L7R

1GB is a must. I didn't notice that, sorry. And yes, if you wait you always get faster components -it's a part of evolution. I do not know hardware prices in U.S or India, but here in Finland (and Europe), 6800 Ultra is about 400€ (470$) and X850 is about 500€ (600$). For these prices you have to wait some time. And 6600GT is 175€ (about 200$). Nvidia announced a new upper class boards called 7800 and ATI is going to announce new graphic chip's (I don't know is this a right term?) and this will drop the prices, for sure. But how soon they drop, nobody knows. But I really recommend that 1GB of memory. It really helps a lot!

Today Nvidia has taken a lead (by a little margin) with their GeForce 6000 series. I think GeForce 6600GT is very good choice for performace vs. price. Or if you find 6800GT at bargain it should be again a little faster and a good choice as your other harware is powerfull enough. But don't even think 6600 or 6800 without that GT or ultra tag. They are much cheaper, as well their performance. Hope this helps. btw. I'm not biased to nvidia (or ATI) as my own videocard is ATI Radeon 9700.

What a nice machine! I really hope Sharp will release Hi-MD players soon.

I think Hi-SP sound a little warmer than SP or LP2.... like tube amp kind of way, but very little. I can't describe it with my ankward english, but highs (or higher mids) sounds a tad warmer or smooth. And that affects soundstage a little too, I think. I really don't know after that ABX test. That was my first test and it really almost made me crazy! btw. I did a little test a while back to my friends and parents but I didn't have Hi-MD machine so I did it with sonicstage 3.0. Here is my method: I converted the same song (Maroon5 - Tangled). Nobody haven't heard this song earlier) First was LP4 second Hi-LP then LP2 then Hi-LP then PCM and finally was LP2 again. songs appeared in this order in sonicstage. 5 people listens these samples whatever order and as long as they liked. Equipment: Sony MDR-7506 studio monitor headphones, Terratec DMX6Fire soundcard headphone-out. Here are the results: LP2: 4/5 vote this as the best (3 votes to last one and one to that 3rd one) PCM: 1/5 vote this as the best 4/5 vote LP4 better than Hi-LP (64k) 1/5 vote HiLP(64k) better than LP4 As you might know, LP2 was a real winner, but 3 votes were given to that last LP2 and one to that earlier LP2. When I ask why they vote that last one the best, they told that the previous sample (PCM) sounded more bass heavy or boomy. I gave good laughs! I don't remember actual scores but I wanted them to give scores between 1-5 and leave one without vote. But LP2 was winner in big margin. Then in this order: PCM Hi-SP LP4 Hi-LP (64k) (only one point) I asked why LP4 sounded better than Hi-LP and the answer was exactly what I personally think about it. There was no highs at all in Hi-LP or they "sway" or they got "pumped" back and forth. LP4 though, in my mind has a lot squeeks or other flaws, but it still sounds like music should, which I can't say about 64k Hi-LP. Please do more of these ABX tests. Personally I really want a test between ATRAC3@132kbps vs. Hi-SP. And Hi-LP@64kbps vs. LP4. That first one could be closer fight than most people think. And between old SP and Hi-SP, I like SP more and I previously thoough I can clearly tell which is which, but as I say earlier that ABX testing was harder than I never thought of.

to jadeclaw and others who didn't use ABX tool. It's obvious there's some difference when you listen these samples at first. Even if the two samples were exactly the same brains thinks there is some. The point is: can you tell the difference when you can change the source whenever you want and then make a decision at your free will? It's whole another ball game. Try it guys. I thought I'm a pro, but what a disappointment! btw. I used my studio monitors MDR-7506 headphones with Yamaha stereo receiver. Only the soundcard was the weak link, it's some soundblaster from 90's. If only my Terratec 6fire didn't broke....

I downloaded and did an ABX and was pretty confident I can recognise easily which is which. First I think I heard a difference, but when I started a test, I don't. I have to give up. 1/5 went right. 4/5 went wrong!

