MD: Boomboxes from outside the US?
Since we're on the boombox topic, are there any MD boombox/portable stereos available where MD is more popular, like Europe or Japan? Perhaps those of us who are hard up for these things could import one from Europe if it could be converted to US voltage/frequency stepping? Just a thought and a question. :o) ~Zach A HREF="http://members.aol.com/zachr330"The Cutting Edge of Nothing Significant/A - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Those MD boomboxes - why isn't anyone bothering to release them to Au...
In a message dated 9/27/00 8:21:30 AM Central Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: /|\/|\ Here in the U.S., there are very few MD boomboxes available (maybe three of four models, all AC-powered, and extremely difficult to find). /|\/|\ This bugs me too! :/ I get to have a radio at work and I looked all over for an MD boombox, and the only one I found was the one at Minidisco's website. It was out of my price range. I wound up settling for a JVC Kaboom box with its aux input, and carrying my portable with me... Quite a hassle! MD in a boombox is just like... SO logical yet there isn't a good inexpensive unit out there yet. :( ~Zach A HREF="http://members.aol.com/zachr330"The Cutting Edge of Nothing Significant/A - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: R: Pre-Recorded MD's
/|\/|\ I'm still no good at converting from British Pounds to US dollars. /|\/ |\ I'm not, either, but that hasn't stopped me from buying from Yalplay in the past. They have merged with Boxman online, but they still carry many pre-recorded MDs. They have a currency converter on there which will convert to many popular currencies, including US dollars (but only during checkout, d'oh!) Then there's Sony's online music store, and allegedly Border Books and Music sells MDs on their website... URLs: http://www.boxman.com http://thestore.sonymusic.com/thestore/listset.asp?viewby=confconf%5Fcd=050i ndex=050#050 http://www.borders.com Hope that helps! ~Zach A HREF="http://members.aol.com/zachr330"The Cutting Edge of Nothing Significant/A - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
MD: Titling errors?
Has anyone ever encountered titling errors (either disc or track title) when playing MDs back on different players? I was listening to one of my discs the other day on my Sharp portable and I noticed that the title was wrong. It was truncated and the letters were garbled! I popped the disc out, put it back in and it got the title right afterwards. Then I noticed at another time a track title was garbled, but was fixed when I started playing the track over! Weird. I've never had this happen on my Sony... Has anyone else ever had this happen? I hope it's not a sign of something more serious looming! (And on a slightly related note, I noticed that there was a spelling error on my Brit Awards pre-rec MD! Instead of saying the artist is "Cornershop", it says, "Cornership".) Cheerio, ~Zach A HREF="http://members.aol.com/zachr330"The Cutting Edge of Nothing Significant/A - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
MD: Sharp 702mk -- 12vdc adapter for car use?
Hey everyone, Is there an aftermarket adapter that will supply the 5 volts needed by my Sharp 702 so I can plug it up in the car? I don't care so much about charging as I do continuous music. :) I'm sure I could get away with 4.5 volts (like another poster whose wall wart went out) but I'd like to know if there's any 5 volt adapters for autos. Cheers, ~Zach - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Rerty
In a message dated 3/28/00 6:34:28 PM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Anyway a fewminutes ago I plugged some headphones into my JE510 and when I looked back at the display, it said "Retry?" I have a JE 320 and sometimes when recording music I get the "Retry" message when I try to title songs. It usually occurs right after marking a new track. Guess I'm impatient! ;-) Anyway, I don't believe it hurts anything. It's just letting you know you caused it to 'skip' and it's trying to re-record that segment. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong. :) ~Zach A HREF="http://members.aol.com/zachr330"The Cutting Edge of Nothing Significant/A - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: april 1st help
Well, alright... :o) Count me in. I think I could write *one* funny paragraph. But no guarentees. :P ~Zach http://members.aol.com/cens - The Cutting Edge of Nothing Significant - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Slightly-OT: Listening to mono recording and headaches....
