digs5446

Holy moly, there is good in this world. Thank you. I can't believe out of all the reviews and FAQ's I've read about Hi-MD, as well as minidisco.com's product pages, I've never seen that fact pointed out. Seems like it would be pretty huge news...it's always been the single biggest drawback of Sony's units in my mind, and now it's been cured!

You are correct greenmachine, that was the main question I had. I realize what the technical advantages of Hi-MD are, but I was mainly concerned with "actual", real-world differences. I have a pretty keen ear and cannot tell a difference audibly between an uncompressed music CD and it's 292 kbps ATRAC offspring. I just wasn't sure about the whole microphone/analog thing. I should have mentioned before that another HUGE reason I am hesitant to go Hi-MD is that I cannot stand the fact that Sony units don't allow you to manually adjust recording levels on the fly. Or is this no longer the case? Pray tell! I've always loved Sharp MD products...much more flexible in my opinion. I refuse to use AGC, and the inability to adjust on the fly would aggravate me to no end.

I use a Sony ECM-907 for louder live music and the Sound Professionals binaural omnis for environmental field recordings. I'm thinking it would be pretty tough to hear a difference between uncompressed PCM 1411 kbps and the "classic" SP 292 kbps. I know it sounds like a big difference on paper...I was just wondering if anyone had done side by side comparisons with their mic recordings.

Howdy, I have been a long-time MD user and my primary interest is recording live music, dictations/audio journals, and environmental field rec's (thunderstorms, cars driving by, crickets etc). I still use an "old-school" Sharp unit (md-mt877, ATRAC v.6 i think) and record in 292 kb "SP" mode. My question is: is it worth it for me to upgrde to Hi-MD based on the ability to record in Linear PCM 1.4 Mkbps? I mean, can you really hear an audible difference in a microphone recording betwen my old unit and the new Hi-MD units? I'm a bit of an audiophile and I love the audio quality of MD live recordings...if the PCM recordings are noticeable better, I might consider upgrading. Otherwise, my trusty unit has treated me fine and I don't want to shell out another $200...