As we know Sony is going through major changes for their consumer electronics department. Their products were non-profitable for past years. Well, they did sell well. But not enough cause of using too expensive components with their products and not willing to make cheaper/cost effective products over high quality and design. It is very sad to find some few people actually care about build quality and expensive design. Minidisc units were Sony's kind of flagship electronics what they were proud of. A lot of recources used to make them the best portable equipments in the world, even it was almost non-profitable, as we have seen. Good example is all metal (aluminium&Magnesium) bodies which are most expensive and at least used material in the history of electronics. Sony even used magnesium which is mainly used in aircrafts or spaceshuttles to made minidisc units few grams lighter and more durable. As everybody know Minidisc units are only portable electronics which were mainly made of metal. But now, things are changed and even Minidisc units have to go through these major changes. How these changes affects us, minidisc users which were spoiled with magnicifent audio equipments in the past years? We saw some signs of this in 2nd generation MD units. We saw more plastic, more weight, more bigger units and less features. But we also saw units which were much less expensive but hopefully not less durable. Here are some possible (right?) answers to our questions. I hope nobody will get sad. These are based on facts what industries have to go to get their business more profitable. You have squeeze every cent from final product to survive. Confirmed: -more user friendly software. We will see this in 3rd or 4th quarter of 2005 as sony had promised. These are not expensive and in that way, possible: - lit LCDs --this is pretty much confirmed as DH-10P has it - TIMESTAMP --like in previous units - LINE OUT --like in previous units - HD amp --like in previous units - The return of speed and pitch controls, as well as a-b looping for musicians and people listening to dictation --like in previous units - make uploads hasslefree.. no more once only uploads - Analog synchro recording --like sharp/Kenwood units, if no one cares? - A manual levels setting that is 'remembered' between pressings of 'stop' --like Sharp/Kenwood units) - A way to completely disable auto-trackmarking when recording with line-in --like Sharp/Kenwood units - when pushing record button the unit will go to record/pause state and then push pause and the unit will start to record --like Sharp/Kenwood units - Make the ENTER/PLAYBACK (>) - key function as pause --like Sharp/Kenwood. Actually this is what I always wanted in sony units. - At least 2 more custom EQ settings, or -all- custom settings - better eq settings ie. 100 hz will be 60Hz and 10 KHz will be 12KHz. (Earphones often lacks on these frequencies) - Samaller steps to volume when increse or decrease eq levels. Now it's like 2 or 3 desibels -0.5 or 1 would be better. - Macintosh support for uploading at the very least - MP3 playback with correct frequency response - continue with the battery pack attachment.. it is a boon for recorders. --This could be too costly? - Add a menu button or reverse the functions of the navi/menu key. --this could be add to track mark button as trackM button is almost always pressed 2 sec. if you want to move the position of the mark. - The disc format function should issue an additional warning in case the disc contains 'invisible' computer data too --nice and very simple idea to make - RECORD button on the remote --I can't understand why they didn't add this to MC40CLK? now it's way more costly What we will not see: - "bring back the all metal build quality for the top end recorders." --We all would like to see aluminium or magnesium, but merely NH-1's body costs more than ipod-mini without harddrive and battery. - "larger size of disks 2gb or more so that we can record longer in PCM" --We will not see this in near future if not ever! In Japan even 1GB Hi-MD's aren't nearly as popular as net-MD.) - "A 3 megapixel camera instead of 1.3 megapixels would also be nice to have." (Why low quality camera in MD when it is almost every cellphone? And an unit with 3Mp camera costs same as MD-unit plus digital camera.) - "inexpensive stereo microphone with units that have a MIC IN jack" --More costs, sorry. They didn't include even a stand or lcd remote with 2nd gen U.S units - "ATRAC3+ 128kbps. --There's 132kbps ATRAC3 and there's absolutely no gain in quality using ATRAC3+ in 128. ATRAC3 in 132kbps is minidisc's best codec in compression vs quality (if you use it straight from uncompressed source) as 292kbps SP was earlier. - "no DRM on our owned recordings." Only way this is possible to achieve is if you transfer your own mp3 to MD and delete it from PC afterwards you could transfer it back to PC. So you can use your MD-discs like additional storage. - "What about some PDA funtionality? Address book? Some simple stuff that takes advantage of the minidisc as data storage." - "Java support? Play some games on that nice LCD" --Although these could easily to be made with that powerful hardware in MD units, it's not likely the way they want to evaluate Hi-MD. - market it...let people know what an MD can really do.. in india, i dont think anyone, barring a really small number, know what an MD is. --marketing MD in U.S is history, and I think in the rest of the world as well (except Japan, UK, Netherlands, Germany) - A reader slot and copy function for the most commonly used flash memory card types - Bluetooth and/or WLAN connectivity, as well as an USB input jack - Bluetooth wirefree remote - built-in FM radio in the unit (too much weight) - Built-in DAB digital radio --all these are absolutely out of question as they add too much costs. ....sad, but true. MAYBE: - Support for FLAC, ogg, SHN or MonkeyAudio - Drag-and-drop of supported files Hopefully: - Hi-MD home deck and car deck --this is what I can't really understand. 1GB@132kbps is about 16.5 hours of music and absolute must for using in car. You have to remember that anybody in sony don't know our complains even exists. In Japan people don't complain nearly as much as we do. They are mentally so much different. If they can do something new what they didn't think is possible they are happy and do not hope more. They rent a CD and copy it to MD and that's about enough for them (as well as build&sound quality. We are likely much different "species". If we will get all, it's not enough. Then our complains will be like "why I can't bake eggs with this?" But if someone will tell Sony these little improvements they gladly will make most of them possible. I mean those which are possible (and those which are hopefully and maybe possible.) Sure they know about those ristrictions but they cannot do anything because of Sony's music department. And one last thing I want to say: Go, grab last minidisc units which are made like we supposed to know (as minidisc units). for Hi-MD: MZ-NH1(recorder) MZ-NH3D(downloader) MZ-EH1(player) MZ-EH930(player) or for MDLP player MZ-E10 Panasonic SJ-MJ97 or almost any Sharp/Kenwood unit I think these units are invaluable consider to units we will see in the future? Hopefully not. ps. Why I wrote such a crazy things? You think that 3 dollar bluetooth in MD unit could not be too expensive? Or 2 dollar stand? Or three line remote? Here's an example: Nokia cellphones costs 20-25 dollars to manufacture. A flagship model which is sold at 700$ costs 25$ and entry level 100$ phone costs are 20$. Why they do not sell that flagship model at 105$? Or better, why they did not only manufacture that flagship model so then it only costs that same 20$ dollars to manufacture (buy more same parts and price is cheaper)? Now the most intresting part: Why Nokia get only 25% profit in all their cell-phone business? Samsung, for example gets 75% profit. If they get 25% profit from every phone they sell, who get that 55$-625$? Marketing people, salesmen/women, designers, engineers and employees. Taxes, customs, shipping etc. etc. That's it. Nokia is Finnish company and they have to make those phones very cheap and they have to produce them a lot to pay those salaries in Finland and other western countries where their headquarters, design and engineering departments are. And I mean a lot! If you produce a MD player which costs 50 dollars to manufacture you are in deep S**t. And I don't think anybody could manufacture NH-1 or E10 even at that price if you look inside of them. And what about marketing, engineering, designers, employees, shipping, taxes etc? You cannot marketing a product which costs that much or you do a big loss, no matter how much it sells. And Sony is doing it right now.

