nittany_tim

I'm going to be jumping into the minidisc world for the first time and am considering getting an RH10. From what I've read, I see that recording levels can be modified. But are they fixed for a recording once recording begins, or can they be changed on the fly while recording (e.g., for fading selections in and out)? Thanks a lot, Tim

Absolutely!! Thanks so much for taking the time to respond in such detail as you did. The information you provided is exactly the type of stuff I was looking for in making my decision. I'm really not worried about any idiosyncrasies of using MD equipment or SS software... I sort of like tinkering around with new stuff. Honestly, my biggest concern was with the uncertain future of the MD format, but at this point, I don't care. I really want to get moving on this and get my old vinyl onto some personal compilations, and it's pretty clear to me that, for the price and for what I need, nothing else comes close to MD when you factor in both sound quality and flexibility. Thanks again, Tim

This is my first post here. I have a decent collection of 45's, albums and cassette tapes that I want to make sure stay with me for a while. I also like to make mixes out of all of my music, and so I've been researching the best way to do that (this site has been a great resource). After looking over some CD recorders, recording irivers, and Hi-MD, it's clear to me that Hi-MD is the best option for me, based on many factors. But before jumping in, I have a few questions/concerns: 1) The future: A common theme in these forums seems to be the uncertainty of Sony's commitment to continuing the MD format. Suppose Sony discontinues the format -- what does that mean? Would they likely still produce Hi-MD recorders and disks, but just not pursue advancing the technology (similar to how you can still buy a Sony tape deck and cassette tapes), or would they take it completely off the market? That really makes a difference in the decision process. 2) Reliability: One of the complaints I've seen of the consumer-level Sony CD recorder is that it can be finicky, unreliable and therefore frustrating to work with. How do the Hi-MD recorder units compare in that regard? 3) Sound quality: The possibility of almost 8 hours of music in Hi-SP mode with a Hi-MD unit is really attractive.... but does it sound reasonably good at that level of compression? And how much of a dropoff is there when going down to using Hi-LP mode? I've never listened to MP3's, but which of the modes (linear PCM, Hi-SP, Hi-LP) would be closest to an MP3 (I'm just curious, given the popularity of ipods)? I'm not an audiophile, and so on a scale, I care more about the music than the quality of the sound, but there are limits. 4) How hard is it to make a minidisc copy of a minidisc (as opposed to a CD copy)? Would I always have to first copy to a PC via SonicStage and then copy back to a minidisc, or could I buy an additional Hi-MD player and use that as input to my stereo receiver and record from there with my original Hi-MD recorder? (I'm not exactly sure how the copy protection works with Hi-MD). 5) Restrictions on copying to CD: I downloaded the RH-10 manual, and on p. 103, it says that "tracks that have been digitally recorded on a Hi-MD device and then imported to SonicStage cannot be written to an audio CD." If this is the case, then why bother including the optical input on the RH-10? Has this restriction been a huge hassle for anyone, or has analog recording been an acceptable substitution? Thanks for any help, and many thanks to the folks here at minidisc.org for hosting such an informative and helpful website. Tim