Cheapest Hi-MD?

[SileEeles]

Hi guys.

 

I'm wondering about what the cheapest Hi-MD player/recorder would be?

 

Just a little curious about it really, I feel like I've explored regular MD's to death. I'd love to get my hands on an MD Data drive, I love computers and still think alot of retro technology is cool, and minidisc -> computers seems like such a missed opportunity.

 

But as far as I understand, data is still possible with Hi-MD units.

 

Any info would be of help, thanks

[slugbahr]

Cheapest recorder - nh600 ... Be careful though, the 600D is a downloader only.

Cheapest player - eh50, pretty flimsy feeling, plastic body.

'600 has AA battery 'built in' like the MDLP 4xx/5xx downloader units. Plays for about a day on one.

'50 takes NiMH battery, and has AA sidecar - plays for more.

Price for 600 - from about 20 bucks US, up to stupid prices that should be ignored.

'50 - 50 min to around 100 or so. At the higher prices, you're much better off trying for an eh70, which can be around 150 ish. Metal body, nicer colours, etc. Minidisc.org equipment browser tells it better than I can ;-)

Hope this helps

:-)

Danny

[trott3r]

When i read the topic title i immediately thought of full size decks.

 

The only full sized decks are by onkyo and go for about £400 on uk ebay.

 

Was tempted but i have a 555es so not so much now.

[Sony_Fan]

Hi guys.

 

I'm wondering about what the cheapest Hi-MD player/recorder would be?

 

Just a little curious about it really, I feel like I've explored regular MD's to death. I'd love to get my hands on an MD Data drive, I love computers and still think alot of retro technology is cool, and minidisc -> computers seems like such a missed opportunity.

 

But as far as I understand, data is still possible with Hi-MD units.

 

Any info would be of help, thanks

 

From what I've seen on ebay and from what I have sold, the MZ-NH600D seems to be the cheapest Hi-MD recorder.  I would check craigslist if you want to buy for $20-$30.  If you are going to use Ebay, expect to pay $50 and above.  I've sold 2 of these recorders on ebay for an average of $90 each. Hope that helps. 

[slugbahr]

For a '600 recorder, ignore any price over 70 unless the package is worth it. Just have patience.

For a '600D, ignore any price over 40.

And I'm talking about eBay.

Do not line the pockets of any sellers with higher prices - these units are just not worth it.

CHEAPEST - not overpriced, low end!

And I love my MDs!!!

[freddyjollo]

The trouble with the Sony MZ-NH600 is a small recessed display. no  mic input just a usb port & optical in. rather plasticky. takes AA battery.

[slugbahr]

Question asked was cheapest ;-)

'600s and '50's are that for reasons.

[Bigcountry0209]

I have the Sony MZ-NH600D for recording only to minidisc, no issues with the unit at all and from my experience with this unit is 2006 and then some, the AA battery seems to last awhile. I have the MZ-RH910 and use in the vehicle only with AA battery pack. 

 

The MZ-NH600D maybe made of plastic; but, the unit is a worker. Now price wise, if you can get additional items and minidiscs with the purchase and the unit is in functional status. Good luck!

 

Since Sony kill off the minidisc format, the supply is dropping and the demand is getting higher. I have a Apple 30GB & 80GB Classic, the 30GB has massive battery issues and the internal hard drive is failing. The 80 GB unit is showing the signs of battery only. I now some folks are going back to minidisc because of the internal battery and hard drive problems.

[PsychoPimpKiller]

I use mostly SP or LP2 for mixes that I make myself. I only use my Hi-MD for recording a weekly radio show on Sirius XM anymore. I use the Energizer Lithium AA batteries with MD units and they seem to last alot longer than a standard AA battery.

 

@Bigcountry0209

Replacing batteries on ipod classics is not that hard although I have ruined the case of one trying to take it apart. What kind of classics are they? Photo or video models?

[smteacsmo]

I have the Sony MZ-NH600D for recording only to minidisc, no issues with the unit at all and from my experience with this unit is 2006 and then some, the AA battery seems to last awhile. I have the MZ-RH910 and use in the vehicle only with AA battery pack. 

 

The MZ-NH600D maybe made of plastic; but, the unit is a worker. Now price wise, if you can get additional items and minidiscs with the purchase and the unit is in functional status. Good luck!

 

Since Sony kill off the minidisc format, the supply is dropping and the demand is getting higher. I have a Apple 30GB & 80GB Classic, the 30GB has massive battery issues and the internal hard drive is failing. The 80 GB unit is showing the signs of battery only. I now some folks are going back to minidisc because of the internal battery and hard drive problems.

@Bigcountry0209: Have you visited iFixit.com ? Most ipods can be opened an the battery replaced if you have the right tools

[jammydodger1]

I have a 600 used to use it for all my recordings with either standard 80 min or the hi md discs. I used it primarily in net md mode then used on of my better looking better sounding net md units for playback.

Don't believe it's been mentioned but these wee gems don't require battery or power adapter for recording the usb drive on your computer powers them, that's the main reason I used it for my recordings only because the net md units require power when recording digitally via sonicstage on pc/laptop.

