tommypeters

Yes, with a sound editor you can add gain - but that will also add the volume of the background noise the same amount possibly making it unpleasant to listen to. De-noising using filters is possible, but that will degrade the high frequencies of the music...

Or maybe not. Some companies are now finding it too expensive with higher salaries and even demands for decent factory facilities in China and are moving out, to other countries like Vietnam with 3-4 times lower salaries than in China...

Maybe it's a statement, in French, about the whole MD market...?

Well, but the discussion was why Sony doesn't continue with Hi-MD for the (semi-)pro(-sumer)s - not what's available from other companies.

No, for pros they go with the hideously expensive ($2,000) flash units, expanable with memorystick, with built-in mics...

Surprisingly many do. UMD movie sales are higher than expected.

That ought to be just as good. I don't know about rules and regulations in USA, here the seller would have to pay for postage both ways when there's a warranty replacement. Just make sure, together with them, that there's really a problem with the 40ELK and not with the 600D unit, cabling, user error - whatever. If they agree to you sending it in and there's no problem with it, they will charge you.

Didn't you buy that 40ELK in a shop? Then you can go back for a warranty replacement...

Simply put you could say the file size ratio is around 256/132... ATRAC is CBR.

Yes, but it didn't stick

I will see if I can find out where on eBay I bought my 1700 or 1750mAh Sony gumsticks, much better price than above quoted anyway. But people have reported that many MD units shuts off before these kind of "extra mAh" batteries are fully charged anyway...

With Sony involved, the "gate" would soon need to be put back again...

Exactly in the same way I just tried it on a NH600/MC40ELK. I hold down the jog wheel for a few seconds, then scroll to useful, then hit search, then hit search by track and then it lists all my songs in alphabetical order for easy navigating...

Well, the difference when you are on track 2 and want to jump to next group isn't minor. You have to look at the display, scroll past maybe 10 tracks, stop at the group after the last track and then press the jog wheel twice. Compared to, on a 33EL/35EL, press the "Next Group" button once.

http://www.minidisc.org/ieee_paper.html

For me all those more complicated things, like search, works fine. But I don't like that the only things that works on the simpler remotes (like 33EL) - jump to previous/next group by a press of a button - is so much more complicated on the 40ELK...

Yes, you could be wrong... It seems like the NH1 was redesigned a few times before it was released, and that possibly somewhat prematurely. The goal was to make the unit small and light, and eventually some other shortcuts had to be made. One is that he NH1 has the same, proprietary, connector for USB and charging and when in the charging cradle you can't have it connected to your PC. Originally it seems like the cradle should have had both a charging connector and an USB connector, but there was no room on the NH1 unit. Some circuitry needed for the charging is inside the cradle. This placing of the circuitry sure doesn't seem optimal, and isn't. Probably that was a "late addition" when it was found out there was no room inside the unit...

That's wrong. It's a common misunderstanding that digital means "all-or-nothing", but "gradual signal degradation" is sure possible in the digital world. Long before skips and dropouts occurr, error correction cicruitry starts to work. It can keep the signal perfect until the errors become too many and/or too complicated, but when that level is reached it doesn't mean a dropout or skip. The circuitry "fills in" information by interpolation between the correct samples. When information is filled in like this, on a minor scale, you won't really notice it. Often the circuitry "guesses" reasonably correctly, since the chance of the lost sample being between the "real" ones is quite high. But what you will loose is mostly transients and details, especially when the lost sample in fact wasn't in between the correctly read. The sound will be too soft, and somewhat "fuzzy". But not without drop-outs, until the error correction "collapses".

It's the least worth listening to, and so much better than 48kbps and 66kbps while the size difference is smaller than the sound quality difference...

If 64kbps is good enough for you then look no further.

The second possible reason is that the rechargeable batteries have lower voltage - 1,2V compared to 1,5V - but I have also used Ni-MH batteries without any problems, though I usually don't attach the external AA pack until the gumstick has run out.

Also check out the 1st Gen Hi-MD's from Minidisc Canada, like the MZ-NH900...

I'm not sure if they sell abroad, but many shops do - check out Minidisc Canada and their 1st Gen Hi-MD Bundles. Also, since it's an Australian unit the voltage is the same as in Britain, so you can use the original AC adapter. Even cheaper would be Minidisc Australia, but for now they don't ship internationally - I was lucky getting my units shipped (NH1 & NH900) before they stopped (Aussie rules made them remove batteries from the packages and ship them separately, making it too much work for them). The shipping may be a bit steep, since it's sent by courier post (which seems be because of a mis-understanding on Minidisc Australia's part - they say the can't get a verification the parcel has been recieved without it being courier post, Australia Post says otherwise...)

Maybe not "big time", but the difference is noticeable. And the large, nice 40ELK MAY use up more batteries than the smaller remotes (haven't tested that, though...)

Also, (try to) install SS 3.3 as soon as you can - several epople have problems installing Sony software and it may take you a day or so with help from this forum before you get it working. When it's installed, try ripping a track or two in different qualities and listen to it on your computer. If you're not too fuzzy about the sound Hi-LP (64kbps) might be good enough for you, I wouldn't recommend 48kbps for anything and almost only use Hi-SP myself. That way you are decided what to use when your unit arrives. Remember to format your discs in Hi-MD format, regardless if they are the new 1GB Hi-MD discs or the standard 74/80 min ones (will make them hold almost twice as much and some formats only work if you have your disc Hi-MD formatted).