MZ-RH10

Well, I didn't buy the MZ-RH10 after all. I suppose one of the main reasons was that at the time of my purchase the MZ-RH10 was not yet available. I decided to buy the MZ-NH1, Sony's top of the line Hi-MD model. This was my first foray into Hi-MD and so far I haven't been disappointed. I think I will still get the MZ-RH10, though. I have several reasons. First, I'm still attracted to the OLED display. Second, the OLED display on the RH10 should allow me to use the recorder once in a while without the remote. For those of you that own a NH1, you already know that it is very difficult to operate this recorder without the remote. There just isn't much data presented on the NH1's tiny display. Finally, I like the idea that the RH10 should be able to play MP3 files directly from MiniDisc. A majority of my CD collection is already ripped to MP3 format in support of a couple of hard-drived based players that I own. To make disks for the RH10, I won't have to rip those same albums to ATRAC3 or ATRAC3plus.

I'm also thinking about buying a second-hand DAT recorder before those things disappear entirely. My thoughts on DAT will be for another article.

MiniDisc recorders

I'm currently in the process of researching MiniDisc recorders.  I have owned several different Sony models over the past five years, including the MZ-R55 (great non-MDLP, non-Hi-MD recorder, but has a short battery life), the MZ-N707 (great overall MDLP recorder, but the remote lacks a display), and the MZ-N10 (Sony's MD tenth anniversary model, which seems to have quit working).  I am looking to buy one of the new Hi-MD models and I'm going to try and hold out until April when the second generation Sony Hi-MD models hit the U.S. market.  The unit that I am concentrating my research on is the MZ-RH10.  The most intriguing feature to me on that model is the organic LED (OLED) front-panel display.

For those unfamiliar with MiniDisc, you should visit the MiniDisc pages at http://www.minidisc.org . 

Although I own a couple of hard-drive based MP3/WMA players (the Creative Zen Micro 5 GB model and the Creative Zen 60 GB model), the MiniDisc models, such as the Sony MZ-RH10, represent a way to carry an impressive amount of music or other audio on a small virtually indestructible magneto-optical disc.  One 1-GB Hi-MD can hold up to 45 hours of music at a 48 kbps ATRAC3plus setting.  However, I'll probably use a setting that allows about 20 hours per disc.

I plan to post more in the future on which model I ended up choosing.  By the way, expect to see my MZ-R55 and MZ-N707 on eBay soon, under the seller ID of erayboul.

My first blog

Well, I'm new to this whole blogging thing. I figured that I might as well start it sometime. One of the first things that I have set up is the RSS feed. My personal favorite as far as news aggregators go is NewsGator. It integrates quite well with Outlook 2003.

I'll still need to decide how often to blog and what kinds of things I'm going to talk about.

Till next time.