🚀 go-pugleaf

On Wed, 15 Jan 1997 16:41:12 +0100, Mike Glantz
<mike.glantz@grenoble.rxrc.xerox.com> wrote:

>Giles wrote:
>> They might be buying up MDs fast in Japan but sales are stagnant or
>> falling elsewhere .  I have seen posts from people in the US who want
>> to know where they can obtain blank disks because stores are not
>> stocking them anymore due to low sales of the players and disks.
>
>I've seen those stories, too, but elsewhere, I've been seeing
>reports that MD sales are on the rise, in spite of the possibly
>short-sighted policies of some retailers. Where did you see recent
>market data saying that sales were stagnant or falling?

I have not seen any hard market sales stats for MD.  It is hearsay
I have read in the Datheads mailing list and seen in the press.  I
will admit the statement may have been a bit rash in that the
situation may be changing - Mea Culpa.

It is most likely that no one will ever be able to quote you hard
stats on MD sales as I doubt whether government statistical gatherers
outside of Australia collect the information.  The manufacturers can
not be trusted to be truthfull as they are not going to say that sales
are falling as this would be the kiss of death for the format.

Another souce of information - a bit more reliable - is that I
personally have never seen or encountered anyone with an MD player be
it walking down the street, on a bus or anywhere else.  Neither have I
seen anyone else with a DAT deck for that matter but given the
Australian price of these I am not surprised.

How did I form my opinion?   I went to a couple of shops in Tottenham
court Rd in London three years ago and I used a pair of Sony MDR D77
headphones to listen to the two media.  I am not into much loud heavy
rock so I listened to quieter types of music that the stores had.  The
MD was better than conventional cassete tape but to my ears was not as
clean sounding as the DAT.  Because of the way the compression works I
gather it has a harder time with quiter music as there is less you can
discard without it being noticeable.

I have not heard any of the latest generation machines - why would I
having already bought the DAT player?  I am willing to give MD another
go but to what point?  I am not going to buy one as I already have my
DAT.  This is not because I have a closed mind it is just the
financial practicalities of it all.   Technicly DAT will always be
superior to MD unless, as I said previously, they use DVD technology,
without compression or switch to using lossless compression.  You can
have as open mind as you like but how are you going to record 6-8
hours off FM radio onto  MD?

Giles


>> Why is MD better for home listening?  The format uses  compression
>> that discards a large part of the original information that one
>> supposedly can't hear.  Using Low-Fi headphones or speakers maybe but
>> using good headphones I certainly can hear the difference.
>
>You seem to have formed an opinion based on early-generation machines
>which, (and which you can confirm, if you're interested)
>did not implement ATRAC very well. Are you willing to give MD another
>chance, or is your mind closed on the subject?

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