Need help deciding.

[FatFish]

I have been using my trusty MZ-N505 for about 6 years now, or something like that. But now she has finally left me, or atleast her ability to write music from my pc to md. Playback is no problem but i can't write music anymore without it stopping playback in the middle of a song for about 15 seconds and other things which drove me crazy. And last night after trying to write music on a disc it actually erased everything... Bottom line is, my MD crapped out on me.

I listen to music on a daily basis and used it almost everyday. But thats al I do with my MD, use it as a mp3-player. Now I've been thinking about what I should buy next.

If I go the minidisc routte again what should i buy? The RH1 is fancy and al but it is also expensive and I would only use the PC to MD functions and none of the high tech recording stuff.

My knowledge of al the models is pretty limited so maybe there is an MD unit that is made for music playback in mind instead of the recording.

Of course I could always buy a Mp3-player. But looking around... It almost makes me sick! If there is a decent harddisk player with atleast 20 gigs around that isn't catered too 15 year olds who want to impress there fellow schoolfriends let me know. I really don't give a rats ass about being able to play videos and watch foto's on a unit that is made to play music and yet this is what al the players feature. Whatever happend to sound quality and ease of use?

So my question is what should I buy? 300€ for a new RH1 isn't really a problem but it has al these features which I wouldn't use so is it worth it and maybe there is another Hi-MD unit out there that suits my needs beter. I am in desperate need for some advice!

[bobt]

I have been using my trusty MZ-N505 for about 6 years now, or something like that. But now she has finally left me, or atleast her ability to write music from my pc to md. Playback is no problem but i can't write music anymore without it stopping playback in the middle of a song for about 15 seconds and other things which drove me crazy. And last night after trying to write music on a disc it actually erased everything... Bottom line is, my MD crapped out on me.

I listen to music on a daily basis and used it almost everyday. But thats al I do with my MD, use it as a mp3-player. Now I've been thinking about what I should buy next.

If I go the minidisc routte again what should i buy? The RH1 is fancy and al but it is also expensive and I would only use the PC to MD functions and none of the high tech recording stuff.

My knowledge of al the models is pretty limited so maybe there is an MD unit that is made for music playback in mind instead of the recording.

Of course I could always buy a Mp3-player. But looking around... It almost makes me sick! If there is a decent harddisk player with atleast 20 gigs around that isn't catered too 15 year olds who want to impress there fellow schoolfriends let me know. I really don't give a rats ass about being able to play videos and watch foto's on a unit that is made to play music and yet this is what al the players feature. Whatever happend to sound quality and ease of use?

So my question is what should I buy? 300€ for a new RH1 isn't really a problem but it has al these features which I wouldn't use so is it worth it and maybe there is another Hi-MD unit out there that suits my needs beter. I am in desperate need for some advice!

If all you want is downloadability the NH 600 will do you fine, the 700 adds mic and line inputs. Any of the lower number HiMD units (600, 700, 800, 710, etc) should work for you. And they should be easy to find on ebay etc. You can also check the classifieds on the forum, some deals come by occasionally, I just got a 600D that I paid $50.00 USD.

The true answer is that the RH1 is the best, and you would never regret it,

Happy hunting,

Bob

[tekdroid]

If I go the minidisc routte again what should i buy? The RH1 is fancy and al but it is also expensive and I would only use the PC to MD functions and none of the high tech recording stuff.

MZ-RH1 also misses out on some features earlier models had...so I don't view it as the best choice or ultimate recorder, especially not for just PC-to-MD transfers.

The MZ-NH600 is the best choice on a bang-for-buck basis. It has USB as well as LINE and OPTICAL.

The MZ-NH600D omits these in favour of just the USB.

Move up to the MZ-NH700 and you get a MIC input, too.

These are all first-generation Hi-MD models that can be bought new or second-hand, depending on where you are (lots were sourced from Australia in the Great Hi-MD Clear-Out of 2005/2006)

[A440]

If it's important to you to play your old MDs, then definitely go with NH600, NH600D (which is a player only) or NH700.

I have an NH600D (for player and uploading), NHF800, NH700 (bought as backup for NHF800, which finally did some iffy things after two years of solid use) and RH1 (to upload all my old MD recordings).

