> songs stored model has been a lesson for them. I do not expect sound
> quality to be improved by the directions things are going. Soon the CD
> producers will realize they only have to make the music sound quality
> good enough for mp3...
Well, yes and no. They included PCM recording in their latest Hi-MD,
which is a (big) step up compared to the atrac3-compression in their
previous models.
And let's be honest: "the kids" never cared much for high fidelity
anyways, and I think the specialist market will still cater their
customers just fine.
> Actually, that's already happening.
In the mainstream, yes. In the avantgarde and leftfield there is still
room for sonic maximizing.
> No amount of software hacking will improve the preamp. That's always
> been the limiting factor for sound quality in walkman MD.
True. But when you compare the price and the portability for a MD to
many other recorders it is still a bargain. I mean, there seems to be
suggestions that the Marantz 660 - an apparent dedicated field
recording unit - has as weak s/n specs as a MD, and that seems rather
ironic. And then there's the Edirol R-1, which also seems to be as
weak (or even weaker?) as an MD.
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