Sony MZ-NH3D/MZ-N10/Sharp MD-DS8, HD Digital Amp vs. Auvi

[Christopher]

Credit goes to shankur for loaning his NH3D to me for the afternoon. This unit is barely 24 hours old.

All rights reserved, skyther of the MiniDisc Community Forum, http://forums.minidisc.org/

Equipment:

Sony MZ-NH3D Hi-MD downloader - http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MZ-NH3D.html

Sony MZ-N10 NetMD recorder - http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MZ-N10.html

Sharp MD-DS8 MDLP player - http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sharp_MD-DS8.html

Etymotic Research ER-4P ear canalphones

Sony MDR-D66 "Eggo Pro" headphones

I am writing this review right now on a Mac. There is no SonicStage for me to test, I am hence unable to evaluate the downloading/recording capabilities of the NH3D nor explore the benefits of Hi-MD. This review will be based primarily on sound quality with SP encoded discs. This may be covered again later, should I have another chance to meet with shankur under better conditions. This is my first time meeting him, I thank him for trusting me enough to leave the unit in my hands alone for 2 hours.

A brief review of the star - the NH3D:

This unit feels extremely solid. It looks a lot like the NH1 from the pictures on the web, but I can't be sure if the NH1 is this solid. The back of the unit feels hard and does not flex under pressure, something which has not been seen since the R90/R900 days. The unit overall is marginally thicker than the N10. The lid pops open and snaps shut with a solid 'thud'. Sony's infamous gap between the body and the top shell is still there, but very minor. Overall, the unit feels very well machined, very solid.

The buttons on the unit are slightly difficult to use. The buttons are small and rather soft and seem to sink down rather deep, lacking a tactile feel. The joystick that controls play, pause, volume and cueing is rather small. Control of the unit from the main body is poor and rather difficult to operate single handedly.

The battery door snaps with a smooth feel. The hinges are wide apart and look rather solid, but knowing Sony I wouldn't dare to comment on how long I think it'd last.

The NH3D feels the heaviest out of the 3.

The remote - ahh, the remote. RM-MC40ELK. The jog lever is the same as the ones on the iRiver remotes and on the R90's body. I don't like it - the RM-MC33/35EL(K)'s horizontal jog switch feels a lot more robust and gives a better grip. The buttons on the RM-MC40 are also harder to press. The jog roller on the front of the remote has a rather nice feel, but it's use is spoilt by it's weird positioning that makes it difficult to hold the remote and operate the roller. You have to grasp it by the cord in order to get a good grip of the roller. The buttons on the back - backlight, repeat and sound are awful. God knows why Sony placed them on the back of the remote, but it's difficult to get a good feel for them. The remote's display is good, but titles do not scroll smoothly. High res dot matrix LCD displays animations when it turns on, changes sound profiles, etc. This is nothing new, and has been around since the N10. The N10's animations will be displayed when the MC40 is used with it. Both remotes can be interchanged with no compatibility problems, but the N10 + MC40 will only display 2 lines. Still not up to iRiver's standards. The shirt clip on the back is rotatable to free angles and feels solid. If you're not desperate for the 3 line display, the MC33/35EL is a lot nicer to use.

The cradle feels good. The unit locks tightly into the cradle, and the base of the cradle sticks to the desk. The new cradle, however, will not allow the unit to eject the disc, unlike previously possible with the N10.

Sony has done a couple of things right to improve on the physical attributes of MD, but once again, size minimalization gets in the way of ergonomics.

Sound quality:

Now comes the interesting part. Long story short, the NH3D sounds like a refined R90. It's definately an improvement over the N10, which is not really hard to beat considering that the N10 sounded pretty much like crap. The digital amp adds a little warmth and tames the highs which the N10 notoriously splashes out as if it were raining needles. Detail is a little bit better, tones are a little bit more controlled.

I think of it this way:

The N10 is pretty much a disgrace in terms of sound quality. The HD digital amp sounds like what the original digital amp should have sounded like. I look at it as if Sony has realized what a load of sh*t they've been churning out since the NetMD units, and they're bringing back what they did right previously and improving from that. It's a good start, but IMO it doesn't deserve the HD tag, because it's not exactly high definition.

