Nostalgic technologies article

David Griffith wrote: Aye, too true. I am, however, still keeping my MZ-RH1 (that'll be MZ-M200 to anyone on the other side of the pond) on the grounds that it's the best tool I've found to record lectures *and* listen to music on the train. I've never met anyone who could talk for long enough to fill an entire HiMD disc on Hi-LP mode (IIRC that's about 35 hours). Crippling NetMD (the PC <==> MD transfer system) to only allow transfers from PC to MD (and prevent you deleting those tracks even if they weren't covered by SonicStage's DRM -- you can get around this with a CD emulator and a copy of Simple Burner) was a terrifically bad idea. Though that said, at least they left the optical output relatively unmolested. The RH1 seems to have been built as a "last ditch" by Sony. Something along the lines of "this may well be the last MD recorder we ever design, so let's make it *really* *friggin'* *good*". The lack of any significant volume limiting on the headphone output of European RH1s (unlike previous MD units) and the HD-Digital amplifier were the icing on the cake. They have carved themselves something of a niche though -- nearly every journalist I know or have met either owns or has access to a Minidisc recorder. I've heard they're popular with musicians as well (sound quality vs. cost, I guess). You can have my Minidisc recorder when you pry it from my cold dead hands! -- Phil. classiccmp at philpem.me.uk http://www.philpem.me.uk/