The Ultimate (and maybe the last) Minidisc Recorder
Written: Dec 04 '06
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Product Rating:
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Pros: High-quality recording & playback, small & sturdy, uploads all legacy minidiscs, records to inexpensive media
Cons: Minijack mic input, limited Mac support, no direct recording or upload in MP3, dying format
The Bottom Line: Sony gives minidisc users the ultimate recorder that lets you upload all your old MDs. Also a great digital recorder for those needing high quality in a tiny package.
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I think it's fair to warn readers in advance that this is a very (long) positive review, written by someone who has been a happy minidisc user since 1997. This review, however, will not try to sell you on minidisc, or try to tell you that the MZ-RH1 is better than buying iPod, MP3 player or one of the new flash-based digital audio recorders from M-Audio or Marantz.
If you're new to minidisc (or an old minidisc user that's been away from the MD world a while), I might suggest you read my review of the first model in the Hi-MD line, the MZ-NH1. That review gives an overview of the newer Hi-MD format, explaining why it was such a step forward, and how it fits into the minidisc family.
Review Sections:
1. Review Introduction
2. Killer Features
3. Drawbacks
4. Background and History
5. Introducing the MZ-RH1, the World's Greatest Hi-MD.
6. An Amazing Field Recorder
7. MZ-RH1: Construction
8. MZ-RH1: The Display
9. MZ-RH1: Controls and Operation
10. MZ-RH1: Inputs and Outputs
11. MZ-RH1: Accessories
12. MZ-RH1: Use and Operation - Recording
13. MZ-RH1: Use and Operation- Playback
14. MZ-RH1: Use and Operation - Uploading
15. Conclusion: The Best and the Last of a Brilliant, Dying Breed
1. Introduction
By most accounts the minidisc format is near the end of the line, and Sony chose to go out with a gift to its loyal minidisc users by releasing the best model yet, that is also a great digital field recorder that is sonically on-par with just about anything else out there under $1000.
We're at a moment of intense change and disruption in the digital audio realm, especially when it comes to recording. So if you're an existing minidisc user, I hope you will find this review informative and help you decide if you want to make the upgrade. If you're new to minidisc, or considering buying an RH1 for its great recording capabilities, I hope this review will also be useful for deciding whether or not to make the plunge.
2. Killer Features:
*Uploads legacy minidiscs (SP, MDLP & Hi-MD) to PCs in ATRAC and uncompressed WAV
*Clear LED display
*High-quality playback
*Clean microphone preamps for high-quailty recording
*Charges battery via USB or included charger
*1 GB blank Hi-MDs cost a fraction of flash memory (SD or CF)
*Adds limited Mac support for uploading Hi-MD audio
*Remembers record settings even after shutdown
3. Drawbacks:
*This might be the last ever minidisc recorder.
*1/8" miniplug microphone jack
*No standard phantom power ( 48v) for microphones
*Doesn't record natively or upload directly to MP3.
*Mac upload limited to Hi-MD
4. Background and History
Sony introduced the recordable Minidisc to the world in 1992. At that time there was only digital audio recording format available to the public, Digital Audio Tape (DAT), which was both expensive and complex, and therefore mostly only accessible to professionals and advanced audio enthusiasts. At about the same time Philips introduced the Digital Compact Cassette (DCC), a digital recording update to the trustworthy analog cassette, which was still a popular choice in the early 1990s.
By most estimations the Minidisc looked like a perfect replacement for the analog cassette, combining the best elements of the CD (disc based, sturdiness, random access) and the cassette (recordable, can re-record thousands of times, small and portable). You have to remember that in 1992 CD-Rs were still about 7 years away, and MP3 players almost 8.
But when it introduced MD to the US, Sony somehow thought it should be marketed as a replacement for CD, and seriously flubbed a great opportunity. Although Sony would eventually come around and start selling MD as a great digital recorder, by that time the emergence of CD-Rs posed a serious threat.
While DAT served professional users until being discontinued in 2005, and DCC died by 1996, millions upon millions of MD recorders have been sold in the US. In Asia MD recorders are as ubiquitous as cassette recorders once were, included in just about every boombox and bookshelf stereo sold. But I'll bet that in the US a very large percentage of those MD recorders are now relegated to shoeboxes and the backs of closets, replaced by iPods, MP3 players and mix CDs.
Just a few years ago when Sony switched its marketing strategy to promoting MD as a great way to download MP3s from your computer to play on the go, Minidiscs were actually the #2 portable audio players in the country! But the decreasing cost of flash memory and ability to buy 1 GB players for less than $100 slowly knocked MD out of the race.
