KJ_Palmer

Don't Ipods (at least the later ones) now have the option to pay gaplessly, via Itunes? One of the few current players to do so, I believe, now that Sony has abandoned ATRAC. Not that that would make me buy one.

Well, as suspected the D-NE900 doesn't output a digital signal for MP3 or ATRAC files. Can't imagine why - surely no one would bother digitally copying compressed files in real time. Would be handy as a digital feed into a hi-fi system for playback purposes. At least the line out can be used for that, so (to me) it's no big problem really.

The Sony D-NE900 actually does have a digital out, Stephen. Not sure if it works with ATRAC (or MP3) discs (other equipment I have disables digital outputs for non CD-Audio discs, for some reason), but the manual doesn't inidicate either way so perhaps that's OK. Definitely (potentially) one way of feeding pure ATRAC 3+ into a stereo system...!

I've got a number of Sony ATRAC-CD capable portables, though, besides a few ATRAC-CD's I made early on - more to test Sonicstage could actually make them, I havent really succumbed to the charm of the ATRAC-CD. For compressed CDs I decided to go with the MP3-CD rather tie myself down to more of Sony's propriety nonsense. At least I can play my MP3-CDs on virtually any CD player made in the last 5 years, apart from the ultra hi-fi decks. For better fidelity I can always play the original CD. Shame in a way as ATRAC has arguably better quality than MP3, however I'd rather not limit myself too much. It's different with MD/Hi-MD of course as you're locked into the format from the start. Perhaps ATRAC-CDs are copiable because they're so niche and hence not a threat to the music industry that Sony either forgot or didn't bother to copy-protect the discs. Maybe, anyway just a few thoughts.

Well, I voted Yes, just in case...!

Hi. For most optical digital sources (CD deck, PC soundcard, DAC etc) you'd need a mini-TOSLink optical cable, such as this. The long thin end would go into the N707's optical in jack (shared with its line in), the other square end to the source. Portable equipment with optical outputs (some CD players,MP3 players,soundcards?) may need a mini-mini optical cable like this one. Those these are comparatively rare. Hope that helps

I haven't got Sonicstage on this computer, but (from memory) it's quite easy. - Select and right click on the track, and choose Properties. - Change the Album name to the target Album. The Album name should be exactly the same, so might be best to copy that name from the Album in Albums View. - Also, and this important - make sure the Compilations box is checked (for both Album and the extra track) if the extra track's Artist is different from the Artist(s) in the target Album. Hope that helps/works. Kevin

Agreed on the RH1 for archiving and uploading (as long as Sonicstage still works...). With a slight Hi-MD bias, I'd also say: NH900 - for playing via line out through home stereo. This is my current home Hi-MD setup, and I'm pleasantly impressed, so much so I've dropped the idea of getting an Onkyo deck (for the present). NHF800/NH700 - for on the go. I 'need' a tuner, and the unit must take an AA battery. MZ-B10 - for easy recording and playback. Invaluable tool for music practice and other studies. JB-980 - deck (albeit legacy only) for timed/radio recording and high quality playback.

Congrats on the new Hi-MD units. It's always useful to have a spare (or three) for backups.

Agreed that the RH710 is a nice little unit, a bit of an unsung hero really. Picked up a couple of them cheaply (~£30) a couple of years back when Dixons/Currys in London where obviously having a bit of a clear out of their 'obsolete' stock... Haven't used them much as I think I'll keep them in cold storage for a later time. But with the hack applied they seem to have a pleasant, warm sound (to my ears) typical of 2nd gen Hi-MD units. Nice and inoffensive, quite well made too. Nice that it takes an AA battery. Definitely a keeper if you plan to stay with the format. Not tried it with 48kbps files, does anything sound good at that bitrate?

Thanks very much Stephen. I have listened to those three LP4 tracks (didn't know it was possible to email ATRAC files btw!) and overall was quite impressed. Very listenable on both deck and portable, whilst somewhat harsher in some passages than others. Possibly the dynamics of the music comes in to play - the faster, louder sections seem more smeared than quieter parts, but overall almost as smooth as LP2, or a good DAB or even FM broadcast. Will certainly give LP4 another go, it would be good to have some 5+ hour compilations for the home deck. Cheers, Kevin

As far as I'm concerned, the general legacy rule of thumb - SP great, LP2 good, LP4 fine for voice only - still very much applies. I think I've given LP4 a fair crack of the whip, optical recording on my MDS-JB980 and SS download and it just doesn't cut the mustard for me. I also listen mostly to 'classical' music, and made several LP4 compilations, but sadly ths stuff just hurts my ears after a few minutes, whether on a deck or portable, ATRAC Type-S or not. To be fair LP4's not maybe as bad sounding as a low bitrate MP3 with their 'tinny' artifacts, more analogue-y like a poorly recorded cassette, but unfortunately those Bach, Corelli, Vivaldi, Mozart etc LP4 collections remain on the shelf. LP2 is a fine, listenable compromise between quality and quantity. Would love to be proved otherwise.