And for a portable mp3 player, I use a.....Sansa E260. It's flash, not hard drive. It's 4GB plus a microSD slot--so you could switch out microSD cards as if they were MDs, and you can get an 8GB version, which also has a microSD slot. Navigation is easy if you have good mp3 tags. Sound quality is better than an iPod Nano (I played the same files on them through the same headphones). It's fast drag and drop, or you can use Witless Media Player to synchronize. Its voice recorder is not so hot, but it does have one. For a player only, it's a lot more convenient than MD will ever be.

[FatFish]

Thanks for the fast reply's!

The reason why I would stil buy a MD is because I have been using it for so long and I have many(many!) MD's with music on, so yes the NH600D does seem to suit my needs as a decent player only.

I found an AIWA AM NX9 for about 70€ including 15 blanks, is this a good price and is the unit any good?

But now that I look at the Sansa, this could actually be the mp3-player I was looking for! Exchangeable flash and good sound quality, except for the non-exchangeable battery. But it is not that expensive so if it gets pooched after a year or 2 of service it wil be money wel spent. I'm definitely gonna take the Sansa in considiration because like you said, for mp3 playback it is allot more easy than MD's. I was just clinging to MD because I have used it for so long and could never find a decent mp3-player which suited my needs.

Thanks allot everybody!

[A440]

That Aiwa seems to be a mystery, even on the Browser page at http://www.minidisc.org , which has all the models.

http://www.minidisc.org/equipment_browser.html

See what kind of price you can find on Hi-MD, because if you continue to use MD you can get a lot more music on a disc. Old units risk being worn out, unless you're lucky enough to find one that someone stuck in a drawer for five years.

By the way, the Sansa battery is replaceable. It's not an iPod...

http://www.mobileplanet.com/p.aspx?i=145304

[FatFish]

Indeed it is, some sites had incorrect information. So I just made an order, Sandisk it wil be then. Being the number one flashmemory producer in the world must mean something.

And indeed its no Ipod, I wouldn't have bought it otherwise. This player seems to have everything I would want to replace my current MD.

Thanks for the recomendation.

[tekdroid]

By the way, the Sansa battery is replaceable. It's not an iPod...

http://www.mobileplanet.com/p.aspx?i=145304

IMO, the fact that you have to unscrew the thing to get to the battery kills all the usefulness of a replaceable battery. Shame SanDisk chose to implement things that way. Very unfriendly to 99.9% of the market who expect to switch out a battery easily.

FatFish

If gapless playback is important to you, you'll be missing it in the Sandisk. (Not to mention other MD-centric features you may use).

[FatFish]

Thing is I don't really use ANY md feature beside the mp3 playability. And if gaps means gaps between songs, no that won't be a problem.

My md just had this crazy quirk where it would stutter and stop playback like a fraction of a second but noticeable nonetheless. Then the time between stutters would get less and less until playback would just completely stop for about 15-25 seconds and then it would continue, without problems... Its kind of hard to explain but the problem was not random, stutters would start at the very same point of the song, everytime. So I figured there was a problem with the process of writing music on the disc.

Finally I just gave op on it, some recordings it would stutter some it wouldn't. I'm guessing it had something to do with mp3 codecs and conversion to ATRAC3, cause if I changed the mp3 codec it would work, sometimes. But you can see what a tedious process it was to make sure I could listen to my music without it crapping out during every song.

Yeah, the unscrewing part is kind of a bad marketing move, but atleast the possibility is there.

I don't think there will ever be a mp3 unit which will have all the features the MD's have. But I just don't use them, the reason I bought a MD back in the day was because it had exchangeable storage and still stayed compact(atleast since the net-md's). I'm not the kind of guy who listens to the top 20 and has enough with 512mb because only the latest hits are in rotation. The onlything available back then were discmans with mp3 playback, but try stuffing that into your pocket. Or smaller mp3 players with nowhere near enough storage capacity.

But my MD has served me well, it just time to move on... (Sonicstage is stil shit though, but thats a whole different story )

Edited July 3, 2007 by FatFish