No problem.

Very nice case. But it doesn't have a belt clip?

I send mail to them. I personally want a leather case which only fit the unit and probably one disc. I have NH-1 and I can't find snuff case for it. Expecially made for leather.

Great article that everyone should read! Thanks for the link.

I want to add one legendary headphone, announced in mid 80's. You find these heaphones in almost every recording studio/broadcasting station in the world (even Frazier wear these ). Sony MDR-7506, formerly named MDR-V6. Sony, or more precicely their design or marketing department(?) is tried to replace them many times, but luckily didn't succeed. Finally they named V6's to 7506 and tagged them as Professional Studio Monitor Headphones (which they really are, though) and moved them from consumer electronics to sony's professional gear. They also made more expensive 7509's, but many don't like them like V6/7506. Personally, I've found two weaknesses of them. At first they sound horrible. Shrilling heights and screaching mids, which may drive you . They are made to last as most professional monitoring phones so drivers are very "strained", and so are sound.... at first. But after couple of months they begin to sound good and after half a year or so they are impeccable. I've been told that some recording engineers wear them year after year and don't want to change them to new ones cause new pair takes too long to sound the same as old pair (or never sound the same?) Second weakness is when you listen them continously everyday, every other headphone starts to sound bad (maybe except some bright-side phones ie. grado models). In my mind this is very annoying, because I can't enjoy my other headphones at all or I can't enjoy my 7506's. What a pain! I don't want to write anything about their sound quality. But their build quality is magnificent -sony quality were something (different) in the 80's. Every part of them is replaceable and there's even a blueprint in the box. For sound quality, it's everyone's own opinion what kind of sound they like. But if you are curious and want to hear how studio technicians/musicians are meant recordings to sound, you may want to try them? btw, for badly mixed recordings they are not so good, but fortunately many recordings are monitored with them. Happy listening!

