IdiotSavant

Welll I'll be.. I've just tested it and it actually doesn't! Can't believe I missed that. Though I'm not surprised given that I hacked mine to get the EQ.

Thanks But no need to be formal... 'idiot' will do

I just took the RH10 and a RM-MC40ELK into a dark room. Though the RH10's display is definitely bigger, brighter and more vivid, only the letters/symbols are lit up (and I don't think that the display will stay lit all the time - it goes into screen saver mode after a few seconds during playback... but I'm not sure whether the level meters stay lit during recording when you're not connected to the mains) whereas on the remote the entire thing is backlit (though this goes off after a few seconds too.) It would most certainly be easier to mask the remote than the RH10 (though if you've got decent-sized hands you could probably mask the RH10 in your palm) but the remote might be more conspicuous if you're having to fiddle around with it from having trouble using it, whereas the RH10 unit is extremely intuitive and you could probably get it to do anything you want in just a second. So really it depends... - whether you can operate a unit or remote more stealthily - whether you feel that brightly lit symbols and text on a back background are more noticable than a completely lit but less bright background. I've never done any concert recording, so I'm afraid I'm not much help!

It's a shame really, because SS could be a really nice way of playing back MDs through your hifi (or PC speakers, or whatever.) Oh well... Perhaps they'll include a seperate player in the future.. for proper MD playback without using SS? *Fingers crossed*

Does this work for you? I unchecked that box long ago and it seems to only make a difference to the playback of albums stored in "My Library"

Good catch Perhaps I should have just clarified that I meant that you could install SS and SB, using SS for audio stored on the PC and SB for audio CDs... oops.

For uploading to the unit using the PC is by far the fastest method (vs. using real time recording.) The latest version of Sonic Stage is your best bet for transferring MP3s or any audio files to your unit and you can get it from here. However, newer versions of Sonic Stage can be a bit of a pain for transferring albums as they go on ID tags, so if your files on your computer aren't tagged correctly you might want to consider using the version of Sonic Stage that came with your N1 (as older versions group tracks by folders, I recall.) That said, there have been a lot of improvements in Sonic Stage in other areas so you might want to give the new version a whirl anyway and see how you take to it. Alternately, if you've got the music on CD then Simple Burner is the fastest way to do things as it will convert the CD to ATRAC and transfer it all in one go (vs. in Sonic Stage when you have to import the CD into the library before you can transfer it) and you can get that from the downloads section, in the top right of the forums' pages. Hope that helps

I don't know much about earphones, but from what I've heard about B&O.. be careful. It's not that the kit isn't good, but it's more designer than anything else and hence the price is over inflated - you could probably get the same thing from a different brand for a lot less. But that's just a general comment on B&O...

My favourite that I've tried so far is the behind-the-ears-and-down-the-back oldskool method that comes with Shure earphones (though I don't know of any other brands that do this, I'm sure some must.) Hooking the cord over the ears provides support for the cord travelling down the back and it's nice and discrete/doesn't get in the way. Plus that way you can let each phone dangle down over your shoulders at a greater length when you're not using them, meaning you're less likely to lose them. And I'm all about the long cord.. as I never use remotes, I just have my unit sat in my pocket. (I tend to only listen to albums, so it's easier just to take my unit out my pocket every 45 minutes or so than it is to mess around trying to use a remote.)

Not that I know of... I think it's because SS has to add the song to its cache when playing back. However - as you seem to be one who uses SS for MD playback a fair bit - may I ask, do you know of any way to get SS to play back just a single album or group from the player without continuing with the next after it's finished?

