I think there has been slight improvments to the decoder, but from what I understand not enough for it to be noticable. There is a faq at http://www.minidisc.org/minidisc_faq.html#Q9 and you can find out more about this for yourself. I own an MZ-1, the first sony portable minidisc player which...

First of all, Setmenu I believe that most genres are capable of being both of "head" and "heart" and "inbetween". For example, punk rock, here we have music that comes from the gut, but the political and social impact can not be ignored and I think many punk rock fans really enjoy this side of...

Don't forget that the musical education of the listening audience in The classical era were very well educated aristocrats (that started to change with Beethoven and the French Revolution, but even after that, a large percentage of listening audience was well educated). This means that most the...

Try Stravinsky Rite of Spring, though that might be destracting for studying purposes... I love the Kodaly unaccompanied Cello Sonata, get the Janos Starker Recoding on Delos, it's a classic. Bartok Concerto for orchestra is really great too. I had a recording, I think with Szell that was...

I don't have very much experience with "good" earplugs. This bullitin board has definitely opened my ears up though. I live in NYC and I need serous Isolation because I can't get away from the noise. The plugs came with these cheap foamy buds, but I didn't use them, Instead I took regular...