boojum

If you have not ABX'ed then you are quite possibly falling prey to the placebo effect. You know each sample you are playing. Ergo you are biased. If it were double blind I would be persuaded. As it is what you have done is create some anecdotal evidence. We are already awash in it. Try to ABX them. You can use foobar2000 to do this, if you care to. Cheers l'esprit d'escalier - this came to me. Take a digital photo of something at 24dpi. Print it out. Now it is analog. Take a photo of the print at 24dpi and another at 96dpi. They will be identical because the original is 24dpi and even if you photograph it again at a million dpi it is a picture of something 24dpi. It cannot get better. It can be the same or worse only. I hope this helps. If not, pose it at hydrogwenaudio.org. The propeller heads there are way smarter than I.

You are suffering from the placebo effect. A copy can never sound better than the original. Same as a Xerox copy. Take a fuzzy copy, put it in the best Xerox and you will get a very good copy of a fuzzy original, fuzzy in all the same ways, almost exactly the same. Bit it will never be crisper than the original. Just sit down and think about it. Another way to conceptualize it is to think of a digital copy of a wax cyclinder recording. Do you think the digital copy will sound better?? Try and ABX the two samples and see how accurate you are in a double blind attempt of identifying which is which. You can pursue this further at hydrogenaudio.org where this has been a topic of discussion for a while. The result is always the same. Physics remains the law: the copy cannot be better than the original.

In response to the question of how the Macally IP-A48? is working for me? Just great. Take it whenever I record. It is my electronic security blanket and way cheaper than the LiIon from SONY. You don't have to draw me a picture.

It is working rather well for me as a recorder of live music. When recording in stereo the channels are nearly identical, eh? Reverb, etc. can be added as post processing which seems the most proper way to me, too. I am sure the other board member join me in sorrow that it does not meet your specific and somewhat odd needs. Cheers

It has been beta for quite a while and works just fine. Go for it.

The magic of Yahoo: # Sampling frequency: 44.1 kHz # Sampling rate converter: Input: 32 kHz/44.1 kHz/48 kHz # Coding: Adaptive transform acoustic coding (ATRAC) Same sampling frequency as PCM, not the same format and compressed.

From what I read, the NW-A808 is just a player. How will that replace a recorder/player?? I am not sure what reworking the firmware amounts to. Also, it does not seem possible for the user to update the firmware, at this time. If they come up with some whiz-bang improvements I sure hope they put an executable out there for us to catch up with.; I have been a SONY whore for 40+ years. I love their stuff and think of them frst when it comes gadget/toy time.

Had it been me, I would have plugged into line-in, set the mic sensitivity to low and the level at 20/30. If that battery box is working I am guessing it overloaded the MD recorder. Do you have meters or light bars which show if you are getting any sound??? Did you watch them??

The Korg is intetersting but pricey. For now the RH1 is admirable. If the engineer your English student is talking to knows SONY's marketing strategy, a possibility, things do not look good for MD. But that is how it has been for a long time. I just hope they make the RH1 for a while. Worst case scenario is that I buy one or two as they production is stopped. I like the little bugger. I can learn how the controls work. And did! It is small, efficient, makes good PCM recordings and is pleasing to the eye. If it cooked I would marry it. ;o) Lets just sit back and see what SONY comes up with. They are masters at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. I hope they do not let us down, again. Thanks for your input for gadget heaven, Japan, the mecca of all gadget freaks and lovers of "cute."

Enjoy it!!?? Sheesh, I am in freak city! This is fun. I just hope the good doktor never sees what I made of his invention. I do get the results though. I may tweak it or make another one. I saw one on Taperssection which was made from an embroidery hoop with white foam inside the hoop. The mics were held from the large flange on the hoop which is positioned at the back, i.e., on the horizontal axis away from the audioo source. This is fun.

