MD archeology

[ShriDurga]

Last week I picked up a used Sony bookshelf system from someone leaving Dubai. He threw in a box of MDs, a photo of which I present here. After you've had a look at it, I wonder what you can tell us about this person's MD behavior or habits. This is the box exactly as I received it, like some treasure dug up from a buried palace. I'll post more photos of selected discs should this exercise prove of any interest. In the meantime, what can you tell about this MD user from the evidence in the photo? In truth, I know little about him but his name, email, phone, that he's English and leaving soon for a new post in Singapore.

[MDietrich]

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Last week I picked up a used Sony bookshelf system from someone leaving Dubai. He threw in a box of MDs, a photo of which I present here. After you've had a look at it, I wonder what you can tell us about this person's MD behavior or habits. This is the box exactly as I received it, like some treasure dug up from a buried palace. I'll post more photos of selected discs should this exercise prove of any interest. In the meantime, what can you tell about this MD user from the evidence in the photo? In truth, I know little about him but his name, email, phone, that he's English and leaving soon for a new post in Singapore.

I´ll try: he didn´t buy the most expensive MDs. What that means I have no idea. Maybe he wasn´t interested that much in haptic quality. Or he simply didn´t care.

He´s an orderly person, titling his MDs. The music he likes... well, he does have taste. Blur, Ella Fitzgerald, Daft Punk and Faithless. Clubmusic, jazz, alternative rock. On occasion he experiments with different styles like Dido or Elvis Costello... or Boyzone (!). There´s also an MD especially made for cooking. Either for a girlfriend or for himself...

Some MDs are not titled by him but by another person, judging from differing styles of writing on several MDs. Which could mean that he convinced someone else to invest into MD or that he was convinced.

I cannot see very much I´m afraid, except stating the obvious.

[ShriDurga]

Good start. Sometimes archaeology is simply that - stating the obvious and establishing the facts.

How about a time line? Can dates be established? The unit he sold me is a DHC-MD333. I don't know that he ever owned any other unit.

[PhilippeC]

He preferred to send you his collection without the cases to loose some weight and maybe he lost them a long time ago.

That is a very common way to store old MDs. Put them like that in a drawer or a big carton box and then forget them a long time (long enough for a sil... good archeology cogitation)..

[ShriDurga]

The photo shows that most every MD is stored in a case.

[sescoscuba]

a LP a md; It is a choice not to use LP2?

Labels (available only for each md 2) indicate that have not been recorded more than once/twice.

Cafe del mar vol. seis released in 1999 ( before mdlp)

Many mds MMore, TDK, Sony, victor / jvc; not a crazy collector of blanks but only a audiophile.

[ShriDurga]

Some more photos: MDs by brand; jvc front and back; mmore front and back

[Matt C]

I'm going to guess that he received the "Blondie" original MD as a 'freebie' when he purchased his MD player.

I also think her bought a bunch of blank Sony discs and immediately set to copying his favourite albums first (handwriting style and ink match on several discs of the same brand). The lack of 'personal mixes' suggests that he was looking just to duplicate his albums.

I agree with sescoscuba that it appears that the discs have perhaps only been recorded on once (ink instead of pencil, original labels).

The fact that they are mostly still in their original cases suggests that he did not use a 'storage wallet', which means he is less likely to have regularly used them with a portable or car head-unit.

In fact, given the lack of scratches on the cases, and the single use of original labels, I think that perhaps his MD player saw very little use. Perhaps purchased as a 'fad' or 'gift', it doesn't look like he particularly made much use of it (Again, not much in the way of 'mix tapes')

Perhaps the 'cooking' MD suggests a brief interlude where he has tried to find another 'use' for the format?