352 kbs plays fine in Ist Gen Hi-MD units

[1kyle]

I'm not sure if this has been covered --sure it has but there appears to be a little confusion on this.

However I've made a few HI-MD disks on the RH10 @ 352 kbps.

These play back PERFECTLY on a NHF800 and the NH1.

Whether there is any point in using the 352 codec on these units I don't know but the NH1 with a proper line out gives great results when played into a decent Hi-Fi system. Actually the NH1 is pretty good at 256 as well but given the capacity of the disks why not use the 352 even if the performance improvement is only marginal.

On a 1GB disk you still get over 7 hours at 352 in any case and seems to be the most reasonable compromise in file size (vs PCM / WAV) and quality.

The line out of the NH1 certainly is an improvement over using the Headphone outpit of the RH10 (even when volume hacked).

That's what lets the RH10 down in my view. It doesn't have a proper line out so it's really designed for recording (of course) and listening on the move.

Of course you can play it via USB through a computer and use the optical out of the computer's sound card into your Hi-Fi gear but I don't always want to have a computer around.

I'm glad the new RH1 "appears" to have a proper line out.

Cheers

-K

[Ishiyoshi]

I'm not sure if this has been covered --sure it has but there appears to be a little confusion on this.

This topic (1st generation Hi-MD units supports ATRAC3plus 352kbps) has been discussed in depth during the advent of SonicStage 3.4; and it's still discussed sporadically. As for SQ, you will need to employ good headphones (and preferably a headphone amp) to be able to discern the difference between ATRAC3plus 352kbps and 256kbps.

[metal]

I'm glad the new RH1 "appears" to have a proper line out.

I certainly hope so, but according to the 'speculated' specs, it doesn't appear so.