MiniDisc updates

About a year ago, my Sony MZ-R700 MiniDisc player which I bought in 2020 abruptly stopped working. It still powers up just fine, the motor spins, but inevitably the little LCD display proclaims "DISC ERROR". It does this with absolutely every MD I own, blank, recorded, standard play, long play, the works. No idea why. There's nothing visually obviously wrong when I look inside the open door. Maybe the laser diode is dead, I dunno. Anyway, bit of a bummer after approximately two years of ownership by me.

My 2020-05-19 phlog post "Actually listening to music again, part 2", wherein I mention buying the MZ-R700

That year my wife bought me another player for my birthday, bless her. It's the MZ-R70, the slightly less featureful version of the same player. Aside from not supporting long play and having a tiny sliding "Hold" switch on the back of the player instead of a handy rotating control on the front, it is basically the same machine. It works just fine - it's noticeably noisier when reading than my MZ-R700 was, I don't know if that is because the fancier model actually had upgraded mechanics or whether this particular MZ-R70 has been used more or needs something cleaned or tightened or what. But, hey, it plays, which is what counts, and it still works for days on a single AA battery, which is pure magic, incontrovertible proof of our technological regression.

Never mind the player, though. What's really exciting is that it wasn't merely sold as the player. What arrived in the post was a shoebox time capsule. Discs, lots of discs, more than I had previously, enough to more than make up for the lack of long play support (although it's a shame my yearly Konpeito discs are no longer playable!). But also an official Sony-branded plastic MD holder stand, and a huge wad of official Sony-branded adhesive labels, plus some other brand ones, the tiny spine labels and the big front ones. Even a shingle sheet of TDK cassette tape labels somehow made their way in there. But the pièce de résistance is the hideous orange pouch, made of shiny synthetic fabric, that attaches to your belt with big velcro loops, emblazoned with "PRO-X" (the X unquestionably standing for "eXtreme"), dangling proudly for all the world to see. It has multiple zippered compartments, so you can keep the player separate from your stash of discs and spare batteries. It is absolutely glorious.