Sony MZ-RH1 Hi-MD walkman (p)review      update:   
20-04-2006

Warning!

I will start this (p)review with a warning. This review is based on a prototype of the MZ-RH1. This means that in the final MZ-RH1 that makes it to stores, it is possible that some aspects may differ slightly from the model tested. The modifications can normally be found in things such as the options menu, or small adjustments in the controls.

 Picture 1, Sony MZ-RH1 closeup.

Introduction

I will now start by thanking Sony Netherlands for the fact that they lent us a prototype for us to test extensively so soon after the official announcement for the RH1. I would especially like to thank Fenno and Karin for the clarifications and extra information they have given us.
Secondly I would like to make clear that this (p)review is not meant as an in-depth assessment of all areas of the MZ-RH1. We have therefore chosen above all to highlight and clarify the improvements over previous generations of MD equipment.
With the MZ-RH1, Sony has abandoned its old strategy concerning Hi-MD. The MZ-RH1 is no longer meant as a competitor for Mp3 players, but is aimed primarily at people looking to buy an MD with unequalled upload capability and an affordable price. The MZ-RH1 is therefore ideal for musicians and journalists amongst others, who for these reasons require a portable recording studio. That the MZ-RH1 can be referred to as a portable recording studio can been seen amongst other things in the design, but also in the controls and options. These are primarily aimed at recording on location. Before we dive deeper into the details of the MZ-RH1 we shall start with a short summary of the most important new features. This round-up doesn’t of course cover all the small improvements that have been made but gives a global overview of why the MZ-RH1 is unique in its field.

 Animation 1, rotating MZ-RH1.

Most important improvements
The MZ-RH1 has been improved in a large number of areas compared to previous MD-walkmans. The most important new features are:
Appearance & design
When you see the MZ-RH1 for the first time you may ask yourself how Sony got it into their head to put the display and control buttons on the side of the Walkman. At least that was my first thought. It is only when you actually pick the MZ-RH1 up for the first time that you think actually it wasn’t such a crazy idea after all. Whilst with other MD-Walkmans you must hold them firm by their slim sides, with the RH1 you can solidly grab it by the top and undersides. People who have owned a beeper or pager (before the GSM era) will know what I mean. On these devices the display was also always visible on the outer sides. This is also extremely useful when you have the walkman sat in a jacket or trouser pocket. In this way the display is always readable. Furthermore the two sides are endowed with a rubber anti-slip coating so that the RH1 almost doesn’t slip out of your hands. Also the placement of the buttons is well thought out. If you let the RH1 sit in your hand, all the important function buttons remain accessible, which makes using the RH1 very simple. What has also been well thought out, is the fact that on the underside of the RH1 there sit four little rubber feet, so that when you leave it flat it can’t slide on to its side. The display is also slightly slanted in order to facilitate legibility when the MD lies flat on a table. One could almost imagine the RH1 as a shrunk-down MD-deck.
It goes without saying that the casing of the RH1 is not made of plastic at all, which makes it a fair bit stronger and durable than other MD-walkmans. Furthermore this walkman comes with all the well-known connections such as headphone socket, USB connector, Line-In and Microphone In. Missing is the connection for an external power adaptor, but the adaptor supplied with the RH1 comes with a USB connector so that the USB port also functions as the input for the external power supply.
Functions
To give a clear view of exactly which buttons and connections sit where on the RH1 and what they are used for, there follows an overview of all the available buttons, connectors and other important elements.
 Picture 2, Buttons and connections.
  1. Headphone Socket: This is the headphone socket. It is combined with the line-out connection. You can switch between the two modes via the menu. Connecting a remote control to this socket will automatically switch the output mode back to “Headphone”.
  2. Microphone In: The Mic In is designed for connecting a stereo or mono microphone. .The socket is also labeled with the text “Plug In Power” indicating microphones that don’t require external power sources.
  3. Line In Socket: This is the analog (stereo) line in, combined with the digital optical in. Depending on what type of cable you connect the walkman will work out itself what type of connection it is.
  4. Display / menu button: By pressing the button you can change what is displayed on the screen. By holding it down, the menu appears on the display.
  5. Volume -: This button reduces the volume to the headphone socket.
  6. Volume +: This button increases the volume to the headphone socket.
  7. Stop / Cancel: This button stops recording or playback and in the menu screens also works as the cancel button.
  8. Pause: This button is designed to pause recording or playback but is also used in combination with the record button to switch on record-pause.
  9. T-Mark: This button is used to insert or remove manual trackmarks from a recording. Trackmarks can also be automatically inserted by the recorder if desired.
  10. Record button: Sliding this button to the right starts recording. This button is located on the outside of the unit and is quite heavy to switch on so that it cannot easily be activated by accident.
  11. Left OLED display: The display of the RH1 is divided into left and right hand halves so that more information can be displayed.
  12. Right OLED display: The display of the RH1 is divided into left and right hand halves so that more information can be displayed.
  13. Hold switch: Underneath the RH1 can be found the hold switch with which you can lock the functions of the buttons on the RH1. This function is particularly useful if you keep the walkman in your trouser pocket.
  14. Eject button: With this button you can open the RH1 in order to insert or change a disc. This button actually has to be pressed in so that you can’t accidentally eject a disc. What is more this button is locked when a disc in use (for example during a recording or transfer).
  15. Next: You can select the next item through the use of the jog button. This could be the next track during playback but also the next item in the menu.
  16. Play / enter: By pressing the jog button in, playback commences. This button is also used to select menu items.
  17. Previous: By the pulling the jog button back you can select the previous item. This could be the previous track during playback, but also the previous item in the menu.
  18. Battery compartment: Behind the flap lies the Li-ION battery from which the RH1 gets its power.
  19. USB-connector: The USB connector is used not only when the walkman is connected to the computer but also when the supplied AC adaptor is connected.

