Remember the 1998s?
February 21, 2018 1:31 PM Subscribe
Remember the Discman? Remember the best Discmens? Remember the wackiest Discman? Remember the first Discman? Remember the Data Discman?
My first car, c 2001, was a 1989 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme with a tape deck. I was a kid with a CD burner and a lot of MP3s. So I burned CDs that I would play on a late-era Sony Diskman plugged into the car stereo with a cassette adapter. It worked well, but soon after I upgraded to a MP3 player with a whopping 64MB of space.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 1:42 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 1:42 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
I have that blue one from the first article!
Note the present tense.
Still have the car ready adapter pack, too.
posted by phunniemee at 1:44 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
Note the present tense.
Still have the car ready adapter pack, too.
posted by phunniemee at 1:44 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
My first portable CD player was a revelation. Higher quality sound became one of my favorite indulgences. The genre of noise was totally transformed by the intense harshness that a CD could achieve, which tapes just can't match, and I was one of the kids excited for the next Merzbow or Aube CD.
I still prefer to carry a separate music listening device that doesn't also attempt to receive phone calls, inform me that I have a meeting in 15 minutes etc. Just a music player. It's outlasted two phones so far, and I wouldn't be surprised if it outlasted a few more before I get tired of it. Also it can pump enough juice for higher quality headphones, which most phones can't do.
posted by idiopath at 1:45 PM on February 21, 2018 [4 favorites]
I still prefer to carry a separate music listening device that doesn't also attempt to receive phone calls, inform me that I have a meeting in 15 minutes etc. Just a music player. It's outlasted two phones so far, and I wouldn't be surprised if it outlasted a few more before I get tired of it. Also it can pump enough juice for higher quality headphones, which most phones can't do.
posted by idiopath at 1:45 PM on February 21, 2018 [4 favorites]
I just remember how dorky people looked walking around wearing their Discman on a fanny pack. If that was the cost of higher quality audio then no thanks.
posted by cazoo at 1:51 PM on February 21, 2018
posted by cazoo at 1:51 PM on February 21, 2018
The csidman is a guitar effect that simulates the skipping of a Discman when you run out of buffer. Totally unmusical but very fun to play with.
posted by mikesch at 1:52 PM on February 21, 2018 [7 favorites]
posted by mikesch at 1:52 PM on February 21, 2018 [7 favorites]
For a long time the only CD player we had was in the car, and I couldn't justify buying too many CDs to only play only in the car. But then there was a trick where you could take an (even at that time) old SCSI data CD player, change some little jumper or switch on the back, and it would automatically play an audio CD when loaded. With one of those CD caddies, of course. We used to have scads of those. Where did they all go?
posted by lagomorphius at 1:52 PM on February 21, 2018
posted by lagomorphius at 1:52 PM on February 21, 2018
I also went the route of using a Discman with a cassette adapter in my car in the early aughts. I did a lot of driving back and forth between Memphis and central Illinois, looking for a job closer to my relatives as my marriage crumbled, and so I spent some quality time rolling across the prairie, listening to Springsteen and Bowie and crying.
I also found this bit from the first article funny, but true:
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:55 PM on February 21, 2018 [12 favorites]
I also found this bit from the first article funny, but true:
“The Walkman is replacing certain drugs as a mind- and mood-altering device,” he lamented. “When teenagers have reached the point where they feel they must shut out the sounds of the Ohio State Fair, society is surely ready to collapse.”Not that society was "surely ready to collapse"--that would come later, ha ha, kidding/not kidding--but that some people saw the wearing and use of Walkmen as some sort of inherently transgressive act. Someone on alt.peeves bitched about people acting as if their lives required soundtracks, and I thought, well, who has the right to say that mine doesn't?
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:55 PM on February 21, 2018 [12 favorites]
MiniDisc or GTFO!
Remember the Creative Nomad Jukebox ZEN, with a harddrive in a CD Walkman shaped case?
posted by mikelieman at 1:55 PM on February 21, 2018 [12 favorites]
Remember the Creative Nomad Jukebox ZEN, with a harddrive in a CD Walkman shaped case?
posted by mikelieman at 1:55 PM on February 21, 2018 [12 favorites]
I didn't read your comment very carefully, humboldt32, and I thought you were talking about the Casio WMP1 and I went through all the linked articles again looking for its mention before realizing you just meant the digital watch someone's wearing in one of the pictures.
The only reason I even knew those existed was because in 2000 I was working on mp3 player software (Sonique, which had a pretty silly user interface but I promise it seemed cool at the time) and out of the blue one day Casio sent us a box full of the watches. It was a bad watch and a bad mp3 player and even if somehow one still worked today it would be insane to actually wear it on a daily basis.
I didn't get a discman until after I gave up on my minidisc player which became useless when the tip part of a tip-ring-sleeve headphone plug broke off in the jack, and I'd already had several expensive repairs done to it already, well after it had become painfully clear it was a technological dead end.
So anyway: me and questionable media players. I guess it's a thing.
posted by aubilenon at 1:55 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
The only reason I even knew those existed was because in 2000 I was working on mp3 player software (Sonique, which had a pretty silly user interface but I promise it seemed cool at the time) and out of the blue one day Casio sent us a box full of the watches. It was a bad watch and a bad mp3 player and even if somehow one still worked today it would be insane to actually wear it on a daily basis.
#/media/File:Media_player_sonique-1.95.png){kind=link}
I didn't get a discman until after I gave up on my minidisc player which became useless when the tip part of a tip-ring-sleeve headphone plug broke off in the jack, and I'd already had several expensive repairs done to it already, well after it had become painfully clear it was a technological dead end.
So anyway: me and questionable media players. I guess it's a thing.
posted by aubilenon at 1:55 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
I just remember how dorky people looked walking around wearing their Discman on a fanny pack.
That's why you needed cargo shorts with a purpose-sewn Discman pocket, complete with a little hole for the headphone cord!
posted by Iridic at 1:55 PM on February 21, 2018 [10 favorites]
That's why you needed cargo shorts with a purpose-sewn Discman pocket, complete with a little hole for the headphone cord!
posted by Iridic at 1:55 PM on February 21, 2018 [10 favorites]
Remember the Creative Nomad Jukebox ZEN, with a harddrive in a CD Walkman shaped case?