Ps. I have dropped my countless times and it's survived its a workhorse of a unit albeit not as pretty as others.

[MDX-400]

All Hi-MD that can record or "download", can be powered for playback/record/download from USB IIRC.  However they cannot charge a battery via USB.  Since the NH600D also has no DC-in jack it cannot charge a battery at all.  The NH600  (no D) does have DC-in but it never came with a rechargeable AA I don't think.  So I'm not sure if it has the charge circuit or not given I've never used one--someone with one would have to verify. 

 

Though it should be the "cheapest Hi-MD", I agree with the sentiments above that people ask way too much for them on eBay.  NH600Ds are typically listed at $150+ which ridiculous.  600Ds were sold at retail for about $100 at the end of the MD era, selling a used one now for more money, is jokes.  You could easily just bid on/buy a second-gen Hi-MD unit instead, for similar money...or less! 

[sfbp]

Actually 2nd generation HiMD's DO charge from USB. RH1 (3rd gen) too.

[ShriDurga]

... its a workhorse of a unit albeit not as pretty as others.

 

Indeed. It's like a VW Bug.  I have had mine for about seven years and it's the been the best unit I've ever had.  Runs for hours on one AA battery and once a disc is loaded you can operate the thing like a cell phone, with just one thumb:  press play, left-right track advance-reverse, up-down volume, press pause, or press stop.  

[freddyjollo]

I got a couple of  dark blue  NH600's a few years ago from  Argos Ebay dump shop for £40 each  new. The Blue ones look  good, the silver one not I think. They work well enough & I think will be around long after the last ipod is buried. AA batteries  rule ok!

[kalkie]

I bought a dark-blue MZ-NH600 in 2004.

I have written hundreds of discs (HI-MD and MD) with this device and he is still going well.

Very reliable, it is the only device I use to write my discs and had never a problem.

But I think it is a ugly device to look at so I use always an other device to play my discs, mostly MZ-N1 and for the HI-MD discs the MZ-RH910 (nice display).

The "cheap" MZ-NH600 is worth its money,  my expensive MZ-RH1 never was.

 

[MDX-400]

Interesting that some Hi-MD units charge from USB.  I only have a DH10P (my only Hi-MD unit) which is 2nd gen, and it certainly doesn't charge over USB!

[Bigcountry0209]

@smteacsmo,

 

Pulled the site up, gathering data or information on what is I need. Thanks!

[sfbp]

Interesting that some Hi-MD units charge from USB. I only have a DH10P (my only Hi-MD unit) which is 2nd gen, and it certainly doesn't charge over USB!

This is getting a bit off topic.... but are you sure? I just peeked at the SM.

[philippeb]

This is getting a bit off topic.... but are you sure? I just peeked at the SM.

I confirm. The DH10P plays, but does not charge, over USB.

[weezer4fr]

My first md recorder was a mzr37. It started erasing disks after a year of intense use. after a while it only said "no disk". Then I was so stupid to buy a new sony mzr 501(because I had a lot of md's) After exactly one year it started to erase disks and also after a while "no disk". I was so angry at sony that I spend hundreds of euros on appliances that erased precious homemade self-written songs and stuff. I sprayed my mzr37 with deodorant and lit it on fire, I grabbed a hammer and hit it several times. It was still able to say "no disk" after a few days haha

I was done with minidisc, but in 2005 (2 years later) there was a sale at a big store where I bought a MZ-NH600 for 55 Euros. it was actually pretty good for about 5 years and I can still play (most) my old md's with it.  It does a few issues. I once bought a 1GB md and it said read error after only 1 use. And also half of my md's are now "read error" something, and I can't format or do anything about it. 

The only thing I like about mindisk is that you can take AA batteries with you and use your device a whole vacation without charging and recording on HIMD with my band and then transferring it back to a laptop was great.  Other than that it sucks. ATRAC is such bad quailty. If you use a good mp3 encoder, even 128kbit is crystal clear in the high frequencies. Atrac just makes the music sound like an old tape and less stereo. SP sounds good I guess. The MZ-NH600 is pretty strong. It fell a lot of times over the years and the lid is now held to the device with ductape and it still works. I like to thank this forum for sonicstage 4.3, now I can still use mds in my car

[sfbp]

ATRAC is such bad quailty. If you use a good mp3 encoder, even 128kbit is crystal clear in the high frequencies. Atrac just makes the music sound like an old tape and less stereo.

I don't think there's a single person on the board here who would agree that 128kbps mp3 is better than ATRAC. In fact I would go so far as to say that the reverse is true - there is no ATRAC bit rate in use which sounds as bad as 128kbps mp3.

[weezer4fr]

I don't think there's a single person on the board here who would agree that 128kbps mp3 is better than ATRAC. In fact I would go so far as to say that the reverse is true - there is no ATRAC bit rate in use which sounds as bad as 128kbps mp3.

