Received my Sony MZ-RH1! Awesome

[pwscott]

I received my RH1 from OneCall here in the US yesterday. They inluded 3 day FEDEX in their price and I got it on the east coast in less than 48 hours after ordering. After being confused by the battery orientation instructions and having a hard time getting the charging going, all is well and I'm very impressed with it. As a sugestion to those of you awaiting the arrival of one of these, I would suggest you refer NOT to the instructions in the manual for the orienttion of the battery nor even to your visual assessment by looking into the battery compartment- rather there is a diagram on the bottom of the device that shows where the 'cutoff' corner or slot on the battery should go. I killed a few minutes with the battery inserted incorrectly depite reading the manual in ernest.

A few first impressions:

-It's even smaller than I expected - yes, there is the extruded jog knob, but it works very well and has an excelent tactile feel, thinner than expected

-The display is pretty great and easily controled in terms of displays and timeout controls etc. The spectral displays are very cool to watch as you listen.

-The 'minutes needed to charge' is nice when charging the battery; it counts down minute by minute to the 80% mark I think it is

-Worked great with my earlier disks from a Sony MZ-R90

-No problem at all plugging it into my XP Media Center with SS4.0 installed and having it recognized. Transfering files was very easy. My main use for transfer in that direction PC>MD is 320k and 256k MP3s from a library there. I haven't tried others. Transfering recordings made on the RH1 was easy also, choosing to have them as .WAV files

-Most MP3 files that had album art associtaed transfered tiny graphics of the album art into SS4.0 which I was very surprised by. I'm still struggling to understand what importing an existing MP3 on the hard disk does in terms of file movement. It would seem that it just adds a pointer to the existing MP3 that is on a large USB Hard Drive and that it does not duplicate or move the file. If someone can confirm this I'd apreciate it.

-Audio is very good, though I imagine it might be just slightly louder for my liking. I'm quite satisfied with the bass although I haven't exactly been listening to reference recordings, mostly to existing MP3 content at 44.1/320k on Bose headsets

-There are a number of things that I didn't realize I would have to have the remote plugged in to take advantage of. They seem to be:

=Changing equalizer presets or custom settings for the sound

=Going fwd by groups vs. clicking through Gp 05 005 Gp 05 004 Gp0p 05 003.... to get back to Group 1 001- may be there's a schortcut here but I suspect it requires the remote to be used.

=Displaying the ID3 header info [track name, group name, album?]that does transfer extremely well to the files in the RH1- I suppose they should since they're still native MP3s with correct ID3 headers huh?

-In anything but a well lit environment, you'd just about have to memorize the buttons on the remote- and there are a lot. The writing for the labels is very hard to read- needed reading glasses in fainter light to even see them, although they are marked with tactile dits, squares etc.

-I haven't used the remote much yet, but the twist volume control is very natural and it seems quite well made

-Love that whenever it's plugged in to the PC it stays charged so I can grab it and go

-Like the little rubbery feet on the underside for setting it on a table etc

-The ECM-DS70P Microphone, one of Sony's T-mics, is the only one I have tried with it so far. [i got the mic at B&H in NY]I took the RH1 to my local bar last night to have a read thru the manual at the bar. I turned it on to record the ambient sound for a while and found the recording to be excellent. Mic Sensitivity was on Hi and AGC. Lot of background noise and music, along with patrons talking, ordering, yelling- all captured extremely well. The displays for recording-the VU meters or the clock or the mic settings- are nice and easy to change with the display button.It would be nice to be able to diaply the spectrum analyzer view or the little circles while recording; if you can I don't see how.

-I just hadn't thought about it, but I was psyched to see that recordings get time stamped and when you bring them in to SS4.0 they are named that way. Awesome.

-This makes an incredibly small package for recording onsite sound. That is no revelation to most of you I suppose. I never used my MZ-R90 for recording, just as a music player back then. I've been using an MP3 player for that but now that I have gotten back into videography and a lot of digital photography and editing, I am looking forward to using this for recording events such as kids' concerts and ambient nature sounds- waterfalls, ocean waves, birds etc to add sound to DVD Slideshows etc and it appears this will be an optimally small setup for that with great battery life and capacity. I imagine for nature work I'll have to use the ECM-909 that I have had for years due to its ample wind screen.

