greenmachine

First, let me give you an overview over the available recording modes and bitrates: SP --- 292 kbps -- 80 min/disc - highest quality LP2 -- 132 kbps - 160 min/disc - medium quality LP4 --- 66 kbps - 320 min/disc - low quality MONO - 146 kbps - 160 min/disc - one channel only, high quality There is / was an option to transfer SP from the computer indeed - but it's not the real SP quality, it's said to be more like a bloated LP2 encoded track. Others often refer to it as 'fake SP'. As you may or may not know, only realtime recording from the line- or optical input will give you the benefit of real SP quality. An article about the soundquality of SP can be found here: http://www.minidisc.org/near_cd.html Generally speaking, the more recent ATRAC versions from 3.5 onwards, including Type-R should be very close to or indistinguishable from uncompressed CD quality unless you have a very sensitive and trained hearing. ATRAC has been tuned during the years through versions 1, 2, 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5 and finally reached 'Type-R'. http://www.minidisc.org/faq_sec_4.html#Q9 There's also 'Type-S', but has no benefit for the highest quality setting (SP): "ATRAC Type-S is just a combined, one-chip DSP for the ATRAC Type-R codec used for SP mode and the ATRAC3 codec used for MDLP modes. Supposedly, Type-S increases the SNR of LP2 and LP4 encodings by 6dB upon playback, but doesn't offer any improvement for SP encodings." About the automatic track marks and auto stop: You need to enable synchro-recording in order to work (see page 19 of the user manual) About the cable: Are you sure you're using an optical cable? I see no reason to gold plate such a cable. By the way, sorry for gazing at your avatar for an extended time, but Natalie's just too beautiful for this world.

Very nice - if you think it would be worth the long way - i'll post my observations here then. It's propably easily to be modified to be used with a fixed instead of a variable resistance so that there's no wearout or contact problems at least.

I've been recording quiet sounds such as acoustic instruments from a distance, animal and other ambient noises with a rather low sensitivity mic and low sensitivity setting without any problems. Never felt the need to switch to high sens. as it would only increase the noisefloor along with the signal and reduce headroom unnecessarily. Many microphones are way too sensitive IMO, which makes them somewhat unsuitable for loud music. Low sensitively versions are often way more versatile.

I'd like to add my own observations for 1st gen Hi-MD battery life with higher capacity replacements after some testing. I've used a no-name 2300 mAh Ni-Mh AA rechargeable in a MZ-NH700, 1 GB discs in continuous REC mode from mic-in and came to following approximate results: -PCM ---- 8 1/2 h (5 1/2 discs) -Hi-SP - 16 hours (2 discs) -Hi-LP - 17 hours (1/2 disc) I'd say these times are quite impressive from a single AA battery, considering the bulk other recordists are carrying around to get a comparable performance with their rather power-hungry equipment. The battery indicator showed all 4 dots until about half the total recording time, followed by 3 dots until about 1 hour before shut-off, where 2 dots were displayed. 1 dot from about 1/2 hour before to shut-off. This may vary depending on the battery type and condition. It's advisible to stop and save the recording as soon as it reaches 2 dots, with only 1 dot left there might not be enough power left to write the system file. When reaching the last 3 percent of the disk, there will be increased power consumption - the disk will spin more often than usual for some reason. Did battery life significantly improve for the 2nd generation recorders?

Some people might be mislead by taking the thinny sound cardioids usually produce as a reference point. In fact, your new mics are the more linear ones, even if it may seem overly bassy at the moment. For playback through loudspeakers you'll propably have to apply some low frequency filter afterwards not to get clobbered by bass. But for playback through headphones the sound of omnis should be perfectly suitable without any eq.

lol, i love these noobs

focus on recording capabilities

Even if it would be perfectly functional and non-proprietary, i would see it loosing its significance as playback device, being limited by the medium itself. People seem to head for non-mechanical media and/or higher capacity, fast read/write speeds nowadays. To be honest, although it may loose lots of users because of this reorientation, i don't regret their recent focus on recording capabilities. It'll find its new clientele.