Retro functions

As you walk through the possibilities of the RH1 it quickly becomes clear that Sony has been listening well and what the MD community may never have expected of a Hi-MD walkman is now actually realized. In earlier generation walkmans, it seemed almost a rule that new technologies were not immediately adopted when new equipment came out. This also led to frustration in many users who gladly bought a new generation of MD-walkman but to their dismay saw that many useful functions were no longer available. To these people’s large relief, I can confirm that a whole range of functionality has now returned to the RH1 and there therefore follows a short elaboration of some of these “retro” functions.

 Picture 3, Underside of the MZ-RH1.

Recording of Normal MD discs
This function was still available in the first generation Hi-MD walkmans, but in the second generation this option had been removed. People could no longer make recordings on standard formatted MD discs. You could only make “normal” discs via SonicStage. Fortunately the MZ-RH1 will record normally in SP, LP2 and LP4 format on an old-style formatted disc. Not only via SonicStage but also via a microphone for example.
Clock and date function
This is the function whereby every recording you make with the MD is stamped with the date it was made on. To do this you can set the time and date on your MD walkman. This is very useful for live recordings as you can always see once more when a recording was made. This function was no longer present in a number of generations now which was considered by many to be a shame. Now that the RH1 has come out and has been specially developed for live recording this function could no longer of course be missing.
Line-out
Since time immemorial the headphone socket in MD walkmans has been combined with the line-out. The ability to switch between the two via a menu option has also been possible for a long time whereby with a press of the button the output volume could be increased and all sound effects switched off. This is a primary function especially for people who regularly want to connect their walkman to an external device as it is annoying to have to manually turn the volume all the way up and switch of the sound effects each time. This function was also missing from second generation Hi-MD’s but it is fortunately back.
Digital Pitch Control
Digital Pitch Control (DPC for short) is the ability to change the playback speed. This function is especially useful when you have a long recording (mainly speech) and you want to play this back quicker (whilst still being able to listen to what is said) or slower for example if you have made notes of a meeting. This function was again absent from the second generation Hi-MD but is back with the RH1.
HD digital amplifier
MD walkmans are renowned for their high quality sound in playback. This high quality is definitely for critical users (such as musicians) very important. Some claim that through small adjustments in the HD digital amplifier this has been yet further improved, my experience can’t fully confirm this as my hearing is not that sensitive. What is clear is that the sound of the HD Digital amplifier is considerably more well defined and clear than that of a normal digital amplifier or a normal analog amplifier.

New Functions

In addition to a number of functions we were already familiar with from previous MD devices, the MZ-RH1 also has a number of completely new and unique functions which have not yet featured in any other MD device. Here too Sony have listened carefully to what users wanted since nearly all the new functions were missing from previous generations of MD device and have all of a sudden appeared in the MZ-RH1.

 Screenshot 1, Uploading MD recordings with SonicStage.

Upload of old recordings via USB
Perhaps the most important new function of the MZ-RH1 is the possibility to upload standard format MD recordings. Whereas with earlier generations of Hi-MD it was only possible to upload Hi-MD format recordings, with the MZ-RH1 this is now possible for all recordings (and therefore recordings made with old MD devices).
In order to be able to make full use of this functionality you need to use the updated version of SonicStage 3.4 supplied with the MZ-RH1. The complete version number of this release of SonicStage is 3.4.02.14020. The necessary modified NetMD drivers are also supplied packaged in a new version of the Personal Audio Drivers. Version 4.4.00.11241 in this case. If you have these or later versions of the software installed you will be able to use the MD upload capabilities of the MZ-RH1. Because the MZ-RH1 itself has had to be specially adapted to allow MD uploads it is not possible that you can use the new Sonic Stage version to upload with old Hi-MD devices. The upload of MD recordings will only work on devices that were designed to do so from the beginning. At present therefore only the MZ-RH1. After the software has been successfully installed the upload of old recordings can begin. As soon as a disc with standard MD recordings is put in the MZ-RH1, Sonic Stage will indicate by means of an arrow which tracks can be uploaded or not. This means that in practice microphone recordings, analog in and optical digital recordings can be uploaded. Recordings made via the computer (i.e. via USB) cannot be uploaded because with such recordings the distinction cannot be made between legally transferred music or music which has been purchased for example via the Connect Music Store. Normal MD format discs cannot store enough extra information need to be able to make this distinction.

