[lagavulin]

Okay,


So, when recording on MD how much of a difference in sound is there, when recording from a PC-Link type device (USB to optical) as opposed to optical to optical?

The reason I ask is that the new MD-N1 NetMD Walkman is ostensibly being released on December 10th, and was wondering if the high speed dubbing from a CD-ROM would sacrifice much sound.

 

[leon]

It seems that in the NetMD process, the encoding of ATRAC (or ATRAC3) data is done on the computer, and then sent to the MD equipment to be written onto the disc.

Here's an illustration in Japanese, showing "check out" "check in" between the PC and the NetMD equipment.

http://www.sony.co.jp/sd/CorporateCr...912/netmd.html

So in theory, at least, the quality of the encoding depends on how much processing power from your computer is allocated for the purpose.

The processors on MD portables seem to be of PDA-level (probably closer to Palm level than PocketPC level) in their capability. So one would think that a PC's processor should be capable of doing a better encoding job, if not also faster.