In a message dated 3/7/00 1:10:52 AM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: /|\/|\ For me, in stereo (unless I have it at full blast) I don't get headache, but in mono I do after about an hour and a half. /|\/|\ I can't explain it, but I can say it happens to me as well. There is fatigue when I listen to monaural recordings, but only through headphones. I don't know why it is like that, but if anyone can shed some light on it, that would be cool. At first I thought it was just the radio (FM stations around here seem to be in a pissing contest to see who can compress and limit the most) but after getting my 702 and some monaural recordings under my belt, I realized it was the lack of stereo, too, as well as the compression/limiting. (My favorite stations are on AM or on FM but 70 miles away -- hence no stereo.) If anyone could explain it, that would be neat. It obviously doesn't happen with monaural sources piped through a speaker or speakers... Just headphones... ~Zach http://start.at/cens - The Cutting Edge of Nothing Significant - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Mini speakers for portables...?
Oh! D'oh! :) I guess... No more than $40 for those battery powered speakers... Maybe a little more if it's worth it. ~Zach http://start.at/cens - The Cutting Edge of Nothing Significant /|\/|\ I'm thinking of buying some little powered speakers for my portable minidisc player, so I can take my music places where I can't have headphones (like in the kitchen, or at work!) I went over to Minidisco.com and they have a few products. I would like to know what everyone here would recommend. I'm looking for some battery powered speakers that sound as good as possible... If there is such a thing. :o) In a message dated 2/27/00 1:41:35 AM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: How much are you willing to spend? ;-) - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
MD: Mini speakers for portables...?
Hey everyone, I'm thinking of buying some little powered speakers for my portable minidisc player, so I can take my music places where I can't have headphones (like in the kitchen, or at work!) I went over to Minidisco.com and they have a few products. I would like to know what everyone here would recommend. I'm looking for some battery powered speakers that sound as good as possible... If there is such a thing. :o) I would greatly be interested in opinions of the Sony SRS A41's at Minidisco.com, as well as those strange Sony On-The-Shoulder models... Does anyone have those? How do they sound? Thanks! ~Zach http://start.at/cens - The Cutting Edge of Nothing Significant - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Mics
In a message dated 1/26/00 7:51:43 PM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: /|\/|\ Right. It could also be caused by "brick walling" the mic input, where the signal coming into the mic input is so high that it is completely distorted. No adjustment of the recording level (automatically or manually) will fix this problem. /|\/|\ Ah, so this is what was happening when I recorded a concert a few months ago. It was my first attempt at recording in a very noisy venue, and the bass was overwhelming! So would I do to fix this problem on future recordings? I'm pretty much still new to the world of live MD recordings, so I really don't know what I could do to fix this problem... I would prefer to keep my binaural mics instead of buying different ones, if that's even possible... ~Zach http://start.at/cens - The Cutting Edge of Nothing Significant - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: MD Wins (was Re: Will MD Survive?).
In a message dated 1/25/00 7:34:03 AM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: /|\/|\ If they make mobile phones into portable music technology then this will increase that health risk exponentially, as 1 or 2 minute calls turn into 2 hour music listening sessions. /|\/|\ To heck with the "health risks"! Just imagine how much more your cell phone bill will be when you realize you've been listening to music for hours a day! Yuck. Say what ya will about MD, but it doesn't give you cancer and it doesn't cost 15ยข a minute to use. :-) ~Zach http://start.at/cens - The Cutting Edge of Nothing Significant - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: MP3 -- Am I the only one that hates it so?