 
RecordingUploading to PCNumber of times after uploading
Exporting to WAVPlaybackDownload to (Hi-)MDBurning ATRAC CDBurning audio CD
Optical digital SPyes *1)unlimitedunlimitedunlimitedunlimitedunlimited
Optical digital Monoyes *2)unlimitedunlimitedunlimitedunlimitedunlimited
Optical digital LP2yesunlimitedunlimitedunlimitedunlimitedunlimited
Optical digital LP4yesunlimitedunlimitedunlimitedunlimitedunlimited
Analog line SPyes *1)unlimitedunlimitedunlimitedunlimitedunlimited
Analog line monoyes *2)unlimitedunlimitedunlimitedunlimitedunlimited
Analog line LP2yesunlimitedunlimitedunlimitedunlimitedunlimited
Analog line LP4yesunlimitedunlimitedunlimitedunlimitedunlimited
Microphone SPyes *1)unlimitedunlimitedunlimitedunlimitedunlimited
Microphone monoyes *2)unlimitedunlimitedunlimitedunlimitedunlimited
Microphone LP2yesunlimitedunlimitedunlimitedunlimitedunlimited
Microphone LP4yesunlimitedunlimitedunlimitedunlimitedunlimited
NetMD SP (via USB)no
NetMD LP2 (via USB)no
NetMD LP4 (via USB)no
  Tabel 1, Possibilities with uploaded MD-recordings.
*1) SP recordings can be uploaded as Hi-SP or PCM.
*2) Mono recordings are being converted to stereo and can be uploaded as Hi-SP or PCM.

Recordings once uploaded have no further restrictions. They can be replayed unlimited times, copied to MD, exported to WAV, made into audio CD’s or ATRAC3 CD’s. There are absolutely no restrictions therefore on your own recordings. Perhaps even more beautiful you can upload your MD discs in write protect mode so that your old recordings can in no way be lost.
 Screenshot 2, Import settings.
 Screenshot 3, Upload options SP recordings.
One observation still has to be made. There is no ATRAC-codec available for the PC.. In SonicStage there are only ATRAC3 and ATRAC3Plus codecs. Therefore if you want to upload SP (normal stereo recordings) and mono recordings something different must happen to these uploads for it work with your pc. Sony gives you two possibilities in these cases: The first is to convert SP and Mono recordings to Hi-SP( the Hi-MD alternative to SP). The other alternative is to convert to uncompressed PCM (WAV) quality. You can choose yourself which one you want to use I the new updated options tab. This can be found by clicking on the button for transfer mode settings and subsequently on “Advanced” and then in the tab “Import Settings”. Furthermore you can also indicate here if you want your uploads to be automatically converted to Wav-format.
Because LP2 and LP4 recordings are part of the ATRAC3 codec they are simply imported as is from the MD disc into the SonicStage library. What’s more there is as there existed no mono codec in Sonic Stage, mono tracks which you try to upload are converted to stereo (and subsequently to Hi-SP or PCM) by copying the mono track into both channels.
I’m sure your curiosity will by now have been aroused as to what has been improved in regards to upload speed, but before we move on to that there is still one more important observation to be made as a kind of lead on to that. If you have one recording that is chopped into several pieces by means of trackmarks these will become a seamless upload. We mean that during playback on the computer during the transition from one piece of a recording to another there is no jumping or hiccupping in the music. Also if you export the tracks and resulting wav files and you then combine them into a single wav file you get a perfect sounding passage of music.
Now then at last the speeds. What we have seen is that the speeds nonetheless depend on the computer the MZ-RH1 is attached to. If you therefore take an old PC the uploads will not be as quick as with a newer pc. For this reason we have used a rather recent PC and older laptop to test the speeds. These are a Pentium IV PC with a clock speed of 2.8 GHz, 1GB memory and USB 2.0 connections. The laptop is an 800mhz Pentium III with 256MB memory and USB 1.1 connections. The average speeds we attained are indicated in the table below.
 Pentium IV 2.8 GHz PCPentium III 800 MHz laptop
SP -> PCM10x5x
SP -> Hi-SP8x3x
mono -> PCM16x8x
mono -> Hi-SP12x5x
LP215x11x
LP426x21x
  Tabel 2, Uploadspeeds normal MD-recordings.
There are three things that are noticeable in the table. The first is of course that with a slower PC the data processing is not as fast. The MZ-RH1 is better suited to a fast PC. If you use a fast PC (the Pentium IV which we used is almost a year old already) then you will obtain the best upload speeds. Certainly for SP recordings (where a lot of data must be moved) the speeds have been much higher than expected The Second thing that is notable is that the uploads in PCM-format are faster than the uploads in Hi-SP format. This is explained by the fact that at PCM, uploads in SP/mono quality need be decoded only and the raw audio can be transferred. With uploads such as Hi-SP, after decoding and upload the data must be re-encoded again to the Hi-SP format which is what takes the extra time. The last thing that is notable is that mono-recording uploads go quicker than SP whereas they are actually converted to the same format. This is in fact explained that mono-recordings take up half the space compared to SP recordings and so less data needs to be transferred. The speed difference with SP is nevertheless not quite 2x which you would expect if you compare the data in a mono and SP recording. This difference is probably smaller because the mono recordings must be converted to stereo and this is what costs extra time.
Is the only advantage of uploading via USB that is takes less time than via he sound card of the pc which in the old days was the only way possible. Not at all there are many more advantages. You only have to think of the fact that the quality is no longer dependant on the quality of the cables used, the sound card in your pc and the headphone socket of your MD. What is more, time is saved because trackmarks are automatically carried across (by dividing the recordings in the same places in tracks). You save even more time because the titles which are recorded on the MD-disc are carried over to SonicStage at upload but also when exporting to wave format. You no longer need any additional software to make recordings which was previously necessary. Nor do you need to adjust any settings on your soundcard for example to get the correct input volume. In short the upload ability of the RH1 makes the uploading of old recordings a piece of cake compared to the old days, it is a lot quicker and preserves complete recording quality.