PA - This is the Monday night jam session at the Cannon Beach American Legion, once one of the wildest bars on the northwest coast of Oregon. The folks there are drinking and carrying on and the band just gets a place to practice on Mondays. For $5 you get a big burger with all the greasy trimmings like fried onions, cheese, potato salad and so on. The jam has been going on for ~20 years. The locals are used to it and not too impressed. The last time I went some rude dudes wanted them to leave because the plywood the instrument cases were on was covering the pool table! No, really! Dr. Jecklin was about 5' off the ground and the crowd was behind him. I can try higher. Thursday I will record them in a serious, for the money, venue with less gassing and more playing and a somewhat quieter crowd. Dr. J is on a mic stand. I will try him at about 4' and about 6'. The OKM;'s are good, pick up the bass fine and so on. All in all I am pleased with the disc. I just hope old Juerg never sees my version. ;o) I am uploading a nice bluegrass number which closed off the night for any folks overseas who are not familiar with it, and may not want to be! ;o) LOL Cheers Yes, the similarity between you and the disc is amazing! Thanks for sending the photos which made it so much easier to capture your character. ;oP bluegrass.mp3

OK, thinking that a disc 35cm across is not that hard to find I stumbled on a bunch of them for sale at the local public radio station and scooped up four of them for US$1 total. Then to the hardware store for a 12" long 1/4 threaded rod and assorted nuts and washers to fit the rod. Now the center of an old LP is just a tad larger than 1/4" and the disc just about 35cm across. You call it luck. Nah, it is a plan. ;o) I got some 1/2" foam at the local hobby shop and some faux lamb's wool (Sherpa Wool) and set to work. I used heavy wire for the paddles to hold the mics and as they are OKM's they have a soft fabric back which will cling to the Velcro nicely. A mic holder was separated into two pieces: the holder part and the part that screws onto the stand. It grasps the ~1" of foam and LP nicely. The fake lamb's wool was cut larger than 35cm and stapled together as I cannot sew. The mics are about 36cm apart, the latest from Herr Doktor Jecklin. It had been 16.5cm before. And it records quite nicely. Way better than the SONY ECM-MS957. The OKM's are omni's and I find they like to be closer than the cardioids. OK, you knew it, but I am just learning. I have uploaded a photo of this awful but sweet-sounding creation and will upload a track of bluegrass jam music doing an old Django Reinhardt number, Viper Drag, I believe. It is traditional to intone "Yeah" at the end as the original recording of Django and Stefan Grapelli has that at the end. Kind of a gypsy jazz answer to the Halleluiah Chorus in Haendel's Messiah. Recording chain is now: OKM mics > RH1 PCM > PC WAV > CDWave Editor (tracks) > FLAC 1.1.4 compression 8 and then LAME 3.97 V2 new for the upload. Tell me if I need to be committed for this awful trangression against Swiss craftsmanship. Cheers Oh, BTW, this disc can also intercept signals from saucers and black helicopters. Yeah! ROTFLMAO Viper_Drag.mp3

I would opine that the mic is the culprit. If you are not peaking on the RH1 it is not clipping. Try another mic and see what happens. Keep everyone here in the loop as you go along. Thanks.

I think that GM is right. Drop all AGC, use PCM rather than SP, and record at a low level with plenty of headroom. The low level can be corrected on your computer after you have uploaded it. Or, that is how I do it. I have not been able to D/L your samples yet but that is my cursory advice. And A440 is right about the mic, too. Cheers

I have been screwing around with audiio for 55 years now and have never seen anyone present any proof anywhere that high-priced cables are any better than just plain cables. I sure have enough "unidirectional" interconnects. Unidirectionals for alternating current? Huh? Any publication which tells you that the high priced ones are better, without double-blind testing, and which accepts advertising is shilling for its advertisers. That pros use the fancy stuff is true, but I am pretty sure it is because what they are using is rugged and has tips which last through numerous pluggings and unpluggings. What is there about one copper which makes it so much better than another?? Cu is Cu. Same for steel wires. The flimsy crap is just that. But any reasonable quality wire is as good as the most expensive. If the expensive ones were better the manufacturers would include tests to prove it! I have never seen those test results in an ad or an article yet. Maybe tomorrow. ;o) However, if you are happier with the high-priced stuff that's great. An ad or anecdotal evidence that it "sounds better" does not work for me. I am secure thinking that physics is real. And I do not have to prove anything. You are the fellow who said the expensive, moderately expensive, was better, not me. I said I do not agree and think you are wrong. It is up to you to prove your statement is right. You posited the theory. Now you are obliged to defend it. That is how it works. Pohlmann can write whatever he care to. He is paid to write that stuff. Where the proof? Show me the money! ;o) Cheers

I think if you were able to track down this Nagra the price would shock you into being very happy with another format.