Sorry to hear EX-71's are quiet phones. I give a pair to my dad for a present but I didn't really listened them and they broke after one(!) week of use. What a mistake for a present. I'm glad I bought pair of Panasonic RP-HJE50 phones recommended by many reviewers over the net (Head-fi for example). They are exactly like EX-71SLB but costs much less (I bought mine 25$ from Hong Kong) and produce better sound. I have NH1 and I listen them at volume 6-12 at home/work and 12-15 outdoors. Level 18 is absolutely max. This is nice since battery lasts longer. I've been using these couple of weeks now and they really like long burn-in period. Now they really shine and I can almost compare them to my "work-horse" MDR-7506 studio monitors. Eq settings are set to flat except 100HZ is one step down and now they sound flat. I also have MDR-888's (which are 5 years old) and these pana's beat them hands down. Highly recommended! btw RP-HJE50's come with the carrying pouch which exactly like made for MZ-NH1! ....and sorry my ankward english.

Here in Finland we have same problem with copy protections. For copy protected cd's, use Exactaudiocopy. I've never had problem with any copy protected cd's since I started using it. It's amazing audio ripper! Copy protection makes ripping much slower with my NEC-3500AG DVD-burner, but it no way affect the audio quality.

I finally did it! I installed sonicstage once more (sony webinstaller, without german installation). I did exact same procedure (http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=8071), but I removed sony corporation folder in c:\documents and settings\"USER"\application data\Sony Corporation. I also removed usb controllers in device manager before sonicstage install. Now sonicstage recognize my NH1.

I also have exactly same problem with my NH1. I made an intresting finding what could cause the problem: When I disconnect and then reconnect my NH1, a new drive appears to sonicstage. For example: if the NH1 was E:\ and I plug the unit again, unit appears with new letter F:\ etc. I record about 25 discs and then the drive was z:\ (or x:\ or whatever?). Then I plugged my unit once more and sonicstage did not recognize my unit anymore. I tried everything, but nothing helped. Next I'll try that MDCF install over german install thing... Let's see what will happen. (sorry, my english)

Let's keep this at least somewhat sensible. But I got good laugh, though.

I agree, but at the same time they put every imagine thing to PS3 because they don't have to worry if it sells good. It WILL sell like "viagra". But with minidisc, they could take a risk and push this "dream" to forward. This risk would be like desicion to make Playstation 1 in the past. Thinking it now, that decision was lifesaver to Sony. I heard that almost every division in Sony, except gaming are unprofitable. I mean, if you could manufacture one product at very high volumes at a long time (like game consoles), the price per unit will be much lower at the time. But this could be somewhat risky. (but isn't every business?) Now, when they actually have a unit which manufacturer costs were very high in the past (compared to 2nd gen units), it's such a waste to produce yet another different units. If they add those features to this existence unit it saves a lot of money and price should be even lower. I can't understand they sell NH1 at Amazon.co.uk as low as 109 pounds without making profit? Or at ebay as low as £69!

NH1 has line-out to use with home stereos. It has Li-Ion battery whitch last up to 3 years. RH-10 has NiMH battery which is cheaper 49$ vs. 10$ but lasts only about one year. RH-10 is 40% heavier. When you drop both units to the ground (and some day you will) NH1 will survive much better with it's lighter weight and sturdier built quality. RH-10 cover is plastic and could get scratched easily. NH-1 has no OLED display on the unit. NH-1 has no native mp3 support. NH-1 is last flagship model of Sony MD-recorders.

