Sony Discman
The Sony Discman was a portable CD player that took over from where the Walkman left off. Released to the masses in November 1984, it took the world by storm but I remember that there wasn’t a huge range of CDs to pick from – if you were a David Bowie fan then you were in luck! All of his were available, and not much else was/
Live TV demonstrated the unit to show how even scratched discs could still play and being digital, the quality of the sound would never diminish – something laughable today but at the time it was a big selling point.
Even though it was sold as portable, the D50 (which was the first model) required the purchase of a battery pack that attached to the back of the unit which added to the sized and weight. If you didn’t use the battery pack, power was supplied by a conventional plug pack transformer.
The original discman did not like getting knocked or bumped. It was a bit sensitive and it wasn’t the type of thing you could go running with.
I still have my original D50 and after all the years it works flawlessly. Typical Sony quality! Below is a pic of my discman:
I also still have my D121 and shown below is a photo of it. Again, still working as good as the day I bought it.
Even though the Walkman was originally released in the late 70s, it was the 80s that they became popular – for many years even after the Discman was released.