another newbie asking for advice

[bbzidane]

it has truly been a long time since i touched a md device.

my last md player player was a panasonic mj-50, released in '99, so that would make it roughly 6 years since i have been into mds

the original reason why i stopped using it was it was too much of a pain to transfer music to the md, i had a sony stereo system that had a md component, which i hooked up to my computer using line in to record the music.

now im in the market for a new portable audio device. i was using my pda to listen to music before, but found it too bulky. then i tried using an ipod shuffle, which i lost, and which i also didnt like too much cause it was a bit too small. and on top of that, both of them had limited space (~750mb on the pda [1gb sd card with other stuff on it, and 512mb for the shuffle)

the size of a md player is just about right, not too big, but not too small. and another plus for it is the remote, which i love cause i hate to access the device just to adjust anything.

but i dont know if a md player is right for me. i mainly need it for music playback, but most people here seems to like md for recording, which i have limited use for. it would be nice to use it to record lectures, im still in university for another 4-5 months. other than that, i cant think of why i would need the ability to record.

im looking at hi-md in particular, as it would double the capacity of my existing mds (which i have still kept over the years, and i know exactly where they are) i have like 5 or so new ones that i still havent opened and a dozen or so used ones lying around.

should i be looking at md devices or am i better off with a mp3 player? i wouldnt say im a really picky audio person, but i would expect decent audio quality. other features im looking for would probably be slim, sleek. i usually prefer the less is more approach in design. then there is always the price, which is a somewhat important factor as im still in university without a job.

the devices im interested in are the rh10, rh910, nh1, nh3d, eh1, and the to be released rh1

what do the people here think is a good md player for me, or if i should just go with a mp3 player?

one last thing, if i do get a md player, would i be able to convert my mp3s to atrac3plus and then transfer it on an md? [i know its a bad idea as using a lossy codec on a lossy source is really bad, just wondering if that is possible or not]

thanks

[Damage]

If you get RH10, RH910, or the upcoming RH1, you need to transcode your MP3s. HOWEVER, the RH10s and the RH910s have severly rolled off trebles with regards to MP3s. Therefore, if your MP3 collection is significant, you might do well to grab a cheap MP3 player now (one of those Secure digital MP3 types if you have some extra SD cards lying around) until the RH1 is released.

Further plus for the RH1 is the ability to upload your old SP tracks (of which you have a quite a significant amount of) to your PC. From there, you can convert those tracks into MP3s or ATRAC3/plus files, and retransfer them to your HiMDs.

One advantage of HiMDs over ordinary MDs (aside from ones I've mentioned thus far) would be that your normal 74 minute discs will have about 260MB capacity and 80 minute discs about 300MB. That roughly translates into almost 2x the normal MD capacity w/ HiSP tracks, about 1.5x with 352kbps ATRAC3plus tracks (or about 4:1 compression ratio). You will reclaim quite a bit of your blanks for more music, or if you do get a HiMD player and get some HiMD blanks, you can consolidate quite a bit of your discs (around 5 or 6 SP discs) into one HiMD.

Personally, if you're not interested in reupping your MD collection, your choices are RH10 or RH910 (if MP3 playback, however flawed, is important). Otherwise, bide some time and get the RH1 and a LCD remote.

[bbzidane]

If you get RH10, RH910, or the upcoming RH1, you need to transcode your MP3s. HOWEVER, the RH10s and the RH910s have severly rolled off trebles with regards to MP3s. Therefore, if your MP3 collection is significant, you might do well to grab a cheap MP3 player now (one of those Secure digital MP3 types if you have some extra SD cards lying around) until the RH1 is released.

Further plus for the RH1 is the ability to upload your old SP tracks (of which you have a quite a significant amount of) to your PC. From there, you can convert those tracks into MP3s or ATRAC3/plus files, and retransfer them to your HiMDs.

One advantage of HiMDs over ordinary MDs (aside from ones I've mentioned thus far) would be that your normal 74 minute discs will have about 260MB capacity and 80 minute discs about 300MB. That roughly translates into almost 2x the normal MD capacity w/ HiSP tracks, about 1.5x with 352kbps ATRAC3plus tracks (or about 4:1 compression ratio). You will reclaim quite a bit of your blanks for more music, or if you do get a HiMD player and get some HiMD blanks, you can consolidate quite a bit of your discs (around 5 or 6 SP discs) into one HiMD.