While Minidisc may be derided by some a niche format, or a format that was flubbed by Sony I actually think it's more of a format that enjoyed relative success but is fading with the slow demise of disc-based media.
With the MZ-RH1 we have the latest, best, and quite probably the last Minidisc recorder ever.
5. Introducing the MZ-RH1, the World's Greatest Hi-MD.
The MZ-RH1 was introduced in Spring 2006 to much excitement and anticipation from minidisc aficionados, along with some curious attention from the electronics and gadget press. All this excitement was due to Sony's announcement that the RH1 would be the first MD recorder to allow you to upload any minidisc audio to your computer, regardless of what kind of recorder it was recorded on.
If you're not familiar with minidisc this might sound strange to you. If you want to learn more, or if you're an old minidisc fan who's checking back in on the MD world, I suggest that you read my Epinions review of the MZ-NH1 from 2004. The NH1 was the first Hi-MD model released, and therefore the first one that allowed you to upload recorded audio directly to your PC via USB. In my NH1 review I cover the history of minidisc formats up to Hi-MD and explain why Hi-MD was such a revelation at the time.
Like the NH1 the MZ-RH1 is a Hi-MD recorder, so it can record onto 1 GB Hi-MD discs for 80 minutes of uncompressed full CD-quality WAV audio, or 5 hours of compressed audio in ATRAC format. The RH1 will then let you upload this audio to your PC in Sony's ATRAC format (which is not particularly useful) and convert it to WAV format, which is very useful for editing and audio production.
But unlike any minidisc recorder that has come before, the RH1 will let you upload audio recorded on any minidisc, including legacy first-generation discs that might have been recorded in 1993. In the past, they only way to get that audio into your computer was to play it out through the analog out (or digital out on a deck) into your computers soundcard in real-time. When using the analog out a little bit of noise and distortion is introduced, depending on the quality of your soundcard.
Now, for someone new to minidisc, this legacy upload feature is no big deal. But for a long-time minidisc user like me, who has a nine-year archive of material recorded on minidisc, this feature is amazing.
So amazing, in fact, that as soon as the RH1's availability date was announced, I put in my pre-order and received it this past summer. At the time of writing I've been using the RH1 for nearly half a year and feel quite familiar with its strengths, weaknesses and operation.
6. An Amazing Field Recorder
It's true that the legacy MD upload feature is what sold me on the RH1, but what I use minidisc for is field recording, and it had to pass muster on that factor, too.
It seems like Sony also realized that minidisc was no longer a serious competitor to MP3 players, but took account of its continuing popularity amongst people doing field recording, including radio journalists, musicians and researchers. Now Sony actually calls the RH1 a "field recorder" and has been marketing it in professional audio circles and pushing it through pro-audio retailers like BSW and Sweetwater.
And I do agree that the RH1 is a great field recorder, surpassing all MD recorders that came before. While other field recorders, like the M-Audio MicroTrack, Zoom H-4 and Edirol R-09 all will record full uncompressed WAV audio, they all depend on flash memory cards, which cost anywhere from $50 - $100 per GB. Blank Hi-MDs, on the other hand, cost $6 each. So with the RH1 it becomes very easy to carry around nearly 10x the amount of recording time at the same price.
That said, the RH1 does lack some features of the flash memory recorders that give them an edge in some situations.
7. MZ-RH1: Construction
The RH1 is made entirely of strong, but lightweight metal. When I first received it I was a little worried because it felt lighter than my NH1, which has a somewhat more substantial feel to it and looks more metallic with a brushed metal finish. But after living with the RH1 I've become more convinced of its durability and build quality.
My main quibble with its build is the battery door, which is plastic, not metal, and does not stay closed assuredly. Just after a week of use I picked up my RH1 to find the battery door open and the battery missing. Because it only uses its own lithium-ion battery I was a little upset and set about a mad search to find the battery. Luckily, I did find it, but I was still a bit unsettled. However, I have not had the problem again, and the battery door has not again opened unexpectedly.
8. MZ-RH1: The Display
One of my biggest quibbles with the earlier NH1 was the unit's LCD display. Very narrow and long without backlighting, it's more like peep hole than a useful display.
The RH1's display blows it away. When I first saw the RH1's display, though, I was a bit perplexed by its location, along the side of the unit rather than on its top panel like very other MD recorder I've used. But after months of usage I've come to appreciate the location.
