greenmachine

I'm a believer in baffled recording with omnis. If the distance between the mics equals the distance of your ears and the baffle equals the shape/consistence of your head, you'll get most realistic results ('as heard') when listening with headphones. I don't think it's worse than the other techniques even for loudspeaker playback, which usually benefits from lesser distance to the sound source. I usually direct the mics forward or just slightly outwards for a better front <-> back recognition. I don't like the coloring effect of the pinna, so i don't like to place them in the ears. It would require the use of canalphones for optimum playback. I prefer spheric over flat baffles. For a quick improvisation, i guess a diy jecklin like dex mentioned would also do suffice. Here's my little test: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=11297

Actually the quick mode consumes less power than you might think. It might be even below the self-discharge of NiCD or NiMH rechargeables. The quick mode avoids re-reading the whole file system of a disc each time you start the recorder, which can take a while when using 1GB discs but has a somewhat higher power consumption when idle ('off'). My NH700 takes about 1.2 mA with quick mode on vs. virtually nothing without. If you use the device regularly, use the quick mode to avoid re-reading the whole file system of a disc each time, but if you use it like every few weeks/months once, it's better not to use it or even to take the battery out to avoid deep-discharging the battery.

It's a one way road: Downloaded tracks via USB cannot be transferred back because of Sony's anti-piracy paranoia. Only realtime recordings can be uploaded.

'Gumstick' batteries are about 3/4 to 4/5 the physical volume of AA's, which highest capacities are about 2500-2800mAh to date, so about 2000mAh or more should be possible for gumsticks in theory. Maybe the rectangular shape isn't as effective? Maybe they're just not 'up to date'?

You can use the MD without the slider, but obviously it will be susceptible to dirt and scratches without it. If you transfer to another disc after uploading, you will have a digital copy, which can't be uploaded anymore. Keep a copy of the (un-drm'ed) uploaded file(s) and/or decompress to wav (compress it losslessly) and back that up.

Both of them record from optical, analog and mics, but only the PC version has a USB to optical converter included, which allows digital realtime recording from, but not to PC. It's the only portable with optical out as far as i know.

Detailed and accurate frequency response graphs could be a rough orientation point, but how many headphones did you see with such graphs on the cover? Exactly.

It's the same as with musical instruments: Never buy without trying. If you can't, try to find some reviews/opinions at least. Ignore the specifications to a great part. Even 2$ earphones are often rated with a 20-20000Hz response, and you know how they sound in reality, don't you?

Even if some of these extreme responses were true, we wouldn't hear it anyway. Some claim we could 'feel' some of these 'out of range' responses unconsciously, but personally i'm not one of those believers. Without specifying a norm or tolerance the frequency range specification is totally pointless. It could be +-20dB. With a tight tolerance of say 1-3dB it could be much narrower. Besides, it doesn't tell anything about linearity/neutrality. Question: How would you define the upper and lower frequency in this extreme example of non-linear response? What looks better --- 200-2000Hz +-3dB -- or -- 20-20000Hz without specifying the tolerance? [attachmentid=1327] What about this one? [attachmentid=1328]

http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=58157

O.T. Reply: Seems like you're not aware of most today's player's mp3 capability. 0.7/0.8 and 1GB ain't a big difference in my opinion. Mp3 can be encoded in vbr, which makes it more efficient. No need for a stack of CDs in the car.

Propably, but i have spotted Sony 305MB Hi-MD discs in a nearby store, which propably don't differ from standard 80min MDs at all but are differently labeled. This is why it seems unclear to me.

Some CD/DVD drives are simply not suited for error-free high speed audio CD ripping. Slow that process down until you don't get audible errors. I usually rip CDs at 4x maximum. My laptop drive is sometimes giving me problems even at low speeds. Also check the condition of the CD surface itself. Use a ripping software that allows to set the maximum ripping speed. Import the .wav to Sonicstage and then transfer (at full speed).

There's always the lofi version. Nevertheless, i think >1MB is still very large even for those with fast connections. Besides, i find moving images rather distracting/irritating. They also need increased processing power and might slow older systems down. Try to imagine what happened if everyone would use them.

I've read about encoding to the same bitrate with drm unchecked in a thread a while ago, but iirc the informaiton was not really topic-related and thus somehow 'lost'. I can't be bothered to find it again though. It might be a good thing to make the information more public. I have tried to play these files before you have edited your post. If i try again now, both files are playable. Strange. I'm using these versions and have no idea about the relevance of each, so it's all included: SonicStage : 3.3.03.10270 SonicStage Add-on for Personal Audio Download : 3.3.00.09270 OpenMG Secure Module : 4.3.00.08302 MagicGate Memory Stick Device : 4.3.00.08302 NW-E2, NW-E3, NW-E5 and NW-E8P : 4.3.00.08302 OpenMG CD : 4.3.00.08302 M.S. PRO : 4.3.00.08302 CD Walkman : 4.3.00.08302 Hi-MD : 4.3.00.08302 Music Clip, NW-S4, NW-E7 and NW-E10 : 4.3.00.08302 HDWM : 4.3.00.08302 Net MD : 4.3.00.08302 EMD Plug-in: 1.2.0.9 CD-R-Schreibmodul(Audio CD/ATRAC CD/MP3 CD) : 3.3.00.09270 Px Engine: 2.4.35.500[/code]

When you say 'Hi MD discs' do you mean the 1GB ones exclusively or also HiMD formatted standard MDs? I'd suggest to specify the topic title and poll question or generalize the topic title, add a second poll for standard MDs and specify poll questions and to avoid confusion.

~80 filled standard MDs from pre-MDLP times, but only 4 HiMDs, which is plenty for recording. I hardly ever need more than 2 for a session.

I prefer variable high bitrate mp3 for maximum compatibility and very good quality. I don't think i could successfully abx at such high bitrates without killer samples.

Like (s)he wrote, these are not .zip files, you need to rename the extensions to .oma instead of trying to unpack them. Anyway, i'll send you a copy of the rennamed file so you can see for yourself.

ATRAC 292kbps (SP) ATRAC 146kbps (MONO) ATRAC3 132kbps (LP2) ATRAC3 105kbps ATRAC3 66kbps (LP4) are the NetMD/MDLP modes, whereas the high quality of the ATRAC modes is only available by realtime recording - 105kbps is not available for realtime recording but only by USB transfer. Pre-NetMD/MDLP units like the MZ-R70 only support the two ATRAC modes. Stereo (SP) is about 1:5 lossy high quality compressed audio, read about it here and here. Pre-NetMD/MDLP units don't support faster than realtime USB transfer. Neither pre-NetMD nor NetMD can upload recordings digitally faster than realtime, you'll need either a deck with digital outputs or go the analogue route. Read more about it here. You'll get decompressed lossy audio, which consumes as much space as a regular pcm file but has gone through a generation of loss. HiMD is the way to go for convenient recording and uploading. These are the Hi-MD modes.

Why not? Not too long ago we had 2MB flash cards - now we have 2GB. Not too long ago we had 200MB HDDs, now we have 200GB. A 10³ step ain't too revolutionary in our fast moving modern world.

Give the second *.oma file in the first post of this thread a try. It should work. At least it did for me.

My mistake. I thought he/she was talking about encoding. Maybe i should read more carefully. Anyway you can also find decoders there.

I simply use google's advanced search. http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=+s...s.minidisc.org/

http://www.rarewares.org/ogg.html You know that Hi-MD can't play/decode/read these, don't you? All you can do is to use it in data mode.