is MD a dead format?

[big_pear]

Here state side the MD format is not all that popular. Just a few nich market people here and there. How about over there in japan, do many people use the MD in their every day commutes, or has mp3 just blown it out.
Tdora

[Big Booger]

MD rocks here. Even old timers have MD players in Japan. MD are small compact and hold a lot of songs, making them very popular among Japanese.
BB

[Taro Toporific]

Here state side the MD format is not all that popular. Just a few nich market people here and there. How about over there in japan, do many people use the MD in their every day commutes, or has mp3 just blown it out.

MD was always biggest in Japan...more than anywhere else in the world. In particular, MD was HUGE at CD rental stores for a while here. CD-r has been eating away at the MD market, but CD-r capable Diskman type players have been rare until a few months ago. MD live recording of concerts is still very popular in Japan. Now that 8+Mbs broadband is the norm in Japan, mp3 eating into MD.

Note that the portable music market still has plenty of cassette players which MD has been replacing for some years. The stores in Japan still are offering 50% cassette Walkman, 35% MD hardware to only 15% MP3 and CDr types of portable hardware.

Bottom line: MD will live a long lingering death in Japan because its installed base is large like cassette.

[Andocrates]

MD has one major flaw, the sound has noticeable compression (much like MP3). The winner should have been DAT but those freaking RIAA people killed that format back in the late 80's early 90's. DAT is better then CD (although statically they are supposed to be the same resolution,) DAT is cleaner with less errors. If not for the medalling with capitalism we would all have portable DAT players.

[Marvin Feltcher]

MD are small compact and hold a lot of songs, making them very popular among Japanese.

Actually, most Japanese I know are small and compact and hold a lot of songs.
[/quote]

[Taro Toporific]

MD are small compact and hold a lot of songs, making them very popular among Japanese.

Actually, most Japanese I know are small and compact and hold a lot of songs.

Yeh, but the distortion is terrible in that medium.

[big_pear]

MD are small compact and hold a lot of songs, making them very popular among Japanese.

Actually, most Japanese I know are small and compact and hold a lot of songs.

Yeh, but the distortion is terrible in that medium.

Hmm, seem to have stired the pot and some audiofiles have raisen to the surface. Still it sounds ok in the car, i've just never ventured into the lp modes.

[Taro Toporific]

MD are small compact and hold a lot of songs, making them very popular among Japanese.

Actually, most Japanese I know are small and compact and hold a lot of songs.

Yeh, but the distortion is terrible in that medium.

Hmm, seem to have stirred the pot and some audiophiles have raisen to the surface. Still it sounds ok in the car, i've just never ventured into the lp modes.

Since Marvin and I are joking about small and compact Japanese people who are full of karaoke songs, "the long playing modes" that we would be talking about are drunkenly dangerous modes of singing. On the plus side, the Karaoke Box is the cheapest Love Hotel in Japan and often the first place teenagers get to third base and beyond.

[big_pear]

OK, thanks for the tip now i'll know where to avoid if I ever visit.

[Marvin Feltcher]

I don't know about you, Taro, but I kinda like a little bit of distortion.

[Taro Toporific]

MD are small compact and hold a lot of songs, making them very popular among Japanese.

Actually, most Japanese I know are small and compact and hold a lot of songs.

Yeh, but the distortion is terrible in that medium.

I don't know about you, Taro, but I kinda like a little bit of distortion.

OH NO! A journalist that likes "distortion."

Me? I prefer my "instrument" distorted --ouch--. There's nothin' like gettin' a good hummer on a Theremin or a Les Pauls stratocaster.

All sound is energy -its nature and status remain uncontrollable - only directable.
--Morton Subotnick, mukashi no sensei

[Marvin Feltcher]

Can see very clearly where you're coming from.
As for myself, I think it all comes down to the speakers. Trouble is, I always end up with dirty woofers.

[Taro Toporific]

As for myself, I think it all comes down to the speakers. Trouble is, I always end up with dirty woofers.

Yuck woofers!
Here at Maybe-the-Largest Inc., I have trouble with tweeters---you know, the birds. You all those 4-octaves above normal, telephone-answering Ocha-girls. And of course, there's the jungle full of bird calls: the cheerily chirps of the copier and printers as well as the plaintiff cries to the fax machines and modems trying to make congress over the Aether.