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twenty y ago......... (Guardian music blog)

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sescoscuba

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To this day, at least in the US, the number of blank looks you can get if you mention "Minidisc" is almost equal to the number of mentions. I remain at least somewhat infatuated, but then I also have a longstanding infatuation with the command line.

Same here in Germany. But your infatuation with the command line could come in handy. At least you know what a 'switch' is when someone talks about using them with mp3, flac or wavpack.

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Price seems to be an important factor in MD's 'downfall'. It certainly delayed my entry into the MD world, until 2000 when I could finally afford one, having hankered after one for a long time. By this time home CD recorders, pocket sized CD players and even the early MP3 players were becoming established.

The 'quality' issue wasn't really a factor (for laypeople me), as the term 'CD qualty' was rife and many believed that digital was digital - in fact some still do. Ditto the capacity - 80 mins was the same as a CD, most people's portable digital music carrier, amd MD players were smaller than a CD player. The Ipod and similar higher capacity 'MP3' players changed all that and by the time MDLP came along in 2000 the death knell was already ringing... Sad.

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Good article. I really love the MD format and don't plan on giving it up. I have a whole bunch that will last a long time for me (hopefully the rest of my life). I just need to make some mixes with my blanks and use them more often. I just recently put my MDX-CA790X into my Pontiac Fiero so that I can use them when I drive it.

If they would have been cheaper, I would've bought one back in the 90's when I first heard about them. Oh well, I still use them to record concerts though.

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a whole bunch that will last a long time in my life...

Can anybody MP3 sticker owner guys or Ipods geeks can say the same ?

the most you will get from an ipod if you look after it is around 5 years

my daughter and all of her friends have only made it to year 3 in which all of the hard drives have failed.

the cost for a new hard drive is around £75 fitted as you cant do it yourself without the right tools

i have a brand new sony model MWZ-A846 which i got from sony made in japan so i guess that is pretty unique and yes it's very well built but still a little restricted i find sound wise a bit on the low side

i will sell it at some point as it is still new i have only used it once but i doubt it's worth anything as it was very expensive and these things are not really worth anything if i'm being honest

apple are just lucky and the public taken in but delve inside and you haven't got much at all just a public taken in by a shiny box

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've had my 160GB ipod for about 5 years now and haven't had any real problems with it. I have taken apart my friends' ipods to replace batteries and hard drives so I have a little bit of experience with it so when it comes to fixing mine I should be ok. It is a pain in the butt though. I've also been buying some older ipod minis from 2005 and replacing the batteries and also replacing the 4GB or 6GB hard drives with 32GB or 64GB compact flash cards. Supposedly the flash memory uses less battery power but I haven't seen it yet.

It's just too bad that ipods and mp3 players aren't as easily fixed as our Minidisc players. I really wish that MD had become the ultimate format for audio listening and what not. I feel that it truly was/is the ultimate format, far superior to cassettes and CDs in alot of ways. It's all about what is the easiest (laziest) option for some people. I know that recently I have been guilty of it. As much as I enjoy making a custom MD mix, it can be time consuming and a pain sometimes.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello, MDers. It's been a long time.

Last weekend I was off on a road trip. I searched online and found enough new music worth sampling to to fill up one Hi-MD. My new computer, purchased in summer, still didn't have Sonic Stage installed. Getting around to that I found reference to a recent news entry to MD.

Nothing new here really, but it's nice to see MD still shows up from time to time (if only to remember it's passing).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2012/sep/24/sony-minidisc-20-years

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  • 8 months later...

It's always a shame when the price of something makes it unobtainable to those who are interested.

If I remember correctly, the Sharp MD MT80 I had back in 04/05 was just shy of £80 from a shop called Argos. Quite a lot of money for a portable music player but given what they -or at least some of them- could do, I don't really feel like £80 was that bad, certainly looking back on it anyway.

The sad truth of it is, they would have been ousted either way. Had they caught on, they may have enjoyed more success ... but time kills. Something better always comes along.

I just enjoy it for what it is, and for the pleasure it gives me. Making my own discs, the convenience, the reliability. And these days, the cheapness. In that sense, and to the others who feel similar to I do about it, it DID catch on. Collectivly it just wasnt enough it seems.

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