What else (besides compression) affects the sound quality of MD?
The entire rest of the sound reproduction chain is important. The digital to analog converter (DAC) is key to reproducing the sound from the decompressed data. The audio amplifier circuitry is also critical. And there have been reports of MD playback machines (not Sony) that were made unlistenable by poor-quality attached headphones! Every component of the chain from the DAC to the eardrum is important to good sound reproduction. All elements other than the compression algorithm must be held constant before A: B comparisons are made, for example.
