Those are definitely some valid concerns, and MDs are not for everyone. I think that the fact that MDs are only ~150mbs is a testament to how amazing ATRAC has become. As I mentioned in my first post, even at 2x compression, for the average listener, the fidelity is more than adequate. As for copies of copies, I have never encountered a real need to do this. For people who want to use such a device to trade music, MDs aren't really that useful -- unless you give them the MD and make a second from the original audio source. Another possibility is recording at 1x and recording the tracks as .wavs to make 'masters'. If i bootlegged concerts, that is probably what i would do. Until mp3 players get smaller, more power efficient, real time recording/compressing and much much cheaper (and don't require harddrives), I think MDs are a nice alternative for the average music enthusiast. If i did buy an mp3 player, it'd definitely be a CD based device.

cheers.