Trondis

Gapless is the most important feature for me - more important than sound quality. That is why I bought a Sony NWHD1 and NWHD3. And unless Sony implements gapless again, I won't buy another Sony.

Hi! I thought it was a good idea to rip my CD's to Atrac Advanced Lossless in SonicStage. Because then I could transfer the CD's to whatever bitrate later on without loosing anything. However, I found out that this won't work so well on gapless CD's. When there is a change in the file format, the transitions between tracks won't be smoothless anymore. I knew this would be the case with MP3's or other fileformats, but I didn't expect it to happen with Atrac files. Trondis

For me gapless playback is the most important. Nothing is more irritating than gaps in the music where it shouldn't be. So if all MP3's introduce a gap, I won't use it. I guess that I will have to try out WMA or AAC files then. best Trondis

OK, the plan is: 1) Import my CD's to harddisk in either MP3, WMA or AAC format. 2) Install ORB (www.orb.com) 3) Enjoy the music on my PDA when I have access to wireless internet (in my home, on hotels, airports etc.). 4) Import the files to SonicStage 5) Transfer the files to my minidisk. Then enjoy the music on the minidisk when I take a walk or go for vacation. The question was, which file format is best for conversion to Atrac3. I suppose that when I use a compressed format (like MP3) as the source, the atrac3-file on the minidisk might be of a lesser quality than if I had started with an uncompressed file. Also, will all MP3-files introduce a gap, and will WMA or AAC do the same? Finally, which library/ripper program is best? I hope that made it clear. Best wishes Trondis

Hi! I have used Minidisc as my pocket stereo for at least 10 years. Last year I upgraded to Hi-MD (MZRH600). So I started transferring my CDs via SonicStage. Since then I have also bought a PDA with wireless internet, that I also can use as pocket stereo. And now I am buying a new PC with enough HD space to transfer my entire CD collection. The minidisk is my preferred device for walks or vacations. But at home, or at places with wifi, I want to use my PDA. If I put my CD collection on harddisk, I can access everything via the PDA. So I am wondering what programs and formats I should use for this. I know of three possible formats for streaming audio to the PDA: MP3, WMA or AAC. As library programs there are plenty, but candidates are Windows Media Player, iTunes, MusicMatch or Nero Digital. MP3 and WMA can be streamed to the PDA via ORB, and AAC can be streamed via Nero Digital. I believe that both MP3, WMA and AAC files can be used by SonicStage to transfer the music to my Minidisc. So, does anybody have any recommendations here? What library program and format is best? I will use a compressed format (not WMA lossless, for instance), but how will that affect the quality on the atrac3-files that are transferred to the minidisk? For me it is also very important that I will get gapless playback on the minidisk. (I have heard that MP3 introduce some silence after tracks, but is this true for all MP3s?) best wishes Trondis

Hi! I bought my MZNH600 (European model) last september. It was on sale for a quarter of the suggested retail price, and less than a third of the best price I could find on the net. Since then I have tried to find reasons why this was a good purchase compared to other portable players. First I thought of my needs: 1) I need to bring a reasonable amount of my CD music when I am on vacation 2) I need to be independent of a computer to change the music when on vacation 3) I need to be independent of battery chargers etc. because I travel to another continent with different currencies and plugs etc. With these criterias I found that the MZNH600 is perfect. I can fit most of my CD collection to 10-12 HiMD discs if I compress them to Atrac3plus 64k. That is a suffeciently good sound quality for my tired old ears. The player also uses standard AA batteries that are available everywhere, plus these batteries seems to last forever. Besides this, I find that SonicStage actually does a good job in transferring the CDs to MD. To me it sounds like the original, without gaps etc. There are quite many alternatives to MD as portable players, but it is hard to find one that can do the same as the HiMD players. The small flash-based players are good if you have a computer nearby to load in new music, or to charge the batteries. The HD based players can fit more music than the HiMD players, but which ones are independent of computers or chargers to reload the battery? My old father just bought a flash player, and I had to help him to put music on it. Since the player didn't come with a program to transfer the music, and no recommendation to a good program either, I had to search the net and try out several. That wasn't easy. The obvious choice to make WMA files is Microsoft Media Player. That one seemed to work fine, it even downloaded the cover art. But it didn't handle a 4CD box well - it could only find the track titles of the first CD in the box. Other rippers had the right titles, but didn't number the tracks. That meant that they would play back in alphabetical order. Half of the "free" programs that I tried was either full of adware, or they were just "free to try" with limited functionality. All in all, I am very happy with my MZNH600 player.

This article was just published by Sony Media Software: http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/news/2005-09/craigs.asp check it out. Trondis