General: Sony MZ-RH1

I've seen this little beastie on sale at several places lately and am now sorely tempted by it. At around £200 at a fair few places, it's not what you could call a cheapie, but I gather from what reviews I can find it's an excellent recorder. Ivan, you use HI-MD I believe and I think Lawrence has this machine? What do you reckon on it. is it worth the money?
I've also fallen in love with THIS
Rather more expensive, but it sure looks like the real thing, OK, no HI-MD, but it ought to last a fair time and Tascam have a great service record on all the things they have made over the years. (With some exceptions to the really ancient stuff) Decisions! Mrs. C isn't too happy about the price of the Tascam, but with a little gentle persuasion, who knows. So Guys, what do you think, is HI-MD that good, or is the big deck better?

Thanks Ivan, the Sony does look useful and it's a lot cheaper than the Tascam deck, the other thing I was wondering with the Tascam was the extended play system. I'm assuming it will work with the Sony extended play disc's ? I can't seem to find any info on this, although I guess Minidisc has a standard like the Sony/Philips red book.

Strangely enough, I was actually thinking of buying two! I can't quite run to that at the moment unfortunately.
I have decided to buy one now anyway, and a load of HI-MD discs. Thanks you two for the help deciding what to get.

The LP 4 mode is just used for talking books Ivan. One or two Minidiscs and player is a lot more convenient than six CD's with my really old portable CD player that has little shock protection, The sound quality on 4X is fairly awful. The Zen V+ is also great for speech and as you know, nowhere near the quality with music even on the best lossless recordings.

The RH1 is now on order with a load of HI-MD disc's. Hopefully to be delivered on Tuesday.

No, MD is still (and forever) ATRAC. Alas.

Um... the RH-1 still records only in PCM WAV or ATRAC. The newest SonicStage supports AAC files and AAC exporting but I tend to use WAV only so that SonicStage doesn't get its grubby mitts on the insides of my music files.

I'm pleased to say the RH-1 came today and so far so good. In fact that's a bit of an understatement! Woohoo what a beautiful little thing. Apart from its great functionality, just playing some of my Minidisc's recorded on the Sony MDS JB940 deck I was and am amazed at the sound quality. I will have to wait a few days for the HI-MD disc's to arrive, I shall see what it can do with those.
I'm very pleased with it so far. It's not as chunky and heavy as my MZ-R909, but that's is a definite advantage when its not weighing down your pocket, it also sounds better.

I will have to scan the instruction book so I can enlarge the text, it's hard to get to grips with some of it when your eyes are watering straining them to see.

Now I have some Hi-MD disc's and have made a few recordings, I can honestly say I am more than impressed with the results. I recorded from an analogue vinyl source and the resulting recording was more than surprising. Obviously something has been lost during the transfer, but nothing like the hard slightly brittle sound I get from recording in WAV to the hard drive on a computer. How is this happening? I can only assume the electronics are better. That doesn't seem to make much sense as I'm using a professional sound card.

It's a damn shame Sony has dropped ATRAC and Minidisc, I suppose market forces has caused this. Like most things these days, it's all to do with money/profit. The only disappointment is the slightly rough looking quality of the HI-MD discs, but they do seem to work perfectly.

I'm finding some of the buttons a little difficult to press as my fingers don't have the strength, or dexterity they once had, but I am managing with a little more effort. (Those tiny round buttons are stiff)

How do you like your R50 Ivan, I hope you are finding it good.

The disc's are blue transparent fairly naff plastic that looks as if it contains recycled material (as they do) and the sleeve/case is just a single piece polyethylene moulding folded to make it do the job. I suppose it doesn't really matter, but compared to those oh so pretty Sony 80 minute coloured disc's they are quite horrible looking.
We seem to have mains adaptors to fit anything under the sun over here Ivan and virtually any battery that has ever been made in any reasonable quantity, I hope it's the same for you Guys in the US?

They are rather pretty Ivan I have a few Maxell coloured discs, but none as nice as that. I guess only Sony made HI-MD discs.
I recorded some more vinyl on it today, (PCM) absolutely brilliant! I also found a a download of the manual in Adobe reader on the Sony website, that makes life easier for me to read the manual.
Getting the power supply for your R50 is good news, I prefer to use the genuine article if possible.

My HiMDs are all the translucent blue ones. They're not too bad, although I have to say that I don't tend to put them on the mantelpiece and marvel at them often.

The discs are a part of the fun, like the amazing coloured vinyl discs and the fantastic artwork on some of the sleeves. Although I haven't been temped to display them as room decorations.

My DR80 w/dock arrived.

Yeah, ok, that *is* shiiiiney...

Posted By: Lolly

The only (minor) problem with the RH-1 is that if you record with the power plugged in (via the USB port, of course) you get a constant, loud buzzing noise on the recording since it's not properly shielded,

Lolly, I get no hum problems at all ? I am rather pleased about that. The machine came with a few ferrite clip on thingies to cut down noise, but I never bothered with them as there is was no noise anyway. I'm wondering if the PSU has been changed as this one is a switch mode unit without any earth. As you probably know, two earthed audio units causes a hum loop.