or directly from CD. The only files I can think of which it will not convert would be those bought and paid for from the Connect store, which has been gone for over two years. I suppose SonicStage could DRM some WMA files as well and those may also be locked. Let us all know how you get along with this and sorry to hear about your missing disc ...

That was the first and sadly, only MD unit I bought for my wife and I picked it up at a regional retailer in the area named HH Gregg. If I recall, it was October of 2002 and I paid a little over $200US for the unit which included a car kit. I still have it, it is in like new condition. A nice little unit with a plastic body. One of the great things about this unit (and many others) is its ability to run for like 20 hours or something on one AA battery. The original came with a rechargeable nickle metal hydride which charged in the unit. MDLP/NetMD/Type-R. You'll have to let everyone know how you like it.

Exactly! I read SoundBox post with amazement, thinking "He did what?". Another nice score on the blue unit. I don't know anyone personally who uses MD. So sad. :-/ I have had to stop my eBay activity for a while, my kids will never get to go to college if I keep spending all of their college savings on MDs!!

Are the gaps in the sound on the MD recording as well as the saved tracks in SS? i.e. If you play the tracks with the issues on the PC via SS, do you hear the same glitches? I recall having issues way back in the early days of NetMD. I would use another common MD encoding tool called SimpleBurner which rips directly from CD -> HD temp file -> MD at LP2 or LP4. I would commonly use LP2 at the time and I recall having several disks which had drop outs in the sound, missing music if you will. I attributed it to CPU utilization issues. I was doing other things on the machine during encoding which disrupted the process, just as mdmad states. Re-encoding corrected the issue along with leaving the machine alone while it performed the encoding. In your case, you an listen to the saved version of the tracks to rule out the encoding step. Perhaps it is related to the actual transfer or recording process onto the MD as Stephen suggests.

Looks like a nice grab from eBay Soundbox! It's always fun to score an older unit in such pristine condition, you feel like you bought it new yourself, but didn't pay the $300 dollar price tag ... I love the blue R50, where did you score that unit? Excellent picture too, thanks for sharing.

So I took a pic of my stash to share with you all. Am I crazy or what? My wife certainly things I am ... I want to have enough to last through the rest of my days, I guess!

Back in 2005, I bought two new Sony HD5 DAPs on Amazon, one for me and one for my wife. Since I had SonicStage loaded up with all of our favorite music it was a breeze to load these units up with great sounding ATRAC3plus music. They have almost the exact same sound as a HiMD unit, it is really good. I love them but I find myself still drawn to MD and these DAPs mostly sit in a drawer. About a year ago, I picked up a used Sony HD1 on eBay for $35US, The battery was dead and I was able to find a replacement, it now works like new but sadly sits unused as well. I have never tried any non-Sony MP3 DAPs before, other than my iPhone which does not have very good sound. There is something about handling the MD that brings pleasure to many here. Besides the SQ, it is a physical handling thing, hard to describe. You all understand! DAPs are great, you're no traitor, I just prefer MD and like Barock1 I have so many MDs I can't bear the thought of abandoning them!

It could also be stated that there are more than just three generations, for example, what you are calling the second generation, units which add MDLP, can be split into two groups, older units (R900) with no NetMD and newer (N1) with NetMD capability. Just an observation ... Gen One, SP Only: My trusty MZ-R50. My first unit which I paid a mint for in 1998, this unit is a battle tank and made like one too. I still use it to this day to listen to SP recordings from its dedicated line level output into a headphone amplifier. It sounds fantastic, I think its sound rivals that of any other unit I own. SP rules. :-) Gen Two, MDLP Capable: My second unit the MZ-N1, I have always loved this unit and bought my first one new in 2002. I was amazed at how much smaller and lighter it was than the R50! Half the weight at least, perhaps more also much much better battery life it runs forever on a single charge. I never carried the R50 around as a portable after I got my N1. This also introduced me to the world of MDLP and NetMD. For years I would use Simple Burner to rip CDs directly to MD in LP2. I used this mainly for bicycling, working in the yard, walking uptown, etc. A wonderful unit. I loved it so much, I almost cried the day my first one died, it suffered from a known issue where the thin wires between the R/W heads breaks and operation becomes intermittent. I eventually picked up a newer HiMD unit but later scored several N1 units on eBay for a song and I still use them to this day. Gen Three, HiMD: When my N1 died, I bought an MZ-NH1 in 2004 which was great, but my favorite came a couple of years later when I scored a used MZ-RH10 on eBay. The display on the RH10 is amazing, it has a great sound, it is light enough to tote around and the fact that you can fit so much music on a single disk is like having a DAP. One major issue with the RH10 is the fact that there is no way to set the output to line level to properly drive the input of an amplifier so it is really only good for me as a portable unit. I must admit however, I scored a few different RH1 variations in the past year, I have been switching between the silver RH1 and the R50 for listening to SP recordings made on my JA20ES deck.

Yeah, that's way too expensive. These units are on eBay all the time and can range in price between $10US to $50US. I have two and paid about $40US for each. I just did a search of the US eBay site and found 4 currently for sale. Hold out for one that is not dented or scratched! Another thing to consider, if you want to be portable, you'll likely need to replace the Lithium Ion battery to be able to run for longer than an hour or so. I bought one from a battery specialty store in the US for around $20US. It was worth it to be portable, although even with no battery the unit runs perfectly using the AC adapter alone. Good luck grabbing one, keep us posted.

I also own both. It's interesting that you would post this question because of all the units I own, these are the two which I lug around every day to work and back. I think the line out sound from the R50 is hard to beat, even if it is an older version of ATRAC than the RH1. As Arvin mentioned, I am sure the clean smooth sound is a result of the high quality analog amplifier. The R50 is also built like a tank, there is no comparison between this unit and any other for build quality, IMHO. For SP playback, the R50 is amazing. I record on my JA20ES and playback with the R50 lineout into an off board high end Headphone amp, my cans are are on the lower end of the high fidelity range and it sounds amazing. This is of course completely subjective and in accordance with my ears. You can pick up an R50 for less than 40 bucks on eBay, if it is in good condition it's a steal ...