While I can offer no ideas regarding the M3U files, have you tried using SonicStage's search feature? Whenever I want to transfer a compilation to my unit I put SonicStage into 'All Tracks' view and just tap in the name of the album into the search box, make sure they're sorted by track number and transfer accross. Though, that depends on you remembering the names of all your compilations (probably not so useful for someone with as much as you) and having the album/track data of the ID tags labelled. That said, it could work well if you've got some sort of volume 1, volume 2, volume 3, etc. system as typing in the prefix would give you a list of all the compilations with that prefix? Just a thought.. (though it sounds like simple burner might be more up your ally)

Try listening to MP3s on your RH10 through your PC? I did, and found that the treble's at a normal level (the glaring difference noticable when playing back on the RH10 weren't there) so the chances are it's a failing in the firmware of the unit. But even with that, is the RH10 really that bad at MP3 playback? I fiddled with the EQ and got it to sound great as far as I'm concerned. And before we get too much into this, maybe someone should point out that unless you've forked out for a decent pair of phones.. these sound differences won't be noticable/any 'sound' differences will mainly be down to the phones. I just thought that might have been worth adding, given that the iPod shuffle seems designed to be worn with the phones that comes with it. (Though I don't have any hands-on experience with them, so I can't say for sure.)

Well, you can't get MP3s onto your NH1 for the simple reason that the NH1 doesn't support them. (If that's what you're alluding to.) You can convert them to ATRAC and transfer them to your NH1 in LP4/LP2/Hi-LP/Hi-SP/any of the other bitrates supported. If you're not even getting the option to convert to ATRAC, you might want to go into tools-> options, then to the 'Transfer' section and alter 'Transfer Settings' for the Hi-MD device. Failing that, I'm out.. it should be able to do it. A complete uninstall/reinstall perhaps?

I take my hat off to Sony, I'm impressed! Personally I can live with the titling error though/I'm not sure about whether this will apply in the UK/I think I might wait until I've heard reports of people who've done it I'm just excited at the principle of Sony giving out free firmware upgrades! It increases the chance of the MP3 playback bug in the second gen units getting fixed, anyway... (Though I realize the chances are still non-existant.) But wow! Great news! Thanks Kurisu!

I just made use of MP3 on a 1GB disc for the first time and managed to squeeze all the 'proper' Sonic Youth albums onto one disc. It's a good listen ...Or will be once I get through all eleven and a half hours or so.

Hi-MD only supports one level of folders, it's simply not possible. However, you could just put all the songs into a single group named 'Greenday' and make sure the "Album" column is filled in correctly for all the tracks. That way you can use the 'Album' playback mode to select the.. umm.. albums and the 'Group' playback mode for all the Greenday albums - you use the 'album' feature to subgroup tracks within a group: greenday (Group Name) ->american idiot (Album Name) ->dookie (Album Name) Also - like The Low Volta said - you could set each album as a group use the 'Artist' playback mode to group together all the groups. greenday (Artist Name) ->american idiot (Group Name) ->dookie (Group Name) Or alternatively you could just forget about the groups, make sure the Album and Artist information are filled out for every track, and let the respective play modes do the work for you

I've got a RH10 and I've done some listening tests. While I haven't been able to notice any loss of detail, there's a clear reduction in volume in things that're mainly treble (most notably symbols and light precussion, certain guitars) to the extent that you can more easily differentiate mp3 playback from Hi-SP than LP2 from Hi-SP. However, after fiddling with the EQ to get it sounding right I couldn't tell the difference between Hi-SP and 192kbs CBR.

Ah yes, I use mine for playback most of the time truth be told. But you have to record what you playback vs. a MP3 player, was what I meant. Well I didn't quite feel like calling it a review because I only really covered the important stuff that MD users would be interested in - nothing for the non-initiated. That said, I can't honestly see why I thought to do that given I was posting on MDCF.. hmm...

