I am a long-time minidisc user and have already contributed several reviews of minidisc equipment to Epinions. I'll warn you now that this is a very positive review, but I think it's fair, too, since I don't think minidisc, or the MZ-NH1, is the most perfect device for all portable audio applications. In fact, I don't think the MZ-NH1 is for everyone -- read on to find out who it's best suited for.

I'll also warn you that this is a long review. Since this is only the second review of this unit on Epinions I wanted to go into depth and really make sure that the interested reader would know what to expect if she decided to buy a MZ-NH1. I've divided the review into sections to help you pick the parts that matter most to you.

If you're already an avid user or fan of minidisc, you may want to skip this introduction and go right to section 2. If you're less familiar or want to understand why the new Hi-MD units are so cool, I encourage you start with the introduction.

Review Sections:
1. Introduction: A Format in Search of a Feature
2. Hi-MD Makes Good -- Eventually
3. The Goods on Hi-MD
4. MZ-NH1: Design and Layout
5. MZ-NH1: Basic Use
6. MZ-NH1: Downloading Music to MD
7. MZ-NH1: Recording
8. MZ-NH1: Uploading Recorded Audio
9. MZ-NH1: Overall Sound Quality
10. Conclusion: It's Great, but not for Everybody


1. Introduction: A Format in Search of a Feature

In a world of accelerated obsolescence, minidisc can be considered a mature format--a survivor, even. Introduced in 1992, minidisc was Sony's successor to the venerable cassette. Several years before the CD-R would surface, minidisc was to bring digital audio recording to consumers who could or would not afford the professional-oriented digital audio tape (DAT).

Twelve years on minidisc has survived, due as much to technological merit as Sony's tenacity to keep the format alive. Even though it has never gained the mainstream popularity and acceptance of vinyl, cassettes or LPs, minidisc has outlived similar digital audio recording formats like digital compact cassette (DCC) and DataPlay.

In my opinion there are two keys to minidisc's survival. First, it is an extremely reliable and high-quality digital recording format. While DAT is arguably higher in fidelity, it is more expensive and the units are more fragile and prone to breakdown. Before most computers had sound cards, before MP3 was invented, you could buy a minidisc recorder for a few hundred dollars and make high-quality digital recordings that you could even edit on disc.

The second key is Sony's consistent improvement and upgrading of the format. Sony wisely designed the ATRAC compression system to be backwards compatible, so that new generations of minidisc would sound better, but still play back on older units.

More recently, in the last four years Sony has introduced two innovations that, while not backwards compatible, greatly increased the utility of minidisc. The first is MDLP, which takes the capacity of minidiscs from 74 minutes to 160 and 320 minutes per disc. With MDLP Sony added the ability to connect recorders directly to PCs via USB to allow music to be downloaded to minidisc in faster than real time, making minidisc a real competitor to MP3 players.

The second, and more significant innovation is Hi-MD. The MZ-NH1 is the flagship model of this new generation of minidisc. Introduced in 2004, Hi-MD brings new discs capable of holding 1 GB of data (compared to 200 MB in conventional minidiscs), which can be used to record anywhere between 92 minutes to 32 hours of stereo audio, depending on quality.

But the biggest innovation of all is the ability to upload audio recorded on your Hi-MD recorder back to a PC for editing and manipulation.

This last feature is the Holy Grail of minidisc, and something which minidisc fans have been waiting many years for.

You see, when Sony introduced minidisc to the US, it made a huge marketing blunder. Instead of marketing minidisc primarily as a replacement for the old analog cassette, Sony tried to sell it as a successor to CD, desirable for its small size, portability and convenience, with recording as a bit of an afterthought. Thus Sony introduced a whole inventory of prerecorded minidiscs along with recorders and players. And very few people bit.

And who could blame the American public? Just as CDs were finally becoming the most popular audio format, why would anyone want to toss aside their CD players and all the CDs they bought to replace aging LPs and cassettes just to buy everything on a new, smaller format, that actually wasn't even quite as good in terms of fidelilty?

Lucky for Sony, while minidisc languished in the States, it took off in Asia, where it remains a mainstream format today.