I've had quite a few MP3 players, too many to mention really, but including Creatives, Cowon D9, NexBlack, and my current. favourite my TrekStor xtension. Never been tempted by an iPod, Zune or one of the newer Sony DAPs, though Been pretty happy with the sound of all of them to be honest, no complaints really. I'm still sticking with my MD's though. Mainly because I have over 300 MD compilations that I can't bear to part with, plus a lot of portable and home gear. But I can't see why it has to be one or the other. You can have both..

Indeed, for the MZ-RH1 and NH700/NHF800 Hi-MD units there is a 'Beep' setting under Menu - Options, which you can toggle to On and Off. If you don't have either of these units I'd imagine it would be the same for yours.

The radio remote on my NHF800 stopped working, but otherwise, I've also had my (original) NHF800 for over 5 years, and it still works perfectly. I've replaced the remote, and bought a backup NHF800 (and picked up a couple of a NH700's which can also use the radio), but so far haven't had to use them. Again, I don't tend to use the jog dial much, preferring to use the remote, but generally speaking I wouldn't say the NHF800 is particularly fragile, quite the opposite in fact. It's my main 'war unit' getting almost daily use, and had quite a few knocks into the bargain.

Indeed, you need to install Sonicstage 4.3, which (I believe) is the only version that works with Vista. You can get it by following the download links in Avrin's Ultimate 4.3 installer. You may need to completely uninstall your current version of Sonicstage first, and all it's components, and registry keys, etc. Also, you can't run Simpleburner with 4.3, unfortunately.

Possibly an obvious suggestion, but have you tried Sonicstage's Backup tool to back up your library to an external media, and restore to your new hard drive? I did this twice last week and it worked fine. You might need to de-copyright protect your files as sfbp suggested, but otherwise it should be worth a try, if you have a spare external drive available. You might even be able to use your old IDE drive for the backup if you have enough space on that.

Got to be Sennheisers for me - CX300 or MX550.

The suggested settings on your MD unit is to achieve the cleanest signal from the headphone output, as near to a 'proper' line-out signal as possible, and use your Hi-Fi's amplifier to play through its speakers. So you can set your Hi-Fi's equaliser and volumes as you would normally, just not on the MD unit itself. When playing the MD's portably through headphones, ie. not attached to your Hi-Fi, you can of course use its own equalisers and volume settings to suit your taste. It's all because these particular MD units don't have a line-out mode. Others do, like the NH900 and RH1, and you would use that setting when connecting to a Hi-Fi. Hope that helps.

Not sure why you're having problems burning Audio CD's with CD Text, Stephen, but Sonicstage definitely can do it, as I've verified just now. It copied the Sonicstage titles to each track, and they display fine on both my Sony CMT-M333NT and Marantz CD6003. I've just installed Avrin's Ultimate SS4.3 installer on a fresh laptop, maybe that's helped.

An excellent freeware tool for editing MP3's is MP3 Direct Cut. No quality loss as there's no decompression/recompression involved, unlike some other audio editors. I use it all the time mostly for trimming/joining/tweaking MP3's and dividing long recorded radio broadcasts etc.

There was a very similar query not long ago - I refer you to this thread for the answer. Hope that helps.

You're welcome - and congratulations on making your NH700 even better! Works great with my NH600. If only you could add a mic input and radio function onto it... Be careful with your RH910 - you'll probably need to use the 2nd generation Hi-MD hack with that as I'm pretty sure the NH600/700 etc codes will not be appropriate.

Not that I'm an expert (in fact it was the first time I'd gone past the original basic hack), but here's how I changed the values at addresses 1941-1943 on my UK NH600: - Enter service mode 'normally', ie. Set Hold on , Press Group + FFBBFBFBPP (F = Forward, B = Back, P = Pause) - Press Vol+ TWICE to get to "1 NV" addresses (ie. bypassing the "0 Manual" addresses) - Press F quite a few times to get 941 on first line of LCD. So this is address 1941 (?). - Use Vol+ (or Vol-) to change the value on second line to 21, press Pause to save. - Press F and repeat for addresses (1)942 (change to 20), and (1)943 (change to 01). Anyway, this seems to have worked, and my NH600 now has V-Sur and Speed control functions! Perhaps an expert (eg. Avrin) will confirm the procedure was correct...!

Well, yes my comments were a bit nit-picking Degrades sound - I was more referring to fake-SP downloads which are already highly degraded quality. Agree about the fade in/out being very useful for SF editting. 'Takes forever' referred to level changes which take place in real-time (or worse), and are somewhat hit and miss getting the levels right. I remember trying to level change my early optical SP recordings track by track. Never again (since discovering Audacity etc). Undoable - again doesn't matter if you have the original in SS or whatever, but my early recordings weren't, and regret over-SF editting and even runing a few of them. Anyway, SF edit is a really handy fetaure when used well - I wouldn't do without it...