When you're using it to actually record, most likely you'll leave it lying down face-up. If the display is on the face, you have to kind of hunch over it to see it clearly. But the RH1's side mount is a lot more like having a tiny recording deck, so that the display actually faces you.
This is made all the better because the RH1 uses a bright blue LED display that crams in a lot of clear information. Without having to shift through a menu you can see recording levels, the time elapsed (or left) on the disc, track number and battery status. That's pretty much everything you need to know while recording or playing, and it's staring right at you.
The RH1 even has a slight rise to it when sitting down, just a few millimeters, but enough to put the display at a more comfortable viewing angle when it's sitting on a table or desk in front of you.
9. MZ-RH1: Controls and Operation
I've generally been a little disappointed with the controls on most minidisc recorders. The ones I liked the most were on my first recorder from 1997, the Sharp MS-702, which was comparatively huge and heavy, but with big buttons.
The RH1 beats them all.
Of course, the RH1 is a small unit, less than 3 inches square. But Sony has succeeded in re-imagining the controls so that they can be both small and useable.
Sony has toyed with several user interfaces over the years, including little joysticks, as used on the NH1, which I hated. The RH1 finally settles things with the right layout of buttons and a little rocker switch that is amazingly intuitive.
Right along the face above of the display are buttons for the display/menu, volume, stop, pause and track-mark insert. Play, forward and back are integrated into an ingenious rocker switch that is quite intuitive.
Sitting on the right corner of the unit, it is a half-circle that surrounds the right edge. Push in to play, click up to go forward, down to go back. The same action moves you through the menus.
This is much better than the mini-joystick thing on the NH1 and the most natural input device I've used on a portable audio device, next to the iPods click-wheel.
Record is a spring-loaded switch on the right side of the display that you switch right to start recording. It's hard to do accidentally, but not too difficult to engage on purpose, and better than having to hit play and record together.
10. MZ-RH1: Inputs and Outputs
On the left side we have the headphone jack, microphone input and analog input which also accepts a mini-optical cable. The headphone jack can be switched to line-level through a menu, which is nice for optimizing audio quality when playing back through the auxiliary inputs on a stereo.
A USB 2.0 jack is on the back. And, yes, it works at real USB 2.0 speeds, which makes all computer operations work much more quickly.
There is no digital output, but there's never been one on a portable Sony MD sold in the US. And with USB 2.0 upload, there's no need.
The mic jack follows in the same line as previous Sony MD recorders. It's an unbalanced 1/8" stereo mini plug, and provides what Sony calls "plug-in power." That means it provides some level of phantom power for mics that need it, but nothing really close to the industry standard of 48V for professional condenser microphones.
This is one area where the RH1 gets beat by the new generation of flash memory audio recorders from Marantz, M-Audio, Zoom and Edirol. All of these recorders provide a balanced mic input, either XLR or 1/4" jack, and some kind of phantom power. So, out of the box they are ready to work with just about any professional microphone out there with nothing more than an adapter.
To use a professional XLR microphone, like a Shure SM58, you need a 1/8" to XLR adapter that also bridges a balanced to an unbalanced connection. In practice, I've use these all the time with Sony MDs with great results. But it's a bit of a hassle, and a 1/8" jack is much less sturdy than a 1/4" or XLR.
My dream would be an RH1 in a bigger package so it could have stereo XLR jacks for pro mics. The size would be worth it.
11. MZ-RH1: Accessories
The RH1 comes with a charger/power adapter, USB 2.0 cable, a wired remote and a pair of earbuds.
The earbuds are fine for what they are, certainly no worse than the ones that come with the iPod. But otherwise not that great.
The remote is useful, but has no display. I love the remote that comes with the NH1 because it has a pretty clear 3-line LCD display allowing you to perform most functions. However, it's true that without the remote display the NH1 would be almost useless because the display on the unit itself is so terrible. Not having the display on the RH1 remote, then, isn't so bad since its on-unit display is great.
The charger is nice for two reasons. First, it is world-voltage capable. You can use it anywhere in the world with a simple plug adapter.
Second, it connects to the RH1 via USB cable. So, in effect the RH1 charges by USB. This also means that it charges by USB when it's connected to your PC. As a result, I almost never use the charger since my RH1 spends a lot of time connected to my PC.
The fact that it charges by USB is another great improvement over the NH1, which did not. So if you left the NH1 connected to your PC it would slowly drain the battery.
