Best console technical spec design for its time?

[Ryudo]

Skipping wasn't an issue in 98 with my 10-second skip protection on a Sony Discman. Then in 1999, I got a Phillips 45 second skip protection. I still own that player and it still works and I still use it on occasion. Yes, I have owned MP3 players. Neither work anymore tho. One is from 2003 and the other 2008. HDD died on the first and the other battery died for good about 2 years ago.

[gbpxl]

I just wanna give a shoutout to the Sony Walkman CD player which I think is one of the highest quality pieces of technology ever produced. I forst got one around 1998 or 1999 and never had a single issue with it. I recently bought one again and these things have stood the test of time. You can flip the Hold switch on, move the CD player around at any angle and it wont skip at all. boots up fast, great design, easy to use, and affordable. you cant find portable CD players like that anymore

[AdamAnt316]

Skipping wasn't an issue in 98 with my 10-second skip protection on a Sony Discman. Then in 1999, I got a Phillips 45 second skip protection. I still own that player and it still works and I still use it on occasion. Yes, I have owned MP3 players. Neither work anymore tho. One is from 2003 and the other 2008. HDD died on the first and the other battery died for good about 2 years ago.

It sure was in 1993 when I got my first Discman. No skip protection whatsoever, so much of any movement while it was playing would send it skipping like a stone. It went through batteries like candy, too; Sony included a NiCad rechargeable pack, but it didn't last long, and you couldn't use the player while the battery was charging for some stupid reason.

I eventually replaced it with an Aiwa which had 10 second skip protection and better battery life. Might still have it if it hadn't been stolen during a science fair where I was using it to power a tube amplifier. As for MP3 players, I own numerous examples of early Apple iPods, including the first two models, and most of them still work apart from weak battery packs. Hard drives are definitely their Achilles heel, as they are of any digital audio player which uses them.

I just wanna give a shoutout to the Sony Walkman CD player which I think is one of the highest quality pieces of technology ever produced. I forst got one around 1998 or 1999 and never had a single issue with it. I recently bought one again and these things have stood the test of time. You can flip the Hold switch on, move the CD player around at any angle and it wont skip at all. boots up fast, great design, easy to use, and affordable. you cant find portable CD players like that anymore

Not sure when Sony ditched the Discman name and started using the Walkman name on all their portables. After my Aiwa portable CD player was stolen, I got a Walkman CD player which was kinda ugly, but the skip protection was excellent. Didn't help the fact that it didn't fit in my pocket since it was still about the size of a CD, so I mostly used my cassette Walkman for portable listening until the MP3 era.
-Adam

[Gameguy]

I just wanna give a shoutout to the Sony Walkman CD player which I think is one of the highest quality pieces of technology ever produced. I forst got one around 1998 or 1999 and never had a single issue with it.

It depends on what years you're talking about. The Sony Discmans with the best sound quality are the ones from the 80's through early 90's, but these are the ones that are the least reliable. I tend to keep an eye out for these earlier ones and rarely find any still working, they need to be rebuilt. Most online are listed for parts or repair. A friend of mine collects and repairs these so I end up passing most onto him.

The coolest one I've found is the Sony D-88, the smallest CD player ever made as it's smaller than CDs. It was in excellent physical condition in the original case with the original headphones, looked barely used. Wouldn't read any discs, thinking back I don't remember if it actually spun the discs or not. My friend was happy to get it. I don't think he got around to fixing it yet.

The ones from the late 90's through early 2000's are usually fine, at least at this point.

[gbpxl]

It depends on what years you're talking about. The Sony Discmans with the best sound quality are the ones from the 80's through early 90's, but these are the ones that are the least reliable. I tend to keep an eye out for these earlier ones and rarely find any still working, they need to be rebuilt. Most online are listed for parts or repair. A friend of mine collects and repairs these so I end up passing most onto him.

The coolest one I've found is the Sony D-88, the smallest CD player ever made as it's smaller than CDs. It was in excellent physical condition in the original case with the original headphones, looked barely used. Wouldn't read any discs, thinking back I don't remember if it actually spun the discs or not. My friend was happy to get it. I don't think he got around to fixing it yet.

The ones from the late 90's through early 2000's are usually fine, at least at this point.

I never knew about the D88 til now. that thing looks awesome. itd be interesting to see just how small they could make a functioning CD player today.

I bought a cheap GPX CD player a few years ago. it was the only one they were selling. it had the life expectancy of a Retron 5. so less than a year, with my experience

[AdamAnt316]

The coolest one I've found is the Sony D-88, the smallest CD player ever made as it's smaller than CDs. It was in excellent physical condition in the original case with the original headphones, looked barely used. Wouldn't read any discs, thinking back I don't remember if it actually spun the discs or not. My friend was happy to get it. I don't think he got around to fixing it yet.

The D-88 is very much of an oddball in the Discman world, as it was chiefly intended for playing the little 3" CDs which were intended to replace the 45RPM single, but never did. The back panel had a little lever which moved the transport towards the center for 3" CD playback, or towards one of the corners for 5" CD playback. The result of the latter setting, of course, ends up looking like this:

They're referred to as "the buzzsaw" for a reason..........

[Gameguy]

If the D-88 was working I probably would have kept it, I just couldn't fix it myself and it would have been too costly to repair at least in my opinion of cost. It's just how Sony players are, the best in creative design and performance, the lower the reliability. Surface mounted capacitors of the time were very new and very unreliable, it's a large part of what fails in these types of portable electronics from this time period. Difficult to replace. The same can be applied to Sony cassette Walkmans, the most compact and advanced designs with extra features are the most failure prone, the earlier large budget oriented Sony players (like the WM-1) are often still working with the original belts and are easily serviceable if the belts need replacing. The Direct Drive models are worse than belt ones as the gears become brittle and break, it's not as simple as just replacing a belt with a new one.

For more recent portable CD players I would say Panasonic ones are somewhat unreliable. The most recent one I've found is having some slight issues which I'm trying to figure out, it's just not worth a lot in repair costs as it would only be worth around $20 fully working. Overall I've had good luck with Sony and JVC players, and some Panasonics. I don't really bother buying other brands too often.