I know a lot of people on this board have a RH10 but given that there's only one other review posted in this forum I figured I'd go and do a review/comments of my impressions of the RH10. (Being as I take so much information from this place yet never contribute.) I'm going to try to focus particularly on things that surprised me about the unit (either because nobody's written about them, or because I'd missed them.) The construction of the unit Just to reiterate, the backlit screen is absolutely beautiful - you really have to see it to believe it! Though it's great in the dark, the downside is that if you're out and about on a really bright day then it's not very easy to read and you'll probably have to shadow it with your hand. The coating on the front seems to be more durable than people are making out. Admittedly I did manage to scratch it within a minute of it being out of the box by knocking a MD against it, but it's not been scuffed or scratched in any other way yet and I've walked over 25 miles with the thing in my pocket. It really is impossible to touch the thing without getting fingerprints on it (thanks to its glossy surface.) The lid is different in design to any of the previous generation units. Rather than the edge of the lid meeting the edge of the body when it's closed (which led to those notorious gaps in a lot of pre-Hi-MD models) the area into which the lid locks is recessed behind the silver sides and sunk slightly. This means there's no gap visible whatsoever and it really is a great improvement on previous designs. The lid to the battery compartment is a lot harder to slide open than on previous models - you have to apply a lot more force to open it, and you have to push harder against it to get it in line with the unit so that it can be slid closed. While this may make it more secure, it gives me the feeling that it could end up getting broken due to someone applying too much force when trying to close it. The external battery case doesn't seem as well-designed as previously. One of the terminals is located towards edge of the unit, while one is located towards the middle, meaning that the hole into which the case screws is about a third the way along the side of the unit. Although there are 3 plastic struts on the battery compartment (equally spaced to spread the load evenly over the side of the unit) it doesn't seem like a great idea having the strain of the battery compartment off-centre - I tried editing on the unit with the battery case attached and felt like I was going to break it. To open the USB jack there's a cover which must be slid (which occludes the DC in jack when the USB is open.) This is actually very easy to use and feels a heck of a lot more secure than using the rubber cover to open the USB jack (which I always felt was getting ready to rip off.) I had hoped that the RH10 might be able to use the stand which came with my NH900 but alas, as it's the European model there's no jack at all for connecting to a stand. The buttons on the front of the unit are great. Though they're plastic, they may well be the most easy to use ones I've come across so far on a unit - each has its own identity and gives a very reassuring click when pushed. The jog dial doesn't slip at all, clicking into place each time it's turned and also never slipping when it's being pushed. The record/track mark and pause buttons are actually recessed into the face of the unit a little, with the record button not protruding as much as the pause button (meaning you can't accidentally knock it during playback and enter a track mark.) I am a little curious to know just why Sony made the stop button twice the size of the Menu button (surely the menu button is used more?) Also having to hold down the menu button for two seconds in order to specify the main play mode is far more difficult than simply pushing the menu button once on the NH900 (why didn't they stick to the separate menu and search buttons?) In size the unit is almost identical to the NH-900, but a touch smaller. The new orientation of the unit is wonderful. The headphone jack mounted at the top means that the unit can be held without it interfering. It also works out great for connecting the unit to Hi-Fi as you don't need to snake the power and phono leads around the unit, but can just run them straight. (The phono lead will connect to the headphone jack at the top, while the L-shaped plug of the power adaptor will plug into the side with the lead running straight.) I actually find the remote to be more useful than on previous models as it does away with the silly play/pause/fast forward/rewind slider and keeps all the buttons simple. (It's easier to tap the skip forward button on this remote a few times than to repeatedly slide the slider in that direction on the old remotes.) However if not having a LCD display on the remote is a big issue for anyone, the standard backlit remote (that comes with the NH900, etc.) also works on the RH10. On MP3 playback After doing some listening tests with my modest Shure E2cs I can safely agree with everyone else that there is a big problem with the MP3 playback - it's not that I've noticed any detail lost, but the reduction in volume in the treble region gives the impression of reduced clarity. To put the MP3 problem in context it's far easier to tell the difference between MP3 and any other mode than it is to tell the difference between LP2 and Hi-SP. (I know a lot of people can't tell the difference between them.) The problem with MP3s can easily be overcome by fiddling with the EQ settings, and it sounds absolutely fine. While it might sound annoying having to adjust the EQ every time you switch between playing MP3 and ATRAC, if - like me - your discs will only contain either MP3s or ATRAC then the disc memory (assuming you apply the hack) will