In the US minidisc took hold not so much with average consumers but with people who needed inexpensive digital audio recording: musicians, radio reporters, DJs. I, myself, got into minidisc because it was an inexpensive and flexible way to do digital audio recording at my local community radio station. That was around 1997, when minidisc was just five years old, but it looked like enough recording enthusiasts had bought into the system to keep it alive and available in the US.

But all this time, if you wanted to do anything with the audio recorded on your minidisc you had to play it out of the unit in real time. This isn't such a problem if you're playing something on your stereo, or playing it on the radio. But once computer audio editing became accessible, this added another step to the process of getting your recordings edited and put onto CDs or the web.

A further complication of this "real-time" method is that it often requires introducing an analog stage into your recordings. Most portable minidisc recorders don't have a digital audio out, and most consumer sound cards don't have a digital input. So, to get your audio from your minidisc to your PC, you have to go from the line or headphone out of the recorder to the line input of your PC. This is a step that can add noise and distortion to your clean digital recording.

So, please understand, that for an avid minidisc recordist like me, the Hi-MD ability to upload that clean minidisc digital audio directly to my PC by USB is revolutionary and much appreciated.

2. Hi-MD Makes Good -- Eventually

I tell you, I had to be patient to get Hi-MD. Sony announced the new format at the beginning of 2004, promising units would ship in April. Once pre-orders were available I put mine in, and the promise for shipping was pushed back to May or June.

Come June, I received word that I would get my recorder in July. Then in July, it was August. And, then finally, in August, my new MZ-NH1 finally arrived.

But, and this is a big BUT, the upload feature was not quite ready. Yes, I could upload my recordings, but once on my harddrive the files were in Sony's proprietary format which I could listen to, but not edit or manipulate. Not too useful.

We were promised by Sony that a program called WAV Converter would be available in the fall, But after waiting almost four months for my recorder I wasn't holding my breath. Luckily, the program came faster, and I have to say that it works as promised.

3. The Goods on Hi-MD

As I mentioned in the introduction, Hi-MD brings a much higher capacity minidisc to the table that allows up to 32 hours of recording time. In fact, Hi-MD brings a whole slew of different recording qualities and bitrates that allow you to make many choices to balance sound quality with total recording capacity. The options are too numerous and complex to enumerate adequately here, but if you're interested I suggest you read the very complete Hi-MD FAQ at minidisc.org:
http://www.minidisc.org/hi-md_faq.html

At present blank Hi-MDs are bit expensive, at about $7 each, and a little hard to come by. Luckily, Hi-MD recorders, like the MZ-NH1 also work with old 74 minute school blank minidiscs that sell for more like $1.50 - $2.00 each, you just get less recording capacity.

With regular minidisc blanks you have the choice of using either MDLP or Hi-MD mode. With MDLP you get all the features of the last generation of minidisc. For more discussion of MDLP, see my review of one of the first MDLP decks here at Epinions:
http://www.epinions.com/content_45876416132

One big caveat with using MDLP mode with the MZ-NH1 is that you lose the upload feature -- in essence with that mode you have an MDLP recorder.

When you use a regular minidisc in Hi-MD mode you gain the upload feature and you also gain a few more options in terms of recording time: up to 9 hours, compared to a maximum of a little more than 5 hours in MDLP mode.

If you do any live recording the biggest thing you gain in Hi-MD mode is the ability to record in uncompressed full-CD quality PCM digital audio. With a Hi-MD blank you get a full 92 minutes of stereo audio. On a regular minidisc, you get significantly less: 28 minutes.

There are all sorts of arguments about how much the highest quality compressed audio on minidisc differs from CD quality or MP3. I will say that for myself the difference is subtle and noticeable, but often negligible. My only caveat is that if you plan to re-encode your recorded audio into MP3, WMA or some other compression format then you increase the likelihood of degradation if your source recording is also compressed. The more cycles of encoding (called "stacking codecs") and the more degradation you can expect.

For what it's worth, you get more than 2 hours of very high quality compressed recording on a regular minidisc in Hi-MD mode, compared to just 74 minutes using the SP setting of MDLP. The caveat with using a regular minidisc in Hi-MD mode is that you can't play it back in a non-Hi-MD machine.

