Sony MZ-RH1: Initial Impressions

I’ve been a fan of MiniDisc for awhile. My primary recording unit is my DR7, bought back in 2003, and as is typical, it still serves me fine to this day.

I had a Nomad Jukebox 3 that worked well as a recorder, but it didn’t have the onboard editing features of MiniDisc, and let’s face it, plastic HDD-based players just don’t stand up to abuse. Aluminum and magnesium MiniDiscs do, and it’s not uncommon to see people using 10-year-old units at shows.

The only real hassle with MD has been the issue of how to get the recordings onto a computer from the disc. Traditionally, MD units have no sort of computer connectivity, so the only way to upload recordings was to do so in real-time through a line-out/line-in recording, therefore losing one of the most important aspects: the fact that the MD original was a digital recording.

Sony came out with a stopgap solution called NetMD, which appeared to create more problems than it solved. It allowed tracks to be transferred from PC–>MD (albeit with a bunch of DRM lockdown), but uploading from the MD–>PC was still unfeasible. When the newer Hi-MD format came out, I didn’t see a reason to upgrade, since it only offered a capacity increase.

Then Sony announced that they had changed the software, and that newer units would allow for bidirectional transfers, thus fixing something they should have fixed years ago. The MZ-RH1 is the flagship unit, and after getting a hefty sum back on my taxes and doing some research, I grabbed one.

First off, the unit itself. Very solid-feeling and light. Much thinner than I’m used to, though it’s larger laterally than the DR7. This is a good thing, as it has been observed that the display is on top, allowing the user to grip it by the sides. The OLED is nice and bright, and the controls are easily accessible.

The remote is nicer than I’d expected, though it feels a bit fragile. The control layout is intuitive, and it’s better than the odd controls on Sharp’s remotes. It took me about two minutes’ practice to get used to it.

The onboard display on the player is quite adequate, and about the only thing it doesn’t display is track information, which is fine with me. Contrary to what I’ve read, the unit does display level-meters for playback, and there are three different types. The standard “VU meter” ones are most useful, though the “bouncing ball” ones are fun to watch.

Buttons all feel solid, and the recording button is perfectly placed. It looks obtrusive from the pictures, but in practice there doesn’t seem to be any chance of pushing it accidentally.

Sturdy magnesium casing and intuitive controls.

Sound quality is excellent. I took two tracks for comparison: “Fear of Corners” by Dntel, which has a ton of low-bass activity balanced with very delicate strings, and the first movement of Walter Piston’s Flute Quintet on Naxos, which is closely mic’ed. I turned off all EQ and tested on ER-6i’s and Grado SR-60s. Comparison units were the Rio Karma and the Sharp DR7, both with all EQ disabled.

The RH1 easily held its own. There’s no discernable background noise in the output (a problem with many mp3 players), and no distortion evident at any volume level. Though not as strong as the Karma’s output, the RH1 still puts out a loud, clear signal. Both tracks were nice and loud at 14, and I don’t predict ever needing to go above 22 for the sake of my hearing.

In comparison to the Sharp Auvi amp, the RH1 is just a hair quieter, but I noticed that the Sony lacks the subtle “coloring” that the Sharp has. I prefer a flat output, and the Sony was very faithful to the original source in both cases. I’m very impressed with the HD amp. Soundstage is well-defined, and there are no audible artifacts in the upper registers. The Dntel track was rendered transparently, and though I thought I heard a slight “haziness” in the upper violins in the Piston recording, this may have been subjective, as I’ve been unable to discern it on second-pass.

Unlike the Sharp, the Sony has a software switch for a “true” line-out. On Sharp units, the solution is to turn off all EQ and max out the volume. The RH1 has a user-customizable 6-band EQ as well as several presets, but I see no need to use it at this time.

(The Auvi always sounded just a bit “musical” and “warm,” much like a tube amp. The Sony is more of a flat, analytical thing, which is somewhat preferable for recording. Still, the difference is really miniscule.)

As far as the software, well, I’m a Linux guy, so I had to dust off the copy of WinXP that came with my computer and install it. Man, I hate hunting down drivers…

Anyhow, SonicStage installed without a hitch, and the software is somewhat intuitive (though whoever wrote it needs a lesson in interface-design). I’ve not used previous versions, and I’d heard some horror stories, but I experienced no stability issues, and the program does not appear to alter my original files in any way.

Most of my collection is in Flac/Ogg, so I ended up converting some tracks to normal PCM to test transfer speeds. I had no problems transferring mp3 and wav tracks to the player, and it’s alot nicer being able to do titling from the PC rather than the remote.

Simple Burner was something of a surprise. The software is actually a bit faster than I’d expected. My usual routine involves a program called Grip, which rips a CD in cdparanoia (similar to EAC) then encodes it in Ogg. Simple Burner was much faster, both in ripping and conversion to ATRAC. It takes less than four minutes to burn a CD straight to a MD. I don’t know that I’ll use it much, as I prefer the error-checking of cdparanoia, but it’s still quite impressive.

As far as simple transfers, the ATRAC conversion is very fast, again faster than converting to mp3 or ogg. Uploads (’bout TIME!) were easy and nearly as quick as drag-and-drop from an mp3 player. Conversion to wav was automatic. Finally, I’ve got digital backups of all my old mixes.

Overall, the software is very easy to use and as quick as can be. My only gripe is that I have to boot into Windows to use it, but this same situation exists for many mp3 players as well, so it’s hard to complain too much. I plan on taking a look at the supplied Mac software to see if it can possibly be used under *nix (OSX is actually built on a BSD core, so it’s possible).

The 256kb codec is, to my ears, indistinguishable from source, so I doubt I’ll need the 352 codec anytime soon. Still, it’s nice to have the option. Battery charging over USB is also a welcome change. The software also allows a variety of bitrates, including legacy 132kb/s LP2, 192kb/s, a 48kb/s rate, and of course, raw PCM.

I recorded an old mix direct to PCM to test the uploading features, and everything went off without a hitch. One of the big selling points of this unit is the ability to upload (finally!) older MDLP recordings to PC, and this worked flawlessly as well.

It seems that Sony has finally listened to everyone’s gripes about computer connectivity and the MiniDisc, and as far as possible, they seem to have fixed those, including one of my long-term complaints: data storage. The MD shows up as a standard USB storage device, though the music files seem to be segregated on an inaccessible partition.

Another big plus is charging via USB, which is fast, and with the Lithium-Ion battery, it’s a lifesaver. Previous MD models had outboard AA battery attachments to supplement the main unit, but the RH1 does not. Of course, this isn’t a problem since the format’s power-conserving features allow for battery life measured in days rather than hours.

Since the batteries are removable and replaceable, it’s feasible to carry a spare for long sessions, and should one die (as all batteries do in time), you’re only out a few bucks for the battery. Most mp3 players (most notably the iPod) have an integral battery that can’t be replaced without some serious Bride-of-Frankenstein shenanigans, and once the battery goes, the unit’s dead.

Likewise with media. MiniDiscs are cheap and ubiquitous, and since they’re removable media, storage space is only limited by shelf (or backpack) space. If a disc should die, you’re out a couple of bucks. What’s more, both the discs and recorders are designed for resiliency, and regular vibrations and shocks (which are death for a hard-drive in time) are easily ignored.

Not much larger than an individual disc.

I’m heading out to the range to test the recording sensitivity today, and I’ll post how it does.