Compatibility with MAC computers
Unfortunately we haven’t been able to test the final MAC-software that will be supplied with the MZ-RH1 as Sony did not themselves did not yet have it. As far as MAC compatibility is concerned therefore we will have to make do with the information Sony have supplied us without being able to try it all out in practice.
Up to now, it was the case that Hi-MD devices could be connected to MAC’s but Hi-MD’s were only recognized as external storage drives that you could copy files to and from. Unfortunately there was no additional music-related software available.
Last year in America the professional MZ-M10 and MZ-M100 were introduced and a MAC-utility was also supplied but it was only possible to upload your own PCM recordings with this tool and it was not compatible with normal Hi-MD devices. With the “Hi-MD Music Transfer For Mac version 1.0” software however a lot more is possible. With this not only can you upload your own PCM recordings and export to WAV, but also Hi-SP and Hi-LP recordings can be uploaded and exported to WAV format.
What is more it will also be possible to transfer wave (PCM) and MP3 files from the MAC to Hi-MD in order to play these back. The only thing that is lacking is the possibility to transfer ATRAC3Plus files natively to MD. The software will not therefore be a MAC version of Sonic Stage, but will come close to having a lot of the functionality that Sonic Stage has on board. In any case the most important functions are present. The Mac software will be available from Summer 2006 via the Sony support page (www.sonydigital-link.com). It is also assumed that the software will be able to be used with first and second generation Hi-MD devices. It is not called “Hi-MD Music transfer” for nothing. Unfortunately this has not yet been confirmed by Sony themselves, therefore it remains an assumption. What is also still an assumption is whether you can also upload old MD’s to a MAC as is possible with the MZ-RH1 if used with SonicStage 3.4. We think that this will not be possible, because it has not been spoken about in any document. However perhaps Sony will surprise us with this as with a number of other improvements in the RH1, you can never know, but we provisionally assume that the uploading of old MD recordings will (for the moment) be an exclusively for PC’s and SonicStage.
Improved MP3 Playback
 Figure 1, Frequency analysis output MZ-RH1.
 Figure 2, Frequency analysis output MZ-RH10.
 Figure 3, Frequency analysis output MZ-RH10 (log scale).
There was one comment after another that appeared regarding the MP3 playback in the second generation Hi-MD’s. The most important problem that many people had was that a track in MP3 format sounded a lot duller on an MD-walkman than the ATRAC version of the same MP3. This could of course make the ATRAC version sound a lot better than the source from which it was made. However if you played the ATRAC and MP3 version back on the PC there was no audible difference. After some further research by members of the MD community it appeared that if you compared the frequency spectrum of MP3 and ATRAC that the characteristic frequency of MP3 and ATRAC (and also PCM) through the headphone out started at a frequency of 1 KHz (1000 Hz) and slowly fell until 20 KHz (the upper limit of what most people can hear) that a difference of approximately 6db had occurred. This was why when playing back MP3’s the high tones were much less audible resulting in the music sounding much duller and less lively. People have tried to resolve this issue by using the equalizer then you always had to change the settings yourself depending on whether you were listening to an ATRAC track or MP3. This led many people to go ahead and convert everything to ATRAC.
Therefore one of the first things we wanted to try in the RH1 when we got our hands on it was this “complaint” to see if Sony themselves had also arrived at the same conclusions and had improved it. On site at Sony we briefly had the chance to test this and it indeed seemed as if the problem (either partially or entirely) had been solved. On the return trip home we were more and more persuaded of this since we couldn’t hear any clear difference anymore between ATRAC, PCM and MP3. Of course we also wanted to “concretely” confirm these findings doing a frequency analysis of both one PCM, ATRAC3Plus (256 kbps) and MP3 (256 kbps) file. In fact the difference in the high end proved to be no longer there. To be certain of this we did the same analysis again with the MZ-RH10 (2nd generation Hi-MD) and the difference now appeared obvious. We also did the same analysis on a logarithmic scale so that it is very clear to see that at 1KHz the line representing the MP3 file starts to drop. In this analysis the following color codes have been used: For many this will come as a great relief, but it becomes even better yet. Whereas the 2nd generation Hi-MD’s could only playback MP3’s with a sampling frequency of 44.1KHz the MZ-RH1 can also playback Mp3’s with sampling frequencies of 32 KHz and 48 KHz. For most people this will not mean a great deal because 44.1 KHz is by far the most widely used, but you may accidentally come up against a more exotic MP3 file and that is now no longer a problem either. 32 KHz is still used quite often for audio books and 48 KHz is the sample frequency which is used amongst other things for audio on DVD.
Improved USB Speeds
Something else that was immediately apparent to us on our visit to Sony was that it seemed as if the data transfer via USB was considerably faster than that of the 1st and 2nd generation Hi-MD. Naturally we also tested this in depth and it indeed seems that data transfer via USB has improved considerably in several areas. The first which was already noticeable in earlier Hi-MD’s was that transferring music was always considerably faster than transferring data through Windows Explorer. This explains why speed improvements for data are much larger than those for audio. This means that the transfer speeds for data and music are now very close to each other but it is clear that they have both increased. Because the exact speeds are somewhat dependant on what you transfer and what the configuration of your PC is, we really want to give an approximate indication of what you can expect. Also we didn’t configure any special test setup therefore there is no guarantee that you will get these speeds in every situation. Therefore what we have done is to measure the speed differences between the MZ-RH10 (2nd generation Hi-MD) and the RH1 and then expressed these differences as percentages. These percentages are thus an indication of improvements in speed between the last two generations of Hi-MD because we have used the same test setup for both. Because as we said there is also quite a difference depending on whether you transfer many small files or one large file we have also tested these differences. The following table may therefore seem rather confusing and complex and the percentages to vary somewhat, but as mentioned before much is dependant on the exact situation in which you conduct the tests. For this reason, and for the sake of clarity we have summarized the measured differences and it is also useful to note that all these speeds relate to Hi-MD formatted discs.
descriptionupload / downloadtypedisc-typeSpeed (MB/sec)improvement
MZ-RH1MZ-RH10
1 file of 135 MBdownloaddata1 GB1,00,5104%
1 file of 135 MBuploaddata1 GB1,10,741%
200 files of 1 MB eachdownloaddata1 GB0,70,477%
200 files of 1 MB eachuploaddata1 GB0,90,569%
Hi-SP (via computer to MD)downloadmusic1 GB0,90,730%
Hi-SP (via computer to MD)uploadmusic1 GB0,40,340%
Hi-SP (own recording)uploadmusic1 GB0,50,442%
1 file of 135 MBdownloaddata80 min0,90,2318%
1 file of 135 MBuploaddata80 min1,10,4149%
100 files of 1 MB eachdownloaddata80 min0,60,2189%
100 files of 1 MB eachuploaddata80 min1,00,3222%
PCM (own recording)uploadmusic80 min0,50,434%
  Tabel 3, Improvements in transferspeeds.

