MZ-RH1 Settings for decent playback

[gek]

Hi All,

I've tried searching but become very confused, so please forgive my lack of knowledge; I'm trying to learn fast!

I have recently been lucky enough to be given an RH1, along with a few 1gb Hi-MD discs and some standard 74 minute ones.

All my music is stored in FLAC format at the moment on my PC.

My plan was to mount the FLAC tracks using Daemon Tools and then rip them to Sonic Stage, and then onto my RH1.

My question is, what settings should I rip at and then transfer at? This is where I get all confused between ATRAC, ATRAC3, lossless, LP2, LP4 and all the associated bitrates.

My goal is to find a happy medium between sound quality and storage size. I have transfered the FLAC files to SS using ATRAC lossless and then onto my RH1 at 132kbps. I think this is LP2? From my limited knowledge this would seem ok - it sounds pretty good anyway.

Any help is most welcome!

[sfbp]

You've done just about exactly the right thing (you've avoided the big pitfall of ripping to WAV or 1411kbps LPCM using Sonic Stage). If you purchase some 1GB disks you could experiment with 256kbps as a playback format - you'll get almost 8 hours on a disk - whereas at that data rate with "80 minute" disks, you'll only have 2hr 20m. You're getting 4hr 50m with the setup you have.

132kbps (known as LP2 because it doubles the old SP times) is a pretty good compromise for portable listening, and putting it on to HiMD format maximises the bits on the disk (compared to a conventional, will-play-in-a-preHiMD-deck).

You should (IMHO) probably avoid the "dynamic normalization" setting when using the RH1 as a player, if you want to be careful with your ears

[gek]

Many thanks, that's great info.

[sfbp]

Just a final note: you may have set the "lossy" portion of the AAL rip to be 132kbps. Suggest you switch to 256kbps. You can experiment but you should find that 256kbps AAL converts nicely to 132kbps LP2, and of course the 256kbps is what ends up on the portable device bit-for-bit when you use that format (known as HiSP). What won't sound so good (I think) is using 132kbps AAL to generate 256kbps on the HiMD.

Of course I could be wrong about the above. But I think the default rip for AAL may be 132, not 256. In my limited experience, 352kbps won't make a difference for portable.playback.

[gek]

If I click on the CD importing format in SS it has:

ATRAC Advanced Lossless as the format

Recording Quality: High

Bit Rate for the tracks transferred to device: 132kbps

I'm not sure where I set the rate for the rip, all I can see is the recording quality option of High or Normal.

Am I looking in the right place?

[sfbp]

It says "bit rate for the tracks transferred to device/media with fast transfer" (note my emphasis of the word "fast")

So what that means is the lossy part of the file is THAT BIT RATE.

I recommend you may want to use 256 rather than 132. I have no evidence for my previous assertion. But I do know that when you transfer AAL to a portable device it only transfers the lossy part. You can check this yourself, and whether the 132->256 conversion works or is sub-optimal.

[gek]

I did a comparison between 132 and 256 and to be honest I couldn't tell the difference.

I'm using a pair of Westone UM1, a decent headphone and about the max price I was willing to pay. I know I could play a lot more and maybe distinguish the advantages of 256, but I'm happy with 132 I think.

Plus I'm over 40 now so my hearing isn't going to be as good as it used to be!

Thanks again for your advice sfbp, it's been invaluable.

[sfbp]

Then (since this tends to suggest that it uses the lossless part to help build the higher bitrate when extruding to external medium such as MD or CD) you have no reason to use the 256 AAL, as long as you don't want to play it direct on your PC to your HiFi. In that case I am unsure exactly what the playback codec does.

I find that (forgetting about AAL) HiSP has a bit more "glitter" to it, but that LP2 is good enough for nearly all purposes. And a number of others here who flirted with higher bitrates have ended up at that position also. There are also diehards who insist "uncompressed or give up".

Anything I record that's neither live (microphones) nor CD-to-begin-with ends up at 132. CD's (for me) end up at 256kbps AAL. Live stays as CD quality just for ease of editing. Radio programs and the like go to 256kbps or 132kbps. That ends up being mostly a matter of convenience as the HiMD format allows 8 hours 256kbps (on 1GB media) - longer than 163 minutes in a single chunk.

I haven't made serious use of HiLP yet, there are plenty who do. It's ok for packing a large compilation of CD's onto a single 80m disk for portable listening.

Glad you're having fun....

[PhilippeC]

Don't forget that IF you start a MD units collection, you will have to think about compatibility. Personnaly if you are happy with Hi-MD 132 kbps, you would ne happy also with LP2 and that one is recognized by all units, except non MDLP ones. SP is recognized by ALL units. Ok, here we are speaking with non Hi-MD discs, meaning standard disc (60,74,80). 132 kbps is for Hi-MD formatted disc.