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352 kbps on MZ-NH1 - how?

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jrhughes

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I've just updated SS v3.2 to v3.3, after reading here about the new 352 kbps bitrate. I wanted to see whether it really would work on my MZ-NH1.

Well, it does. It even displays "352 k" as the bitrate. But how?

OK, so what I did was to transfer a track at 256 kbps which I already had in SS, as 352 to the NH1. I do understand that this does not result in any increase in quality; I've learned from here that this will only be achieved when starting with PCM (WAV). This was just a test to convince myself that my NH1, which is supposed to handle a top bitrate of 256, will, in fact, handle 352.

What is so special about 352, then, that my 1st gen Hi-MD unit can use that and not 320? Is there some weird jiggery-pokery going on? I can't imagine why Sony would keep this hidden until now, and then not allow us to rip and store in SS at this higher bitrate. Am I missing something?

Cheers..

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We have only guesses. My guess was (is) that 352kbps adds 40% storage demand to Hi-SP, but it gives maybe (I haven't listened to it yet) only 10% better sound or so. It's not space-effective, so it was kept hidden. But now they have decided to give out what's available, maybe for a last try to save the format or maybe because they don't care about the reputation of MD anymore, since it's doomed.

As I mentioned, we have only guesses...

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The spec's for Atrac3+ are actually quite lax. They specify a bitrate from 8Kbps upto 1411(ish)Kbps and from 1 to 10 channels.

I dont think there is any shrotcuts, I think the NH1 (and others) can play back any bitrate that Atrac3+ can be recorded in, its just Sony that limit the datarates we can transfer at.

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The spec's for Atrac3+ are actually quite lax. They specify a bitrate from 8Kbps upto 1411(ish)Kbps and from 1 to 10 channels.

I dont think there is any shrotcuts, I think the NH1 (and others) can play back any bitrate that Atrac3+ can be recorded in, its just Sony that limit the datarates we can transfer at.

Ah, right... so you're suggesting that the NH1 may even be able to deal with 320 kbps if the option were there in SS to transfer it? This would make sense, since there seems to be no reason I can think of why the NH1, which was supposed to deal with a max of 256 kbps, can cope with 352 kbps but not the lower 320.

All very strange, I think. Not to mention the fact that we can now transfer at 352, but we can't rip and store in SS at that bitrate. That's just annoying.

Cheers.

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