12. MZ-RH1: Use and Operation - Recording
Recording is where the RH1 really shines, even in comparison with the flash memory recorders. The Sony microphone preamplifier is tried-and-true design resulting from more than a decade of refinement.
With a decent dynamic mic, like a Shure SM58, I find the Sony preamp to be quieter than the preamps in the much more expensive Marantz PMD670. What I mean by "quieter" is that the preamp itself adds much less noise and static to the sound coming from the microphone. All preamps add some noise and distortion, though the best are nearly imperceptible.
The Sony RH1's is about the best preamp I've heard on a recorder under $1000, even taking into account you have to deal with a tiny 1/8" jack.
Sound-wise, the recordings are clean and true with a very low noise floor. Certainly great for speech and lectures, and good enough for acoustic instruments, provided you have the right microphone.
As for the act of recording, this is also the best Sony MD ever. There are multiple modes to choose, from uncompressed CD-quality audio to highly-compressed ATRAC audio to cram as much audio on a disc as possible.
Whenever I can I try to use the uncompressed mode (16bit 44.1 Khz) at a bitrate of 1.4 mbps, in order to preserve as much quality as possible. But I do also use HI-SP mode, which gives me about 12 hours of stereo audio on one Hi-SP at a bitrate of about 292kbps.
Sony's newest ATRAC compression sounds much better than MP3 at the same bitrate. So when you consider that stereo MP3 sounds just passable at 128kbps, you can know that MD at 292kbps is very good. I have to strain to tell the difference from uncompressed audio, and can mostly only do so with well-recorded music.
The RH1 is great also because it allows you to adjust recording levels on-the-fly as you record. The NH1 was the first Sony MD recorder to allow this, and it's a must have feature for when the sound volume changes unexpectedly, or if you want to "ride the gain" to keep levels consistent. But the RH1 does this better because the level display is so clear, and because it remembers your last mode.
With the NH1 you always had to put the unit into manual record level mode each time you started a new recording -- very annoying. The RH1 stays in manual record mode until you change it, even with a new disc. That's attention to the small details.
Hitting the display button while recording will let you toggle between seeing how much you've recorded, how much recording time you have left, and the day/date/time. All recordings get a date and time stamp so you can easily identify them later when you upload them to your PC.
13. MZ-RH1: Use and Operation- Playback
I do use a MD player as a walkman, but not the RH1 so much -- it's too valuable as a recorder to schlep around in my pocket. But I have used it as a player some, and find the sound to be very good.
Sound on a portable audio player depends heavily on the source material and how well it was encoded. Any MP3 player or iPod will sound bad with a bad MP3. On a minidisc the Sony SonicStage software takes care of encoding a downloading the songs to your RH1, so generally you get good quality. You can choose from many quality levels, depending on how much you want to cram on one minidisc. The best quality is so good I can't tell the difference from CD. The lowest is pretty low, and only good for voice.
One 1 GB Hi-MD can hold up to 48 hours in the ATRAC3plus 48kbps bitrate, but I don't find that quality particularly acceptable for music. The LP2 mode at 132kbps and the Hi-LP mode at 64kbps both sound pretty good, giving you 16 - 34 hours on a disc, with LP2 being much better to my ears. Both are about as good as 128kbps MP3.
So, clearly you can cram quite a bit of music onto one Hi-MD disc, though obviously not as much as a hard-drive based MP3 player.
The sound of the RH1 is very good indeed, and is better than just about any portable music player I've ever listened to. I believe this is due to Sony's digital amplifier which produces good, clean audio power efficiently.
The weak point with the RH1 will be your headphones, not the RH1. It's up to the task of headphones costing a few times its cost.
The remote is a nice feature for using the RH1 as a portable player. While I said the rocker switch is very intuitive, the whole player itself is small, and so is that switch, making it a little more difficult to control in a pocket or on-the-go than an iPod. The remote cures that problem.
However, finding the song you want on a Hi-MD filled with 34 hours of music frankly isn't as easy as on an iPod. You can file things into folders, but nothing happens automatically like it does on a iPod. But, compared to an iPod shuffle, which has 1 GB of memory but no display, I prefer the RH1.
14. MZ-RH1: Use and Operation - Uploading
Uploading any minidisc audio is the RH1's killer feature, and it works quite well. The weak point of this procedure is Sony's SonicStage software which is Sony's answer to iTunes, but not as good or intuitive. That said, SonicStage is at version 4.0 now and much better than before.
To upload your MD audio to a Windows PC you plug it in via USB and you hope that Windows recognizes it straight off -- it's about a 75% chance. Then fire up SonicStage, where you have another 75% chance that the software will see it.