Hope somone finds this interesting- happy to try and answer a question if I can, although I have a lot more learning to do. Get the PDF of the manual- it's way easier to read on a bright screen.

[Richard]

That's excellent - was great to read your thoughts on this unit - epsecially the ad-hoc recording in the bar! - Thanks.

[dogville]

Great Pws . You've descripted the machine very well. I'm looking forward to receiving mine.

Cheers

[Sony_Fan]

Give more detail on loudness and bass response. That would be the first thing I test.

[A440]

I wouldn't depend on the Bose headphones to give you an accurate rendering of bass.

As a poet (probably at head-fi) once wrote:

No highs, no lows

It must be Bose

Also, on the date-stamped recording: Are you sure the date stamp is from the recording time, or is it (as SonicStage has done since Hi-MD appeared) the time you uploaded?

[raintheory]

Also, on the date-stamped recording: Are you sure the date stamp is from the recording time, or is it (as SonicStage has done since Hi-MD appeared) the time you uploaded?

Yep it's actually the recorded date/time and not the uploading date/time (assuming you've set the clock on the unit). That was one of the first things I checked when I got mine.

You can also display it on the unit itself or the remote. Also it only names the track as the rec-date when importing to SonicStage if it's untitled on the unit.

Edited June 29, 2006 by raintheory

[dogville]

I wouldn't depend on the Bose headphones to give you an accurate rendering of bass.

As a poet (probably at head-fi) once wrote:

No highs, no lows

It must be Bose

Also, on the date-stamped recording: Are you sure the date stamp is from the recording time, or is it (as SonicStage has done since Hi-MD appeared) the time you uploaded?

I agree with A440. Forget about Bose; Sennheiser PX100 will be a great partner for the rh-1

Edited June 29, 2006 by dogville

[jrv2kgt-s]

Nice write up PWS! After listening to the RH1 for a little over two days, I have to say that this unit is "THE BEST" Minidisc unit ever released. The difference in audio quality of the RH1 is light years ahead of my old NetMD unit (excellent audio accuracy and fidelity).

The NetMD upload feature is a true blessing in disguise. I only wish that Sony would have implemented this feature when the NetMD's first came out.

Give more detail on loudness and bass response. That would be the first thing I test.

Will you please give up on your relentless questions for "Mega bass"? This unit was meant to satisfy the MD enthusiast, audiophiles and musicians. It was not meant to satisfy the teenage lust for bass, bass and more bass. Both you and "Roba" are criticizing the RH1 for all the wrong reasons.

[heathenmagic]

Hey folks,

You are really rubbing it in for us poor souls who can't find these units for love nor money!! LOL. Gotta wait till mid-August here in the UK. Dang!

With regards to bass. I currently have an old Sharp MD-MT80H recorder. The bass on this is just enough for me, sometimes over the top at level 3. If the MZ-RH1 bass is at the MT80 level, I'll be happy.

Glad you are enjoying your RH1's anyway. Grrrrrrrrrr........

[dogville]

Hey folks,

You are really rubbing it in for us poor souls who can't find these units for love nor money!! LOL. Gotta wait till mid-August here in the UK. Dang!

With regards to bass. I currently have an old Sharp MD-MT80H recorder. The bass on this is just enough for me, sometimes over the top at level 3. If the MZ-RH1 bass is at the MT80 level, I'll be happy.

Glad you are enjoying your RH1's anyway. Grrrrrrrrrr........

I think there are people in this forum from the UK that already have the rh-1. Why do you have to wait till mid august?

Edited July 2, 2006 by dogville

[heathenmagic]

Hello Dogville,

I was late in ordering and missed the first batch of stock. Everywhere I have tried is out of stock now, and Sony say that they will be back in this country again in August. Hopefully, August of this year. Lol.

[dogville]

Hello Dogville,

I was late in ordering and missed the first batch of stock. Everywhere I have tried is out of stock now, and Sony say that they will be back in this country again in August. Hopefully, August of this year. Lol.

Hi. Hope nobody steals the few ones which supposedly are coming to Spain because one is mine and only mine

Edited July 3, 2006 by dogville