eliminate most of the switching you'll have to do. [Edit: or it would if it worked! Can't believe I missed that earlier The disc memory doesn't remember the EQ settings for me, but this is a hacked Euro RH10 after all...] It looks like the problem with MP3 playback is indeed on the unit and not any kind of filter applied by Sonic Stage on transferring MP3s - I played a few MP3s of tracks from the RH10 through my PC using Sonic Stage and was unable to spot the glaring difference (which is there when listening to the same tracks directly from the unit.) MP3s actually transfer slower than I thought they would. While there's no doubt that it's faster than ATRAC, it's still slower than I thought (maybe 4 minutes to transfer 50MB worth of files?) While that's still plenty fast enough it surprised me a little, that's all. (I'm fairly sure this is due to the write speed of Hi-MDs and not Sonic Stage as I get similar times when copying and pasting other files onto the disc.) On Recording/Editing To start recording hold record and push play, to start recording in paused mode hold pause and push record; what could be simpler? (I find recording a lot easier to initiate now that the record slider has been done away with.) No recording/editing bugs noted in this unit… but there's still time. Editing tracks is a piece of cake (as always.) However, when in rehearsal mode the jog dial operates counter-intuitively (at least to me); pressing up backtracks the divide point while pressing down moves it forwards. My unit came with the character display problem where during track name edit, some of the characters of the alphabet aren't visible. While this is annoying, the missing characters can still be selected - you just have to go off screen. (And let's face it, how hard is it to infer where the character's going to be if you know your alphabet?) On PC Connection There is one very annoying feature of the RH10 (though I imagine some people might like this) whereby the battery is charged whenever the unit is connected to the PC. (I don't like this as I prefer to discharge a battery completely before recharging it.) Although I can't say anything for definite yet, it seems that this 'confuses' the battery indicator RH10 and makes it think that the battery has more charge than it really does, causing it to suddenly drop out sometimes. (Though I guess it makes a change from the battery indicators on previous units where they've been flashing empty for days on end.) I guess this could be useful if you connect the unit to the PC for a significant amount of time each day (as it means you might get away with never having to charge the thing) but I'm not sure who'd do that. (It's a recorder Sony, not an MP3 player!) That said it is very nice to be able to connect the unit to the PC without additional power connections. (Though I realize this was also the case on first generation Hi-MD units.) With Sonic Stage 3.2 just released, being able to limitlessly upload tracks of your own recording is fantastic. However, it's not without its bugs. Not only does the transfer from Hi-MD to Sonic Stage frequently cop out and come up with transfer errors (reminiscent of the frequent transfer errors I used to get when using OMG jukebox to transfer files to a MDLP unit using a PC with a 333MHz processor) but some of the recorded ATRAC files seem 'corrupted' - I've recorded several files where they'll transfer to the PC in ATRAC form perfectly fine, but then when they're converted to WAV (either by Sonic Stage or Hi-MD renderer) they become truncated following lengths of silence which occur within the tracks. I do suspect these are software issues though, rather than it being an issue with the unit.That's it. I hope my comments prove useful to someone! Now for the pictorial... ...enjoy! The two units side by side. Note that the battery compartment for the RH10 is slightly larger than the one for the NH900, and the RH10's remote is smaller than that of the NH900. Both units with the battery compartments attached - different orientations to match the different sides on which the power supply is. ...just for the sake of completeness The side of the units for the power supply. USB Jack closed on the RH10. As above but with the USB jack open on the RH10, occluding the DC jack. The side of the unit into which the battery slots (though it's not visible on the NH900 thanks to my blurry photography.) Fortunately this one does show the different lid styles of the two - on the NH900 you can see where the lid meets the body of the unit while this is not visible on the RH10 as the edge of the lid is somewhere behind the silver side. The side with the catch for opening the unit. I find the bigger catch on the RH10 easier to use. The side with the audio jacks, the hold switch and - for the NH900 - the USB jack. There's an almost identical arrangement on both, but this picture shows off quite nicely how the RH10 is just a touch sleeker than the NH900. The NH900 connected to my Hi-Fi and to the mains - the DC jack and phono out aren't mounted in an especially convenient manner (as I noted earlier.) The RH10 connected to the Hi-Fi - a much more sensible arrangement (assuming the wires are coming away from the wall) but I feel this change was probably made more because it's the standard orientation on things like iPods. Both units open. Same thing again, but from a higher angle (to get a better view of the lid.) Both units closed. Note how a thin strip around the outside of the RH10 is no longer visible (as it's locked in behind the silver sides of the unit.) I do apologise for the units appearing dull, but my photography skills are limited and using the flash just created a big white reflection on the RH10.. so this seemed the best way to do things. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it!