Where? Other than anecdotal are there any actual double blind tests which show there is a difference?? Please point me to it. No, Stereophile does not count for anything but snake oil sales. When you say you were throwing away cheap cables, are you comparing shielded to unshielded??? This is all interesting to me and I would like to learn more.

I am curious: how do I enter service mode to check this?? And what difference does it make? The firmware cannot be changed, can it?

Regardless of the quality of your analog equipment you will have degraded files when making analog copies. It is the nature of analog to analog. High-priced cables? Yeah, right. Wire is wire. Make sure your connections are good. Put the money you saved by not buying snake-oil cable into a new MD recorder.

GM, et al - OK, went to TS and got a good thread and some feedback from a fellow there. I have built the Jecklin in about a half hour. I have taken photos and will post them. I need only now to cut the faux lambs wool and attach the two pieces to cover the foam covered disc. I will post the photos with some dialog for those who need written help. It is dead easy. I will also record some stuff at the same venues I have recorded with the SONY ECM-MS957 so we can all compare sounds. Cheers

GM - I can hear differences but to eliminate the placebo effect I would like to be able to D/L them and ABX them in foobar2000. It is also going to be hard to judge something recorded from music played through loudspeakers as some version of your test may work well with your speakers but not in the real world. As for the music, is it for meditation?? LOL ;o)

GM - I have been to the Taperssection a few times. They sneer at minidisc recorders despite the fact that they are pretty damned good, especially the sweet RH1 in PCM. They also pooh-pooh SONY mics. They seem to be in love with certain brands. Their choice. I have had mixed results over there. DPA is nice, but I get a lust for their hardware when I am there too long. ;o) I think they used to be B&K. Neuman, B&K, Telefunken, Schoeps: it all seems to be from the same area if you want really good sound. And it has been that way now for almost 70 years. Audio-Technica is pretty good, too, at a cheaper price. But first I will try the j-disc with the Soundman electrets and see how it works. I have all the materials now for the j-disc and will photograph the assembly for the other garage/home-brew geeks on the board so they can have fun with it, too. Cheers.

GM - I get nothing when I go to the address for the samples: http://forums.minidisc.org/gallery/1122160...3_60_376359.mp3. OK, Herr Jecklin specifies a 35cm disc and 36cm between mics. Further reading says the mics should be about 8 mm up from the horizontal center line. I am not sure Jecklin said this about the 8mm, who knows? I will try it with and without. If I get this damned thing to work I will post the construction process. I have an easy one. When I get it done I will test it with live music, some of which I have posted already so we can compare the ECM-MS957 against the Soundman (ist immer Deutscher besser!) and I am sure Soundman will come out ahead because it is a good mic and the Jecklin disc will enhance it. The Soundman works well for binaural when in the ears. I will try and see what I can do to hear your samples. I just get a "done" when I go to the page. Something is wrong. Thanks for the info. I am glad someone else is tinkering with this. What ever came out of you testing? Have you gone into the field with the disc and gotten some recordings?? Tschuess

I am thinking about building a Jecklin disc using my Soundman electrets as mics. I am gathering info on the Jecklin disc and am wondering if anyone here has experience with one. They seem to be the cat's meow for recording sound and getting the depth and ambience. So, who out there has fiddled with these Swiss wonders?

I use the function in foobar2000 to combine any number of tracks into one. Then I have the one large WAV file I can insert track marks into where they belong. I have combined 289 "tracks" so far as the largest number from one set. The "combining" step is the first step for me when I use line-in. I do not have to depend on SS for anything and think that is wise. www.foobar2000.org It's free. Oh, fb2k rips, burns, converts, labels, just about anything you would want. I like it. It is the Swiss Army knife of players.