Once SonicStage sees the RH1 it'll show you everything on your disc and let you select tracks to transfer. You can transfer tracks in their native ATRAC format, or have SonicStage convert the audio to WAV. ATRAC's not useful for must except listening. Since I'm primarily recording audio for radio production, I have SonicStage automatically convert everything to WAV.
Upload and conversion is pretty quick with USB 2.0. My weekly radio show is 30 minutes recorded in uncompressed audio and the upload takes about 3 minutes, plus about another minute for conversion.
As I mentioned earlier, you can also upload audio from legacy minidiscs, recorded in any supported minidisc audio format, from SP to the various MDLP modes. This really works, and is reasonably brisk, too. However, it isn't as fast as uploading Hi-MD audio recorded on the RH1.
Typically a 74 minute SP minidisc takes something around 10 minutes to upload, plus a couple more minutes to convert to WAV.
Another reviewer on Epinions discussing another Hi-MD model has complained about the fact that Sonic Stage only lets you upload audio in ATRAC or WAV, but not MP3. I can understand that frustration if you're not interested in editing the audio or compressing it to MP3 or other formats yourself.
If you're just recording hours of speech that is going to see minimal editing it is indeed more convenient to record direct to MP3 on your recorder and upload that directly to your computer.
This is another area where flash memory recorders, like the Marantz and others, have an edge. They all support recording MP3 directly and uploading those files right to any PC, mostly without using any special software.
As a bit of a purist and audiophile, I will only record directly to MP3 if the memory space savings is absolutely worth it, but I can still see the usefulness of such a feature. And, frankly, I can't imagine it would be a big deal for Sony to add automatic MP3 encoding to SonicStage. It's just stubbornness and wanting to stick with their own ATRAC format that seem to stand in the way.
Finally, Mac users rejoiced the appearance of the RH1 (along with the MZ-M100 that came out in 2005) because it has support for Mac OS X, although that support is thin. With the Mac the RH1 only will upload audio that you recorded on an RH1 or MZ-M100. Sony also doesn't offer legacy upload support for the Mac.
Yet, at least the Hi-MD Music Transfer software that Sony supplies is very simple and easy to use, if not feature rich.
Of course, if you have an Intel Mac like I do, you can run SonicStage in Windows with either Boot Camp or in its own window using Parallels. I use Parallels when I need to use Sonic Stage, and it works fine except that the current version of Parallels only supports USB 1.1, giving me slower uploads.
15. Conclusion: The Best and the Last of a Brilliant, Dying Breed
With the introduction of the MZ-RH1 Sony has given minidisc users its finest creation. Unfortunately, prevailing wisdom is that the RH1 is also the last minidisc recorder we'll see (at least in the US).
If you've been a minidisc user, and especially if you used minidisc to record your own audio, then I can't recommend the RH1 enough. On top of being a top-notch portable digital audio recorder, the RH1 will help you future proof your archive of recorded MDs by letting you upload that audio to burn to CD or archive on hard disk.
If you're looking for a good digital audio recorder, then the RH1 can be a good choice. As I write this only one comparable flash memory recorder is available for less -- the Zoom H-4, which is $299. M-Audio's Microtrack and Edirol's R-09 both run about $75 - 100 more. The Marantz recorders are even pricier.
Of course, with the RH1 you give up phantom power and balanced mic inputs -- so if you absolutely need these, then the RH1 is not your best bet. But when I need to run a condenser mic, or when a mini-to-XLR adapter doesn't suit my needs I use a small portable mixer that gives me much more flexibility anyway.
If size is a consideration, then you really can't get a smaller or lighter recorder than the RH1 -- it weighs less than half any of the competition. For someone who wants to record ambient or nature sounds, or concerts using small inconspicuous condenser mics, the RH1 can be a very good choice.
But in the end, we have to face up to the reality that disc-based recording is slowly going the way of tape. CD-R and DVD still will be with us a while because there are just so many millions of players and burners out there. But minidisc never got as popular as CD or DVD, even if still greatly outsold DAT, DCC and every other digital audio recording format.
The RH1 may signal the end of minidisc, but at least Sony is going out with a bang and a present to those of us who've used these great little recorders over the last 14 years.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
mediageek
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Member: Paul Riismandel
Location: Chicago, IL
Reviews written: 25
Trusted by: 4 members
About Me:
I'm a true mediageek--into all sorts of electronics and gadgets for making media.
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