Ahh well that explains that. I never bothered with Sonic Stage at all before (other than to transfer tracks) but I just happened to find out the other day that HIMD stuff would play back through the PC. (Hell I only just realized yesterday that the NH900 is powered by the USB when it's connected)

I tried that, but it doesn't work. I think that just applies to the library (hence why it's under the "My Library" section in the options. Sonicstage isn't much help - it still claims that when you play back a minidisc using sonicstage that the sound comes through the unit and not the PC!

I'm pretty sure of the answer I'm going to get here, but I know I'd be kicking myself if I found out at a later date that I was wrong; Is there any way to use SonicStage to play back just a single group or album from a HIMD player through the PC when it's connected via USB? Playing back on SonicStage is fine at the moment, but I hate when it skips to the next album or group immediately after finishing the one I was listening to. I know it might sound like an odd thing to want to do, but I have my PC connected to my HIFI so it would be easier to just connect my NH900 to my PC, let SS load up and play what I wanted, rather than having to mess around connecting my MD player to my HIFI Anyway, if anyone could be of any help... or just confirm what I think, that'd be great. (Or if they could suggest an alternative to SS to PC playback of tracks on a HI-MD... )

Now I'm not entirely sure that this will work (someone please tell me if they've tried it and it doesn't) but I can't imagine why it wouldn't. See, I'm under the impression that everyone with a Euro NH900 seems to have been stuffed over a bit (lack of stop button function, menus not working correctly, etc.) but it seems to me that this violates the manufacturer's garuntee a bit, in that the unit doesn't work as is stated in the instruction manual. That in mind and that the 1st Gen Hi-MD units weren't released all that long ago, it seems a lot of people should have a unit with a fault which should violate the manufacturer's 12 month garuntee. So what I propose is that you should be able to return your unit to wherever you got it from, piss about a bit until they realize that all the Euro NH900 versions are broken, then get a new unit (second gen, of course.) Am I crazy with that logic? When I ordered my N910 a couple years back (from Empiredirect.co.uk) the thing had a fault whereby it would appear to pause when doing synchro record and there was no signal, but would in fact continue recording about 5 minutes of nothing until the unit shut off. I managed to return my unit on the basis of that and was offered the choice of a new N910 unit or a different unit of equivalent price. (I stuck with the N910 in the end, but the point still stands.) Fact is, if you have a faulty unit still under garuntee then you should be able to return it, either for another unit (which will of course also be faulty, so that will thus be returned too, and so fourth) or for another unit (of equivalent or lower price or some such) but either way, it's an upgrade to a new 2nd Gen unit (assuming the things hit Europe within the next 6 months, that is.) Anyway... opinions on this anyone? Mainly I'm just posting it here in case someone spots something terribly flawed with all this and can stop me from attempting something stupid.