No wireless. More space than an iPod. Lame.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 1:58 PM on February 21, 2018 [10 favorites]
No wireless. More space than an iPod. Lame.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 1:58 PM on February 21, 2018 [10 favorites]
I still own CDs but no longer have any way to play them. Actually, now that I think about it, that's not quite true -- my car has a CD player in it, but that's not how I listen to music in the car. So they are just gathering dust. I can't bring myself to get rid of them, but I'm probably never going to listen to them again, either.
I never did own a discman. I remember when they first came out; they weren't cheap and only a few people at school had them.
posted by Dip Flash at 1:58 PM on February 21, 2018 [4 favorites]
I never did own a discman. I remember when they first came out; they weren't cheap and only a few people at school had them.
posted by Dip Flash at 1:58 PM on February 21, 2018 [4 favorites]
This feels like a good place for a shoutout to my $10 mp3 player (it was $10 with shipping, which took a month). This thing was great. I got it as soon as I heard about it (2006) and used it until I got my first smartphone in late 2011.
No music player has ever been dropped so many times and still lived on to play. I bet if I could find it it would still work. 12/10
posted by phunniemee at 2:03 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
No music player has ever been dropped so many times and still lived on to play. I bet if I could find it it would still work. 12/10
posted by phunniemee at 2:03 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
I had a discman, acquired right around 1998. My car only had a tape deck, and I had started taking the bus, and wanted to upgrade over mix tapes. Sometime around 2000--right at the height of the original Napster MP3 wave, burning audio mix CDs (combining what I downloaded with my own rips) was the bomb.
Right around Christmas, 2000, I got my first MP3 player (a iOmega HipZip). Shortly after, I got a car with a built-in CD player. My need for the Discman was ending. By 2005, I had an iPod, and my CD days were behind me.
The Discman was an audio source with some scavenged speakers in my daughter's room for a while, playing "Go Diego Go" (among other things) on a seemingly endless loop.
I think we still have it around, somewhere.
posted by MrGuilt at 2:05 PM on February 21, 2018
Right around Christmas, 2000, I got my first MP3 player (a iOmega HipZip). Shortly after, I got a car with a built-in CD player. My need for the Discman was ending. By 2005, I had an iPod, and my CD days were behind me.
The Discman was an audio source with some scavenged speakers in my daughter's room for a while, playing "Go Diego Go" (among other things) on a seemingly endless loop.
I think we still have it around, somewhere.
posted by MrGuilt at 2:05 PM on February 21, 2018
I had a Discman. It got some use in, yes, precisely, the 1998s.
The whole idea was self-sabotaging. The more the various companies touted their anti-skipping technology, the more the public became aware of the thing’s achilles’ heel. A Discman was fairly portable. Too big for a pocket or anything, but reasonably bag-portable. But it was only portable in the sense that you could easily take it from one horizontal and stationary place to another, so long as you didn’t expect to get any reliable use from it in the interim. It was stupid. We all knew it was stupid.
By ‘99 I was right back to the trusty old Walkman. Because walk.
posted by Sys Rq at 2:06 PM on February 21, 2018 [4 favorites]
The whole idea was self-sabotaging. The more the various companies touted their anti-skipping technology, the more the public became aware of the thing’s achilles’ heel. A Discman was fairly portable. Too big for a pocket or anything, but reasonably bag-portable. But it was only portable in the sense that you could easily take it from one horizontal and stationary place to another, so long as you didn’t expect to get any reliable use from it in the interim. It was stupid. We all knew it was stupid.
By ‘99 I was right back to the trusty old Walkman. Because walk.
posted by Sys Rq at 2:06 PM on February 21, 2018 [4 favorites]
If anyone wants a 9 minute video of the wackiest in operation, Techmoan has one.
I also never had a Discman. Had a couple of Walkman (a cant-remember-the-brand walkman with two headphone jacks and three-band equalizer through the early 90s and a proper Sony, if budget, in the mid-90s), and the next thing to listen to music on the go was a Samsung MP3 player in 2008 or so.
Portable CD players never appealed that much to me because when I was a kid they were very expensive, I wasn't that much into music (at least into spending the little money I had on CDs) and the cheap ones seemed very prone to scratch CDs. I do remember a friend of mine here on vacations from the US had one of those that could read MP3s, and that was mindblowing at the time. Later heard an (unconfirmed) story a couple of music distributors here threatened to suspend accounts to any stores that would sell them.
posted by lmfsilva at 2:07 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
I also never had a Discman. Had a couple of Walkman (a cant-remember-the-brand walkman with two headphone jacks and three-band equalizer through the early 90s and a proper Sony, if budget, in the mid-90s), and the next thing to listen to music on the go was a Samsung MP3 player in 2008 or so.
Portable CD players never appealed that much to me because when I was a kid they were very expensive, I wasn't that much into music (at least into spending the little money I had on CDs) and the cheap ones seemed very prone to scratch CDs. I do remember a friend of mine here on vacations from the US had one of those that could read MP3s, and that was mindblowing at the time. Later heard an (unconfirmed) story a couple of music distributors here threatened to suspend accounts to any stores that would sell them.
posted by lmfsilva at 2:07 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
All variations on the Discman were skipping, soul-destroying, rage-inducing garbage.
Horrible, horrible things.
When I got my first Minidisc player, I danced a goddamn jig, AND IT DID NOT FUCKING SKIP.
Plus, and this applies to car CD players as well, CDs were effing expensive and I do not want to have my effing expensive CDs roasting and freezing and roasting and freezing and roasting and freezing and roasting and freezing and roasting and freezing and roasting and freezing and roasting and freezing and roasting and freezing and roasting and freezing and roasting and freezing and roasting and freezing and roasting and freezing and roasting and freezing and roasting in my stupid car. Once again, Minidisc ruled the world.
Then, of course, the iPod Shuffle came along, and it should have been worshipped like the postage-stamp-sized god for former Walkman addicts it is, but no, you let it die, you bastards.
posted by sonascope at 2:11 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
Horrible, horrible things.
When I got my first Minidisc player, I danced a goddamn jig, AND IT DID NOT FUCKING SKIP.
Plus, and this applies to car CD players as well, CDs were effing expensive and I do not want to have my effing expensive CDs roasting and freezing and roasting and freezing and roasting and freezing and roasting and freezing and roasting and freezing and roasting and freezing and roasting and freezing and roasting and freezing and roasting and freezing and roasting and freezing and roasting and freezing and roasting and freezing and roasting and freezing and roasting in my stupid car. Once again, Minidisc ruled the world.
