[DwightLooi]

Just wondering what you guys think are the best portable players new or old.

For me its as follows:-

Sony Walkman WM-501 : Hey its small, well built and its my first decent portable cassette player. Used it with MDR-E464 buds. (1987)

Sony Walkman WM-701C : My second Walkman, its possibly the pinnacle of ultraslim, all metal Walkman development. Of course having both Dolby B & C NR doesn't hurt. My favourite of all times. Used it with MDR-E484 buds. (1989)

Sony Walkman WM-DD9: Quartz lock direct drive and EX Amorphous head, Dolby B & C NR. A bit thick (1mm thick machined aluminum case), but it sounded great. Used it with MDR-E484 buds. (1991)

Sony Discman D-515: My first Discman, also the first Sony made with ESP and digital signal processing. Honestly, sound was so-so; DSP based digital bass boost and digital dynamic sound sounded unnatural. The case was beautiful though... lacquered metal top and rubberized metal bottom. Used it with MDR-E484 buds. (1992)

Of course no classic portable list is complete without the sorely missed MDR-E484... compact, very high quality, good looking and good enough sounding (with foam slippers on that is). I went through 8 pairs! Sadly, I no longer have a pair that is properly functioning.

And then everything sucked until....

the iPod came along!

 

[blessingx]

The two that blew me away-

Sony WM-10 (1983)

"...the smallest, best-sounding cassette player ever." *

and

Apple iPod (2001)

It was/is a thing of beauty. Still remember the first sighting. NJB was sold two weeks later.



[size=xx-small]* Walkman Museum - http://pocketcalculatorshow.com/walkman/museum.html[/size]

 

[john_jcb]

I have not had too many but the Panasonic CT-570 is a pretty good player.

 

[austonia]

all the gear i still have in my sig.

i've owned and sold about 10x as much audio gear but I keep the goodies.

 

[philodox]

archos av320... extremely versatile portable... can't wait for my avcam 300 module

 

[Kirosia]

My IFP-190 mp3 player and D-25. The iriver has okay sound, but is very forgiving when it comes to crappy headphones. The D on the other hand, needs some fairly decent phones to sound good.

Oh, and not to mention my miniature trash can/chopsticks combo. Portable Hi-Fidelity at its best.

 

[l0rdza0n]

hmm.. I think I'll hands-down beat everyone here considering I had the very first ever mp3 portable player before anyone else even heard of it!

it was a direct buy from Tokyo.. it was called the (1)Genica CD-MP3 player, the very first of its generation and to this day, It runs perfectly and is stored away somewhere in my house

(2)eventually I got another one, it was blue and i forgot the name but i bought it because it played CD-MP3+VCD

so it served its purposes..

Then I heard of a small company making waves.. and soon they'll start selling in the US.. but a full year before they came on-board and started selling to North America, I again hooked up and bought myself.. (3) IRIVER SLIMX CD-MP3 player!

yup, that "little" company is none other than I-RIVER themselves! woot! anyhows it was cool.. i bought the slim-x, and it even came with a cool shoulder-sling IRiver bag which I still have

finally I upgraded to my current favorite and imnho, BEST, mp3 player around.. the (4)NOMAD JUKEBOX ZEN XTRA

..whee! There it is.. hell.. just looking at my players and you'd see the history of mp3's in america, LMAO.. and oh.. all of them still work

 

[D555]

Hello,

Sony D-555. Still king of my hill after 13 years (except for a few years while it was not operational)

Sony MZ-1.

MZ-1?

While not technically the best or the most portable MD, it:
1. Is the first.
2. Is early technology -- lots of "gee whiz"!
3. Generated a lot of interest when I recorded live local music.
And I recorded a LOT of local live music (even got me a credit on a CD when an artist used some live tracks!).
4. Still looks and works great to this day!

Best regards,

Paul

 

[feverish]

My first real portable was the Sharp MD-702, and man I loved that thing. I used it for years, even after all the super slim MD players started coming out. What killed it for me was the iPod which I only got about 3 months ago. So I'd say the life time on that puppy was about 5 years! God, I loved it like my child, but anyhow, MD had it's drawbacks for me that HD players came and fixed.

 

[GuineaMcPig]

I have owned various crappy CD players, but the one player that has impressed me to this day was my PJB-100 personal jukebox. It was a very early (possibly the first) HDD-based mp3 player that had 6.4 gigs of storage (which, if anyone remembers, was actually considered a lot back then). The interface was perfect: ripping CD's and using the player could not have been easier or more intuitive. But best of all, it had a really powerful headphone out that sounded great with all of the phones that I used with it (Koss portapros and Grado SR-80s). I have used it since I bought it 4 years ago. In the past 3 months the headphone jack has started to come loose, and now the sound is terrible. But it will always have a place in my heart

.

 

[andrzejpw]

My ipod has been the only portable audio product that has kept me truly happy, and not regretting its purchase.

 

[Achtunghoy]

I had a crappy Magnavox CD player i got about five years ago, then i got a Panasonic MASH CD player

then a Riovolt SP90 (for free with my cellphone at cartoys

).

Now i have good karma.

 

[Jap]

[size=medium]PCDPs
Denon DCP-150 (the best ever)
Denon DCP-100

Currently,
Sony D25S (still without the Mekanoplastik turbo mod, but that's coming ...)


Cassette Recorders
Sony WM-D6C (needs to be overhauled so as to transfer cassette recordings to a lossless compression format to be decided later)
[/size]

 

[lindrone]

Quote:

Originally posted by l0rdza0n hmm.. I think I'll hands-down beat everyone here considering I had the very first ever mp3 portable player before anyone else even heard of it! it was a direct buy from Tokyo.. it was called the (1)Genica CD-MP3 player, the very first of its generation and to this day, It runs perfectly and is stored away somewhere in my house

LOL.. I had one too, never underestimate the folks here on Head-Fi. It was the cheapest MP3 solution at the time, but the user interface is absolutely horrible, navigating folders was nearly impossible. I remember I finally figured out how to make it work, but it was still horrid. Don't remember anything about the sound quality. I threw it away when I moved. It was sitting on the shelves collecting dust.

Best portable purchase though...

iPod 5GB (first gen)
iPod 15GB (3rd gen)

 

[l0rdza0n]

Quote:

Originally posted by lindrone LOL.. I had one too, never underestimate the folks here on Head-Fi. It was the cheapest MP3 solution at the time, but the user interface is absolutely horrible, navigating folders was nearly impossible. I remember I finally figured out how to make it work, but it was still horrid. Don't remember anything about the sound quality. I threw it away when I moved. It was sitting on the shelves collecting dust.

dude! what do you mean "cheapest"

it was *the only* mp3 solution at the time..

napster was just hitting its groove.. mp3s were rampant but the problem was portability which Genica fixed very well indeed..

as for interface and all that.. lol all i knew is it had "shuffle"

that's about it.. i burned my mp3's on one cd, hit shuffle and let er play for my commute!

i still have it somewhere.. maybe sometime ill brig it to one of those antique roadshows and some guy with a british accent will tell me

"Woa, behold! i have not seen one of these in a lifetime.. why it's the very first ever mp3 portable!"