greenmachine

The procedure is described here.

Yes, you can copy the analog signal from the headphone out to the line-in of your computer in real-time. Quality is obviously not going to be perfect, but often good enough. The procedure is described here.

Please be more specific, what exactly are you trying to achieve? If you want to have CD ripped lossy tracks in a different bitrate, it is recommended to re-rip them. Transcoding of lossy files, if possible, will give inferior quality. Losslessly compressed files are a good basis for conversion.

Only Hi-MD (introduced in 2004) supports uploading, the models are listed in the equipment browser. The NH700 / NHF800 is the usually considered as the least expensive Hi-MD model with full recording functionality but can be difficult to find these days.

Congratulations. You can buy a replacement converter, no problem as long as polarity and output voltage are exactly the same and the ampere rating at least as high as on the original one (and the plug must fit, of course). Be very careful with voltage and polarity, otherwise you may cause permanent damage to the unit.

I have two of these german/austrian samplers, titled "Die neue digitale Freiheit" (The new digital freedom) on the front and "Exclusiver Sampler" on the side, both of them without case and in relatively bad condition (have been disassembled). One of them seems to be still playable. I have no use for them. For the price of shipping they could be yours. Please PM if interested.

Recordings on analog media tend to cease slowly over time, whereas digital media tends to behave much more unpredictable and lose all data at once (more or less). If your data is important to you, make several copies on different media, regardless of what format you choose in the end and check them from time to time. Personally i compress my valuable live recordings (irreplaceable data) to flac and store them on two different harddisks as well as one copy to DVD-R (and reuse the HiMD disks). For replaceable data such as CD/DVD rips, one copy should be sufficient.

Welcome to the forum. How important is mp3 playback to you? The rh1 does have fully functional mp3 playback, while the rh10's mp3 playback sound qualiy is less good (high frequency roll-off). The nh1 doesn't feature mp3 playback at all, mp3s need to be transcoded to atrac which will lead to some quality loss. The nh1's internal display is probably even less detailed than the rh1's (one line lcd, cannot be read in the dark). The rh10's display is the most detailed. Other random characteristics are the expensive proprietary batteries of rh1 and nh1 and the proprietary usb connector of the nh1.

Whatever is necessary to keep the site alive... There's a wealth of information, which many of us wouldn't want to disappear.

None of the listed recorders are HiMD. HiMD offers some significant advantages such as digital upload via USB, larger capacity disks, an uncompressed recording mode, longer recording times where necessary, etc.. The least expensive HiMD model with full functionality for live recording is probably the MZ-NH700 (or NFH800 which is essentially the same unit with a radio remote), which i use myself and highly recommend.

Could you please explain why, i thought both were 16bit formats and thus limited to a theoretical maximum of 6dB per bit = 96dB (in reality often somewhat less because of quantization)? If the dynamic range is actually wider, would it be a real advantage since there are hardly any home decks (supposed to have higher quality DACs than portables) available?

Any pre-polarized condenser (electret) mic that works with the plug-in-power of the recorder's mic input jack will work, including the mce-2000 and mce-4000. I have preferred the mce-2000 for its lower sensitivity, ultra-linear frequency response and ability to be source-follower modified for very high SPLs. The price was a bit higher though and unfortunately they don't seem to be available here in germany anymore either. The mce-4000's are not bad, but not quite at the quality level of the 2000's. If the Panasonic WM-60/61 were availble in europe, i would probably use these. I am currently looking for alternative sources/alternatives and do welcome pointers/suggestions.

Or you could get a real stereo mic for probably not much more of the price of adapter plus additional mono mic. Stereo is definitely worth it for recording music from a distance.

Since not many people seem to have practical experience with the mic, you could ask the seller for a few unedited audio samples with description of source, setup, location, etc. and evaluate for yourself. At that price, i wouldn't buy blindly or depend too much on other's opinions.

