kino170878

That's the problem with Sony. Originally MD was designed for listening on a hi-fi setup like yours. One rate, 292kps. Hit the disc, boom quality sound. It was never made with computer transfers in mind. Which is why I suppose till this day no SP codec is made available in Sonicstage. Then comes Hi-MD, which looks great on paper. Unlimited transfers to and from the PC but with fewer editing options compared to old MD. It was designed primarily with convenience (and DRM) in mind, rather than just sound quality. So a range of rates were availabe, not one fixed rate. That was all good and well. But the real deal breaker was, little to no product support from its maker. Sony faced a crisis of conscience, and decided to severely restrict the new Hi-MD technology. Which ultimately led to the downfall of Hi-MD. This is why I have decided to go back to good old legacy MD. I gaurantee you legacy MD will be here long after Hi-MD has disappeared completely. By the way, I would dearly love to get my hands on one of those Japan only Netjuke Hi-fi systems. Supposedly these have an MD slot (non Hi-MD) and can transfer recordings to the hard disc at 20x normal speed.

Hmm. This sure looks great but can I get this glossy paper in the UK?

For me at least going down the MD route makes more sense rather than sticking to Hi-MD. Incredible though it may seen, with old MD you have far more options. Ebay continues to offer a lot of legacy equipment, and Sony UK are still selling new MD decks like the MDS-JE480 even today at my local store. With Hi-MD you are limited to one model from one company (Onkyo). This is not good. Saying that, of course you have uploading/downloading to the PC which is a major advantage for Hi-MD. But Atrac3plus itself is now finished as a format so that advantage no longer seems to be as valid as before. Or perhaps just continue as you are doing now, balancing the two formats so long as money allows it.

No it's not strange at all really, as I already explained most people are happy with their shitty sound system. You are basically a 1 in a thousand customer, there is little to no money in providing a quality recording device to your specification. Sad but true.

People nowadays are perfectly comfortable with crap quality, such as recording tin foil sound through their mobile phone. If you would rather have WAV or lossless quality in your recordings, you're going to have to look at the professional audio market which is more expensive.

Why not buy the originals CDs and then transfer those? You can always buy or sell on ebay for good prices. Original source=quality. I agree about Sony's stupidity. Maybe they get a kick out of investing millions into a project and then screwing up over and over again.

Longevity is my number 1 concern as well. I don't even mind paying big bucks for repair if it means I can have my MD units for longer. Of course I would never trust Sony enough for repair. They would probably refuse to give the equipment back the paranoid bastards.

It's no bug. Sonicstage keeps a record of the original file and stores that information forever. Any changes you make will be seen of course, but the original file stays exactly the way it was when it was first created, or uploaded in your case from SP MD. Only solution is to upload the old minidiscs again with your RH1, remembering this time to title everything.

The one from Currys has been available for about 6 months now. It's a great concept, except for a few bad points: 1) No way to title tracks i.e. no keyboard input, so you have to use the remote 2) You can only backup/restore the entire HDD content to a PC 4 times in total. It also verifies the whole procedure via internet connection. So not totally DRM free in my opinion. I believe it can play and record Linear PCM, Atrac, and MP3. Maybe if the price dropped another £100 I would get one. The one with the minidisc slot I would buy in a heartbeat if it was made available in the UK.

Sony UK website are still advertising the MDS-JE480 and MDS-JE780, which are both Atrac SP/LP decks. That would be still a viable option. Forget the Hi-MD dream, that ship has sailed long ago.

Such a beautiful piece of equipment, what did it do to deserve such treatment lol. Good luck with the sale though

I like the idea of a portable MD recorder that has a nice big 'Track mark' button on the front of the unit. However are there any units which also allow a 'Track mark' button on the remote control? Importantly for my purposes, I really want to be able to add track marks with the remote while playing back audio. But most of the remotes only seem to allow track marking while recording, not on playback. All of my audio is recorded in SP mode real time or 4x copying, and without NetMD transfers from the computer.

SP is now totally obsolete, why don't they just release the code and give their loyal customers a bit of recognition. Not asking too much is it now. And it makes no sense since the newer (soon to be obsolete?) Atrac3plus codec allows two way transfers.

I would do some research into the threads regarding Hi-SP vs 352kbps vs SP (292kbps). The consensus seems to be that Hi-SP is a great balance between sound quality and convenient use. But if you care very much for sound quality I would go for the higher 352 bit rate which many find equivalent to SP quality.

Sorry to hear of your problem. But the only reason I would now get the RH1 would be for the purpose of uploading legacy recordings made in SP. I have lately heard of more and more problems developing in these units. This reminds me of the thread comparing the RH1 and the much older R50 for the title of best MD unit ever made. Newer is not always necessarily better.

Man you've got two RH1's next to each other just like that. Some people are just lucky lol.

The main thing I need is track marking, editing track names, rearranging their order and erasing unwanted tracks. Do any of these high powered flash units have those features?

Never like that, the iPod that I once had died a slow but predictable death over a few months. I don't even blame Apple. They know that they can get away with low manufacturing quality as long as their customers keep flocking back for new products.

Recording/editing is the only area where I think the minidisc format still wins, it terms of cost and mobility of use. There are no other advantages for MD that can stand apart from the rest of the competition now. Even though I still think my old MD (not hi-md) player beats any of the new DAPs sound quality wise including the new Sony flash units.

I think your Sony deck should have the PC link connection socket? You could get the PCLK-MN10A with MCrew software. This is what I use, and it's great for copying titles from the computer to the minidisc and back again. Whatever is on the minidisc, all the information (though not audio of course) is transferred at the click of a button. You can build a whole database of titles using this program and Notepad/Microsoft Excel. I'm surprised MCrew has these features while they are completely absent from Sonicstage.

Thought I would revive my old MZ-R37 by replacing its long since departed remote control/headphone. I still think the old Sony MD units have the best sound quality. I need to know if I can use any remote (i.e new) or if only the older ones will work. Thanks.

I didn't know they were still making new md car units? The ones I see on ebay are all second hand.

I still can't believe how rubbish the iPod sounds. This is the machine that has taken over the whole world. It's almost beyond logic. TBR you definately gave both units an equal chance when playing them?

I am looking to buy an Aiwa minidisc off ebay and the buyer says that he will be recalibrating it before sending it. What exactly is recalibrating a minidisc recorder supposed to do? Something regarding the laser I assume....?

I reckon the system - even if it is modified somehow for the market - may be finding its way to the UK in about a year. There was a similar 'Gigajuke' system which soon followed after an identical version was released the year previously in Japan. The only difference being that no minidisc slot was available, although the UK version had DAB radio as a bonus. On a side note, I find it highly ironic although not at all surprising that Sony have effectively destroyed Hi-MD, preferring to keep legacy MD alive. Exactly as I predicted they would. For years I've stockpiled legacy equipment knowing full well that the newer MD format would never see that much progress due to the usual Sony paranoid behaviour. I just wish that the transfer of raw SP data could finally be made into reality.