What Was Your First Portable Music Player?

MR.MAGOO

MR.MAGOO

Audioholic Field Marshall
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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Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
I took this everywhere with me when I was a kid.

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And it only took 4 C batteries!
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
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.”
 
Eppie

Eppie

Audioholic Ninja
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.
 
afterlife2

afterlife2

Audioholic Warlord
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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j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
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).

 
Eppie

Eppie

Audioholic Ninja
Something like this
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!
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
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.....
 
panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
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).

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.
 
afterlife2

afterlife2

Audioholic Warlord
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.
 
davidscott

davidscott

Audioholic Ninja
Aside from car 8 tracks, cassette and cd players only am/fm radios to walk around with.
 
R

rnatalli

Audioholic Ninja
I think my first with headphones was an Aiwa walkman for cassettes.
 
MalVeauX

MalVeauX

Senior Audioholic
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,
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
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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