(first, sorry my endglish) This could be perfect unit. These wishes are not hard to fulfil and as you see in history, simple ideas (with low costs) make breakthrough to the masses. These are my thoughs: MZ-NH1 with: #1. Native mp3 (or multicodec) support #2. Uploading/downloading without (so much) restrictions. Restrictions will be made to files (you know what I mean? ), not hard/software itself. Like i-tunes or so. Uploading a song to 3 different computers, for example and then the file is getting locked. #3. Simple Mode/Full Mode. As you know, here in MDCF we know much about technology, software, computers etc. But if I tell my friends who uses mp3 players what they CAN do with MD's they are absolutely one big questionmark . There are simply too much features (and restrictions) with these Hi-MD units. All of them mainly wants to download music from pc. But at the same time they say they will be in heaven if they could record their lectures, interviews etc with their players. But they think that's future and they have to wait some years to get that to their players. Recording on mp3 players will be THE next big thing what we will see "in the future". Today every manufacturer push their efforts to get simple mp3 recorders for the markets. And now you laugh ? So do I. But it is really a fact. We have recorded to MD for ten years! People are slow to assume new things to their lives. And when they saw things that actually help their everyday life, they need someone else to do (and prove) it first. That's what apple did with their Ipod -siple player for simple people, and then they tell people this thing has every feature that you could imagine. All you need is computer. But now there is this "ipod shuffle mania". Why? What next? Ipod record? Definitely! People want quality recorder with easy interface so they could record lectures or learn new languages (recorder will help a lot), or record their bandtrainings or livemusic. And some of them are actually heard about (and towards) minidisc, but are (very) confused and worried if they pay 200-400$ for equipment which is so complicated to use and has so much restrictions and "its own rules" what you can do and what you can't. And when you go to the local store, first thing what salesperson say is: "So you want to record; buy this microcasette recorder." If you tell him about MD, he say: "ahh, you want professional recorder." .....Professional!? There should be easy learning curve for novices (simple-mode) and when users are getting used to it, then they could switch to Full Mode (features like recording and editing, for example). Now you think: this feature actually is in NH1, but it's not what I mean. Simplicity is hard to implement. Really HARD. Apple make huge efforts to simplify their products to maximum user friendliness. And those players have 1/5 features of MD recorders. I think most future efforts on Hi-MD should be cancelled and that effort should move to make better user interfaces. Added bonus features to this "new NH1": - AA adapter - Recharging USB Stand (sony abandoned this just before NH1 hit markets) - AC plug in the unit itself - Color TFT LCD screen (to wiew artist information, pictures, cd cover art etc). Anyway, it's 99,9% sure we will see this in 3rd gen units. In the future. this could be real All-In-One - One-And-Only Hi-MD player AND recorder. With these three features (and hopefully with those add-ons), Sony could cancel to evaluate 3rd, 4th (and probably 5th) gen units and price could drop about 100-200$ per one MZ-NH1. All resources could move to make home/carstereo Hi-MD units and to make this "standard" portable unit cheaper. Like Playstation 2 now costs under 1/3 of its start price. In the future, other manufacturers would have nothing to fear because sony wouldn't evaluate minidisc like Hi-MD last year, or Net md in the past. Remember Sharp IM-DR80? That was too much for sharp and they decided not to make that mistake (or Hi-MD recorder) again. Now, they wait and see how sony do with Hi-MD. And in the future we would like to see other manufacturers make these "standard" Hi-MD-recorders. Like "Sharp MZ-NH1" with auvi and 4-pole headphone support or panasonic "NH1" with slimmest design & best battery life or Kenwood "NH1" with beautiful design and best remote. These machines will rock the world. You can't compete Ipod or other mp3 players if you have numerous units/features to evaluate, or you have to make them lower quality (like plastic, (2nd gen units), for example)) and cutted down features. Those Mp3 players uses so low quality parts, you cannot compete with them if you don't have product which sells a lot. One standardized unit is the way, but you'll have to name it wisely, like ....hmm.....Ipod. I really wish someone on Sony consider this. Why kill best md-recorder in history, when there's simple ways to develop it to perfect md/mp3 player AND RECORDER? Please, post comments/suggestions. This is my first post due to my lack of english. But I've been MDC user since 1999 and many of you guys here are "like best friends" to me. I wanted to write down this thoughts, cause in the year 2010 I don't want to listen "Those were the days " with my MD player. Thanks for reading this! ---- whoah.., It took me 3 hours to write this with dictionary. Now I have to think good title to this topic? [edited several times]