Therefore, if I'm just recording music from my PC, I still use MDLP mode so that the discs will be compatible with my other players and decks. If I'm doing live recording that I will want to edit and burn to CD, then I use Hi-MD mode.

A final important thing to note is that only recordings made via the MZ-NH1's analog line or microphone inputs can be transferred to a PC by USB. This is part of Sony's copyright control compromise. They figure if you recording the minidisc with a digital input it came from a CD you want to copy, and maybe pirate. But if you went analog, you were probably recording a performance or other audio that you have a right to use and copy. It's not a perfect situation, it is a compromise. But, to me, it's worth it to get the audio upload features on stuff I recorded live myself.

4. MZ-NH1: Design and Layout

I find that Sony leads in design with much of their consumer electronics, especially items that are somewhat above entry level. As the flagship in Sony's new Hi-MD line, the MZ-NH1 is fine looking piece of gear.

Unfortunately, I think some level of usability was sacrificed for aesthetics. First of all, this unit is tiny-- really tiny. It's just a bit larger than an actual minidisc, being about a centimeter taller and wider, and as thick as about three minidiscs. This is small even compared to many flash-memory MP3 players. I'm amazed that so much electronics and a disc playing mechanism can be squeezed in there.

But a big consequence of having a small unit is small buttons. They're placed far enough apart that my fairly average sized fingers can push them without hitting other buttons, but just barely.

My two biggest gripes are with the volume and track change control and the display. The former is integrated into a little joystick thingy on the left side of the unit. You push up and down to advance tracks, you push back and forth to adjust volume. While the action is positive and smooth, it is still just too darn small -- smaller than a pencil eraser.

And the display is just too darn thin, too, and for no good reason that I can think of, other than keeping with the unit's overall minimalist aesthetic. If this were just a plain CD player, where all you need is track number and time information, it wouldn't be such a problem. But minidisc is a complex menu-based system that doesn't take to tiny one-line LCDs so well.

The positive is that the MZ-NH1 comes with a wired remote control that I think is both easier to use and has a larger backlit display. Thus, I use the remote for just about all functions.

The inputs and outputs, including headphone out, microphone in and line in are all miniplugs arranged on the right side of the unit, just like most contemporary minidisc recorders. Unlike most MDLP models, the MZ-NH1 doesn't have a mini-USB port on it. Instead, it has a proprietary port that connects to special cable that has USB on the other end to connect to your PC.

This port is also used to power the unit when the batter is dead or recharging. It engages when you place the MZ-NH1 in it's spiffy cradle.

I must admit that the cradle helped sell me on the aesthetics of the MZ-NH1, with matte sliver, shiny chrome and a clear plastic base in a triangle shape. You click in the unit to power or charge it.

But my biggest peeve with the base is that it doesn't have a connection for the USB. So you have to take the unit out of the base to use it with the PC, which I think is just dumb, especially considering how if you leave your MZ-NH1 idly plugged into your PC you can deplete your battery without meaning to. I can't see any reason why Sony couldn't make the base include power and USB.

Build quality on the MZ-NH1 is very good and all metal, which Sony says is magnesium. It is very solid feeling and has decent heft for a unit its size. Picking it up gives much more the impression of a precision piece of gear, much more so than most featherweight MP3 or portable CD players.

In four months of regular (but not daily) use, I haven't managed to scratch or dent it, and I'm not the most careful guy.

5. MZ-NH1: Basic Use

Using the MZ-NH1 to its fullest requires reading the manual. You need to understand Hi-MD and which modes to use. That said, Sony's manual is clear and well organized. I generally find Sony manuals to be amongst the best in consumer electronics, and this one is no exception.

However, if you're mostly interested in using the MZ-NH1 as a music player, putting hours and hours worth of mp3s on a single disc, then you don't need to get as in depth as you do if you plan to do lots of live recording.

As I mentioned before, I'm not crazy about the controls on the unit itself, and so I use the remote most of the time. It plugs into the headphone port and you plug your phones into the remote. Most importantly, the track buttons and the volume buttons are separate on the remote. The track advance is part of a little knob that you rock back and forth and press to play or pause. It's still more functions combined into one little interface than I'd like, but in practice it actually works very well.

