Geissler

I've discovered Chad VanGaalen and am enjoying his music immensely, it has that lofi feeling that instantly gives away that he records everything himself in his basement.. It's pretty inspiring, I love music that makes you think "hey, I can do that too!"

Yeah.. I can see the romantic appeal of MD trading but I'm not convinced it's worth the effort and expenditure when uploading an album to zshare/mediafire is so easy..

Can you even play flac on an ipod without hacking linux onto it? Encoding mp3 at a higher bitrate would probably be an easier solution - but I suspect your gripe is with the actual ipod. Just search the classifieds for any "netMD" compatible player, if you want to be able to download songs via USB. If you can live with realtime transfer and have a good soundcard, then get one of the classics with 80min discs. If I'm not mistaken the MZ-R50, MZ-R55, MZ-R900 and MZ-R37 are all held in pretty high regard.

Well, as far as removeable supports go I think flash is doing pretty well for itself, if a little scattered: SD, XD, minisd, microsd, CF and even sony's memory stick.. But yeah, it's too bad because you're totally right on the MD front, the technology itself is not outdated, sony simply didn't want to take advantage of it. And when I think about it, removeable flash memory is technically superior to MD in nearly every way (cheaper, smaller, higher capacity)... So, why are we still using MD?

This is exactly why I'm gonna start hoarding media and move my portable music listening back to the 80 minute MDs, MDLP at most. Yes, you have to record in real time, but the act of getting new music is much easier now than it was before - a few clicks and it's downloaded. My point is that the music experience is getting too easy, and there is too much choice. It may sound crazy, but since I started using MP3 players my appreciation for music has gone way down, to the point where I preferred listening to the sounds of the street rather than my own music. 20 gigs on an ipod and it was a pain in the arse just deciding WHAT to choose to listen to! Too much choice. Now when I burn an MD, I'm waiting excitedly like a little child for it to finish, and when I finally get to listen it's very rewarding, and I appreciate the music more and get a lot more out of it (MD forces you to listen to the same things more often, too!) Music is not about how many songs you can fit in your pocket. It's about how much you get out of each song. MDs have soul, and it shows. PS. I'm listening to Mew now - "and the glass handed kites". It's a little progressive and demands all of your attention. Gotta listen more before judging..

Yes, but even if this is true what difference does it make? When Sony is citing MD as outdated technology, it's pretty clear that its future is null. The future of MD lies pretty much within the people of this forum, enthusiasts with an eye for quality who don't care for moving with the herd. At least for me, I know that MD is GOOD, that it gives me pleasure to use.. When everyone moved to flash players all I could think was "where are you going?". I guess the simply fact that we are here speaks volumes about sony - they were able to build products so good that people cling onto them long after their time has come. Just look at my MZ-R50: 10 years of loyal service and still going strong. If apple discontinued all ipod products tomorrow, maybe there would be some sort of hardcore underground following like us - but I bet the ipods themselves wouldn't even last a year! Hold an MD (player/media, whatever) in your hand and you see clearly that "designed to fail" does not even enter its vocabulary. As long as people are still showing it love, MD has a future. After all, millions of blanks and players were produced over the years - the less people that use an ipod, the more there is for us

I just scored a "like-new" MZ-R50 on ebay for 30 euros, with battery and AA adapter.. I'll let you know how it is when it arrives! I already have an R50 but for the price, I couldn't resist. I guess this way I can pass songs between MDs without having to go through the computer, which is nice. Still looking for an MD player with internal AA for when I'm on the move though, these R50s are huge with the battery pack and a sony LIP-8 replacement costs 70 euros(!)

Great, I LOVE the prodigy's older stuff, it's the ultimate music to just get pumped up and excited! Glad to hear they're still on the right track, gonna have to listen to this. I'm currently in love with Amadou & Mariam's "welcome to mali", think traditional mali music + guitar and synths. It's a really happy album.

Thanks Bob! I'll be keeping one eye on the forums, the other on ebay..

The only place I can get blanks is at the sony store and one of those fancy golden 80min MDs costs 3 euros.. I live in spain. PM me. I do paypal.

Hi. Just wondering what it is exactly that's been killed off; I live in barcelona and the local sony store stills sells the golden 80 minute MDs (not cheap at 3 euros per disc, but oh well..)