  1. If we look at the upload and downloading of music to Hi-MD then this has improved between 30 – 40%. Although uploads are still approximately 2x as slow as downloads the improvement in speed in both cases is about the same.
  2. In particular writing single large files to Hi-MD has greatly improved. However the average of uploads and downloads if taking into account that you are dealing mainly with smaller files means that you will have a speed improvement of on average around 70%. This will be a relief for many people as data transfer via Windows Explorer was generally very slow. It will never be as fast as writing to a hard-drive but as an alternative to a USB stick the RH1 holds its own.
  3. What is particularly noteworthy however is the speed advantage that is gained when transferring data via Windows Explorer to normal MD discs that have been reformatted as Hi-MD discs. Here too there are differences between uploading and downloading large and small files but on average the speed here has increased by about 200%. This means that data transfer has become almost 3x faster for ordinary MD discs. It also means that the difference in speed between 1GB and 80/74/60 min discs has been greatly reduced as a result of which it makes it a lot more attractive to use your old MD discs in Hi-MD mode. Certainly with stories concerning the disappointing durability of rewritable CD’s and DVD’s it is perhaps a good idea to use you trusted old MD’s for storing really important data on. Ordinary MD discs have already been around for nearly 15 years and in that 15 years have proven to be very reliable at storing data (in most cases music).
Another point that is noticeable if we look at the data from the table is that if examined the speed of the MZ-RH1 for 1GB discs is now approaching the maximum quoted by Sony approximately 2 years ago when they first introduced the Hi-MD disc.
Retention of personal settings
A much-aired complaint in previous generations of MD walkman was that the devices did not remember the recording settings that you had chosen. You therefore had to dive right into the menu each time before you started the recording select your chosen recording level (the Automatic Gain Control which is set to on by default is often unusable for professional recordings). Fortunately Sony have changed this with the MZ-RH1. It remembers the settings you have chosen previously and thus these are the defaults for the next recording even if you have swapped the disc in the walkman. The settings are only forgotten if you remove the Li-ion battery from the walkman (for some period of time) and no external adaptor is connected.
Battery charging via USB
As has already been noted the MZ-RH1has no separate connection for the external power adaptor. This is because the supplied adaptor comes with a USB connector. It is possible therefore to use the same cable if you connect the RH1 to the computer as to the provided adaptor. This signifies a space saving in the RH1 as one less connector is necessary, but it also has the advantage that there is just a single external power source (from the RH1’s point of view) and that is the USB connection. This also means that there is a single charging procedure for the Li-ion battery and that is the “best” (full) charging mode. Whereas with previous Hi-MD’s charging via USB meant a fixed charging period without actually specifying if the battery was fully charged or not, the MZ-RH1 has just a single charging program that is used for both USB and the normal adaptor. With the RH1it actually checks to see how full the battery is and if it is still full then immediately stops charging. It is then displayed how long is needed for the battery to be charged and then the battery will be charged up to about 80% in approximately an hour. Following this the remaining 20% takes about 3 hours although this is not visible on the display of the RH1. This is in fact the same charging procedure as for the MZ-NH1 only the latter could not be charged via USB.