Then, of course, the iPod Shuffle came along, and it should have been worshipped like the postage-stamp-sized god for former Walkman addicts it is, but no, you let it die, you bastards.
posted by sonascope at 2:11 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
I couldn't wait to ditch my Walkman for a Discman, and not long after that I couldn't wait to get rid of the Discman. On the plus side, the sound quality was better as long as it didn't skip (which was all the time) and you didn't have the problem tapes had of slowing down as the batteries died (unless you used rechargeable batteries) or the Walkman got older and the belt got worn. On the minus side, the constant skipping, the awkward shape and the way they tore through batteries like someone eating potato chips. My wife (then-girlfriend) bought a Minidisc player, which convinced me to buy one too and get rid of my Discman, and we were both mostly happy until the iPod came along and swept all of these technologies into the technological dustbin of history.
posted by The Card Cheat at 2:13 PM on February 21, 2018
posted by The Card Cheat at 2:13 PM on February 21, 2018
I did an extended lunch from work just so I could buy the first portable cd player meant for in-car use, the Sony Discman D-160. Funny thing, another guy from a different department in my company was there too! We were both engineers.
I might still have that D-160 in a box somewhere - I think it still played CDs the last time I tried it. I have another CD player that uses a lower voltage and it much lighter.
posted by King Sky Prawn at 2:13 PM on February 21, 2018
I might still have that D-160 in a box somewhere - I think it still played CDs the last time I tried it. I have another CD player that uses a lower voltage and it much lighter.
posted by King Sky Prawn at 2:13 PM on February 21, 2018
That's why you needed cargo shorts with a purpose-sewn Discman pocket, complete with a little hole for the headphone cord!
my own preferred solution.
posted by halation at 2:14 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
my own preferred solution.
posted by halation at 2:14 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
MiniDisc or GTFO!
I bought my dad a minidisc player right around 1999/2000 -- along with a turntable and a preamp so he could convert his extensive album collection to MP3.
I think he still uses it extensively; he is an agriculturalist and spends a lot of his time driving dirt roads.
When I got it for him, I saw the Minidisc as the future of everything; that ESP anti-skip technology came from Minidisc technology, and there was the potential for a Minidisc to hold a GB of computer data, ruining ZIP drives and other portable data storage methods around at the time.
Sadly, like Sony has done with a lot of their storage technologies, they are so terrified of piracy (being owners of a lot of media companies too) that they break the kneecaps of their awesome technology and tie its arms behind its back to prevent naughty people from duplicating Boys II Men without prior permission. Sony never really released Minidisc for computers, and the software for burning music to a Minidisc was slow and a pain in the butt to do.
(It also didn't stop my dad from piracy; he had found Limewire before either my brother or I did in order to get obscure Scandinavian heavy metal recordings from the 1970s that you couldn't just waltz into Sam Goody and find)
posted by AzraelBrown at 2:18 PM on February 21, 2018 [6 favorites]
I bought my dad a minidisc player right around 1999/2000 -- along with a turntable and a preamp so he could convert his extensive album collection to MP3.
I think he still uses it extensively; he is an agriculturalist and spends a lot of his time driving dirt roads.
When I got it for him, I saw the Minidisc as the future of everything; that ESP anti-skip technology came from Minidisc technology, and there was the potential for a Minidisc to hold a GB of computer data, ruining ZIP drives and other portable data storage methods around at the time.
Sadly, like Sony has done with a lot of their storage technologies, they are so terrified of piracy (being owners of a lot of media companies too) that they break the kneecaps of their awesome technology and tie its arms behind its back to prevent naughty people from duplicating Boys II Men without prior permission. Sony never really released Minidisc for computers, and the software for burning music to a Minidisc was slow and a pain in the butt to do.
(It also didn't stop my dad from piracy; he had found Limewire before either my brother or I did in order to get obscure Scandinavian heavy metal recordings from the 1970s that you couldn't just waltz into Sam Goody and find)
posted by AzraelBrown at 2:18 PM on February 21, 2018 [6 favorites]
From 2001 to 2003, I used an MP3 CD player, burning discs of MP3s and keeping them in a CD booklet. My MP3 CDs (and player) were stolen while I was on a family trip to Los Angeles, and I didn't get get some of that music back for a decade.
Christmas 2003, I got an iPod, and I never looked back. That said, I do kinda miss my MP3 CD player(s)...
posted by SansPoint at 2:18 PM on February 21, 2018
Christmas 2003, I got an iPod, and I never looked back. That said, I do kinda miss my MP3 CD player(s)...
posted by SansPoint at 2:18 PM on February 21, 2018
I had a Discman but my teenage self pined for a MiniDisc player. When the poor neglected MD platform died the terrible death it didn't deserve I was heartbroken. There was so much potential there. Keep in mind this is 1996ish and we're trying to break away from the 1.44MB floppy. My university documents were all kept on (multiple) ZIP disks and LS-120 floppys but in the back of my mind I always wished MD could have been the format I wanted it to be.
posted by Talez at 2:20 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Talez at 2:20 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
If anyone wants a 9 minute video of the wackiest in operation, Techmoan has one.
Ah yes, the Sony Walkman that was the same size as a cassette tape, as long as there wasn't a cassette tape inside it.
That was the one my friend showed me the first time I ever used earbuds. After using big ear-covering headphones all my life, I was astonished to be standing outside, hearing the sounds of people and the street around me, but also music at the same time. Compared to what I'd been used to it seemed amazingly realistic, like the band was really there playing, just one of many sounds I could hear around me.
To this day, I vastly prefer those kind of earbuds to the ones that act more like earplugs.
posted by straight at 2:20 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
Ah yes, the Sony Walkman that was the same size as a cassette tape, as long as there wasn't a cassette tape inside it.
That was the one my friend showed me the first time I ever used earbuds. After using big ear-covering headphones all my life, I was astonished to be standing outside, hearing the sounds of people and the street around me, but also music at the same time. Compared to what I'd been used to it seemed amazingly realistic, like the band was really there playing, just one of many sounds I could hear around me.
To this day, I vastly prefer those kind of earbuds to the ones that act more like earplugs.
posted by straight at 2:20 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
The only reason I even knew those existed was because in 2000 I was working on mp3 player software (Sonique, which had a pretty silly user interface but I promise it seemed cool at the time) and out of the blue one day Casio sent us a box full of the watches. It was a bad watch and a bad mp3 player and even if somehow one still worked today it would be insane to actually wear it on a daily basis.
