Here’s the 2005 flagship playback unit. The NH1 is the recorder, and the NH3D (which is very rare) is the downloader. Still waiting for word on the next-gen units, which should have full mp3 compatibility as well as uploading capacity.
The new Hi-MD units do support uncompressed PCM, as well as the new 256 and 352kb/s bitrates. The Hi-MD amp sounds clean and clear, though I can’t distinguish any difference between the Class D amps they were using in the last series.
With Sony’s newer EX90 headphones. These are getting warmer as they break in, and I’m enjoying them greatly. Far more emphatic and less “shrouded” in terms of sound quality than the Shure E3’s, which I’ve always thought of as expensive and over-rated.
With my old fallbacks, the Grado SR60. If you don’t have a set, you don’t know what you’re missing. Some criticize them for being a bit “shouty,” but they’re fun and vibrant, and very faithful to source material.
This is a hard unit to photograph with a cheap camera, but Richyu has a nice pictorial here.
