imzu

Yes, please read and inwardly absorb: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=9752 Read the whole thread fully before starting. Recommended custom EQ settings for MP3: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=10304&hl= Hope that helps! I said before that I didn't notice the loudness, but I've been using my Sennheiser HD575 phones recently and the sound quality and loudness now seems a lot better from them.

Ah, yes Hasselt I know it well. The folks there shout 'Right, I'm going to stop now' a few seconds before stopping. Of course, if you're plugged into your service-mode hacked loud-volume Hi-MD at the time, you'll never hear that will you? :-) get well atrain!

Thanks to everyone's favourite Belgian The Low Volta for linking me to this topic. Works for me! I have a Euro MZRH10. Originally it showed the hex digit A0, you need to keep 'Vol -' pressed down to get down to 24. Voila, I see Custom 1 and 2 EQ's which I have set to enable best playback from MP3 (see thread http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=10304&hl= for the settings). I cannot title edit but that was expected. The extra loudness is not really apparant to me. See topic link above for technical explanation of why that may not be. I am gonna experiment with titling stuff in multibyte chars, hopefully the extra charset includes the 'font' for the narrow width Western alphabeticals. That would be sweet.

Thanks for the links TLV, very interesting indeed. There are some very bright audio guys on this forum. Those graphs were fascinating. I must learn audio processing theory one of these days. Anyway, I won't on and on about mp3 playback but as a last thing I decided to experimentally mp3 encode the PCM track using LAME 3.92 in 320kbs and all the best quality options, and transferring that to my Hi-MD... it sounds the same as the SonicStage encoding :-( The theories confirmed in the threads you posted are probably true about the unit's playback being stunted in the high-frequency range. I tried to set a custom EQ to help counter this but... whats this? My Euro model is missing the Custom 1 and 2 programs! What the hell? Why is this? I use Unique sound mode now which improves things a bit. Anyhow, I won't be deterred too much, the MZRH10 is a great little unit overall and I've found PCM recording and playback a great feature. I don't want the moon on a stick but I think I'll go and add to the 'wish list for 3rd gen' :-) take care

Looks like I was lucky cause I got my MZRH10 from Unbeatable with the free postage deal last week (I paid 149UKP). When I search for 'minidisc' on the site, it produces some results but they seems to be 'special order' only. Hi-MD is still popular in Asia so it's not going away for a while yet, it is probably on the wane in Europe as far as I can tell cause of the iPod invasion. A few weeks back, I visited the John Lewis here in West Quay, Southampton hoping to evaluate the MZRH10 but there were none. The closest ATRAC device they had was the Sony NW5 HDD Walkman (which looks much better in the flesh than in photos BTW). When I asked the guy about minidisc he cited the DRM limitations and SonicStage's percieved clunkiness as major sticking points. The same sort of thing in Dixons, where they was a single Hi-MD unit on it's lonesome next to a row of shiny MP3 players. The sales chap revealed he was a MD user himself but that his company are simply following trends. Sadly I think it will go the way of the 35mm film camera's for Dixons (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4130620.stm). Isn't it a vicous cycle? Sony don't push Minidisc properly, therefore people don't buy them or are ignorant of the advantages, therefore sales dwindle, thereofre Sony don't push...