I loved Sonique! And all the cool little plugins you could download!
posted by lagomorphius at 2:30 PM on February 21, 2018 [3 favorites]
I loved Sonique! And all the cool little plugins you could download!
posted by lagomorphius at 2:30 PM on February 21, 2018 [3 favorites]
I was still using one as a nightstand music player until a couple of months ago when AT&T gave me a free Android phone for some reason. I don't carry a smart phone so I use that as the MP3 player now.
It was actually pretty good. They're practically free, always at the Goodwill, burn a disc of MP3's and just leave it in there.
I don't like to move things around the house. Just leave gadgets in every room.
posted by bongo_x at 2:31 PM on February 21, 2018
It was actually pretty good. They're practically free, always at the Goodwill, burn a disc of MP3's and just leave it in there.
I don't like to move things around the house. Just leave gadgets in every room.
posted by bongo_x at 2:31 PM on February 21, 2018
Kind of wandering away from CD players, but a friend of mine had a nifty little iRiver mp3 player. It turns out they're now kind of a retro techno fetish object. Unfortunately she got rid of hers long before that happened.
posted by lagomorphius at 2:32 PM on February 21, 2018
posted by lagomorphius at 2:32 PM on February 21, 2018
Huh. I just picked up a discman from the thrift store to use as part of my kitchen stereo setup. Are you aware that some cars now do not even come with CD players? Insanity.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 2:54 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 2:54 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
Remember the Creative Nomad Jukebox ZEN, with a harddrive in a CD Walkman shaped case?
No, not really. Except for one little thing...
posted by Big Al 8000 at 2:56 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
No, not really. Except for one little thing...
posted by Big Al 8000 at 2:56 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
Remember the Creative Nomad Jukebox ZEN, with a harddrive in a CD Walkman shaped case?
I had one (also had the original Nomad), but I barely used it before the iPod came out and I bought one of those. It wasn't a bad device at all, it just got completely eclipsed by the iPod.
posted by briank at 3:05 PM on February 21, 2018 [3 favorites]
I had one (also had the original Nomad), but I barely used it before the iPod came out and I bought one of those. It wasn't a bad device at all, it just got completely eclipsed by the iPod.
posted by briank at 3:05 PM on February 21, 2018 [3 favorites]
Discman, Discman
Ha ha charade you are
posted by Atom Eyes at 3:06 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
Ha ha charade you are
posted by Atom Eyes at 3:06 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
I had one of those over-the-shoulder disman purse things - one compartment for the discman itself, with a strap to hold it down and avoid skipping, and a second that would fit four jewel cases. I can close my eyes now and I'm on the last bus home on a Friday night, badly in need of visine, debating between Portishead, Unkle, Crystal Method, or the Trainspotting soundtrack.
posted by mannequito at 3:12 PM on February 21, 2018 [6 favorites]
posted by mannequito at 3:12 PM on February 21, 2018 [6 favorites]
I had that blue one too! It got confiscated by the vice principal on my first week at a new school because I switched high schools and was not aware that my new school banned the use of discmans during school hours. I cried. In retrospect this was one of my most teen-movie experiences of high school.
posted by potrzebie at 3:14 PM on February 21, 2018
posted by potrzebie at 3:14 PM on February 21, 2018
I had the Nomad Jukebox, mostly because for the longest time there was no way to get stuff from a Windows machine to an iPod. I loved it. Then when the NJ3 came out, I upgraded to that and a friend of mine who was poorer than me got my old one. I hated the NJ software, but it was better than the non-existant one you got from Apple at the time.
Then they released iTunes for Windows and I went an iPad 3rd generation, and it's been that way since.
My brother had a Discman. I went from the Walkman to the Nomad, because I didn't like how the Discman worked with all the skipping.
posted by mephron at 3:19 PM on February 21, 2018
Then they released iTunes for Windows and I went an iPad 3rd generation, and it's been that way since.
My brother had a Discman. I went from the Walkman to the Nomad, because I didn't like how the Discman worked with all the skipping.
posted by mephron at 3:19 PM on February 21, 2018
During the 1970s, there were people at New England ski resorts who created portable music systems using car tape decks and batteries. I remembered this in the late 80s when my ex was involved in Walkman-related patent litigation regarding prior art; they used information from an old newspaper article to track down the guy who started this trend. I'm pretty sure that by the time the legal dust settled the world had moved past Discman and on to mp3s.
I loved my Discman for airplane flights.
posted by carmicha at 3:24 PM on February 21, 2018
I loved my Discman for airplane flights.
posted by carmicha at 3:24 PM on February 21, 2018
If we're talking MP3 players, Sony made some excellent ones as well, including this lovely piece I used for ages. It now serves as the music and white noise player in my kids' room.
I always liked Sony's industrial design... there's just something special about the devices from that era of the *man.
posted by selfnoise at 3:25 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
I always liked Sony's industrial design... there's just something special about the devices from that era of the *man.
posted by selfnoise at 3:25 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
Remember the Creative Nomad Jukebox ZEN, with a harddrive in a CD Walkman shaped case?
I totally had one of those (can't remember which exact version) and loved it. One of the strangest features, was that it had dual hot-swappable batteries.
posted by noneuclidean at 3:25 PM on February 21, 2018
I totally had one of those (can't remember which exact version) and loved it. One of the strangest features, was that it had dual hot-swappable batteries.
posted by noneuclidean at 3:25 PM on February 21, 2018
For a couple of years I had a Panasonic mp3-cd player and it was great. Held a ton of music and it had a really long buffer so unless you were running with it it wouldn't skip. In fact I would take it running and it wasn't terrible. Then the special rechargeable batteries for it got lost and I couldn't get new ones so I splurged for a 3G iPod, which wasn't all that great for running either but was still an amazing step forward.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 3:32 PM on February 21, 2018
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 3:32 PM on February 21, 2018
By 1998, the anti-skip on Discmans was pretty damn good. I could walk around with mine while it was playing just fine. This was the exact one I had at that time, which had 10 seconds of skip protection. Definitely not good enough for running, but walking? Sure.
posted by zsazsa at 3:32 PM on February 21, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by zsazsa at 3:32 PM on February 21, 2018 [4 favorites]
The CD format came out around when I was a senior in high school. When I finished college, my family got me a Discman as my graduation present. I think it was one of the second-generation models. Very early. It was thicker than most paperback books, and the battery (which was a custom thing that could be ejected) was about the size of my multitool. You could get a battery plate that fit on the bottom, but by the time I got around to buying one, the fancy connector on the bottom of the Discman had been sheared off. I got years of use out of that thing, though. It was great.
