What Was Your First Portable Music Player?

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MR.MAGOO

MR.MAGOO

Audioholic Field Marshall
Jan 13, 2016
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Mine was a SONY DiscMan, came with a cassette tape shaped adapter to play a CD thru a car cassette deck. I still have it, was doing a little 'spring cleaning' and found it buried in the closet.
Put some new batteries in and it still works.

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One could say my first portable was an 8-track AM/FM “thing”. It was portable and I could carry it around!
But much after that, my first real was a Walkman of some sort. Cassettes and those horrid earphones with those super thin foam covers on them.
I still remember my first portable CD, to... that was from Rat Shack. ;)

Now, it’s called a “phone!”

Thans, McGee for making me “feel” “old.”
 
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Well, if we're gonna play that game, I still have one of these in a box. My daughter gets a real kick out of this old stuff. :D
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Funny, but my wife got more into portable audio with a cassette Walkman, Panasonic Discman and then iPod. I stuck with the car and home system until I purchase some good earbuds for my cell.
 
Cowon x5 Mp3 player from 2005. I still have it and it really needs a new battery replacement. It will only play through AC. I also had a couple of Iriver Mp3 players. Im sure I had a cassette portable, but sure it was a cheap low quality brand in the 80s that was acceptable. Nowadays I use my Hiby R2, Cayin N3 player, etc. Also have a Aiwa XP-R10 cd player from 2000 that still works, but a bit finicky.
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An actual Sony cassette Walkman. Wish I still had it lol, even though I have only a few cassettes left (and nothing to play them on).

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LOL. Didn't even occur to me to post an AM portable radio. Still have those too. Anyone else build a crystal radio kit as a kid? I used the bed spring as an antenna and picked up Schenectady NY from Southern Ontario Canada!

Seem to remember going to Tandy/Radio Shack to pickup a radio kit but bought a moccasin kit instead.....
 
An actual Sony cassette Walkman. Wish I still had it lol, even though I have only a few cassettes left (and nothing to play them on).

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Same. Got one a few years before my discman. Ah the memories of having to walk carefully so as not to skip your CD. My CD Player with anti shock was a game changer.
 
Same. Got one a few years before my discman. Ah the memories of having to walk carefully so as not to skip your CD. My CD Player with anti shock was a game changer.
I remember borrowing a Sony walkman from my sisters boyfriend at the time and was amazed by the sound quality. I could never afford one and got a cheapo one that wasn't even close. Fun times.
 
Aside from car 8 tracks, cassette and cd players only am/fm radios to walk around with.
 
Aside from car 8 tracks, cassette and cd players only am/fm radios to walk around with.
Were there portable 8 track player? I know they were in cars and homes.
 
Were there portable 8 track player? I know they were in cars and homes.
Yeah I had a cheap plastic blue one a looooong time ago. Needless to say it didn't last long.
 
I think my first with headphones was an Aiwa walkman for cassettes.
 
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Probably a Magnavox portable casette stereo with FM/AM radio and detachable dipole speakers. Took D batteries I think. I had a walkman with casettes and eventually got an RCA discman when CD's starting coming out. The headphones sucked. But after the early 90's I got a pair of Sennheiser HD580's and started getting into building portable audio systems. Now you can just buy portable headphone amps of course (never would have thought it would be a thing beyond niche enthusiasts). Now-a-days I keep it simple with a portable FLAC player that can do bluetooth to connect to the vehicles, but also outputs to a portable amp with my Beyer DT770's or Denon D5000's when I'm feeling it.

Very best,
 
I couldn't say which model it was. I mean, I certainly had the little portable radios that were all funky 70's shaped, but nothing that was really pocketable until the Walkman era. Like @rnatalli I purchased an Aiwa. They were pretty premium over what Sony seemed to have and came highly recommended. Metal construction and really slim design. I did end up trashing it within a couple of years or so since I took it skiing all the time. Early 80's time frame, and not this, but similar...
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