 Display 1, Menu.
 Display 2, Menu: REC Settings.
 Display 3, Menu: REC Settings: REC mode.
 Display 4, Menu: Option: FW version.
 Display 5, Exit the menu.

Display and menu structure
In that which follows we will show the menu structure and furthermore discuss what can be accomplished therein together with what is or isn’t possible. Also we would like to show give a global overview of the double display of the MZ-RH1 and how it is used. This we have done through the use of a number of screenshots together with accompanying explanations.

Beware! Because the MZ-RH1 is still a prototype, it may be that a number of options are still lacking in the menu. These options are often added at the last minute if all the new things have been successfully tested. .It could be therefore that the actual menu of the RH1 that appears in stores is greatly expanded.

The menu of the RH1 is rather clear. It seems as if they have chosen to place all the recording related options on the main unit itself so you can select all the recording functions by using the main unit. All the functions that are important for playback are not found on the main unit menu but in the menu on the remote control.
First of all there follows an overview of all the functions and options which can be found in the menu on the unit itself. The menu on the RH1 is selected by pressing and holding the display/menu button for one second or more.

 Display 6, REC: type of recording.
 Display 7, REC: recording time.
 Display 8, REC: remaining time.
 Display 9, REC: recordingsettings.
 Display 10, REC: current date/time.
 Display 11, REC: adjusting recordinglevel.
 Display 12, REC: datasave.
 Display 13, REC: systemfile writing.
There now follows an overview of all the functions and options which can be found in the menu on the remote control. The menu on the RH1 is selected by pressing and holding the display button for one second or more.

Also under the sound button of remote control there are a complete range of settings for adjusting the sound of the MZ-RH1 to your own taste or to the sound of your headphones.

Finally with the display button on the remote control you can access a lot of information displaying the disc info or the number of the track you are listening to. By clicking on the display button several times you can show the following information:

We will now continue with the display of the MZ-RH1. This display as clearly shown on several photos sits on the side of the RH1. As already mentioned this location may at first sight seem awfully strange but in fact it appears to be very logical in practice. The display of the RH1 consists of two one-line displays placed side by side. This may not seem like much, but by the way in which the two displays are used you can fact obtain a lot of information in a clear fashion. With around thirty photos of the RH1’s display we want to show how it is used and what information you see when you choose certain options. First of all we have the illustrations “Display 1” to “Display 5”. Display 1 shows what appears if you activate the menu. You can then see on display 2 and 3 how you can navigate further through the menu and in display 4 that the firmware in the prototype of the MZ-RH1 is not yet the final version and therefore many things could still be subject to change. Finally Display 5 shows how you can go through the menu using the jog button. Because the transition from one display to another also features animation in the menu you can clearly see how the menu structure looks. We have also made a short film that gives an idea of how the menu really works.

This small film can be downloaded here: video menu.
This small film has been encoded in DivX 5 format and contains no sound. For this reason here is a short explanation of what you see:

  1. RH1 playing music.
  2. The menu is activated and a number of options are displayed
  3. No settings are changed and the menu is exited
  4. Playback is stopped
  5. The menu is again accessed to change the recording mode. Making a change automatically exits the menu.
  6. After changing the setting this is also displayed outside the menu.