I'm not saying the HD amp sucks. It's a step in the right direction, which is good because it shows that Sony knows what the problem with their previous units were. However, it's not exceptional. People who want something that sounds exceptional should go for Auvis. The NH1/NH3/EH1/NH900 with their HD digital amps will sound allright for Joe Bloggs, whereas the N10 sounds terrible in comparison. My girlfriend, who knows zilch about MDs and amplifiers and technical sound quality comparisons, etc. etc. told me herself that she couldn't stand the N10, and the R900 was much better. It's not that good, but it's not bad either. At least it's musical enough for casual listening, and not harsh to your ears.

If you want something for serious listening, please wait for a deck. With respect to portables, sound quality has degraded so much over the years that they are no longer suitable for serious listening. I consider the NH1/3 etc. etc. suitable for entertainment on the bus or for morning walks, but if you want something you can sit back on a nice comfy cushion and relax to, this is not what you want.

In terms of detail, soundstage and clarity, the Auvi walks all over the HD amp. There's no comparison. The Sharp sounds a lot more controlled, much more warmer and sharper detail. A drum crash sounds like a crash, whereas on the Sonys it sounds as if bits and pieces are missing from the crash. If you don't believe me, try it for yourself.

Evaluation of Hi-MD:

Sony has made some improvement, with signs that they may have started listening to their customers. However, they're still not up to the competition in regards to Hi-MD's capabilities, and are still unable to beat their own MD based competition (namely Sharp) in terms of sound quality. Many of you are probably already sick of this, but I'll say this again - the iPod will kill all 3 MD units in terms of sound quality, especially in detail.

I was originally excited as most of you were when news of Hi-MD's announcement was made, some of you might remember the posting binge that I had. Over time, however, Sony seems to have tripped over their own feet and decided to take things into their own hands by crippling SonicStage once again despite of the promises they made prior to Hi-MD's release. In a game of catch-up, Sony are only 30% there, as far as I'm concerned. There are better alternatives out there, despite what many of you MD fanboys will say, and this is undeniable. Sony's improvement is no where near enough to put them on par with the other big boys.

IMO, Hi-MD only offers 2 real advantages over old MD:

i) true SP (well, Hi-SP) downloading

ii) more space

Other "auxiliary" features such as data storage are really irrelevant and insignificant. It's plain silly to carry a Hi-MD around just for data. You'd have to carry the cable (as well as the cradle for NH1/3D units) around for that to work. Just buy a USB thumbdrive, they're filthy cheap and are much more competent at the job. HDPs do the job much better anyway, when you've got 20 gigs and firewire, no one in their right mind will go back to 0.5MB/s USB1.1.

There's one thing Sony really needs to realize. We, as consumers, are not their beta testers. They really ought to learn to just get things right before selling their stuff to us. Releasing 3 HDPs with overlapping feature sets and hoping one will be a sellout? Nuh uh. As Bangraman said somewhere else, when Sony was under the leadership of Morita, sh*t like that would never happen. When a company receives petitions from their consumers, they ought to realize they need to watch themselves.

Conclusion:

Hi-MD will still be fairly attractive as a portable audio device, but probably not as much as others, ie. *cough*iPod*cough*. The lower Hi-MD units (those without HD amps) will probably sell fairly well. Consumers in the budget sector of the market don't usually look for particularly exceptional qualities, and 1GB of storage might seem fairly attractive to them. Including native MP3 support would probably boost sales in twofolds. But since Sony is a stupid dinosaur...

My personal advice for the diehard MD fans is to stick with what they have for now. Watch and see - this may be the best thing to do as Sony learns from their mistakes, with hope that they do it fast and make more substantial improvements. Hopefully this can be seen in the 2nd gen Hi-MD units. The current generation of Hi-MD units may in fact only be a short taste of what is in store for the later years. You're not missing much. Buy a DR7 or a Sony component deck + DS8/DS70 and be happy with it.

[mercury_in_flames]

I would just like to say...HO-LY SH!! that blue nh3d is mucho sexo, if thats the correct grammar. Now, if they had brought out the NH1 in that colour, i would've actually been tempted to get one.

[AMPlitude]

i had no clue the blue nh3d looked like that...

i like the snickers wrapper in the background