Nope, the font I'm talking about is used to display the track format info on the bottom line. Aesthetically I would prefer it to the current font which looks like the default browser font that every web page used to have circa 1995! Pragmatically, it would allow more of the track/group/disc title to appear in the same space. Anyhow, I've done an informal test between the various recording formats on offer. I took a CD Audio PCM track (from the Rock genre) and recorded it on a Hi-MD disc in the following formats: 1. Hi-SP (6.57Mb) 2. MP3 320kbs (8.2Mb) 3. ATRAC3 132kbs (3.39Mb) 4. Hi-LP (1.66Mb) 5. PCM 1.4Mbs (36Mb, in other words the original) I listened to the first 20 secs of each and did quick A-B's listening tests between the formats. Here's my ranking for quality of sound: 1. PCM not suprisingly 2. Hi-SP, I'm suprised at just how superb this is, very close to the original. Guitar and drums sound just as 'meaty' as PCM. 3. ATRAC3 132kbs, now this suprised me as I expected MP3 320kbs to be here. I'm really pleased that LP2 has held it's own here. Not that far off Hi-SP but you can hear the difference. Hi-SP has more "sparkle" and better stereo imaging. 4. MP3 320kbs, all of the faults above plus: looses some some treble and loudness. 5. Hi-LP, all of the faults above plus: loss of treble and a bit dull sounding. Now this is just a fun, little test. With electronic music or classical, no doubt the order of percieved quality would be different. But I was suprised at how good LP2 stands up against the rest. Secretly I am very pleased because my car audio deck supports LP2 :-) The interesting this here is the MP3 performance. Is this down to the MP3 decoder in the MD player being a bit inferior or the MP3 encoding of SonicStage? Have Sony slightly biased the MP3 encoding to be on the "dull" side compared to ATRAC3plus? What conclusions have you guys reached?

How do trades work exactly? Is the usual thing to trade 1 MD of music for another or do you send each other blank MDs, fill them up and then return? Please enlighten!

Just curious where folks go on teh interweb to get their "software" (eg. music, podcasts, audiobooks and other material). I originally wanted an MD as an MP3 player and filled up with game remixes from www.ocremix.org. MDLP was a boon here because I could fit 2.5hrs of music on a single 70p disc. Great stuff! Nowadays, I like listening to podcasts from www.itconversations.com, www.democracynow.org, www.lugradio.org and www.altmuslim.com. I also a bit of a freeloader and borrow friends CDs to make compilations! Over to you and anyone using Sony Connect to purchase music?

Most Hi-MDs come with Ni-MH batteries. I just wondered how many of you heed battery care instructions and are bothered enough to care about "battery conditioning" :-) http://www.batteryuniversity.com/partone-19.htm (see 'Priming new batteries') http://www.batteryuniversity.com/partone-23.htm http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-36.htm More to the point, has anyone noticed better battery performance after heeding the care instructions? Those of you with Li-Ion batteries (NH1 and...?) can relax as they are almost zero-maintenance

Should those qualified to vote have owned all those models? Maybe I am not qualified to vote since I only have the MZRH10. On the 'mp3 playback of 2nd gen units' - honestly, nothing wrong with it as far as I can hear. C'mon folks, do not perpetuate rumours without trying things first themselves.

Hi new to the forums but old to minidisc. Have owned a MZR900 (MDLP), MZN910 (NetMD), a lovely silver JB940 MD deck and now a very cool MZRH10 (Hi-MD). I don't like the default font used to display the track/artist/group name. Can the font used to display the normal menu items be used instead? You could fit more characters horizontally that way, which is only a good thing. I could not see a way to set the datetime or view a clock. I guess timestamping is not supported? I normally like the track properties to be displayed on the OLED, the trouble is that this option is not 'sticky'. eg. the MD forgets this after it turned off. Is there a way to make this persistent. general observations: - nice quiet operation, my MZRN910 was starting to making grinding noises (just like the mp3 someone posted in another thread of this sound) - can fit 3 albums of lovely Hi-SP goodness on a formatted MD - looks delicious in black, would have preferred magnesium alloy case - i like the remote control, simple and elegant although the legends on the buttons should be low-light luminous or at least coloured. I like it better than the more complicated button-heavy models - included earbuds are predictably bad, got a sennheiser px200 on da way :-) - not free bundled hi-md disc? tut tut Sony - native mp3 playback, fantastic, just what hi-md needs. we're seeing a major shift in sony in being open to new standards. the new playstation 3 will have multiple slots of other formats if the rumours are to be lieved. Sony's President was replcaed last year with a younger more progressive chap, and his thing was to be more open with the other formats. We're at last seeing that trickle into consumer products. - forum member 'the low volta', been reading his posts over the past week, what a great chap :-) ciao, more later!