The display has three clear lines of text and numbers and gives all major information very clearly with a nice blue backlight. The menu is manipulated using a scroll-wheel. You press to get into the menu then scroll to select options. A similar device is on my Sony Clie PDA, and it works surprisingly well on both devices.

The only thing you can't do on the remote is start a recording -- the record button is only on the unit itself. Presumably, this is so you cannot so easily accidentally start a recording and erase something. The record button is actually a slider that is easy to use, but a little harder to activate by mistake.

6. MZ-NH1: Downloading Music to MD

My understanding is that minidisc sales actually increased dramatically in the US when Sony introduced MDLP and the ability to download PC audio--mostly MP3s--to minidisc. I believe that, and it is a nice feature. However, up until recently, the software that Sony supplied to do this with was pretty miserable and unintuitive.

The most recent version of the software, SonicStage 2.3, is much improved in function and form. It's faster and makes more sense. Though it's not nearly as elegant as iTunes, it is at least as good as a MusicMatch Jukebox, if not better. The SonicStage software comes on a CD and must be installed in order to use the MZ-NH1 with a PC. And it is PC only -- no Mac or Linux support.

Once you start the software and connect your MZ-NH1 by USB, downloading is pretty much a drag and drop affair. But be prepared to wait a little while. You see, MP3s and other audio files are actually converted on the fly to the minidisc's ATRAC format. This actually happens pretty quickly, but not as fast as some MP3 players.

As I noted before, going from one compressed format to another can introduce some sonic degradation, so it's possible to get some distortion going from MP3 to MD. In practice, this doesn't happen too much for me. With higher quality MP3s (at least 192kbps) or full CD-quality WAV files I hear almost no difference. But if the MP3 was sketchy to begin with, don't expect it to get better.

If you're downloading 32 hours of MP3s to a blank Hi-MD, expect to let it go overnight. This will take longer than an iPod, due in part to the ATRAC conversion, and due in part to USB. But then, aside from hard disk based players, like the iPod, there are few other MP3 players that can hold 32 hours of high-quality audio, especially not on a $7 piece of media.

If you're not crazy about SonicStage you can also use Real Player to download music to your MZ-NH1. This is the method I use because I find Real Player to be a little more intuitive, but, then, I've been doing this since first generation MDLP when Sony's software was significantly worse.

7. MZ-NH1: Recording

Recording with the MZ-NH1 is pretty similar to recording with all other minidisc units. However, as I already mentioned, you get 32 to 92 minutes of uncompressed full-CD quality audio if you want -- that's fully equivalent to DAT.

I won't go into too many details on the recording process, except to note that there are some notable improvements compared to previous Sony recorders. First off, you can change recording level settings on-the-fly while the recording is in progress. Previously, you had to pause the recorder to change levels.

While you can't start recording on the remote, you can control all other record functions from it, which is nice, since that minimizes extra noise that might come from handling the unit. The record level display is very clear and the adjustments are also pretty precise.

Live recording with a microphone or other analog input is where the MZ-NH1 really shines. Sony puts very high quality microphone preamplifiers in their minidisc recorders, and the one in the MZ-NH1 is amongst the best I've tried in the last seven years. I mostly use my MZ-NH1 to record interviews and to do air checks of my radio show off the broadcast board, and in both cases I get very clear, low-noise recordings.

In fact, I've only ever gotten better recordings from a DAT recorder or a professional PC audio interface (not your basic built-in PC soundcard).

If you're into live recording, be it music, voice or other sound, the MZ-NH1 is a great choice that can't be beat at its price.

As a quick aside, I should mention that many radio reporters and other people needing portable digital audio recording have considered abandoning minidisc, or actually did abandon it, in the last few years because they were frustrated with not being able to upload their audio directly to PC, which only became possible with Hi-MD this year.

As a substitute, many people I've known have tried using digital voice recorders, MP3 players that have microphone inputs and even microphone attachments for iPods. But with all of these devices, I think the audio quality of the recording really suffers. Fundamentally, the microphone preamplifiers and analog-to-digital converters in all of these approaches are add-ons and afterthoughts. Not one of them approaches the quality of a decent minidisc recorder, and especially not the MZ-NH1.