I was at a conference in 1992, and in the vendor's room, there was a guy who was showing how he had reverse-engineered the file format used by the Data Discman (EPWING, I think), which was relatively popular in Japan as a format for distributing dictionaries. Someone happened by and mentioned there was an official open-source library for that. The guy was crestfallen, unsurprisingly.
Today, I've got a DVD writer hooked up to my computer that's little bigger than a CD jewel case. If I buy a CD, that's the only thing I can play it on.
posted by adamrice at 3:36 PM on February 21, 2018
I was at a conference in 1992, and in the vendor's room, there was a guy who was showing how he had reverse-engineered the file format used by the Data Discman (EPWING, I think), which was relatively popular in Japan as a format for distributing dictionaries. Someone happened by and mentioned there was an official open-source library for that. The guy was crestfallen, unsurprisingly.
Today, I've got a DVD writer hooked up to my computer that's little bigger than a CD jewel case. If I buy a CD, that's the only thing I can play it on.
posted by adamrice at 3:36 PM on February 21, 2018
Remember the Creative Nomad Jukebox ZEN, with a harddrive in a CD Walkman shaped case?
I remember it because it is in my garage woodshop hooked up to a decent set of speakers, and I listen to it whenever I'm out working on projects. I haven't updated it in years, but it's got about half of my old music collection on it, so thousands of old mp3s. It will die eventually, I presume, at which point I'll have to extend our wireless system to reach my shop, but until then, it's a good use of "old" tech.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:57 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
I remember it because it is in my garage woodshop hooked up to a decent set of speakers, and I listen to it whenever I'm out working on projects. I haven't updated it in years, but it's got about half of my old music collection on it, so thousands of old mp3s. It will die eventually, I presume, at which point I'll have to extend our wireless system to reach my shop, but until then, it's a good use of "old" tech.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:57 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
My Discman was great, (skip protection! Bass boost! but its resulting 4AAs were a lot for a teenage budget. I used to fall asleep to familiar albums on bus road trips to it, and brought it with me (weird stain on top, battery cover made out of gaffer tape because the original one had long since shattered) moving across the country.
I finally got rid of it a couple of years ago. This has been more nostalgic than the physical object guiltily stashed at the bottom back of a left-hand-side desk drawer ever could have been, though.
Thanks.
posted by Earthtopus at 4:02 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
I finally got rid of it a couple of years ago. This has been more nostalgic than the physical object guiltily stashed at the bottom back of a left-hand-side desk drawer ever could have been, though.
Thanks.
posted by Earthtopus at 4:02 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
My favorite discman shaped fake out object was a hello kitty digital contact organizer in the shape of a portable CD player.
posted by Annika Cicada at 4:05 PM on February 21, 2018
posted by Annika Cicada at 4:05 PM on February 21, 2018
I don't remember what brand discplayer I had but by '98 or so, the anti-skip buffer worked pretty well. I used to jog with it every day.
posted by octothorpe at 4:19 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by octothorpe at 4:19 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
I remember a very rainy vacation in the early 2000s where I had a discman knockoff with a loose headphone jack and only a single CD-R containing a remix of the Futurama theme, that novelty Legend of Zelda mp3 that was floating around (Link! He come to town! Come to save! The Princess Zelda!) and one other OC Remix track. I had forgotten the half-dozen mix CD-Rs I had tediously created with a 2x burner and was left with the scratch disc I had carelessly left in the player.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 4:33 PM on February 21, 2018
posted by RonButNotStupid at 4:33 PM on February 21, 2018
When I was working at Best Buy in my little Mid-West town in the mid-90s someone came in trying to sell a data discman. It was like an artifact that had fallen out of a time machine from the future. None of us had seen anything like it or had any idea what it did or was supposed to do, but we all wanted it. Our stoner manager outbid us and bought it for $75.
posted by Eddie Mars at 4:38 PM on February 21, 2018
posted by Eddie Mars at 4:38 PM on February 21, 2018
My first (and only, if you except one I bought for no good reason for £5 a couple of years ago when I realised I no longer had any way to play CDs) Discman was a black version of Zsazsa's. I got it on a press trip to LA, because US prices were much keener than in the UK, and I bought this album to play on it.
I have the strongest memories of walking along Venice Beach, completely transfixed by the total psychedelic mix of environment and sonics - so bright, so sharp, so weird - and listening to any of the tracks on that album kicks in the flashbacks. I remember the first time I heard stereo (there was no radio at home and I couldn't afford to buy anything expensive enough to sport two speakers, until I bought a surplus tuner board at a local ham radio meet, and picked up a pair of denim-clad headphones in a yard sale), my first 'walkman' - actually a cheapie from Tandy - but I don't think I've ever had such a strong wow moment as I did in the mid-90s in the California sun with the police patrol walkie-talkies chattering 'Gang members moving south' and leaking into Kidney Bingo.
I miss it, like I miss my Minidisc player and my iPod. But they're all exes I can never go back to, and if you'll excuse me I have to work out why this outboard USB DAC doesn't quite cut the mustard on my Android phone...
posted by Devonian at 4:42 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
I have the strongest memories of walking along Venice Beach, completely transfixed by the total psychedelic mix of environment and sonics - so bright, so sharp, so weird - and listening to any of the tracks on that album kicks in the flashbacks. I remember the first time I heard stereo (there was no radio at home and I couldn't afford to buy anything expensive enough to sport two speakers, until I bought a surplus tuner board at a local ham radio meet, and picked up a pair of denim-clad headphones in a yard sale), my first 'walkman' - actually a cheapie from Tandy - but I don't think I've ever had such a strong wow moment as I did in the mid-90s in the California sun with the police patrol walkie-talkies chattering 'Gang members moving south' and leaking into Kidney Bingo.
