Soundbox Posted March 25, 2010 Report Share Posted March 25, 2010 To owners of MD players which utilise the HD-Digital amplifier I have a few questions if you don't mind. I have an MZ-R30 which has a normal amplifier which, well, just sounds normal ;-) Right, to my questions. 1. How does it sound compared to the normal amplifiers found in CD and MD portables? 2. I note line out uses the headphone socket on HD-amp fitted models with a menu mode to select 'line out'. Is the digital amp disengaged at this setting or does the digital amp feed line out? Any other thoughts appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gray Rider Posted March 27, 2010 Report Share Posted March 27, 2010 normal amps = plain sound HD amp = colourful sound Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmp64 Posted March 27, 2010 Report Share Posted March 27, 2010 To owners of MD players which utilise the HD-Digital amplifier I have a few questions if you don't mind. I have an MZ-R30 which has a normal amplifier which, well, just sounds normal ;-) Right, to my questions. 1. How does it sound compared to the normal amplifiers found in CD and MD portables? 2. I note line out uses the headphone socket on HD-amp fitted models with a menu mode to select 'line out'. Is the digital amp disengaged at this setting or does the digital amp feed line out? Any other thoughts appreciated. Somewhere on here there is a really good thread on this subject. To me, the sound of an HD amp is brighter, and the individual elements of a track more distinctly separated, if that makes sense. The analogue amp is warmer, sounding closer to vinyl/tape. As far as your second question, I would not think it is possible to "disengage" the amp - I would think there is only one amp and that is it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
md user Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 Although not Hi-MD, I did carefully compare my DR410 to an SR-50 - and could not tell the difference. (The former model was sold on the benefits of digital amps.) I even converted a set of old headphones to genuine 4-ring jack for the DR-410. My old analogue <=0.1%THD minidisc player vs. digital amp[~0.01%] - no difference; EQ settings an order above in effect. (Wikipedia claims that a THD of less than 1% is high fidelity and inaudible to the human ear - through speakers, I presume.) Atrac1 has general artefacts of order -36dB - making the 0.01%THD necessity questionable. Stereo separation on 3-ring headphones - no obvious improvement to my ears. HiMD is obviously better. OK, so I haven't had the pleasure of Hi-MD or the last Digital amps; but we must remember that EQ and spatial settings on different models are not always the same? Then there's the headphone's THD/Response curve ... anybody got 0.01%THD headphones/speakers? Well I haven't yet My 2cents-worth and not necessarily authoritative - just my gut-reaction so far; I will gladly hear from someone who is thoroughly convinced/can demonstrate otherwise. Whatever - ALL minidiscs are GREAT FUN!!! (And all later models really are good anyway, methinks.) Regards, mdmad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soundbox Posted March 28, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 Thank you all for the comments - and this is all great learning for me so I am soaking it all up. Next week I will be collecting a lightly used MD recorder (swap for some work I have done) which is model RH1 which has a digital amp but I have never heard of these before so that is why I ask. I am not sure what model RH1 will be like but it is MiniDisc so it must be good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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