I remember feeling like such an edgy, cool and counter-culture youth during this period that I did everything in my power to avoid using this piece of hardware

I remember feeling like such an edgy, cool and counter-culture youth during this period that I did everything in my power to avoid using this piece of hardware just because it was so popular. Joke was totally on me - everything else in the space at the time was mostly crap. I finally caved in and ultimately owned quite a few of them. Really rock-solid pieces of gear!