The first commercially available CD player was the CDP-101. By the beginning of 1983, several other companies began selling CD players. Roughly one thousand CD titles were available, and the CDP-101 was selling well by year's end. This initial frenzy gradually subsided, however, and the CD market was lackluster for nearly a year.
I wasnt able to get my hands on the said CD player until 1986 when my father bought a unit while working for ARAMCO. This a nice sleek machine, and it sounds well with APM speakers. Back then, I am using an SONY FH-7MKII unit together with my CDP-101.
[This is my CDP-101]
[The accompanying brochure (scanned)]
Along came the DISCMAN
Executives at Sony realized that something had to be done to revive the market. A product that would popularize the CD needed to be launched quickly. We're going to commercialize a CD player of this size, said Ohsone, head of the General Audio Division while showing his staff a piece of wood which was 13.4 cm across and about 4 cm thick. This was about the same size as four CD cases stacked one on top of another. He added, I don't care how you do it, or whether you decide to put cicadas or grasshoppers in it, but just make this produce sound. Everyone laughed.
The D-50 was released in November 1984, marking the two-year anniversary since the CD was first mass produced. Though it was only double the width of a single CD case, the unit offered the same functionality as the CDP-101, but came without a remote and the repeat functionality of the unit. The D-50 retailed for only 49,800 yen, approximately half the cost price of the unit. The unit successfully sparked public interest in CDs, boosting their popularity, and within a year and a half the D-50 became profitable.
[Sony D-50]
Because of its portable nature and similarity to the Walkman, the nickname 'Discman' was given to the D-50. This name has been used to refer to any Sony portable CD player.
However, Sony has since changed the name to CD Walkman. [excerpts from SONY HISTORY]
My First Discman
My first discman was the D-22 (1986). It was actually the first generation of Discman that runs on ordinary batteries. The D-22 was actually a variation of the D-20, only with a Mega Bass option switch on its side.
When I went to may mom's house last month and went inside my old room I've found, .... my good ole Discman DZ-555 and the D-22 (with Allan's trademark, 'no scratches').
I bought the D-22 unit for P6,000 way back then. I used a 9V universal adaptor and tried if it's still working and to my surprise, it does play music the way it used to be (after almost 24 years, this 'SONY' product is great !!). It's even capable of playing 96/24 CDs.
Can you magine all my classmate's amazement when i brought this unit to school? I am the only one who has this player back then (astig !!!) .
Unlike most of today's audio device which is 95% plastic, this gadget is made of composite carbon and aluminum parts. On the side of the unit is a jack for remote control sensor (I dont know where it is now). And the back panel has an audio out that you can hook up to a stereo system. But as with other SONY portables, you'll be happy with the included headphones.
During my 5th year in College, with my father's financial help, I was able to buy my second discman, the purely metallic SONY DZ-555 (I think prized at around 9K then). This is the best puppy I've ever had. Besides having a good (at the time) 16-bit, 8-times oversampling, it also was one of the first units to offer dual digital to analog converters (one per channel) within a portable CD player.
[Sony DZ-555]
The DZ-555 made use of a Digital Signal Processing (DSP) quite a "high-tech" add-on then. In 1990 DSP was a novelty. This unit also offers digital equalizer (with 63Hz, 250Hz, 1kHz, 4kHz, and 10kHz center frequencies), or Surround, or Bass Boost.
The side of the DZ-555 has a digital optical output, a rare option during those days. As with my D-22, the IR remote terminal is also present.
And this gadget also features dual LCD display (the top display shows the equalizer, dsp settings, spectrum analyzer. The LCD on the front displays the CD's track/time.
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