Then displays 6 till 13 let you see all the information that gets shown when making a recording. Display 6 lets you briefly see after having started recording which recording mode is being used and which input. Then we have the level meters with the sound level of the left and right channels appearing as in display 7. You also get the track number (and if applicable the group number) to see where the recording will be stored. You also get to see the entire length of the recording in progress. Pressing once on the display button you then get the recording time remaining instead of the lap-time (hence the R). This is the time left before the disc is full. In the case of display 8, around 20 minutes. If you press once more on the display button you get all the recording settings displayed at once. Display 9 shows that the recording is made in PCM on a Hi-MD formatted disc, that the recording level has been set to manual 19 and the microphone sensitivity is set to low. Press once more and you can see the current time (this way you can check that the time is set correctly and therefore the recording date and time will also be recorded correctly). With display 11 we show you that you can adjust the recording level during the recording by moving the jog button up or down (you do not need to access the menu to do this). The recording is first stopped and the walkman will write the remaining data (see display 12). At this point you will see a progress bar. Then the recording is concluded by writing the system file.
 Display 14, Play: tracktime.
 Display 15, Play: remaining tracktime.
 Display 16, Play: remaining disctime.
 Display 17, Play: date/time recording.
 Display 18, Play: spectrum analyser.
 Display 19, Play: ritmic balls.
 Display 20, Play: adjusting volume.
 Display 21, Startup.
 Display 22, Stop: length track.
 Display 23, Stop: remaining recordingtime.
 Display 24, Stop: remaining discspace.
 Display 25, Stop: recording settings.
 Display 26, Stop: current date/time.
 Display 27, Stop: spectrum analyser.
Next we will quickly run through all the information which can be displayed during playback of a piece of music. We will do this through displays 14 to 20. The RH1 remembers which display setting was used last and straight away uses the same next time. Display 14 shows the default playback view. Here from left to right you see the battery indicator, level-meter (sound levels for the left and right channels), group number, track number (within the group) and how much of the track has already played. If you then press the display button the remaining time appears in place of the time elapsed. Pressing once again on the display button you will see how many tracks are left on the disc and total time remaining (display 16). Pressing again gives you the date and time on which the recording was made. Admittedly most of these options have been available in previous MD walkmans, however the display option in “display 18” is new to the MD world. On this display you see a spectrum analyzer displayed for both left and right channels showing the frequencies of the sound currently being heard. Pressing again you can see a variation on the spectrum analyzer but instead of rising and falling bars you get a series of balls that grow or shrink. This rather playful option to our mind seems a little out of place on a device Sony themselves have labeled “semi-professional”, but hey even the engineers at Sony live it up once in a while. Finally you can see in display 20 how the volume is adjusted.

 Display 28, USB: stop.
 Display 29, USB: read/write.
 Display 30, USB: ready for next task.
 Display 31, USB: disc can be ejected.
We will then move on to the display options available when the walkman is in a stopped state (if nothing is playing, recording or being transferred via USB but the unit is not yet completely switched off). This you can see in displays 21 to 27. In display 21 you can see the startup logo that is displayed which moves in from the right to the left of the screen and changes from light to dark until the unit is ready. Next in display 22 you can see from left to right: the battery indicator, the disc mode and the recording mode together with the group number, track number and elapsed time when the RH1 was stopped. Next if you press once on the display button you can see as in displays 23 and 24 how much can still be recorded in the given recording mode and how much space remains (in MB’s) on the disc. Press the display button once again to see which recording settings have been selected. You can thus see in display 25 from left to right, disc mode, ,recording mode, recording level and microphone sensitivity. Pressing again on the display button gives you the current time and date and finally you can see the spectrum analyzer but as nothing is happening this is of little use.

Finally we have a set of four displays that you will see if you have your RH1 connected to the PC (displays 28 to 31). In display 28 you can see what is displayed after connecting the walkman. On the far left you see the battery charging, in addition what format disc is loaded and to the far right you see an indicator of the data transfer. The moment data is written to the MD disc the word “access” appears on the display to indicate there is activity and that something is being read from or written to the disc. Also starting from the far right a small ball runs back and forth as data is being transmitted across the USB cable. The data transfer complete the R1 stays ready for the next command from the PC and the display is like that in image 30 where the word “standby” is shown. To remove the disc from the device you must then press on the stop button (to avoid you removing it accidentally). If the disc can safely be removed the message “eject disc ok” appears as in display 31.

Dynamic normalizer
The dynamic normalizer function can be found via the remote control of the RH1, unfortunately we weren’t able to see that this function actually did anything useful. The function should take recordings with different volume levels and adjust them so that they have approximately the same levels during playback. Unfortunately we didn’t have any manual for the MZ-RH1 to see how this should work. It could also be that because this unit was a prototype the function was not yet fully enabled.

