greenmachine

I have taken the risk of using this method which is known for sometimes (randomly?) to fail for a new year fireworks line-in recording, where i removed about 250 track marks on the unit. Upload worked without a flaw in SS 3.3. Got no repeated sections. I still don't know if this is reliable enough to use it for valuable recordings though. What if the recording has been stopped in etween and you remove these marks? Are they still uploadable?

I'd like 128 and 352kbps (and a lossless compression if possible) to be added for recording, while i'd prefer an 'intelligent' vbr codec (like l.a.m.e. mp3) if i'd be using MD for listening so that i could choose a constant quality instead of having to worry about using constant bitrates effectively. Nevertheless, it wouldn't be wrong if they filled the gaps with support for the remaining A3+ bitrates.

The above was meant for pre-polarized (electret) condenser microphones, which upper voltage is usually about 10V. Non pre-polarized condensers indeed need and benefit from a higher polarization voltage (phantom power 48V). Still i guess 12V isn't enough of a difference too be noticable. At least you don't have to be afraid of damaging them. IIRC, mrsoul is using similar microphones and recently upgraded from 9V to a 'real' 48V phantom power supply. Maybe you can ask him for advice / if there is a noticable improvement. Although theoretically superior, the 3-wire connection is hardly used for consumer equipment, propably for comfort and price reasons. Virtually all of them are built for 2-wire connection.

I couldn't say it better. The difference is too small to be noticable. Overvoltage can damage the FET without gaining real advantage in performance. A higher voltage than 9V doesn't make it significantly more sensitive or better suited for high sound pressure levels - there is some difference between 1.5 and 10V, but the difference between 9 and 12V would be barely noticable (besides the risk of damaging it). By the way, you have to distinguish between the common 2-wire connection, where you can use a somewhat higher voltage without damaging the mic because of the series resistance. I wouldn't risk to go any higher than 9V with a three wire connection though.

Get more sensitive headphones.

We need to thank those who invented the electret technology. Also those who build, constantly improve them and make them available to the public at very affordable prices. I think these little panasonics are a milestone in recording quality if you know their limitations (i can't think of any other than somewhat high self-noise at the moment) and how to use them effectively.

If your device has a mic-in, use it - its quality is often more than sufficient. If it doesn't, it might be wiser to invest in a unit with mic-in instead of using external preamps. External preamps are generally said expensive additional bulk you have to carry around. The quality isn't necessarily higher unless maybe you spend enormous amounts of cash.

Most importantly, the quality of the analog section is quite high.

Thanks for the graphs, but they don't tell much - if anything at all - about perceived sound quality. Most people can't hear significantly above 16kHz anyway. Artifacts and other oddities are not recognizable is such graphs. A good mp3 encoder which i use regularly is Lamedrop

The quality is not only limited by the recorder, its AD section and its codecs, but also to a great (if not the greatest) part by the incoming signal. If you don't have good microphones to begin with, you might not notice a gain in quality. GIGO. The gain in quantity and uploading comfort might be worth it by itself though.

It also has the ability to format old MDs in a more effective way, so that a 80min disc can hold about 142min of music at comparable quality.

Doesn't it read HI-MD, which is a new, incompatible with older equipment technology? You can either upgrade your player to the latest technology or ask someone with compatible equipment to upload and send the files to you in a different way.

An advantage of MD is its HDD-like, rewritable structure, which allows certain files to be deleted/added/replaced without formatting/erasing the disk first. The media itself might also be more durable, although i agree with a possible lack of hardware availability in the future. Speed is only a drawback if you need to back up relatively large (or lots of smaller) files. Personally i use HDD or CD-/DVD-R(W) for large files and flash media for smaller file backup like text documents. If you don't want to back up, but are just short of space, i'd consider a larger HDD instead.

I don't know if you have to use the internal battery or if it can also be powered by the recorder's 'plug-in-power' alone, but i'm pretty sure it won't cause problems if you use the battery. You should in theory also be able to record via line-in with a powered mic, but most Sony mics are generally not too sensitive and cut a significant amount of low frequencies, so that you'll propably never overload the preamp anyway unless you recorder lacks a low sensitivity setting like the R700. In some situations mic-in will be too loud and line-in too quiet because of this absence.

Get the basic, least expensive model, the NH600 or NH600D. It does what you want. If you also want to do live recordings, get a device with mic- and line inputs instead.

Upload to SonicStage with a R900?

I'm also pretty happy with the hardware, it's to a great part the software that needs (and slowly seems) to get worked over.

Atrac 3+ is a whole different codec, which might or might not sound better than its predecessors at the same or slightly lower bitrate. It would be worth a try at least. If it performs well, we could get rid of Atrac 3 altogether in favor of a more organized structure.

96, 128, 160 and 320kbps A3+ are still missing, don't know if they will ever be available for HiMD though. Maybe they'll gradually support them in the next SonicStage version(s) since they've just added support for 192 kbps in SS3.4?

Electrolytic (polarized) caps have an advantage in size and price, while other materials might be more durable. They should perform nicely for at least a few decades though. The negligibly small alternating voltage from the mics won't damage polarized capacitors.

This is how i perceived the hack to be working for my european NH700: - without EQ there was no difference at all, volume increases up to 30/30, whether hacked or not - unhacked with EQ, volume increases normally up to 25/30, above that there is some kind of smart limiter, which tries to prevent clipping, but you'll get AGC-like artifacts if it is in action. If you listen to a quiet recording, it won't reach its threshold and increases normally up to 30/30 - hacked with EQ, volume increases up to 30/30, no matter how loud the recording or how you've set the bands. This will disable the 'smart' protection and just cause clipping if you're beyond the amplifier's limit. Personally i've set it back to the original values, since there wasn't any noticable benefit, the low power amp didn't seem to get any stronger. That said, i'm more careful with high volume than ever, my hearing is one of the most valuable senses to me, not worth damaging for a short-lived pleasure. Be careful with highly sensitive buds. I'm using rather low sensitive headphones, so i usually have to set the volume higher without having to use equalization. With stock buds or simlarily sensitive/awful 'phones, i propably wouldn't go beyond approx. 15/30 - ever.

Try fully charging the battery, taking it out of the unit, letting it rest for a few hours and see if it still discharges by itself. If so, the battery is damaged.

It's propably 'just' the battery, but you know these are rather hard to find and expensive. I guess a few charge-discharge cycles won't recover the battery significantly, but you can try at least. For the future, never store the unit for extended time periods with the battery in it, especially not with quick mode on. Store the battery at approx. 40% charge in a cool place when not in use for weeks/months. Deep discharge will kill the battery.

File size increases by 1-(192/132) = 1-(16/11) ≈ 45% Available time decreases by 1-(132/192) = 1-(11/16) = 5/16 ≈ 31%

You need to use SonicStage so that Sony can encrypt your files and make further upload impossile. If you copy the files in data mode, you can copy/duplicate to your heart's content but not play them on the unit. Where's the logic you ask? I honestly have no idea.