I have to agree with Rick.
I've got a Sharp MS702 porti and a Sony MDS-S38 deck. Both have an ATRAC of
the same generation. Sharps is ATRAC 5. and Sonys is 4.0.
I can't hear the differences between the two for digital recordings. Neither
can anyone of my colegeas at work.... Like I posted on another treath, MD is
closest to CD audio of all portable mediums (Excluding DAT... But DAT is not
that portable since it uses the Helican Scan mechanism for recording. Ie, a
mechanism simular to a VCR).
I think if we all search very well, we could come up with some sounds that
will sound awfull after recrording on a Sharp. While the same piece of music
sounds okay on a Sony. But I thinks it compares also the otherway around. I
bet you can find a piece of music that isn't handled very well by Sony
ATRAC buy is by Sharps.
As it comes to decks, I really like the Sonys. Why? There a lot of tools
available that will control the deck using IR. Thus making titling a breeze.
For porties? I favourise the slot-in mechanism over the clam-shell. This
favourises Sharp off-course. I don't know why I favourise the slot-in mechanism,
but I feel like it's more 'solid'..... Opinions may vary...
Cheers,
Ralph -> returning to work...
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Hi Jake,
>
> There was only one case I heard of where a person could reliably tell
> whether the recording was from a Sharp or Sony ATRAC, and
> unfortunately we never substantiated that with outside experimenters.
>
> If the differences are in general as strong as you suggest, I think
> others would have picked them up by now too. In any case, would it be
> possible for you to post to a web page some short, 44.1khz, 16 bit PCM
> (i.e. CD audio) segments of recordings made with both the Sharp and
> Sony that clearly exhibit the differences so that we can all listen to
> them side by side?
>
> Thanks,
> Rick
>
> >Eric Woudenberg wrote:
> >
> >> Thanks for the long article. It's well written and I like it, except
> >> for one thing: I think your MD-MS722 was defective. The differences
> >> between modern ATRAC encoders from the various makers are subtle,
> >> really. If you have a situation where the MD recording sounds like a
> >> bad 128kbps MP3, something is wrong. My suggestion: repeat the
> >> experiment with another Sharp unit (the Sharp MT83x, MT82x and MS72x
> >> all have Sharp ATRAC 6, the MS70x is Sharp ATRAC 5).
> >
> >Hmm, I don't know if I can do that. I bought it from minidisco.com and
> >they only have a 7 day return policy. I don't want to claim it's
> >defective and then look like a fool if my theory about Sharp ATRAC being
> >a lousy encoder is right. Maybe I can ask them if they can send me a
> >loaner unit to verify my suspicion? With the reliability of modern
> >electronics, I can't imagine anything being defective in such a subtle
> >way, though.. Then again, with all the UTOC errors people have been
> >complaining about with Sharps, who knows?
> >
> >Or maybe their ATRAC really isn't that great.. After all, it's subtle
> >enough that maybe nobody noticed. I haven't seen anyone say anything
> >other than "they both sound the same to me, but I don't have very good
> >hearing", or even worse, "Sharp's at version 6 and Sony's at version 4.5
> >so Sharp must be better!" Most importantly, I haven't seen anyone doing
> >serious double-blind tests between Sharp ATRAC and anything else.
> >
> >What if Sharp knows their encoder is no good but they see people are
> >still buying it? How many people can tell a bad 128kbps MP3 from the
> >original other than musicians with trained ears? For most people, the
> >quality loss is apparent at a subliminal level.. you might think that
> >128kbps MP3 sounds ok, but try playing low bitrate MP3's for 8 hours in
> >a row and then putting in an original CD, and the improvement is
> >stunning! Maybe that's the case here.
> >
> >> I'm forwarding this to the MD mailing list in case others would like
> >> to comment.
> >
> >Oops, I already forwarded it to the MD mailing list after I sent you a
> >copy.. Oh well..
> >
> >-Jake
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