In a message dated 1/24/00 11:09:39 AM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: /|\/|\ I think that a music medium shouldn't be so tied in to computers. /|\/| \ Oy, I hate mp3s. Well, not so much the *idea* of mp3s, but the people who love the format despite it's obvious shortcomings -- because it's just the 'hip new thing'. Many people mentioned on the "Will MD survive" thread that sound quality really doesn't matter with the average consumer. That's the problem -- it doesn't. And in the end, a $99 boombox wins out over $900 home theater setup. Cost also plays into it. So free mp3s off the net or from your CD will win out over much better quality MD (or DAT, even). I think MD can survive despite the mp3 onslaught. Many others have already hit upon the solution: marketing MD's strengths to as many people as possible - something the previous US MD ads just haven't done. MP3, being the new cool 'next thing' in the media, gets free advertising. (Free advertising being pointing out its strengths while ignoring its weaknesses.) MP3 players may win on cool factor for being so small and shock-resistant, but they lose out on every other single comparison point to MD or even CD, in my mind: You can't record without a PC; you can't do real time recordings, even on a super-fast PC; the music can't be edited; the media cost is too high... And the very last but not least point is that nagging lack of decent sound quality. Actually, it's first in my mind but last in everyone else's... If it were an issue, cassettes would have died out YEARS ago. Either that or even cheap walkmans would have Dolby S. :) But anyway, back to the subject. I don't like mp3's sound quality, or the fact it takes my computer about 25 minutes per song to encode an mp3... Or 25 minutes to download the file off the net. ;-) Not all of us can afford DSL and a Pentium III 800 MHz processor to speed things along. Plus, if I want to move a song from CD to an mp3, it's about 6 steps. From CD to MD, it's about 3. In the time it takes me to rip a song from CD and encode it, I could have recorded half the CD to MD, digitally. Maybe when there's a real-time mp3 encoder that integrates into my home stereo setup, that can encode @ 256 kbps stereo, *realtime*, on a storage medium that meets or exceeds 80 mins (and costs $4), then MD will die. But until mp3 surpasses the benefits of other consumer music 'units' like MD, DAT, CD-R and cassette, it will just remain the bain of techie nerd-types, gadget collectors and others who remained glued to these wonderful boxes we call computers. :) ~Zach http://start.at/cens - The Cutting Edge of Nothing Significant - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Hi-Space Disc Problems?
In a message dated 1/14/00 1:08:36 PM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: /|\/|\ Hi-Space is probably a good bet... /|\/|\ I've got some Hi-Space reds, and I've never had any problem with them. The one anomoly I've encountered with Hi-Space discs is the disc getting stuck in the flimsy plastic cover sleeve. On one I just opened today, a little tab inside broke and now the disc won't sit snug in the cover. D'oh! /|\/|\ does anyone have experience with the Axia discs from MiniDisco.com? The ones from Japan that have Hello Kitty or other cool designs on them? /|\/| \ Yes! I love them. I have a Hello Kitty disc and two packs of the Axia slim line discs... They're pretty well made, I think. Maybe a notch below the "sturdy" feeling of the Sonys+Maxells but better than my TDK music jacks and Hi-Spaces for "sturdiness" -- not that it means anything. ;-) ~Zach http://start.at/cens - The Cutting Edge of Nothing Significant - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
MD: Stereo mic'ing | Re: Strange interference... now online :)
In a message dated 1/6/00 12:54:27 PM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: /|\/|\ if you are gonna listen to it on earphones, the mikes should be the same as the distance between your ears. If you are gonna listen to it on a stereo system, the mikes should be about the same as the speakers. /|\/|\ How is stereo seperation generally handled in music production? In other words, when I buy a CD, what are the engineering the sound for -- far apart speakers, cheap PC speakers close together or headphones or...? :) From previous live recordings I've done I've found that a few inches apart works well because I am usually listening to my stuff on headphones... I am curious to know how produced music filters into that. ~Zach http://start.at/cens - The Cutting Edge of Nothing Significant - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
MD: Strange interference... now online :)
Yah yah, I bet you're all sick of hearing about this. Now you can actually hear it for yourself, if you so desire. I snuck a recording of it earlier tonight and it actually showed up on the recording I made! That at least tells me it isn't *that* high pitched after all and that I (luckily?) don't have some hearing thing going on. Visit http://members.aol.com/zachr330/mystery_noise and download them for yourself. There's a wav and an mp3, each about 35 seconds long. The mp3 didn't seem to keep much of the high pitched whine I've been talking about, but it came through pretty darn good on the wav file. I played around with some EQs in Sound Forge and even with 20 db of attenuation at 16 kHz, the noise wasn't completely gone. I'd be interested in knowing if a) anyone else on the list can hear this easily and b) anyone else has a freakin' clue what this is. And it is MD related, because I recorded it on one. :P ~Zach (PS: The files should be uploaded after 15 minutes after the list receives this message. :) - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Strange interference... now online :)
In a message dated 1/5/00 6:39:13 AM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: /|\/|\ Any overhead power lines? Any television transmission towers/repeaters anywhere? /|\/|\ There are no overhead power lines anywhere in the neighborhood - the nearest ones to that location are probably about 400-500 feet away through a dense wooded area. I thought there was some sort of a power box there at the end of the street, but it is labled "CATV" - cable television. There's also one of those slender telephone company boxes sticking up out of the ground, too. The nearest television towers are about 15 miles away, along with radio. The nearest two-way radio or cell phone towers are about 1/2 mile away... There's certainly nothing obvious in or near the neighborhood. :) If I get brave I may go down there during the day sometime and poke around -- I'm less likely to get the cops called on me then, hehehe! I would find it very hard to believe that no one in that area hears that noise -- in person, it actually *hurts* my ears in some places! ~Zach http://start.at/cens - The Cutting Edge of Nothing Significant - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
MD: Strange interference revisited...