What part exactly crashed in your computer? Maybe the harddisk would still be working in a different computer.

Seems like none of us is right, battery university says: "Performance degrades if stored at elevated temperatures - nickel-metal-hydride should be stored in a cool place at 40% state-of-charge." I think i've read the same for li-ion batteries somewhere.

What level setting did you use in manual mode? Did you change/lower it at all? To do so, use the jog dial (see page 36 of the user manual).

Why are people to such an extent fixed on the ipod? There are hundreds of other good mp3 players around.

Here's another one from my nh700 operation manual: About Atrac3plus ATRAC3plus is an enhanced version of ATRAC3. Compared to ATRAC3 (used in LP2 and LP4 mode of the recorder), which attains a compression ratio 10 times higher than that of a CD, ATRAC3plus (used in Hi-SP and Hi-LP mode of the recorder) achieves a higher compression ratio that is 20 times higher than that of a CD, but with no loss in sound quality. Hi-LP has the same sound quality as LP2 at half the bitrate? I don't think so.

he's a master of manipulation, yet still not good enough to entrap me

More expensive doesn't necessarily mean better, but you can have mine for 1000$ if you prefer a higher price

1. why worry about it? you as the consumer should be glad. 2. depends on your needs 3. depends on your needs

Oh no, another ipod vs. md / what's the best / what should i buy thread. How about considering a search before posting and / or specifying your question?

It seems to loose its significance as a primary playback device, but at the same time it seems to gain reputation as a high quality, pocket sized, energy efficient -almost- all in one recording solution. Sooner or later it'll find its place - i'm certain that more people would adapt it if it had less restrictions (DRM, encryption, upload only once restriction, buggy software...). These make life unnecessarily difficult IMO.

The charger may not recognize the battery as it seems to be deeply discharged. Try to charge it in a conventional charger without any 'smart' automatic controls for the first time. If you're lucky, it'll recover itself within a few charge-discharge cycles. If not - NiMH AA's are not that expensive nowadays. If rechargeables are not used for a longer period, it's advisable to discharge them and not to leave them in the unit.

down: 1Mbit/s up: 128Kbit/s [for some unknown reason usually much lower though] traffic limit: none [theoretically possible download = 1Mbit/s x 30 x 24 x 60 x 60s = 2592000 Mbit = 324000 MByte = >300 GB/month] upload speed sucks though

PNG is a lossless compression format, viewable in most browsers. It looks impressively detailed by the way, how's the framerate?

I don't think this would be easily possible since these are encrypted, DRM protected files. If it was possible, the software would have to be provided directly from Sony itself or someone would have to crack the scheme. At the moment it seems impossible.

There's one thing what's often overlooked and at least equally important: To have a good recording - the best, carefully placed equipment will only sound mediocre with an average recording. GIGO - garbage in, garbage out. And by the way, i totally agree that speakers and their placement (or headphones) are (besides the recording) by far the most critical component of the chain. I could never hear significant differences between different HiFi amps, standalone cd players or let alone cables and other voodoo, but there are whole worlds between different speakers/headphones. That's basically the reason why i'm running full-sized, rather expensive speakers with a small, nowadays inexpensive, rather weak amp from the '70s. I virtually never need more than 1 watt in my small living room and it can supply at least ten times the power. This leads to another untruth: Large speakers are said to require powerful amps. This is not true because large speakers are usually much more energy efficient than smaller ones and thus don't need as much amplification to reproduce the same loudness. This is particularly true for the low frequency region.

Yes, there's a 'upload only once' restriction, but as soon as it's uploaded, you can convert/decompress it to pcm (*.wav) and are free to to with it whatever your heart desires. A RH10 should be as good as any other Hi-MD unit regarding recording quality, they slightly differ in features, displays, optics, ergonomics though. As long as recording quality is your main priority, you can choose any of the with mic- and line-inputs equipped units. You should be able to record from the soundboard with a suitable adapter through line-in.