dex Otaku Posted July 30, 2004 Report Share Posted July 30, 2004 My MZ-NH700 is being shipped tomorrow [got delayed by an error in the order]. I'll put some review-type info up for everyone when I finally get it. I realise that this is the bottom-end portable recorder in the Hi-MD line, but hey, some of us are on strict budgets. Also coming is my Sound Professionals in-ear binaural mic. [One of my key interests being field and/or environmental recording]. Stay tuned, it should arrive on Monday if all goes right. You can bet I'll be running my usual battery of tests on it, both measurements and listening tests of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted July 30, 2004 Report Share Posted July 30, 2004 I look forward to your review and possible observations about the Hi-MD live recording process. If it's over 500 words I'll throw it in the Product Reviews subforum. You excited? Hopefully Hi-MD blanks will be common in Canada soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dex Otaku Posted July 31, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 31, 2004 Excited, yes. Despite the limitations of Hi-MD, my choice was to either buy a low-end NetMD with analogue ins or a low-end Hi-MD. Given that the Hi-MD basically functions as the NetMD, and was only about $20 more, and records linear PCM, and fits more on standard discs as well as having the 1GB disics.. even if I'm stuck with doing analogue dubs, it seems a step up from any of the std-MD equipment I"ve been using for several years already. Unless the digital amp is complete crap, of course. I'll be running some tests on the analogue side to see how it fairs. I don't have professional measurement equipment, but I know how to state what my reference is [M-Audio Revo7.1] and use it as the basis for measurements made with real analysis software. I'm just itching to get cracking at it.. Especially to compare recordings made by analogue means on the Hi-MD as compared to same-bitrate files encoded by Sonicstage. I'd like to see what fares better, even given the compromised qualtiy of micro-version A/D convertors. And yes, I hope the Hi-MD media shows up soon. I doubt anyone where I live will carry the stuff; people here generally have never even heard of let alone seen MD equipment unless they work for CBC or do field recording. I did order a box of 10 std-MD discs [sony Neige] for immediate use. Given that almost everything I record is done in tiny chunks, I'm not really that limited by having only 24 minutes with PCM.. and certainly not by the 2:20 Hi-SP length. Everything I do is immediately dumped to my PC and then archived and wiped from the MDs anyway. Here's hoping that HHB builds a fully decked-out Hi-MD recorder for pros. I could see a -lot- of people I've met switching from DAT if they knew it was as durable as the HHBs seem. And had clean preamps, quality A/D and D/A converters, SCMS-free digital outs, etc. Especially if there was a SMPTE version. It really makes me wonder that Sony isn't pushing a pro version. In the TV industry up here, MD had almost entirely replaced cart tapes by about 1994... --- Side note: I have a cheap Samsung MP3-CD player [one of those CD YEPP things] which works fairly well considering how inexpensive it was. Since I have most of my CD collection on CD-R as lame VBR encoded MP3s, it works quite nicely, especially during travel. I like being about to take a couple of weeks' worth of music in one 24-disc CD wallet, and I don't mind the removable media idea, as opposed to HD-players. The more I've thought about it, though.. When I first considered Hi-MD I didn't care a whit about using it as my portable music player. Thing is, in the past several months I've actually switched from using my CD-Rs to using a handful of RWs that I just write over with whatever I want to listen to [usually while travelling]. Hi-MD or even just plain NetMD is a perfect replacement for that.. so I have a feeling that I'll be using my new unit as my portable player after all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted July 31, 2004 Report Share Posted July 31, 2004 I hope I'm not the bearer of bad news, but the NH700 does not have a digital amp. Also, you won't be stuck with analog dubs, either. Just do a 1:1 realtime upload through the USB playback functionality of the unit. I'm having reservations about buying one of these units now [NH900] since Hi-MD media is in short supply. Maybe I'll hold off until the media is for sale at Wal-Mart for that hypothetical price of $9.99 a 3/pack ensuring I don't get frustrated having to use 300mb discs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dex Otaku Posted July 31, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 31, 2004 I hope I'm not the bearer of bad news, but the NH700 does not have a digital amp. Also, you won't be stuck with analog dubs, either. Just do a 1:1 realtime upload through the USB playback functionality of the unit.I was speaking [of course] of what I'll be doing until the wave convertor program shows up. As for there being no digital amp, with the way I've been reading things both here and elsewhere, that almost sounds like it could turn out to be a -good- thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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