Yes, it's me again with this interference thing. Well, shame on me for going right to the MD list because I assumed it was my portable picking up some weird noise from the nether-lands... I did a little more testing on my last night out on that street: I heard the noise. I stopped the player -- still there. I turned it off. Still there! I unplugged the headphones. Still there! Took the headphones off -- yup, still there. So it's not my player or my headphones, it's my own ears. For whatever reason, though, wearing those cheap Sharp headphones amplifies the sound a little. Go figure. If I can hear it, I wonder what the chances are I could capture it on MD with my binaural mics? :) So now I'm *really* baffled. I wonder if someone over there has one of those little "pest-be-gone" noisemakers planted in their yard somewhere... ~Zach (who now thinks the aliens are not using my MD player, they're using my mind, LOL!) http://start.at/cens - The Cutting Edge of Nothing Significant - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
MD: Strange interference
Hi everyone, I've recently started walking around my neighborhood (too much holiday food, LOL) and I'm listening to music with my Sharp 702. Everything's cool until I reach this certain part at the end of this cul-de-sac down the road and I start getting interference through my headphones! The best I can describe the sound is it's like a high pitched whine or squeal, and it goes in and out over the course of a few seconds. (For those of you with real good hearing, it's the same noise a computer monitor or a TV might make...) I'm at a loss to explain this noise... Anyone know what it could be? It only does it over an area of about 30 feet or so at the end of this street, nowhere else that I know of. It does it regardless of whether the disc is playing or paused (I haven't listened with the unit stopped or off)... Any ideas? It's about to drive me crazy, in more way that one! :/ ~Zach (perplexed) http://start.at/cens - The Cutting Edge of Nothing Significant - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Strange interference
In a message dated 12/30/99 10:46:25 AM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: /|\/|\ Hmm...did u take a look around if theres a radio amatuer (is that the right word), or this person has a wireless telephone (which shouldn't cause intereferences). /|\/|\ Hey Matthias :) Nope, I'm sure it's not that. I'm pretty positive I'm the only amateur in the neighborhood. Whatever it is, I *will* be investigating it further... Whenever those darn FBI agents show up. :) ~Zach (who is beginning to believe Neil...) http://start.at/cens - The Cutting Edge of Nothing Significant - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Sharp 702 recording w/ digital in
In a message dated 12/23/99 10:51:06 AM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: /|\/|\ From what are you recording? If you are using a portable CD player, disable the anti-skip buffer. If that does not help or is not the problem, you might have a bad TOSlink patch or a loose connection somewhere. /|\/|\ I'm thinking it's a bad TOSlink cable. I record from a XE-500 CD player from Sony. It's a uh... Desktop, or whatever you call it. Component? Something like that. :) ~Zach http://start.at/cens - The Cutting Edge of Nothing Significant - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
MD: Sharp 702 recording w/ digital in
Hi all, Has anyone every encountered any problems using a Sharp 702's optical in when making a recording? Lately I've been toying with it and occasionally, during the first 15-25 seconds of the first song I record, I'll get a track mark placed for no apparent reason. (I've never recorded more than a few tracks from any one CD so I can't really say if it repeats when copying a whole disc.) It's not really much of a problem to go back later and combine the tracks to make it whole, but it is kinda annoying. I checked the cable, it seems fine; I don't have another portable to test it with, however. Any ideas? ~Zach http://start.at/cens - The Cutting Edge of Nothing Significant - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
MD: LAME/BladeEnc | Re: A little non-scientific ATRAC Sharp vs. Sony test
After Jake told me about LAME, I went and downloaded and compared it to L3enc and BladeEnc... I must say, I am amazed at the difference between it and Blade -- it's like going from 80 kbps MP3 to a MD. :) From now on, if I have to make an mp3, I'll do it with LAME. I could tell a BIG difference. ...and that's yet another nice feature about minidisc -- no silly bitrate to set, no worrying if you're squeezing a turnip or wasting space. :) ~~Zach http://start.at/cens In a message dated 12/8/99 6:43:00 PM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: /|\/|\ Personally, I can't hear the difference between the two, maybe it's only noticeable when you listen to classical music. c't magazine wrote that bladeenc sounds completely crappy at 64 kbps while lame is fairly good, but who encodes at bitrates that low anyway ? /|\/|\ - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