I miss it, like I miss my Minidisc player and my iPod. But they're all exes I can never go back to, and if you'll excuse me I have to work out why this outboard USB DAC doesn't quite cut the mustard on my Android phone...
posted by Devonian at 4:42 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
I loved my Discman so much (Model No. D-E456CK, Serial No. 5159316, manufactured in August, 1999) that when it finally died it on February 16, 2006, I encased it in small satin-lined coffin. I'm not even kidding.
posted by Hey Dean Yeager! at 4:47 PM on February 21, 2018 [8 favorites]
posted by Hey Dean Yeager! at 4:47 PM on February 21, 2018 [8 favorites]
I still buy new music on CDs. I have the blue Discman from the article, except in silver, and it sees a lot of use.
posted by Robin Kestrel at 4:58 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Robin Kestrel at 4:58 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
I loved my Discman so much (Model No. D-E456CK, Serial No. 5159316, manufactured in August, 1999) that when it finally died it on February 16, 2006, I encased it in small satin-lined coffin. I'm not even kidding.
One of my Sony WM-D6C Pro-Walkman that I used to tape a lot of shows with is being buried with me.
posted by mikelieman at 5:37 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
One of my Sony WM-D6C Pro-Walkman that I used to tape a lot of shows with is being buried with me.
posted by mikelieman at 5:37 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
In early 2001, my now-husband (then-boyfriend) bought a Diamond Rio MP3 CD player, Discman shape and size. It was the hotness. You could play multiple albums from one CD!! Those were the glory days of Napster, so everyone had a ton of MP3s, but no way to listen to them other than (a) WinAmp on the computer or (b) burning actual audio CDs. That Diamond Rio was a game-changer! Just burn the MP3s to a CD as data!
That October, the first iPod came out… and everything started to change.
(Except in my current car, where the CD slot is still my only music option other than the radio, so I still get to carry my old CD wallet like it’s 1999.)
posted by snowmentality at 5:38 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
That October, the first iPod came out… and everything started to change.
(Except in my current car, where the CD slot is still my only music option other than the radio, so I still get to carry my old CD wallet like it’s 1999.)
posted by snowmentality at 5:38 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
I have a vivid memory of riding the commuter train in Chicago in the early 90s and listening to "Little Earthquakes" on my Discman. Those were the days.
I also used my Discman on the elliptical trainer at the gym; I had a special holder for it, a belt with a velcro pocket for the Discman that kept it from skipping (too much).
posted by mogget at 6:04 PM on February 21, 2018
I also used my Discman on the elliptical trainer at the gym; I had a special holder for it, a belt with a velcro pocket for the Discman that kept it from skipping (too much).
posted by mogget at 6:04 PM on February 21, 2018
Discmans always seemed like I had to sit at a table with the Discman lying undisturbed on it, so it was one of those things where I was always waiting for there to be a good version. Me, sitting motionless and listening to my high technology was not appealing.
I got into mp3s before Napster, and I listened to cassettes much longer since my cars until 2008 always had players in them, so the iPod and whatnot was just fine for portable stuff as those started coming around. The last cassettes I bought were Slayer's "Reign In Blood" and Hot Boys' "Guerrilla Warfare." If mp3s had never been a thing I would have gone MiniDisc or the Philips digital cassette. I was never into music while walking in public much, though.
posted by rhizome at 6:23 PM on February 21, 2018
I got into mp3s before Napster, and I listened to cassettes much longer since my cars until 2008 always had players in them, so the iPod and whatnot was just fine for portable stuff as those started coming around. The last cassettes I bought were Slayer's "Reign In Blood" and Hot Boys' "Guerrilla Warfare." If mp3s had never been a thing I would have gone MiniDisc or the Philips digital cassette. I was never into music while walking in public much, though.
posted by rhizome at 6:23 PM on February 21, 2018
Kept my black cassette Sony Walkman forever, or at least until 2000. I wasn't into the portable CD players because they were so bulky, though I had one briefly, I don't remember the brand. But the minute I could afford one, I ditched both of those for a Rio Forge mp3 player (I miss how easy it was to drag and drop files onto it without any other software), and had that until I got an iPod Nano a couple of years later.
I still have a Nano. I went from a 2nd generation to a 3rd to a 7th, and the 7th is the one I have now. I listen to music a lot when I'm on the go, and I don't want to drain the battery on my phone because of that. When it dies, I may get... a Sony Walkman.
posted by droplet at 6:28 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
I still have a Nano. I went from a 2nd generation to a 3rd to a 7th, and the 7th is the one I have now. I listen to music a lot when I'm on the go, and I don't want to drain the battery on my phone because of that. When it dies, I may get... a Sony Walkman.
/7th-nano-solo-56a534ac3df78cf77286eb5c.jpg){kind=link}
posted by droplet at 6:28 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
Sony made some excellent onesEventually, I guess, but they spent the late 90s trying to convince us that we needed to re-encode our music (ATRAC?) to use their kit. I mean, what the hell? Portable players were their market to lose, but they committed so many unforced errors it was basically anybody's game by the time Apple came to market.
posted by uberchet at 6:44 PM on February 21, 2018 [5 favorites]
ATRAC sounded better than MP3, and MiniDisc was very popular in Japan (and possibly greater Asia). It wasn't a nonstarter by any means, and definitely not an error. People just wound up not really needing removable media anymore. Sony had weathered shifts in the market before, MD was just the latest in a long line of products from them.
posted by rhizome at 6:56 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by rhizome at 6:56 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
I think uberchet is referring to Sony's early digital music players, which I think only used ATRAC? And you had to convert music when it uploaded? I can't remember exactly how it worked. In any event, later players just supported both formats.
ATRAC was used to encode music on MDs and worked well for that purpose.
posted by selfnoise at 7:00 PM on February 21, 2018
ATRAC was used to encode music on MDs and worked well for that purpose.
posted by selfnoise at 7:00 PM on February 21, 2018
Oh yeah, that was some bullshit. They have their rootkit moments, too.
posted by rhizome at 7:17 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by rhizome at 7:17 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
Sony has always loved proprietary formats. Remember memory sticks?
posted by octothorpe at 7:51 PM on February 21, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 7:51 PM on February 21, 2018 [3 favorites]
I couldn't afford a discman until ESP was up to 10 seconds or so (I got the same one zsazsa had), and it lived in my backpack from about sophomore year of high school through college. It got pretty beaten up over that time, and at one point I got some steel wool and scraped off the rest of the silver on the lid. Once I got a real job and could finally afford one, I bought an iriver player (they played oggs, which was rare at the time), and I unceremoniously tossed the discman a bit later. Then the iriver died right before I went on a trip and I went out and bought a cheap generic CD player since I didn't think I'd be able to find a replacement ogg player on short notice.
posted by ckape at 8:30 PM on February 21, 2018
posted by ckape at 8:30 PM on February 21, 2018
Someone stole my Walkman from my locker in 1990, and I'm still pissed about it.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:48 PM on February 21, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by Chrysostom at 8:48 PM on February 21, 2018 [4 favorites]
I actually bought a MD recorder in the mid 2000's for field recording, but eventually replaced it with a Tascam. The MD was pretty good for that though, dirt cheap and small. If it had built in mics I probably wouldn't have replaced it.
posted by bongo_x at 8:51 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by bongo_x at 8:51 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
In early 2001, my now-husband (then-boyfriend) bought a Diamond Rio MP3 CD player, Discman shape and size. It was the hotness.