Personally, if you're not interested in reupping your MD collection, your choices are RH10 or RH910 (if MP3 playback, however flawed, is important). Otherwise, bide some time and get the RH1 and a LCD remote.

to begin, thanks for the reply

am i correct to assume that the "severely rolled off treble" problem with mp3s only occur when mp3s are transferred to mds as is, and does not occur when transcoded? or does the problem occur when transcoding the mp3s to atrac3/plus?

the music i have on my previous mds mostly came from cds and mp3s which i still have, so essentially i would just start building my md collection from scratch.

if i chose to stick with non-himd, i could just purchase a cheap md recorder and continue using my panasonic mj70.

the mz-nh1 seems like another good option. its really hard to decide, especially being away from mds for so long. and reading posts for hours in the forum doesnt help much in narrowing down which md i should get.

[Damage]

Yep, the MP3s transferred as is has that playback problem.

Personally, if you can wait another month or so, I'd just get the RH1 and be done with it.

[bbzidane]

i will probably wait till after the rh1 is released before buying

i can always hope people wanting to upgrade are willing to sell their old ones for a good price

[A440]

For use as an mp3 player, the RH1 is probably overkill. Unless you care about uploading recordings from the MD unit to your computer, you might be just as happy with an old NetMD unit (anything beginning with MZ-N) or the first-generation Hi-MD player, the NH-600D (which only plays music downloaded from the computer and does not have any recording jack, neither Line-In nor Mic-In). You would have to convert your mp3s to ATRAC, but if you have original CDs, Simple Burner is fast and easy.

But you might also be equally happy with a straightforward mp3 player that also records (compressed), like the 512 MB Iriver IFP-795 or the 1GB Iriver IFP-799. (Both are the size of a thick pack of gum, with a built-in mono mic; accepts a stereo mic or stereo line input, drag-and-drop transfer of mp3s in or your own recordings out with Iriver software). Buttons and menus on the unit are a little complicated at first, but learnable. About $100 on Ebay.

[bbzidane]

For use as an mp3 player, the RH1 is probably overkill. Unless you care about uploading recordings from the MD unit to your computer, you might be just as happy with an old NetMD unit (anything beginning with MZ-N) or the first-generation Hi-MD player, the NH-600D (which only plays music downloaded from the computer and does not have any recording jack, neither Line-In nor Mic-In). You would have to convert your mp3s to ATRAC, but if you have original CDs, Simple Burner is fast and easy.

But you might also be equally happy with a straightforward mp3 player that also records (compressed), like the 512 MB Iriver IFP-795 or the 1GB Iriver IFP-799. (Both are the size of a thick pack of gum, with a built-in mono mic; accepts a stereo mic or stereo line input, drag-and-drop transfer of mp3s in or your own recordings out with Iriver software). Buttons and menus on the unit are a little complicated at first, but learnable. About $100 on Ebay.

the rh1 is probably overkill for someone that doesnt really plan to record much if at all, but having the feature would be a nice to have. i think im gonna to try the Hi-MD format as it would give me a good boost in capacity. the nh-600d is definitely cheap, but the nh1 and nh3d look much nicer.

thanks for suggesting a mp3 player, as i would have believed people in this forum would have a bias in favouring md players. the problem i have with most md players is that it is too small. i owned an ipod shuffle before, but it was so small, i somehow managed to drop it, which meant i also lost my pair of headphones. so unless i find a decent sized mp3 player, i think i will try md once again.

thanks for the reply

[acockers]

Just wanna hijacked on this thread forum for a while. I have been thinking getting a MD player for a while now, as right now Im using my PDA to listen to my music 256 mb, which is not too much maybe about 40 songs.

Also Im in a small band and we play mainly rock and punk type music. How do I use MD to record our rehearsal session, do I hook it up with a mixer ? or do I just put it near the amp to record it ? no idea .............

Also Im in university would I be able to record my lecutre using my MD ?

Btw .. I'm using the xda mini right now, is there a better way to get about it. Cos right now when listening to music I would have use the real quirky looking audio adaptor.

Would it be better to go for MP3 player instead ??

Any advise is deeply appreciated

[A440]

If you just wanted a music player, I'd suggest getting just an mp3 player--Ipod, Iriver, Creative, etc.

But since you want to record, then minidisc is exactly what you need. You want a Hi-MD with a microphone jack. The cheapest around is the MZ-NH700, which you can get from Minidisc Access for $150. (Scroll down the page.) The fanciest will be the RH1, due soon.

http://www.minidiscaccess.com/generic76.html

To record your band, you'd send the mixer output to Line-In.

To record lectures, you need a mic. The DS70P that's bundled by Minidisc Access would be fine for that, but you could get a better pair of mics--SoundProfessionals BMC-2 if you're in the US, Greenmachine's mics if you're elsewhere--and also use them to record music.

http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/SP-BMC-2

http://greenmachine-audio.95mb.com/de-mic.html