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Why Is Sony Still Churning Out New NetMDs?

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Kaotic

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With the announcement of 2nd Gen Hi-MDs, while I'm excited about that. Meanwhile, I took sometime to browse some of etailers' sites. and I ran across this @JR.com

Sony DN430 Psyc NetMD Walkman

Features listed:

• Stylish new Psyc™ design

• Uses affordable standard MiniDisc media for Storage and playback

• Storage: Up to 177MB (approx. 5 hours of audio) on a single disc

• Plays back in ATRAC3, MP3, WMA and WAV formats

• Skip-Free G-Protection™

• MiniDisc media offers unlimited, expandable storage

• transfer MP3s or CDs at up to 32x speed

• Earbuds & 1 MiniDisc included

• Music management Software supplied

• Compatible with Connect Music Store

• Up to 56 hours continuous playback with 1 AA Battery

• Color: Stereo Black

I've already seen some drop in price all across the board on 1st gen Hi-MDs, it had me thinking why would some one would still buy newer generation of NetMD. when lowest model of Hi-MD isn't much higher in price. most of all, why is sony still churning out NetMDs; if this model ever come to fruition. This has me puzzled!!!

side note, Etronics already has designated slots on their Hi-MD line up for RH10, RH910, and DH10 all on pre-order, except INFO, Pricing and Photo of the models has yet to come. I believe this is the first U.S. Etailer anticipating the 2nd gen Hi-MDs.

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I guess because people are still buying them.

What I want to know is why is Sony still churning out DAPs with crappy 5mW headphone outputs?  sleep.gif

Because believe it or not most people don't care about it. :|

I thought that my Kenwood sounded very nice for a "Crappy 5mW headphone output"

Unless you have $$$$ earbuds with isolating capacity, there's little point worrying about it. Just my view. sorry, don't beat me!

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Kenwood units have a sought after sound, yet they sport an inferior amp to Sony's.

Mw per channel is not the only thing affecting sound quality you know.

Regarding the first question, I am still largely a MDLP user (not even NetMD, that is only for titling), and am happy with it. HiMD does not have optical uploading, if it did, then I would use it more.

Edited by Michael1980
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I guess because people are still buying them.

What I want to know is why is Sony still churning out DAPs with crappy 5mW headphone outputs?  sleep.gif

Sony and other companies release units with weak amps because most nice headphones that are designed for portable use can be driven by these weak amps. Battery life is a priority to some folks and they will wisely search for efficient phones to use with their players.

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Regarding the first question, I am still largely a MDLP user (not even NetMD, that is only for titling), and am happy with it. HiMD does not have optical uploading, if it did, then I would use it more.

The only Hi-MD portable without an optical input is the US/Canada version of the NH600, which is why it's an NH600D. [The euro version has the line-in/optical jack, the north american version does not.]

As far as decks go, the only ones I've heard of yet are the Onkyos, which are what I'd consider midi-system equipment, not component decks. Perhaps when actual component decks are introduced, they'll have the optical in/out as many of the MD / MDLP decks do/did.

All Hi-MD units can be used directly as netMD units with SonicStage, and as MDLP recorders on their own.

They are fully backward-compatible. All it requires is changing a single menu option, and either using a blank MD or doing an 'erase all' while the unit is in netMD mode.

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But it cannot upload an optical recording. Plus I have a lot of older units which are very dear to me lol.

Ah ha ha HA! I should read more carefully, really.

My understanding has been that you can upload optical recordings, but SS won't permit their conversion with Wave Converter. HiMDRenderer does, though.

I have no way to check this, but I'm pretty this reflects what others here have reported.

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Sony and other companies release units with weak amps because most nice headphones that are designed for portable use can be driven by these weak amps. Battery life is a priority to some folks and they will wisely search for efficient phones to use with their players.

Er, I never said anything about headphones. I'm talking about portable amps; the closer the "line out" power (which is just the headphone amp with DSP settings stripped off in portables) is to actual line-level voltage, the better it sounds. Otherwise it sounds amped twice which is no good.

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5mw amps are all very well but if you consider the high proportion of people who only ever use freebie buds or streetstyles i really doesn't matter to any but a small educated &/or anal minority.

think about it... how many ipod owners of the millions world wide still sport stock white buds? it's because the 20mw amp sounds great with 128kbs mp3s

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  • 7 months later...

I happen to own a mz-dn430. It appears to work fairly well except for the fact that not of the music from sonic stage wants to transfer properly and no one can tell me how to fix it. Called Sony and was advised that the reason that I was having this problem was one of the following:

1. using an upgrade xp instead of professional or an oem

2. that not all cds allow you to transfer music to the player

3. need to change the file format of the music

I really did not appreciate the first lame excuse. So, I got to wonder why Sony is still making this product if they are not going to support it properly. I spent $100- for what. As for the second excuse, most of the music I was trying to transfer was in mp3 format-

As for the 3rd excuse, I tried to convert the file format, however, I still get the message. However, if I transfer music to the mz-dn430, all of the songs will transfer with no difficulties. Only problem is that you can only use stereo, no lp2 or lp4, and again what am I paying Sony for? There is no way to change the settings on the md player anymore. Maybe Sony needs to stop cutting corners and make a decent md player :blink:

If anyone help with solution on how to change the bit rate in real player, I would appreciate it

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