MD: A little non-scientific ATRAC Sharp vs. Sony test
Jake's recent post about Sharp ATRAC has prompted me to do my own little nonscientific check to see if I can tell anything different between recordings made on my two entry level models: A Sony JE 320 and a Sharp 702mk portable. Ever since I got the Sharp I thought the recordings I made on it didn't sound quite right compared to the Sony records. Something I thought I perceived was that all MDs I had, regardless of what they were recorded on, sounded more ... colored? ... in the Sharp. I just chalked it up to the difference in circuitry between my stereo setup and the portable's headphone jack. But now I'm not so sure. So here's what I did. I took two 35 second samples from two different CDs: The first 35 seconds of Aaron Copeland's Hoedown from the Rodeo CD and the first 35 seconds from the Cardigan's Erase/Rewind, from the Grand Turismo CD. I recorded each sample digitally from the same CD player using the optical out, then recorded each sample in analog on the Sony (I planned to do it on the Sharp, too, but I couldn't find the right cable). I did all the playback in the Sony, then in Sharp. I certainly don't have an audiophile setup, so there's no real super-clean environment for me to do this test. Everything passes through a Radio Shack mixer, for god's sake. :) I did use my headphones (Sennheiser 525s) because my speakers are very average. Remember, this is completely unscientific and totally based on what I thought I heard at the time. Digitally speaking, I think the differences I heard would be insignificant to most listeners. Had I not had my headphones on, I am confident I couldn't have heard a difference between the Sony and Sharp digital copies. What I did notice from the Sharp was... How can I describe it? A gurgling, perhaps, during certain passages. It was similar in sound to the noise you get when you listen to lower quality MP3s, only not so apparent and annoying. That I can pick out even on the absolute cheapest of stereo systems. This, I could barely, *barely* discern on these passages. It was most evident during the brief loud passage on the orchestral piece, and under the sound of a cymbal at the very beginning of the Cardigans song. One other thing I did notice about the Sharp was that the "volume" of the music seemed to be inconsistent with the reference (CD) and the Sony. IT was almost like it fluttered a bit up and down a few times. Once again, it was only evident when doing a back and forth comparison with either the Sony recording or the CD. I personally think, overall, the difference between the two ATRACs on these two test samples was negligible. The Sony just didn't seem to have that 'gurgling' noise, or at least it was more repressed than the Sharp copies. Either way it's nothing to nitpick, I don't think, unless the absolute accuracy is paramount -- and then I'd go with DAT instead :P Anyway, I wish I could have tested the analog input on the Sharp. I was amazed (and disappointed) at the poor quality of the analog inputs on my Sony. I had the unit for a few months before I had a CD player with an optical out, so all my recordings were analog. In that sense, they sounded fine... But doing an A/B comparison to digital? Ouch, BIG difference. The analog was slightly muffled and the high end was noticeably lacking clarity. Something tells me that the Sharp would probably be even worse, but who knows. I'm certainly not using nice cables for the analog side -- just the ones that came with the unit. I wonder if nicer cables (like Monster cables or something) would really help? Just for kicks, I encoded the 35 second orchestral sample to MP3, digitally via a CD ripper program. I encoded it using BladeEnc.dll in Windows, at 320 kbps dual stereo, and 128 kbps dual stereo. I did dual stereo to try to give the MP3 format an advantage in how wide a sound stage it could present, because those joint stereo encodes I've done in the past just sound... Narrow, I guess... Because I have an old, slightly noisy sound card (why yes, it IS a Creative Labs product) I can't judge it the same because it's coming through a different DAC... But at 320 kbps, it did seem as flawless as either the Sony or Sharp sample. The 128 kbps fared much worse. I knew that this bitrate squeezed too much out of music, but I had no idea just how bad it could be compared to a) CD or b) either MD sample. Assuming I could do a fair comparison of my MP3 samples versus the MD and CD, I would still rank 128 kbps dead last, because it just sounds so damn awful. BTW, I was surprised to not be able to tell a difference in *overall* quality when I played the samples in the Sharp. It may have been due to the fact the volume just isn't loud enough to drive these big headphones, who knows. I coulda swore in the past it made everything sound a little different, maybe it is just me after all. To rank them all in my completely