It took me a minute to remember those, and that you didn't mean this Diamond Rio.
posted by bongo_x at 8:55 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
It took me a minute to remember those, and that you didn't mean this Diamond Rio.
posted by bongo_x at 8:55 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
One of my treasured memories is introducing one of the cool girls to Supertramp on my discman in seventh grade algebra class. She thought I was RAD.
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 9:24 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 9:24 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
Sony has always loved proprietary formats. Remember memory sticks?
Hell, I remember Betamax. None of the video stores that I frequented in the eighties and nineties ever seemed to have very many titles in the format, but there always seemed to be one or two that didn't have a VHS counterpart that I really wanted to watch. My only real encounter with Memory Sticks was when, as the unofficial mobile/PDA support person at my library, I tried to help a bunch of medical residents with their Sony CLIÉs, a PDA which ran the Palm OS. The local medical school got a good deal and bought CLIÉs for all of their residents that year, without realizing that they were so cheap because they were crap.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:27 PM on February 21, 2018
Hell, I remember Betamax. None of the video stores that I frequented in the eighties and nineties ever seemed to have very many titles in the format, but there always seemed to be one or two that didn't have a VHS counterpart that I really wanted to watch. My only real encounter with Memory Sticks was when, as the unofficial mobile/PDA support person at my library, I tried to help a bunch of medical residents with their Sony CLIÉs, a PDA which ran the Palm OS. The local medical school got a good deal and bought CLIÉs for all of their residents that year, without realizing that they were so cheap because they were crap.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:27 PM on February 21, 2018
Like many farther down the thread I am totally the exact generation for the Discman. I got a slightly fancy one as a birthday gift at I think 12 (1998), bass boost, ESP. By 13-14 I used to listen to stuff in the dark with the earphones pushed right in with my fingers for the best sound, and hung out a lot in CD shops after school. One friend had a big Creative Zen Jukebox and another had the Diamond Rio when it first came out, the PMP300. I got a little translucent mp3 player after a bit which used SmartMedia cards but it didn't get as much solid use as the Discman. Lots of public transport. Eventually it wouldn't work without lots of coaxing and my dad brought me back one of the Sony CD/ATRAC/mp3 CD players from the US, about 2002ish. Lasted less long, but exactly as long as I was using a Discman at all. Finally then got a second-hand Zen Micro.
Napster, Kazaa and all that, compiling mix CDs, burning new album leaks and listening to them out and about the next day.
Last year or so I was a bit miffed finding that everyone was still after a second-hand Discman (so I couldn't pick one up for peanuts without putting in some effort), which makes a lot of sense. I also couldn't find a cheap good non-new mp3 player from when they were good and solid - I got my mum to give me her old 4gb Philips, so I still have something portable to put Bandcamp purchases and the like on for walking that's not my phone (battery drain, size, destructibility).
Yes yes yes yes to Discmen. Basically.
posted by lokta at 12:33 AM on February 22, 2018
Napster, Kazaa and all that, compiling mix CDs, burning new album leaks and listening to them out and about the next day.
Last year or so I was a bit miffed finding that everyone was still after a second-hand Discman (so I couldn't pick one up for peanuts without putting in some effort), which makes a lot of sense. I also couldn't find a cheap good non-new mp3 player from when they were good and solid - I got my mum to give me her old 4gb Philips, so I still have something portable to put Bandcamp purchases and the like on for walking that's not my phone (battery drain, size, destructibility).
Yes yes yes yes to Discmen. Basically.
posted by lokta at 12:33 AM on February 22, 2018
I have a Sony D25, which was a birthday present when I was "young". It still works with the a/c adapter. Still have the (wired)remote control, all the lights work... it's just an amazing machine that still sounds great. I used it for many years as my main CD player hooked up to my sound system. Can't find the battery and I don't think I ever will, but I wouldn't take that thing outside for fear of damaging it. It weighs...don't know but if I hit you in the head with it it would leave a nice mark. It's been dropped out of a window, fell down flights of stairs etc and it only has a small scratch in the paint. An amazing piece of engineering.
posted by james33 at 5:15 AM on February 22, 2018
posted by james33 at 5:15 AM on February 22, 2018
Ah yes, the Sony Walkman that was the same size as a cassette tape, as long as there wasn't a cassette tape inside it.
That exposed disc portion of the smallest discman seems a huge liability. On the other hand, these thumb sized cassette players seem pretty radical, or possibly tubular.
posted by FatherDagon at 6:01 AM on February 22, 2018 [3 favorites]
That exposed disc portion of the smallest discman seems a huge liability. On the other hand, these thumb sized cassette players seem pretty radical, or possibly tubular.
posted by FatherDagon at 6:01 AM on February 22, 2018 [3 favorites]
I had a Walkman, or two. I bought a Diskman in the late 90s, but didn't use it because it skipped.
However, some years later I bought another Diskman and a power adapter, because it was the only device that I could find at the time that played mp3 CDs. After the mp3 CD boom box that I used to play audiobooks at night died. Hard drive based mp3 players were too expensive, and affordable flash mp3 player capacity wasn't big enough. I still have that Diskman, it still works. But I'm using the best netbook ASUS made to play my audiobooks now.
I had a minidisc player, but it was quickly superseded by an RCA 128 MB mp3 player (also played wma, which was my choice of format at the time). The Creative Zen single battery no display players have died, but I still have a few AAA battery powered mp3 players around. I still carry one in my purse. They are just so tiny and sturdy! I'd rather stick one of those in my pocket (or bra) than try to use my phone. The little intergral battery players (looking at you, first gen SanDisk Sansa that only charges when plugged into a computer that's on) were comparatively weak and inconvenient.
