which is the best for audio quality?

[ketto]

I switched to MD when the MZ1 appeared almost 10 yrs ago because of the quality. At that time it was very easy to choose. Today Reading your forum I'm getting a little bit confused, so my question is: which model offers the best audio quality?

I use the device also at home, where I have a very good Hi-Fi, and I use it both as a reader and as a recorder (I usually record digitally from CD).

I would like to buy a Hi-MD player to store all my pc files but with the maximium quality possible to record also digitally from the CD player.

Which one is the most suitable for my needs?

Thks a lot for your help (and sorry for my english)

Marco

[Kaotic]

NH900 is probably your best choice.

If you are satisfied with SP sound in your old unit, Hi-SP will probably do it for you. Unless you want to record at Highest quality possible which is PCM, but then each Hi-MD disc can only yield about 90 minutes worth of PCM recordings.

hope this helps

[Christopher]

Welcome to the forums, Ketto. Kaotic probably stole the words out of my mouth, but more importantly, what's the maximum budget?

[ketto]

Thanks a lot for your fast reply.

Budget is not a problem, and it is nice finally to see how much I can save with this strong euro. 300$ were 350 euro 2 yrs ago and now only 230 :-D.

Usually I record from CD using the optical cable (I don't know if this is PCM, but I think this is the maximum quality) this is my main usage of the MD and there is no problem with maximum lenght, as CD are always < 80 min.

Besides this I would like to exploit the HiMD to store my mp3 (or low quality audio) and play it with my hi-fi without having to connect my notebook each time. should I go for NH900 or NH1?

Thanks again for your help

Ciao

[atrain]

nh1 is the flagship design & very attractive, however for most the nh900 edges it out on the additional battery option [the nh1 lacks the AA adapter] & price diferential

did you look here?

http://www.minidisc.org/equipment_browser.html

[ketto]

Yes I saw that website.. but they don't tell you about the audio quality, so I suppose it is always the same (at least for digital recording)!.

atrain I agree with you the lack of AA adapter is the major problem for NH1. But I've been following MD since the first model, and sony is very used to launch the first model of a new range without some key feature, just have a new product ready for the next season.. So I'll not be surprised to see the NH2 very soon..

[aeriyn]

Ketto, what you have to watch for on MD units is the encoding DSP version. In the case of Hi-MD, it's pretty much the highest version of ATRAC/ATRAC3/ATRAC3+ that exists, so you can rest assured that any Hi-MD unit will have the best possible sound quality of any MD unit based on encoding.

Higher end units with special headphone amplifiers (such as the Sony HD Amplifier) supposedly add something to the sound and make it more full and warmer; however as I only have experience with non-Hi-MD models, I can't say for certain. I do know that the Sharp digital amp is quite impressive, but they have not been licensed to manufacture any Hi-MD units yet.

As for recording quality, Hi-MD PCM is bit-for-bit identical to CDs (although this is the subject of some debate). It's also very big and fills up a 1GB Hi-MD disc with under 2 hours of music.

Hi-SP is close to legacy SP (ATRAC 4.5R) but not quite as good yet. It should be light-years ahead of the old ATRAC 1 that the MZ-1 used. This is the preferred listening format, I'd think.

Sound quality is also going to be dependent on the sort of headphones or earphones you use with your unit. Check around the forums for recommendations and reviews of various cans.

Hope this helps you out. :happy:

[ketto]

thks a lot for your help.

I've very good headphones (Grado), so I should be ok with that. I think I'll decide between NH1 and 900 depending on the design.

bye