A mic attachment for the iPod may indeed be just fine for the occasional voice note or basic dictation. But don't expect to get a nice, clean recording of a small acoustic ensemble.

Unlike these other solutions, the MZ-NH1 has "plug-in-power," which means that it will provide the current necessary to use higher-quality condenser microphones, which tend to be smaller microphones like capsules and lavaliers. You can also use plain dynamic microphones, too.

A final point on recording is that if you plan to do any, you must get a decent microphone. If you plug in the cheap microphone that came with your computer, then you will get cheap, tinny sound. You will not be taking advantage of the MZ-NH1's quality. Sony makes several nice little condenser microphones for under $100 that are decent for making nice amateur recordings of interviews or acoustic music. They will all be better than most of the plastic microphones you'll find at the local electronics store.

If you plan to do lots of recording, then investing more than $100 is not a bad idea, and your overall sound quality will improve commensurately.

8. MZ-NH1: Uploading Recorded Audio

I must say it again: this is the Holy Grail of minidisc, the ability to upload the recordings you've made. It seems only logical, now, in our 2004 frame of reference, that this should be possible. But alongside copyright concerns, I can only guess that Sony had other technical hurdles to jump in order to bring this feature to light. We must remember that USB didn't exist in 1992 when minidisc was introduced, and back then digital audio editing was only the province of advanced sound studios.

In essence, uploading and using your recorded audio is a two step process. First you transfer your audio to the PC, then you convert it to WAV format, which can be edited by all major audio applications, such as Sound Forge, Adobe Audition or Roxio Media Creator.

The upload process is actually pretty simple and intuitive with the newest version of Sony's software, Sonic Stage 2.3. You connect the MZ-NH1 via USB, then click "Transfer" in the app. You'll see all the tracks on the disc, which you can select and then transfer.

Transfer times are not super speedy, since Hi-MD is still only USB 1.1, and depend on what mode you recorded in. If you recorded in uncompressed PCM, then a full hour of audio is 650 MB, which takes a while to transfer by USB, but not quite a hour. If you recorded in the highest quality Hi-MD compressed mode, then an hour will take much less time, since that adds up to only about 120 MB of data.

Once uploaded you have to quit SonicStage and fire up WAV Converter. This program did not ship with my MZ-NH1 because it wasn't released yet. I don't know if it ships with current units, but if you don't get it, it's a free download from Sony:
http://sonyelectronics.sonystyle.com/walkmanmc/wav.html

WAV Converter is a simple and intuitive program. You tell it where your uploaded files are, tell it where you want the converted WAV files to go, then start it. Conversion happens pretty quickly. It's actually fastest with uncompressed PCM, since it's not really doing much conversion, just changing file format. Conversion with compressed tracks takes a little longer. Still, when you add up the time for upload and conversion it's still faster than real time.

But the real payoff is that you end up with a pristine digital copy of your audio on your harddrive that is an exact duplicate of the audio on your minidisc. This is something you still can't do with DAT, unless you have a digital audio input on your soundcard and you do the transfer in real-time.

As you've probably figured out by now, this is the feature that made me upgrade to Hi-MD and I am very glad I did. For me, this was worth the price of admission and after a little waiting and patience it works just as promised.

9. MZ-NH1: Overall Sound Quality

I must say that the sound quality of this little unit is amazing. I can't compare it to an iPod, since I don't own one and haven't had the ability to listen closely in comparison, but my initial impressions are that it as at least as good. Of course, recordings are much better than anything you can do with an iPod microphone accessory.

The MZ-NH1 has a digital amp, which I believe is a feature of all Hi-MD units. Without getting into too much technical detail, digital amps provide cleaner, higher power with a smaller size from digital source material than purely analog amps. This gives a lot more and cleaner output from the MZ-NH1 into headphones than would otherwise be possible with such a tiny device.

Walking around town or taking the bus, overall fidelity isn't so important or noticeable since there's so much ambient sound. I don't use isolating headphones in public since I don't want to get hit by traffic or my pocket picked because I'm oblivious to my surroundings.

