The Best? Which One?

[EFN]

I am very impressed with my N710 (SP Mode). But my main gripe is the space limitation on normal MD Blanks. Barely 2 CDs can fit in. Coming from HDD based DAP, I find this to be a bit annoying but the SQ alone is worth it.

So I have decided to migrate to Hi-MD and basically RH-1 comes first on the list. Is it worth it? SQ wise will Hi-SP on RH-1 will be superior than N710?

And how many CDs can I fit in to a Hi-MD blank? Hi-SP mode.

My Background:

I am a regular at Head-Fi.org and my recent DAP rig was the venerable Red Wine Audio iMod 80GB + XIN SuperMicro-IV + Etymotic ER-4S. I sold that rig to finance my photography hobby. IMO, RWA iMod + Good External amp + Lossless is about the very best one can get from a battery operated portable rig. I could not bear to listen to most DAPs because SQ is medicore at best. RWA iMod is an exception.

Thanks in advance!!!!

[greenmachine]

Both SP and HiSP sound very good to me. In HiSP you can fit 2h20m on a HiMD formatted 80min (305MB) MD or 7h55m on a 1GB HiMD (see here). The RH1 has a digital amp, which sounds very good to most users (haven't had the pleasure of listening to one myself yet). You have to use SonicStage for transfer.

[kino170878]

I would do some research into the threads regarding Hi-SP vs 352kbps vs SP (292kbps). The consensus seems to be that Hi-SP is a great balance between sound quality and convenient use. But if you care very much for sound quality I would go for the higher 352 bit rate which many find equivalent to SP quality.

Edited October 23, 2007 by kino170878