I am a very late minidisc adopter (February 2007). I bought it (rh-1)mostly for its recording capabilities, but I find that I'm using it to listent to tunes as well. It now seems like the rh-1 will probably be the last minidisc player. Now, as a listening medium, I think we can agree that minidisc wasn't going to survive. While the sound quality is great, there is no reason that a flash based player can't be just as good. Whether or not Sony screwed minidisc with too much DRM, it would be going out anyway, as flash memory is getting so cheap. My main question, and it is purely speculation, but where will Sony go in the portable recording field? No doubt that people who have used minidisc for recording want a quality product. I'm not sure that the various cheap (not Marantz and Tascam) units will satisfy those folks. While the PCM-D1 appears great, there is no reason why a similar unit couldn't be made without microphones and preamp. Personally, I'd love to see Sony focus their quality electronics on a unit like the PCM-D1, but without the microphones. I think this could be quite small and quite competative. I'm assuming that Sony isn't going to pack up their portable recording market. They have been competative there, and there is no reason why they can't in the future.
