How Sony's First Portable CD Player Kicked Off the Digital Music Era (Patreon)

How Sony's First Portable CD Player Kicked Off the Digital Music Era

Sony released the world's first portable CD player, the D-5/D-50, at a time when mostly just audiophiles had adopted the format. But surprisingly (or not), the device had much broader appeal. Featured music from Aviscerall (https://aviscerall.bandcamp.com) and Dan Mason (https://danmason.bandcamp.com). Sources: D5 inside EBP-9LC: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sonyd50.JPG EBP-9LC photos: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/OE0AAOSwGJVfNBTv/s-l1600.jpg "The lasser-disc revolution", Popular Science, May 1985. "Sound to Go", Changing Times magazine, December 1985. "Hot new compact-disc players", Popular Science, November 1984. CDP-101 photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lettore_CD_Sony_CDP-101_-_Museo_della_Scienza_e_della_Tecnologia_Leonardo_da_Vinci.jpg 1982 compact disc introduction video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Tx6TYnPat8 AC-D50 photos: https://www.ebay.com/c/1124613292 Rear of AC-D50: https://www.acquris.se/images/sony_d-50_portable_cd-player_7.jpg "Go anywhere CD portables", Popular Science magazine, November 1985. CD manufacturing video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suQmNjH92YA SL-XP7 (silver) photo: https://www.rewindaudio.com/uploads/4/6/9/4/46947077/technics-portable-cd-front_orig.jpg SL-XP7 (black) photo: https://imgur.com/gallery/wy220 TPS-L2 photo: https://spectrum.ieee.org/image/MzE4MzE2NA.jpeg TPS-L2 ad: https://i.imgur.com/b1lYI5M.jpg ----------------------------------------­------------------------------------- Please consider supporting my work on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisdoesnotcompute Follow me on Twitter and Instagram! @thisdoesnotcomp