Digital Home Thoughts: Sony Hi-MD Technology - Should It Be On Your To-Buy List?

The Hardware
The MZ-NH1 that I bought is the flagship of the 2004 range. It has a magnesium case which gives it a solid feel and doesn't retain fingerprints. Other users have commented that the case is also scratch resistant but I didn't want to put mine to the test!


Figure 2: MZ-NH1 with remote control and headphones.

The front of the player has been simplified compared to my MZ-N707 - now, there is just stop, pause and record (Figure 2). The other controls have been moved to the side of the unit (Figure 3), with the case open slider on the top, the hold slider on the back, the inputs & outputs on the other side (Figure 4) and, finally, the charger/USB socket on the base. You can just see this socket in Figure 2.


Figure 3: Side view of the MZ-NH1.


Figure 4: Open side view of the MZ-NH1, showing headphone, mic and digital input sockets.

For quite some time now, Sony have been using remote controls in-line with the headphones. The remote on the MZ-NH1 has a three-line display (Figure 5) which allows more information to be displayed than previous remotes and also more than the main unit. In fact, the two parts work together to complement each other. The remote is intended to be the main "play" interface, i.e. you are out walking, the player is in your pocket and you've clipped the remote to your clothing, while the main unit has some controls like the record and T Mark buttons that are for managing the content and therefore don't need to be on the remote. One thing I do like about the Sony remotes is that the headphones connect through a standard socket. This allows you to use or change the headphones to suit your needs.


Figure 5: MZ-NH1 remote.

In addition to the hold slider on the main unit, the remote also has a hold slider. This means that you can keep the device permanently protected against accidental control activation, and switch the remote in and out of use. From the remote, you can initiate playing, move forwards & backwards through the tracks, stop play, change volume, change the content displayed on the remote, the play mode and the sound of the playback.

All the usual MD track features are there - labelling, grouping, deleting, splitting, combining. Hi-MD brings new features like being able to search for tracks by track, group, artist or album name, and being able to play by artist or album. The MZ-NH1 also has a 6-band equalizer that can be set to one of five presets or you can customise two other sets. On a particularly user-friendly note, the player remembers those settings on a per-disc basis! The settings are stored for up to 64 discs. When you exceed that limit, the player keeps the settings for the most-used discs.

The charging stand is a small unit that holds the player in a vertical position. It looks very nice but prevents you from connecting the player to the computer's USB cable at the same time because the stand uses the same connector in the base of the player. It truly is a missed opportunity on Sony's part not to allow the computer's USB cable to connect into this stand. If I want to connect the player to my computer, I have to remove it from the charger, plug the USB cable into it and then lay it down flat on the desk. Not only is this inconvenient, but it occupies more desk space and gets in the way.

To make matters worse, connecting the player to the USB cable and thus to the PC doesn't charge the battery in the player! Nor is there a way of plugging the charger into the USB cable as you can with Dell's Axim charger. The player does, thankfully, draw enough power from the USB cable to run the player. This means that you don't drain the battery while it is connected.

Overall, this seems to be a backward step from earlier models where the power and USB connection were separate and you didn't need the stand to charge the battery - you could plug the main adapter directly into the unit. Sony have also gone from an AA-size battery to a flat Li-Ion battery so you can't replace the battery with a non-rechargeable one in an emergency. That said, the battery is supposed to last up to 18 hours (1GB Hi-MD disc, Hi-LP format audio, playing continuously) so I don't think I'm going to suddenly find myself with a dead battery.

The case and headphones that you get with it are, to be frank, nothing much to write about. For my old MZ-N707, I got a nice vinyl case that clipped onto my belt. For the MZ-NH1, I get a draw-string bag that has a nasty feel to it and doesn't really do much to protect the player. The headphones will do the job but I've gotten used to and prefer my MDR-EX71 Fontopia headphones so any bundled headphones are off to a bad start :lol:.