Other

In addition to the important new functionality there are still a number of things that will interest many people that will be covered in this chapter.
Playback time
As far as playback time is concerned there is nothing spectacular to report. However because this is an important feature we can’t really not include this information. What I can say is that we only once tried to completely empty the battery of the RH1. The battery was at that point about 80% charged. We wanted to empty it as quickly as possible so we therefore started to record in PCM mode and placed the output volume at the maximum level. Nevertheless it took 3 complete 1GB (3 x 90 minutes) discs before the battery was completely drained. This means a recording time of 4.5 hours in PCM mode for a battery that is 80% full and with all possible energy draining functions activated. So for a 100% charged battery this would mean more than 5.5 hours which is nevertheless in the region of the 6 hours quoted by Sony for recording in PCM mode on a 1 GB disc and where Sony nearly always assumes optimum conditions. The optimum case for the RH1 there proves to be quite close to reality and therefore the other times will also come close to reality.
Hi-MD mode80/74/60 min disc1 GB disc
RecordPlaybackRecordPlayback
Lineair PCM58610
Hi-SP914,5915,5
Hi-LP10,518,510,519
Mp31616,5
  Tabel 4, Batterylife Hi-MD mode.
MD modeRecordPlayback
SP stereo8,515,5
LP210,517,5
LP41219
  Tabel 5, Batterylife MD mode.
Supplied Accessories
There now follows a list of the accessories supplied with the MZ-RH1:

 Picture 4, Another closup of the MZ-RH1 with supplied remote and headphones.

Quick facts about the MZ-RH1
Because we can’t cover all the small details of the device in another chapter here are a number of quick facts that will hopefully answer a lot of your questions:
     Picture 5, MZ-RH1 with 3-line remote.
  1. The MZ-RH1 has a retail price of 350 euro
  2. In Holland (and therefore also in the rest of Europe) it will only be available in black
  3. The MZ-RH1 will be available in Europe in the 3rd week of May, in Japan in the second half of April
  4. The European and Japanese versions are the same except that the European version has a volume limitation as EU regulations now prescribe
  5. The casing of the MZ-RH1 is made of…..
  6. The “Hi-MD Music Transfer For Mac” software will be available from Summer 2006
  7. The RM-MC40ELK 3 Line remote that come with the NH1 (amongst others) works in full with the prototype version of the RH1
  8. No external battery pack can be connected to the RH1
  9. The software package for the RH1 will consist of Sonic Stage 3.4, Simple Burner 2.0 and Hi-MD Music Transfer for Mac
  10. The MZ-RH1 has a standard USB connector
  11. The dimensions of the RH1 are 83.8 x 84.4 x 14.7 mm
  12. Track titles can be entered via the remote
  13. The A-B repeat function for repeating a small section of music is now back
  14. As with other models there are 2 custom EQ presets
  15. A rehearsal mode for track marks is available
Downsides
Before making way for the conclusion you will of course be wondering if there are any downsides to the MZ-RH1. Of course there are and I will go through these here. These weak points however in no way stand out in proportion to the leaps forward that Sony have made in brining out the MZ-RH1.

Conclusion

Perhaps our judgment can not be 100% independent but you can rightly say that with the MZ-RH10 Sony has put out the walkman that features nearly all the important functions people found lacking in previous models. This is especially true in the area of recording. Also there are no options that were present in previous models that have now been discarded. We can therefore think like Sony themselves of the MZ-RH1 a semi-professional portable recording studio. It is also very clear that the RH1 was conceived from this angle.
But is the M-RH1 intended only for making your own recordings? Certainly not! If we compare the MZ-RH1 with the “normal top model” from the previous generation (MZ-RH10 because the MZ-DH10P fell a little outside that norms) then the MZ-RH1 also has many improvements which have nothing to do with making recordings. Thus there is the improved MP3 playback, the higher transfer speeds via USB and the HD Digital Amplifier. Also a large step forward is the software coming in the summer for the Mac with which will be made available a number of functions that can only be done with Sonic Stage on a PC and can now also be done on a Mac. Furthermore the metal casing and the LCD remote control as standard are a big improvement. All this for the price of between 300 and 350 euros. This may seem in the first instance quite a lot but when you consider that as regards functionality the MZ-RH1 can perhaps best be compared to the MZ-NH1 (but with even more functions) then the 350 euros are not much at all if you consider that the MZ-NH1 at introduction had a retail price of 450 euros.
Then almost forgetting THE new function that a lot of MD fanatics have been waiting for since the first NetMD. The MZ-RH1 is the first device that can upload via USB old MD recordings to the PC (with earlier Hi-MD generations only Hi-MD recordings were possible). Although as the first information was leaked out it was frequently stated that the RH1 was an update to the 2nd generation Hi-MD it is clear that the MZ-RH1 can proudly call itself a 3rd generation Hi-MD walkman. It is fact the first model since the move from NetMD to Hi-MD to come to the market with so many new features and it is the first MD walkman since the introduction of NetMD where Sony have actually listened to what the average MD user wants instead of the music industry.
We regret having to give this prototype back to Sony and for a short time go back to the inferior MZ-RH10 that itself was still a very good Hi-MD walkman, but the end of May can’t come soon enough so that we can definitively buy a new MZ-RH1!

It just remains for us to thank:

 

Geschreven door: Marck Evers
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