While you may not be able to hear all the way down to 20Hz, 25 or 30Hz is relatively easily audible. The bottom octave(s) may not be of major importance to you though, particularly when you primarily intend loudspeaker playback of your recordings. I wouldn't recommend the m/s technique primarily for headphone playback anyway, for lsp playback it often does a great job though. We've had some discussion about it in a recent thread. Each technique has its strengths and weaknesses.

You can't directly compare mAh of batteries with different voltages, but you can calculate the capacity (in watthours) by multiplying the voltage with amperehours. The LIP-4WM's capacity is comparable to a 1.2V rechargeable with approx. 1140 mAh according to this simple calculation: 3.7V x 370 mAh = 1369 mWh 1369 mWh / 1.2V = 1141 mAh

Listening to The Wallace Roney Quintet (1996)

Prerecorded MDs were recorded in SP mode, which is 292 kbps ATRAC and although lossy compressed widely considered as (very close to) transparent quality (indistinguishable from the original). When using Hi-MD (in Hi-MD mode) and transferring via software, you are by no means limited to Hi-LP (64kbps A3+), Hi-SP (256kbps A3+) and PCM (1411kbps) (as with real-time recording). There is also 352 (A3+), 192 (A3+), 132 (A3), 105 (A3), 66(A3) and 48 (A3+) kbps. Hi-SP is about the quality of the older SP mode and considered as very good compressed quality, but in the end your ears will decide what sounds good to you. * A3 = Atrac 3 (introduced in NetMD times, older) A3+ = Atrac 3 plus (HiMD codec)

You can get a FLAC frontend for compressing / decompressing from the official Flac homepage. Once decompressed to wav, Sonicstage will be able to handle it.

1kyle, you might be surprised how relatively well classical music usually can be compressed without much quality loss, whereas for modern pop music (rich in high freqencies, dynamically strongly compressed) you usually need a higher bitrate to achieve the same perceived quality. For lossy encoding, VBR is the most intelligent way to compress your files to day, the encoder will automatically choose the necessary bitrates to achieve a given quality without wasting disk space. Encoding classical music in VBR will usually yield lower avg. bitrates than pop music at the same quality setting. There are exceptions of course.

Thanks, sounds good to me. Maybe i was just irritated by the occasional hdd noise which is now gone with the CF replacement as it seems. Are the gain controls and level meter (display) usable?

I have prepared and uploaded a sample here. Thank you for your effort. I shall do a similar test with my NJB3 as well as the NH700 when I have the time and post back. The source would be a Pioneer PD-S504 CD player, also fairly decent quality. I think there were some noises from the hdd that were audible on the recording. Using flash could get rid of these.

Using a lossless format like FLAC will lower the possibility of being dissatisfied with the SQ, and is a good base for further editing (if ever necessary). Lossy encoding on the other hand usually has a more or less significant size advantage - with a highly developed format/codec the quality will be virtually indistinguishable from the original (LAME's mp3 VBR codec at one of the higher settings for example does an excellent job). Hi-LP might sound acceptable to you now, but might get unacceptable when upgrading your playback equipment and/or your hearing abilities develop. It also is a proprietary codec with an uncertain future. Other than that I'd recommend reading this recent thread. If your data is important to you, do several (the exact number depends on your degree of paranoia ) copies on different media types and check them regularly.

A too low voltage won't damage any circuits, but a too high v. could (if there's no protection circuit). I've read about someone frying his unit by using a too high voltage (via the DC in). A wrong polarity can also be deadly. Alkalines typically have a higher inner resistance. Their voltage might be higher under low load, but when it comes to a higher drainage, the voltage will drop quite noticeably (which is why they're quite fast exhausted when used in high power consuming devices like digital cameras and such). Ni-MH (and Ni-CD) are more stable, their voltage won't drop quite as much when under load.

What do you think about the quality of the analog/line input? I have a NJB3 and am not too impressed with the A/D quality, but for recording from the optical in it's probably a nice gadget.