Re: MD: survey
Oooer, a survey. :) 1. I have approximately 55 CDs. 2. I have 3 pre-rec MDs, all bought for the novelty value (plus the fact they were all cheaper than their CD counterparts. Two music discs through Sony music online and one double-MD album from iMVS.) 3. Depends on how much I want the album. Must haves on CD, stuff just to have it can be on MD, assuming it's cheaper. 4. Forgot the question. 5. I have approximately 40 blank MDs which I've recorded stuff on. ~~Zach - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
MD: OT: mp3 sound | Re: Digital Recording Quality
In a message dated 11/2/99 12:08:25 PM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Even at 320bps you can hear the difference in MP3 much easier than you can on MD As can I. :-) One thing about mp3 that has gotten my curiosity up is whether or not different sound cards can affect the sound quality of an mp3. I have an older SoundBlaster 32 and I've *always* been able to tell the difference between a source and the mp3 equivalent up to 320 kbps. It hasn't been so much that the music sounds altered like it does under 192 kbps but that the bass and treble seem to be cut. Would that be a product of my sound card or the actually encoding scheme? The reason I ask is my father, who is an avid mp3 downloader, burns most of his selections into CD-R. Played over my same system, those songs sound *so* much cleaner than when through my sound card -- not just in frequency response but also there's less of the sparking/warbling/annoying as hell sound from mp3s. That would lead me to think the decoder is better, but like MD shouldn't the end result always be the same? Regardless, MD wins hands down. He's got some songs burned into CD-R that were 80 kbps. He claims he can't tell anything wrong with him. Poor, poor old man. :-) ~Zach - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Digital Recording Quality
In a message dated 11/2/99 8:36:08 AM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: So tell me, can you hear a difference between two different ATRAC version RECORDINGS? (Played back on the same player). Played back on the same player? No. I did some 'test songs' via optical connections once, on my Sony 320 and my portie Sharp 702. Either version sounded the same in each respective unit. However, the odd thing was the Sharp's playback seemed to have more 'sparkling' high end versus the Sony, regardless of which version of the 'test song' was used. I can't just pass it off as being a cheaper unit since it's a portie with a tiny headphone jack -- I drug out my E-40 Sony player and it sounded just as clear, crisp and clean as the deck. The Sharp just doesn't sound as good, IMHO. (All three units were put through my stereo system.) ~Zach - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Optical Ins ?
I'm pretty sure that most of the portable recorders offer optical ins, even my entry level Sharp 702 has an optical (mini-TOSlink) input. As for MD to MD, I have to make do with analogue recordings because my portable doesn't have optical out and my entry level Sony JE320 doesn't have optical out. I just do a direct (more or less) RCA cable connection between the two units and let 'er rip. I used to have just the 320 and a E40? portable, which despite it's dimunitive size it did a pretty good job, when hooked into the stereo system. ~Zach - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Turn-on bug Sony 320
Well, my 320 has developed the turn on bug. I thought it was only the bane of the 510s but obviously now I know different. It's not too bad. It comes on about once every three or four days. And yes it is made in Malaysia... "If I'd only known..." ;-) On the good side it's never come on with a disc sitting in the slot (but not all the way in) or with a disc in and the power off... Dunno if that's coincidence or not. I've been lucky, I guess. It's come on sometimes but it has never disrupted any monitoring or anything I've been doing. I've never heard any ground gears, but it does click once right before it comes on. Hopefully it'll last me a year or two more until I can give it to my parents! ;-b The scary thing is lying in bed, trying to get to sleep, drifting right off to the edge of dreamy bliss and then have the room light up with "NO DISC" shining from across the room. Maybe mine's just haunted? :-) ~Zach - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
