greenmachine

Not really being into legal drugs myself, i adore your dedication.

1) Yes, only these bitrates and since Sonicstage 3.3 also 352kbps. 2) They're copy protected. Once they're on the disc, there's no simple way to transfer downloaded files back in their compressed form unless you understand Sony's evil encryption keys. For urgent cases, you may want to consider these less convenient / lossy methods: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=7070 3) Even after you've pressed the stop button, the disc may continue spinning for a while. Ejecting it while it's spinning doesn't do severe damage, but if you want to be on the safe side, wait until the display shuts off. At this point the disc usually also has come to rest.

I don't think a battery module would improve the situation there - most Sony mics are internally battery powered. But their rather low sensitivity make them hardly usable at the line-in. Maybe re-sell the recorder and get one with mic-in?

There's no way around a tinny sound if you want it small (and inexpensive). Physical limits can't be cheated.

As far as i know, the nh1 is one of the few - if not the only hi-md to use a proprietary connector, which cable - as you have just experienced - can be disproportionately expensive to replace. The majority of other recorders accept inexpensive standard usb cables.

Sounds almost like the preface of max payne. I guess you know how the story goes?

1) no, but you can't access it 2) about 30-35min/1GB = ~0.5MB/sec under ideal conditions (one big file), otherwise even slower 3) they will be formatted to ~305MB (80min MD)

I have the habit to re-use only a few tried and proven discs for important recordings. I have a feeling that if they work once, they will always work. I might be wrong though.

Have you recorded the disc for the first time or did it happen after a few re-use cycles?

You're wrong. Speed doesn't necessarily affect sound quality. Although realtime recordings are encoded via hardware vs. USB transfers via software and have to pass the volume control (although it usually yields minor influences on sound quality).

What about external preamp/ADC combos for live recording?

Although once they're transferred to Hi-MD in audio-mode they're locked/encrypted and can't be transferred/uploaded again. But i guess you're aware of that, aren't you?

I guess he wants to do it the other way - transfer from MD to the laptop. It propably won't damage the soundcard but will lead to significantly inferior sound quality. How about an external soundcard with line-in?

All files are encoded via software on your pc. You're stuck to LP2 or LP4 sound quality unless you have SP pre-/elsewhere recorded MDs. Download of true SP mode ain't possible via USB/software for whatever reason. The unit does not have any other inputs. If you can live with LP2 quality, this should be a nice unit. If you need higher sound quality, look elsewhere.

At least don't advertise your auctions on the site you 'borrowed' things you shouldn't have borrowed without asking, lol.

I'd say the software side of Hi-MD is a little bit of pain, but it's compensated by excellent recording quality.

Since SonicStage 3.2/3.3 there is no more 'upload only once' restriction. You can upload as often as you want. The uploaded file can be decoded to wav directly with Sonicstage. After that, you're free to convert / transcode it to any format you want. Or alternatively there is HiMDRenderer, which can convert to a number of different formats without having to decode to wav first. It also allows to convert realtime recordings via the optical input of the recorder - whenever you might need it - which SonicStage doesn't.

There are special purpose converters. Just do a google / ebay search for coax / coaxial / optical converter.

I guess a £1 RCA / c(h?)inch cable would've done the job equally well.

In my very subjective opinion, 48 and 64 kbps Atrac3+ sound nowhere near as good as a properly encoded 128 kbps mp3, LP2 only slightly worse. For me, 128 kbps mp3 is usually the lowest limit of good quaity for portable music listening. With good headphones, it might be worth to use even higher bitrates in the ~200 kbps range. How about a native mp3/wma player? Quality could be a lot better without transcoding. With 20 GB you can fit more than enough on it even at higher bitrates.

As far as i know all the latest sony models (since year ?) allow you to change levels on the fly.

They're theoretically rewritable up to one million times Recording times -for standard 80 min MDs: >10h Hi-LP (low quality-might be good enough for speech) >2h20min Hi-SP (high quality) >28min PCM (very high quality) -for 1GB HiMDs: >34h Hi-LP >7h50min Hi-SP >1h30min PCM

The quality of a mp3 will strongly vary depending on the encoder and settings used. Fraunhofer's encoder with disabled m/s joint stereo and disabled low pass filter (?) might not be the optimal solution for highest quility. Using Lame 3.97b1 "-V 0", "--abr 256" or - if it has to be cbr - "-b 256" could improve the situation and surpass A3+ 256, although i doubt i could abx at such bitrates. Conclusion: You can't generally say mp3 sounds worse than A3+ at a specific bitrate unless you specify encoders and settings each time.

If you don't specify a degraded sample (at rating 5), your rating will not be accepted, this is why i was asking. Is there a specific reason why there is an absence of medium bitrates (~128-192)?

If the two samples are imperceptible from each other, why do we have to choose the degraded sample, which is impossible in this case? Does a random choice have an influence on the results? I've just compared a few and i like the idea. Keep up the good work.