I did some testing today and I must admit that I was wrong. I used  Adobe Audition to convert A No Doubt song to MP3 @ 320, a fast 128kbit and a slow one that should be better. Also I converted the song to Atrac 132 66 and 105.(I also converted it to atrac+48,128,192 but sonicstage crashed so I can't play it back) 

I was very surprised that the sound from atrac 132 wasn't that different from 320kbit mp3! The track Excuse me mr. starts with a guitar panned almost on one side. One the 132atrac and the 320kbit mp3 the unused channel was still completely clear. (like you only want to hear beautiful guitar reverb and studio room feedback instead of strange noize) On the 128kbit mp3s (and 105,66atrac) it wasn't. However the higher frequencies of the drums sound better on the 128mp3 than on the 132kbit atrac file. 

So to save space 132 atrac is great and you only lose a little bit in the high frequencies. mp3 is more unreliable what it does with extreme panning.

I'd like to do more tests but sonicstage crashed and won't work, so I'm afraid I'm done with MD. today it deleted 5 md's  before sonicstage crashed.

[sfbp]

Sorry to hear of your difficulties. That's why we're here... to help.

Aside from a hardware problem in your MD portable, there's only one way to achieve the wholesale destruction of disks as well as crashing SonicStage. There's a simple bug and it is quite simply avoided. The known side effect (of the bug, not of the fix) is to crash SonicStage.

When you try to delete multiple unlabelled tracks from an md using Sonic Stage, it gets very confused. The best thing to do is to label all those itty bitty tracks you want to delete, thus: a,b,c,d etc......

I realise this is too late but I'm pretty sure it would have saved your disks and your temper.

By the way, the "bad panning" you observed is presumably due to joint stereo rather than left and right channels. LP2 uses separate l and r. LP4 does not (no idea about LP3 but I believe you). Mp3 encoders have all sorts of options and I think that on lower bitrates they default to joint stereo, presumably not on 320 since you commented so.

[weezer4fr]

By the way, the "bad panning" you observed is presumably due to joint stereo rather than left and right channels. LP2 uses separate l and r. LP4 does not (no idea about LP3 but I believe you). Mp3 encoders have all sorts of options and I think that on lower bitrates they default to joint stereo, presumably not on 320 since you commented so.

You were right! the joint stereo thing was checked. I re-encoded it and now it was almost as good as the 320kbit mp3. (I couldn't hear a difference). I don't know what the coded is called. I believe Fraunhofer II or something. then it was better than the 132 atrac after all.

 

I'm not sure what you mean with the labeling. what happened was the following. I was copying music to hi-mds. I hade a couple of colored 80mTDK's from 2005 (?) left. I ran out and began to use old md's (netmds) from 2000. There were more noizy and dusty and slower. I deleted their tracks in sonicstage or initialized them as a himd. And the System File Writing took forever. But it worked. but I wasn't able to copy music to the md's. whatever track I tried. then after ejecting them and loading them again. the md recorder said "read error" and I can't do anything with it. the computer can't acces them. Is there a way to format "read error" disks? and how do I make sonicstage work again?

[sfbp]

I just re-read your first post - it sounds like many of your disks were already bad. One design problem with HiMD is that (especially with 1GB disks which doesn't apply in your case) Sonic Stage tries to recover any "authorization" it had on a disk. This means scanning the disk for tracks that have been deleted. This is up to a point fine but it fails when the disk is having trouble being read.

The other complicating issue is that HiMD units will often attempt to switch mode from HiMD to NetMD, such as when you insert a disk. If you didn't actually bother to install a NetMD driver (yes, you thought you couldn't because it's Windows 7/8 and the driver was for XP), there will be lots of trouble at this point. Don't worry about the NetMD driver for the moment. But it will occur with any disk you made with the R37 that is not entirely blank.

To initialize your disks, you should:

a. Set the Disc Mode (under options) on the NH600 to HiMD

b. Choose Format (under Edit).

Funny things will happens when blank disks are inserted that cause you to doubt your sanity. In particular all sorts of things will appear to have been transferred to the disk when they are not. This is fine (it's just Sony buffering everything), except that when the unit is broken (or no driver), you will be fooled into believing that something worked (when it didn't), and then failing shortly after.

I actually think you need to work on the NetMD driver. If you're running Windows 7 you will need to visit our downloads section (I uploaded and still maintain the current version of them) to get the (only) driver for all NetMD operation. The tell-tale sign that the NH600 is switching modes (hiMD to netMD) is that you will hear the USB link go down (di-duh) and up again (duh-di) when you insert a disk.

Honestly it's not that bad. It beats going to the A**le store.

[weezer4fr]

I actually think you need to work on the NetMD driver. If you're running Windows 7 you will need to visit our downloads section (I uploaded and still maintain the current version of them) to get the (only) driver for all NetMD operation. The tell-tale sign that the NH600 is switching modes (hiMD to netMD) is that you will hear the USB link go down (di-duh) and up again (duh-di) when you insert a disk.

thanks man! I think you are correct about the problem because before it crashed. windows insalled a Netmd driver, when I inserted a regular md

[sfbp]

Yeah if it's Windows 7 the "standard" 32-bit driver likely won't work as most people have opted for 64-bit Windows with V.7