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> I genuinely feel like listening to Discovery on my discman on the bus in high school helped define who I am as a person. In high school my backpack had a sma

> I genuinely feel like listening to Discovery on my discman on the bus in high school helped define who I am as a person. In high school my backpack had a small zipped pocket at the top specifically designed for a CD player. You ran your headphone cord through a gasket into the pocket, keeping your player safe and convenient. As a loner, it was splendid. And then you always wished you had a CD player with just a _little_ more buffer so it wouldn't skip when you were running to class.

Sohcahtoa82 6y ago
I remember in high school spending my money on what was probably the best portable CD player on the market, the Panasonic SL-SW890 [0] Pretty sure the target audience was runners. It had a strap on the back so you would attach it to your hand, and near the hinge was a hard slightly-rubbery plastic with little indentations for your fingers. It was incredibly comfortable to hold. And the skip protection was absolutely top-tier. By some kind of magic, the laser could read the disc at any arbitrary speed up to some limit. It didn't just handle bumps, but weird sudden rotations that would change the speed of disc rotation relative to the laser. I think it claimed 40 seconds of skip protection, but I would jostle, spin, and bump it for 5 solid minutes and no skipping. And the way the thing close made it very difficult to accidentally pop it open. Drop it, throw it, it's staying closed. Of course, I paid for all that ruggedness. I think at the time, most portable CD players were around $75, and I think I paid $150 for it. Of course, this was over 20 years ago so my memory could be wrong. Pretty sure I still have that player in a box somewhere. [0] https://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-SL-SW890-Shockwave-Portable-Player/dp/B00005K2S3 https://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-SL-SW890-Shockwave-Portable...

Sohcahtoa82 6y ago

I remember in high school spending my money on what was probably the best portable CD player on the market, the Panasonic SL-SW890 [0] Pretty sure the target audience was runners. It had a strap on the back so you would attach it to your hand, and near the hinge was a hard slightly-rubbery plastic with little indentations for your fingers. It was incredibly comfortable to hold. And the skip protection was absolutely top-tier. By some kind of magic, the laser could read the disc at any arbitrary speed up to some limit. It didn't just handle bumps, but weird sudden rotations that would change the speed of disc rotation relative to the laser. I think it claimed 40 seconds of skip protection, but I would jostle, spin, and bump it for 5 solid minutes and no skipping. And the way the thing close made it very difficult to accidentally pop it open. Drop it, throw it, it's staying closed. Of course, I paid for all that ruggedness. I think at the time, most portable CD players were around $75, and I think I paid $150 for it. Of course, this was over 20 years ago so my memory could be wrong. Pretty sure I still have that player in a box somewhere. [0] https://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-SL-SW890-Shockwave-Portable-Player/dp/B00005K2S3 https://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-SL-SW890-Shockwave-Portable...