Have tested NH900/NH1 and RH10 the winner is...

[doomlordis]

Ok so i decided to get back into minidisc a couple of weeks ago, i have in the past owned - N910 , N10 , DH600 , NH700, NHF800 , NH900 , NH1 , RH10 and RH1 (i bought a box of 14 1st gen players from ebay).

Anyway i boaught a mint NH900 last week, then a few Days ago i got a good deal on a NH1 and a couple of days ago i got a RH10. I knew i only wanted to keep one , my wife by this time was ready to boil my nuts.

I am keeping the RH10 heres why..

Build Quality

NH1 winner here , its sleek , tough and light. It also looks like it costs a fortune.

The RH10 was second here, although it is mainly plastic (with metal door underneath) it is solid in a way the NH900 isnt , it think the door being enclosed in the side frame helps a lot.

The NH900 feels a little cheap compared to the NH1/RH10 , the plastic back is more noticable than on the RH10.

Looks

NH1 , RH10 then NH900

Ease of use

RH10 is the easiest , large 6 line screen, it operates more like an MP3 player IMO.

The NH900 is second , i like not having to lug a remote around.

NH1 , easy with remote , almost impossible without, cradle is a pain to carry around and no AA !!!

RH10 also offers usb charging which i find useful.

Sound

Now this took hours of testing through earphones and my amp , its very close but i think the NH900 may be the winner.

The NH1 through the remote sounds different to the NH900 from the headphone port, i think the remote is changing the sound slightly , the bass is harsher , less smooth.

Its a very small difference and it disappears when plugged straight in to the NH1.

I think the HD amp has a low noise floor , its is dead silent but it also makes the sound a little cold.

The RH10 is sooo close in sound, if anything it is warmer sounding but the noise floor in noticeably higher and you can hear a tiny hiss with the RH10 , on the NH1 / NH900 it is silent.

Mp3 playback is a bonus on the RH10 and with a 1/2 increase in treble on the EQ is also good, i compared a 132 atrac rip with a 128kbps MP3 lame rip and the MP3 sounded just as good but the dynamics are slightly different.

Battery Life

Tested all three with 132 atrac on shuffle - all charged to full (used same 1450 mah gumstick on NH900 and RH10)

NH900 - 8.5 hrs

NH1 - 13.5 hrs

RH10 12.5 hrs

NH1 wins.

So RH10 only wins on ease of use but i still want to keep it, usb charging, standard mini usb port, mp3 playback (crippled or not). The SQ of the RH10 with Atrac is really good and with MP3 it isnt as bad as some would have you believe.

On this note a friend of mine at Sony was back over from Japan this weekend and he asked me about my RH10 when he seen int in the pub, i commented that it was sad that Sony had crippled its MP3 playback (i often wind him up about their products), he answered straight away that the 2nd generation minidisc design was finished when they made their decision to support MP3 and it was lucky to have any support at all, he said if it couldnt support MP3 there is no way they could have offered it as an upgrade - ala HD1.

He also said thats why the 2nd generation only had stickers on the units with MP3 advertised.

[Sparky191]

Nice mini review. Cheers. Does your friend know if the RH1 is the last MD.

[bobt]

great to have you back, what are you going to do with the rest of your units??

Enjoy your stuff,

Bob

[doomlordis]

great to have you back, what are you going to do with the rest of your units??

Enjoy your stuff,

Bob

Sold already to friends, my friend at Sony told me once that when the RH1 was launched they had a low end plastic unit ready to go but it was pulled as it was thought that it would harm sales of the RH1, he said he would be surprised if it didnt get released at some point.

He told me about the RH10 months before the press release, describing it as a unit that had a glassfront with a floating screen , my post about it is on here or audio t board somewhere.

[alrose312]

how do the three compare to your previously owned RH1? Does the RH10 still win?

[doomlordis]

I think the RH1 is a brilliant recorder, it is a bit of overkill if you mainly use the device for playback, i would have a RH10 over the RH1 for these reasons.

PS . if the RH1 had ID3 data on the main unit i would have kept it.

[Ishiyoshi]

*topic moved to "Product Reviews/Pictorials" section of the forum.

[nathantw666]

So RH10 only wins on ease of use but i still want to keep it, usb charging, standard mini usb port, mp3 playback (crippled or not).

All I can say is keep one of those other units handy. The RH10 is notorious for being unreliable. I'm currently on my 3rd RH10. My first one had a problem with the volume control and my second unit brought up a menu every time the volume button was pressed or would start playing the track I just finished listening to when pressing FF (very annoying). I'm sure the unreliability is one of the reasons why Sony discontinued the model after only a couple of years (if even that long).

[doomlordis]

The RH10s unreliability was inherited from the NH900 i reckon, my NH900 had a shonky stop button and was fond of switching itself off for no reason!

The NH1 and RH710 are the most reliable Hi-MD , never had any issues with those babys.