HD FMs that don't multicast: What's the point?

[Tom Wells]

So you're the one who's still into MD, Zach! I shoveled a lot of money down that hole! I have two working portables, and two working stand-alone md recorders. And I haven't used any of 'em in years! Once I could record uncompressed .wav files on a pocket-sized hard-disk recorder (Archos GMini-402), I never looked back. Ok, I did glance back...and weep a bit at the money spent on a losing format!

Speaking of losing formats, wanna' buy a low mileage Sony DTCA5 dat recorder, with Super Bit Mapping? Anybody?

DAT!

I remember being mad these were being actively supressed here the US, and I almost bought one in Montreal back when I was there every 2-3 months.
I am still super-happy with a Matsushita (radioshack) stereo analog book-size cassette analog recorder from 1980. Wish I'd bought 2 or three.
Best AVC I ever heard. Perfect normalization for crickets OR live rock concerts on stage.
Even worked well for recordings of Steam Engines, and there's almost nothing harder to make sound believable in a recording.
Never totally full signal levels, but always enough headroom and drive to record any peak that comes along and still sound good to my ears.
Instead of fussing with levels, I could just enjoy the show, then dub/boost/noise cut to a 0db "crammed-full" tape later.

 

[JohnnyElectron]

Zack wrote: "Maybe they just wanted song titles and a text display"
I thought that's what RDS did for us?

Mike Walker - let me know if you want to unload any MD hardware - I'm still convinced it's the most convenient audio mode ever - okay audio, direct access, on the fly editing, etc.
My son even ditched his dinky MP3 POS and carries around a larger MD player as it's much easier to get to the music you want by flipping in the minidisk with what you want.
Goes back to "not the prettiest, but gets the job done, works decent, and sounds decent" - kinda like using C-Quam instead of HD-AM.

 

[tomservo]

So you're the one who's still into MD, Zach! I shoveled a lot of money down that hole! I have two working portables, and two working stand-alone md recorders. And I haven't used any of 'em in years! Once I could record uncompressed .wav files on a pocket-sized hard-disk recorder (Archos GMini-402), I never looked back. Ok, I did glance back...and weep a bit at the money spent on a losing format!

Speaking of losing formats, wanna' buy a low mileage Sony DTCA5 dat recorder, with Super Bit Mapping? Anybody?

Yep, that's me. Still use MD and still use an S-VHS deck.

My cell phone is a Walkman™ player and I have a dedicated mp3 player by iRiver... In fact I just got a 4 GB mem stick for the phone, but I keep going back to the MD unit just because it's what I'm used to. The Hi MD stuff is nice but it was too little, too late. I think it was yet another Sony marketing mistake - I really wish MDs had replaced tapes in this country like they did in Japan but oh well, can't go back.

And yes I'd love to have a DAT recorder just to have it, too bad I have no cash. I know a lot of people who still use DATs for concert recordings and swear by them, but technology marches on.

It's been really nice to be able to record songs off my friend's iPod when we're in the car together. Too bad he can't do the same in reverse. ;D

 

[tomservo]

Zack wrote: "Maybe they just wanted song titles and a text display"
I thought that's what RDS did for us?

Mike Walker - let me know if you want to unload any MD hardware - I'm still convinced it's the most convenient audio mode ever - okay audio, direct access, on the fly editing, etc.
My son even ditched his dinky MP3 POS and carries around a larger MD player as it's much easier to get to the music you want by flipping in the minidisk with what you want.
Goes back to "not the prettiest, but gets the job done, works decent, and sounds decent" - kinda like using C-Quam instead of HD-AM.

Good morning!

I still haven't found an mp3 player that's smaller than my MD unit that can hold all the music on my ~120-150 MD discs... And that's only 80-85% of my music collection. Heck, I couldn't even rip all my music to the computer without investing in at least one 160 GB external drive.

...and yes RDS got the job done for FM text just like C-QUAM does for AM for "decent sound". ;D

 

[Savage]

I never bought into DAT, but we have a minidisk deck in every studio here. The editing function is perfect for certain programming applications at WYSL. At a local sound & instrument store - an advertising client - in the used-gear room I stumbled on a like-new Denon M2300R dual-MD professional deck. It originally retailed at about $2400 and I snapped it up for $139. It's rackmounted in the control room and is used every day.

MD is terrific for specific programming needs, as noted before.