But at home with a nice pair of headphones -- such Grado SR80s or Sony MDR-V600 -- the sound is very detailed and rich. At first I thought the sound was a little bass poor, since I had been accustomed to listening to an older minidisc recorder with MegaBass turned all the way up to compensate for my bass-impaired inexpensive behind-the-neck headphones.

But with the better headphones I find that the bass is quite accurate and present, it's just not overemphasized and boomy. So, if it's boomy bass you want, then the MZ-NH1 might not be the unit for you--pick one of the Sonys with MegaBass and blow your phones off.

Of course, a big component of audio quality is directly tied up with the quality of your recording. This is where downloading MP3s to MD can be problematic. It's when I'm listening to the MZ-NH1 on quality 'phones that I can hear the artifacts and sonic defects of MP3s and the MP3 to minidisc conversion. The output of the MZ-NH1 is clear and detailed enough to reveal these problems that would be masked with a lesser amplifier.

Still, to be fair, these sonic defects will be noticeable when using good headphones with any MP3 player, whether it's an iPod or cheap-o flash player.

The MZ-NH1 really shines when listening to CDs recorded to minidisc, or when listening to live recordings made direct to minidisc. With CDs, only with very careful listening to very well recorded music can I detect any difference between the source CD and the minidisc. In fact, the minidisc sounds much better when played through my MZ-NH1 than when played through my portable Sony CD Discman. The digital amplifier in the MZ-NH1 makes all the difference.

When playing back an interview I recorded with a nice set of stereo microphones through my stereo, there were a few times that noises in the background made me turn my head, because I it sounded like they were in the room with me.

Quite frankly, I've heard no portable audio player costing less than $500 that I can say definitively sounds better than the MZ-NH1.

10. Conclusion: It's Great, but not for Everybody

When it's all added up, I think the MZ-NH1 is an incredible little audio device that does both recording and playback well -- better than any other device in its price range. For recordists and minidisc enthusiasts it is hard to do better. But it's not necessarily the best digital audio device for everyone.

One of the neverending debates in the minidisc world is whether Hi-MD is an iPod beater. My answer to this question is that they're apples and oranges.

For a device that lets you store gigabytes of audio in your pocket, the iPod is hard to beat. If that's all you're looking for, then you're looking for an iPod, I think you should get an iPod (or some other hard disk based music player).

While Sony's SonicStage software has gotten amazingly better in the last year, it's still not as elegant as iTunes, and the download speeds are much slower over the MZ-NH1's USB compared to the iPod's firewire. If I were just looking for a portable audio player, and I didn't already have minidisc gear, this bit of inconvenience would be a deal killer for me -- I'd get an iPod.

That's my frank advice for anyone who's considering the MZ-NH1 simply to use as a portable audio and MP3 player.

But the MZ-NH1 is so much more than that, and because of this it appeals to a smaller, but demanding, audience.

If you're already a minidisc user thinking about upgrading to Hi-MD, I wholeheartedly recommend the MZ-NH1 and all the benefits of Hi-MD. It is the priciest of the line, but I think the build quality, sound quality and aesthetics make it worth the $50 premium over the next model down, the MZ-NH900.

I especially recommend the MZ-NH1 if you're going to do any live recording, whether it's voice interviews or music. The addition of Hi-MD and uploading capacity make the MZ-NH1 a winner in this regard. If you don't quite want to spend the full $329 that the MZ-NH1 typically costs, be careful which other Hi-MD unit you buy, since only two others, the MZ-NH800 & MZ-NH900, offer microphone inputs. The other models are geared more towards playback and so lack mic jacks.

Finally, there may be some of you reading this review considering making the jump into minidisc and all it offers. To you I say that if you want to get both recording and playback, all in very high fidelity, then you can do no better than the MZ-NH1, unless you want to spend closer to $1000.

Without a doubt, the MZ-NH1 is more of a specialty item than the iPod and other MP3 players. In many regards it is more like an audiophile stereo component -- solidly built, well designed and very nice sounding. But these benefits require a little attention to derive their benefits. It's not just a numbers game, and the MZ-NH1 will never be as fashionable as the iPod.

But it's still pretty cool. And, hey, not every kid in school is going to have an MZ-NH1, if that sort of thing matters to you.


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 329