I saw a picture of the Sony R700DPC. It is packaged like one of their portable
CD players that they'd expect to have quick sales on. For me that's a good sign
that Sony hasn't discontinued the idea of selling MD in the US yet.
I still think that the price is too high for the masses to consider. For $250
they can buy one of those mini systems with CD changer, tuner, 60 watt per
channel amp, dual cassette (yep I'm still seeing most of them that way) and
video inputs, etc. The 60 watts are often rated at 10% THD!
Even at $199 they seem a little high for the masses (although I think that for
an MDLP recorder, most of us on the list would think that's not a bad
price-especially when you consider that the USB transfer device sells for about
$99 by itself). Also, a 64MB Diamond Rio player would cost at least $199.
It seems like there are opposing forces at work at Sony. There are those that
feel that the MD is still one of the greatest things they invented in the 20th
Century and those who think it sucks.
The people who like MDs, design still cameras, digital video cameras, and even
improve the music MD with MDLP, while they get no support from the rest of Sony.
That 30 million dollar ad campaign Sony ran in the US a few years ago was a
joke. Those were some of the least inspired, least interesting, least
informative, least motivating commercials I have ever seen!
They wasted their money on B grade actors and models.
I'd still like to know why Sony hasn't been able to get their stuff into Wal
Mart? Although I suspect that Wal Mart drives a hard bargain and would want
them at very low cost.
My local Sam's Club once carried one of the early portable players at a
ridiculously high price and never offered blanks (what's the difference, what
are you going to do with a player and blanks anyway? They didn't offer a
recorder).
Larry
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