Some last minute-questions (finally ready to buy)

[deafplayer]

First of all thanks to everyone whos made this forum such a very helpful place... Ive been poking around here since last spring, and now I feel pretty good about how Im going to spend my money (which would not be the case if I relied on a retail salesperson for info... but i digress)

I post before you today to settle some last minute concerns before placing my order with www.minidisc-canada.com

Im going to buy a MZ-NH900, Sound Pro SP-TFB-2 microphones, and Sony's NH-14WM battery.... to use for recording environmental sounds as well as jamming w/ friends and at school (Im a music major) using line-in sources from mixers or mic pre-amps

And also for daily music-listening

First of all I'll need to buy some blank mini-discs... I figure having a lot of (multi-coloured) 80-minute discs would be preferable for recording because it would keep me more organized, 2:20 of Hi-SP will be sufficient for most applications, and for the times I want to record long PCM sets I can just use a Hi-MD disc

But looking at the selection of blank discs on Minidisc Canada, I realized I have no idea what to look for.

Are some brands better for recording than others? Ive heard to avoid Maxell (or was it Memorex?) which is no problem because I dont like the design of their discs anyway.

I like the TDK 80-minute Color Mix Music Jack MiniDiscs... 5 different nice colours, without fish, kittens or girls on roller-skates

But some clear discs on MDC's site claim to offer 'superior' sound quality becuase they're clear... bullshit or true?

And then there are HBB "Professional" 80 minute discs, which claim to offer "Block error rates 10 times lower than consumer discs"

....what does that mean to me?

They also claim to have more reliable mechanical parts (but alas, they're all the same colour)

Here is MDC's selection of 80-minute discs:

http://www.minidisc-canada.com/shopdisplay...0+min+MiniDiscs

Also Im just curious about a few other little things:

How much of a difference does the NH-14WM make over the NH-10WM? Can I assume it'll have about 40% more life?

Will the NH900 come with ear-buds or headphones? Ive seen pictures of both

And will the front plate on the NH900 be black or the grey/green we've seen in some pics?

like I said, these are last-minute questions... Im going to order today or tomorrow, so if you could help me out sooner rather than later I'd appreciate it (though none of these are extremely important issues, obviously)

Thanks everyone.... I cant wait to start recording

[streaml1ne]

First of all I'll need to buy some blank mini-discs... I figure having a lot of (multi-coloured) 80-minute discs would be preferable for recording because it would keep me more organized, 2:20 of Hi-SP will be sufficient for most applications, and for the times I want to record long PCM sets I can just use a Hi-MD disc

But looking at the selection of blank discs on Minidisc Canada, I realized I have no idea what to look for.

Are some brands better for recording than others? Ive heard to avoid Maxell (or was it Memorex?) which is no problem because I dont like the design of their discs anyway.

I like the TDK 80-minute Color Mix Music Jack MiniDiscs... 5 different nice colours, without fish, kittens or girls on roller-skates

But some clear discs on MDC's site claim to offer 'superior' sound quality becuase they're clear... bullshit or true?

Never heard of that. I've used Sony's Niege (74m), TDK (74m & 80m), and some Sony 80 minute MD's and never had a problem with any of them. Mechanical or sound wise.

And then there are HBB "Professional" 80 minute discs, which claim to offer "Block error rates 10 times lower than consumer discs"

....what does that mean to me?

They also claim to have more reliable mechanical parts (but alas, they're all the same colour)

Here is MDC's selection of 80-minute discs:

http://www.minidisc-canada.com/shopdisplay...0+min+MiniDiscs

No clue on this one, I never thought the cost of the 'pro' MD's would be worth it unless you plan on using them millions of times.

Also Im just curious about a few other little things:

How much of a difference does the NH-14WM make over the NH-10WM? Can I assume it'll have about 40% more life?

Reasonable assumption.

http://forums.minidisc.org/viewtopic.php?t=6419

Will the NH900 come with ear-buds or headphones? Ive seen pictures of both

And will the front plate on the NH900 be black or the grey/green we've seen in some pics?

The 5 I just bought for work came with headphones. Probably crappy ones, one cord from each phone which I hate. They're designed for use with the remote since the cord is extremely short on them. The US version of the 900 that I got off Amazon had a silver/grey front.

[A440]

I've used Sony (74-minute and 80-minute color, 74-minute Neige), Denon Lapisia 74, Maxell Gold and TDK (blue and pink, I forget the cutesy name) with no problems at all. The only blanks that have given me trouble are Memorex (iffy) and Hi-Space (avoid like the plague).

Get better headphones than the ones that come with the player, especially if you're a musician. The headphones that come with virtually every portable player are best used for emergency shoelaces.

Decent phones make a world of difference for a very low price. Check the 'phones thread on this forum. In my experience, Sennheiser makes good cheap earbuds (MX-500, under $20) and very good foldable open-air phones (PX 100, under $50). And a pair of serious headphones--like my beloved geek-looking Grado SR 125 (around $120 or less, you can find them new on Ebay) or, if you want ear-canal/earplug headphones that shut out the world, Shure E3 or E3c (gray or white, $119 from www.bhphoto.com)--will really take you inside the music.

[deafplayer]

thanks guys, i got the TDK discs

i was thinking about getting better earbuds, the senn mx 500 are dirt cheap... only annoyance is that their cord is a meter long, and that will be tagged onto the NH900's remote cord

but i wont get better earphones right now anyway, because i plan to get Sure in-ear monitors in the near future, so i'll just wait for those

"in the studio" i use Senn HD-280s .... ive tried grados, which sound clearer, i think because of their open design, but sometimes you gotta have sealed headphones

maybe the earbuds from my panasonic cd player will be better than the 900's, who knows... at least their cord is the right length

[Christopher]

You can always check out the recommendations for earphones in the sticky within the 'phones forum.

[Qwakrz]

Block error rates (as far as I can remeber) are to do with the data readback from the disc. BER is the number of errors that occur when a read / write is done that had to be corrected by the first level of error correction. Usually does not involve the more complex 2nd stage of error correction as long as the number of errors are low.

All optical media has an error rate, even perfectly recorded original stuff.