Of course, I also had two generations of laserdisc players and only got Blu-ray when a friend gave me their old player last year. I tend to play leapfrog with the cutting edge.
posted by monopas at 9:42 AM on February 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
However, some years later I bought another Diskman and a power adapter, because it was the only device that I could find at the time that played mp3 CDs. After the mp3 CD boom box that I used to play audiobooks at night died. Hard drive based mp3 players were too expensive, and affordable flash mp3 player capacity wasn't big enough. I still have that Diskman, it still works. But I'm using the best netbook ASUS made to play my audiobooks now.
I had a minidisc player, but it was quickly superseded by an RCA 128 MB mp3 player (also played wma, which was my choice of format at the time). The Creative Zen single battery no display players have died, but I still have a few AAA battery powered mp3 players around. I still carry one in my purse. They are just so tiny and sturdy! I'd rather stick one of those in my pocket (or bra) than try to use my phone. The little intergral battery players (looking at you, first gen SanDisk Sansa that only charges when plugged into a computer that's on) were comparatively weak and inconvenient.
Of course, I also had two generations of laserdisc players and only got Blu-ray when a friend gave me their old player last year. I tend to play leapfrog with the cutting edge.
posted by monopas at 9:42 AM on February 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
ATRAC sounded better than MP3POSSIBLY, MAYBE, at the same bitrate, but there is no fucking reason to insist on it when everything else the user owns plays Mp3s.
MiniDisc was very popular in JapanWhich turns out to be a synonym for "not popular." MD was never going to take off like CD because Sony owned it outright.
I think uberchet is referring to Sony's early digital music players, which I think only used ATRACExactly.
Back to the top, though: the Discman was basically the Official First CD Player of the class of 1988. There were a shitton of them in my freshman dorm in August of 1988, received as graduation presents or for Christmas '87 or whatever. And the kids that didn't have them probably had a CD boombox instead (guilty).
My friend Mike had one, and it worked like a CHAMP until something fell on it and dented the top, stopping the CD within cold. We then found that SOME CDs would still work, but SOME OTHERS wouldn't, and there was a correlation by record label and presumably by originating plant -- the difference, obviously, was a fraction of a fraction of inch of thickness. The thin ones played fine, but the nicer ones -- most of the ones that didn't were classical -- were too thick and wouldn't spin.
posted by uberchet at 9:59 AM on February 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
Sony has always loved proprietary formats. Remember memory sticks?
Memory Sticks weren't all that bad. Except like everything else Sony wanted it to be a licensing moneymaker, and nobody but Sony ended up using them. Eventually Sony changed their tune, third parties started making them, but it was too late. Except for people like me who had a bunch of Sony devices that took memory sticks and were able to gobble up more memory sticks than they'd ever need. Never had one fail.
A couple thoughts about Sony.
For a while, Sony's VAIO laptops were the "it" laptop and everything else was brand X. With prices to match.
Sony is really good at coming up with some innovative spin on a product everybody's making, producing one iteration of the product, and then walking away. For instance, desktop computers. Sony came out with a shockingly affordable computer with a built-in tablet screen that worked really well. There was simply nothing else like it when it came out for the price. I went down to the Sony Store in Chicago, (remember Sony Stores?) bought one and used it for years until the cable inside the tablet screen broke and it couldn't be repaired. If Sony had only come out with an improved version of this computer, I would have upgraded, but it was a one-off - they never made anything like it again. Same for another unique desktop all-in-one that had a nice wide format display and a fold-down keyboard. We put these things in our computer classroom lab where I work because everybody could see their screen to work, but they could also easily see over the screen to see what the instructor was doing. Beautiful. This computer was really intended for home, and had all sorts of neat little features, like a clock that launched on the little slice of the screen that was left open when the keyboard was folded up. Again, one iteration and Sony never made another computer like it.
You can see both of those computers here (the VAIO LX and the VAIO W).
Not to mention, Sony is strictly a consumer company. We bought a batch of Sony monitors even after being warned they were a nightmare to deal with for service. A couple went bad and tried to get them fixed under warranty. They held them hostage over a $30 difference in what they thought the return shipping charge should have been over what it was. I got collection calls from some lady at Sony for years about it, who then got hold of a directory and started calling random people looking for her $30. We never saw the monitors again. A strange, strange company.
posted by lagomorphius at 11:16 AM on February 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
Memory Sticks weren't all that bad. Except like everything else Sony wanted it to be a licensing moneymaker, and nobody but Sony ended up using them. Eventually Sony changed their tune, third parties started making them, but it was too late. Except for people like me who had a bunch of Sony devices that took memory sticks and were able to gobble up more memory sticks than they'd ever need. Never had one fail.
A couple thoughts about Sony.
For a while, Sony's VAIO laptops were the "it" laptop and everything else was brand X. With prices to match.
Sony is really good at coming up with some innovative spin on a product everybody's making, producing one iteration of the product, and then walking away. For instance, desktop computers. Sony came out with a shockingly affordable computer with a built-in tablet screen that worked really well. There was simply nothing else like it when it came out for the price. I went down to the Sony Store in Chicago, (remember Sony Stores?) bought one and used it for years until the cable inside the tablet screen broke and it couldn't be repaired. If Sony had only come out with an improved version of this computer, I would have upgraded, but it was a one-off - they never made anything like it again. Same for another unique desktop all-in-one that had a nice wide format display and a fold-down keyboard. We put these things in our computer classroom lab where I work because everybody could see their screen to work, but they could also easily see over the screen to see what the instructor was doing. Beautiful. This computer was really intended for home, and had all sorts of neat little features, like a clock that launched on the little slice of the screen that was left open when the keyboard was folded up. Again, one iteration and Sony never made another computer like it.
You can see both of those computers here (the VAIO LX and the VAIO W).
Not to mention, Sony is strictly a consumer company. We bought a batch of Sony monitors even after being warned they were a nightmare to deal with for service. A couple went bad and tried to get them fixed under warranty. They held them hostage over a $30 difference in what they thought the return shipping charge should have been over what it was. I got collection calls from some lady at Sony for years about it, who then got hold of a directory and started calling random people looking for her $30. We never saw the monitors again. A strange, strange company.
posted by lagomorphius at 11:16 AM on February 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
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posted by humboldt32 at 1:35 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]