WHAT COULD BE BETTER THAN SPENDING AN AFTERNOON NOW AND THEN WITH OLD, SOMEWHAT ALIENATING OR EVEN FAMILIAR BUT WORN-OUT HARDWARE? OVER THE DECADES, MEDIA CHANGES HAVE BEEN THE STANDARD IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY. EVERY FEW YEARS THE SHELF WAS ALLOWED TO BE REARRANGED TO BUILD A NEW COLLECTION OF MUSIC WITH A NEW FORMAT. ESPECIALLY EXCITING IS THE HISTORY OF THE NEWER MOBILE DEVICES OF THE LAST 30 YEARS, THEY STAND FOR FREEDOM, MOBILITY AND UNLIMITED MUSIC ENJOYMENT.
EXEMPLARILY WE LOOK AT A FEW SONY DEVICES, ON WHICH MUSIC CAN STILL BE ENJOYED TODAY IF YOU YOU WISH SO. THE DEVICES ARE OFTEN VERY CHEAP IN A USED CONDITION, UNFORTUNATELY, MANY DEVICES HAVE ALSO BEEN CARELESSLY DISPOSED OR LANDED IN RECYCLING YARDS. AFTER ALL.
POINT ZERO OF OUR TIMELINE IS THE SONY WALKMAN. THIS DEVICE REVOLUTIONIZED THE MOBILE MUSIC LISTENING EXPERIENCE. POCKET RADIOS HAD BEEN AROUND BEFORE, MOBILE RECORD PLAYERS, TOO. BUT TO LISTEN TO EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT ON A CASSETTE AND AS OFTEN AS YOU WANT, AND THEN EVEN WHILE WALKING... ABSOLUTE EXCITEMENT IN 1979! TODAY WALKMANS, BOOMBOXES AND ALSO CASSETTE DECKS OF CAR AND BOAT RADIOS, CAN BE FITTED WITH MP3 CASSETTE PLAYERS. THESE DEVICES ARE EQUIPPED WITH A BATTERY AND HAVE THE SAME FORMAT AS A CLASSIC CASSETTE. THESE CASSETTE PLAYERS CAN BE CONNECTED TO A COMPUTER WITH A USB CABLE, RECOGNIZED AS REMOVABLE MEDIA AND LOADED WITH MP3S FROM YOUR OWN LIBRARY. THE RESULT IS LEGENDARY! AN MP3 PLAYER IS COMPLETELY DIGITAL, ROBUST ENOUGH TO SURVIVE A SMALL FALL UNHARMED AND THEREFORE PERFECTLY SUITABLE FOR EXERCISE, AS LONG AS THE ENCLOSING SONY WALKMAN HAS OUTDOOR PROPERTIES OR IS TAKEN CARE OF IN A CASE. THE BEST PLACE TO FIND WELL-MAINTAINED DEVICES IS ON EBAY. CHECK DESCRIPTIONS IF THE DEVICE IS ACTUALLY DESCRIBED AS WORKING. MY EXPERIENCE IN THIS REGARD IS GOOD. THANK GOD APPARENTLY VERY FEW PEOPLE ACTUALLY WANT TO SELL SCRAP. ALTERNATIVELY, THE DEVICES CAN ALSO BE EQUIPPED WITH A BLUETOOTH CASSETTE, WITH THE HELP OF WHICH MUSIC CAN BE RECEIVED WIRELESSLY FROM THE CELL PHONE, FOR EXAMPLE.
Here is a link to MP3 Cassette Players on Amazon.
Here is a link to Bluetooth Receiver Cassettes on Amazon.
Here is a link to SONY WALKMANs... WALKMEN? on ebay.
THE FIRST SONY DISCMAN MADE ITS DEBUT IN THE SHELFS OF ELECTRONICS RETAILERS IN 1984. FROM THE BEGINNING, THE COMPACT DISC, OR CD FOR SHORT, ADVERTISED A CRYSTAL-CLEAR, DIGITAL SOUND EXPERIENCE, AND ALL WITHOUT THE CASSETTE TAPE RUNNING THE RISK OF FORMING LOOPS AND MAKING A SALAD. MOREOVER, THE DESIGN OF A DISC WAS NOT UNUSUAL AND WAS KNOWN FROM PREVIOUS GENERATIONS IN A LARGER FORMAT. THE WORLD IS AND REMAINS A DISC. NEWER SONY DISC MANS WERE ADVERTISED WITH ESP, A BUFFER MEMORY WHICH ENSURES, THAT DROPOUTS CAN BE OUTSTRIPPED FOR A MOMENT. WITH THIS, THE DISCMAN REALLY CAUGHT UP WITH IT'S PREDECESSOR, THE WALKMAN, WHICH DID NOT HAVE THIS PROBLEM. TODAY, BATTERIES HAVE A PRETTY BAD IMAGE, NOT WITHOUT REASON. THEREFORE IT MAKES SENSE TO OPERATE A DISCMAN (...AS WELL AS A SONY WALKMAN) WITH RECHARCHEABLE BATTERIES TODAY. THE EXPERIENCE IS FANTASTIC! AS GOOD AS POSSIBLE FOR TODAY AND COOLER THAN BACK THEN. WHO STILL OWNS A SOMEWHAT OLDER MACBOOK WITH A CD DRIVE CAN BURN HIS AUDIO CDS HER OR HIMSELF UNTIL TODAY. COMMERCIAL CDS ARE STILL IN PRODUCTION AND ARE THE HARDWARE FORMAT OF THE MUSIC INDUSTRY, BUT THE GOLDEN YEARS ARE HISTORY FOR LASER ENGRAVERS THANKS TO DIGITAL SALES AND STREAMING OPTIONS. HOWEVER, A SONY DISKMAN IS STILL USABLE TODAY WITHOUT MAJOR DETOURS, EVEN IF THE PROCUREMENT OF CDS, CD-RS AND CASES IS UNUSUAL AND ALSO QUITE EXPENSIVE TODAY. MOST CD SHELVES IN STORES TODAY GIVE A RATHER OLD SCHOOL IMPRESSION, UNFORTUNATELY. THE MARKET HAS SHRUNK, THE OFFER SWIMS AROUND THE TOP 100 CHARTS, ON THE OTHER HAND MANY MUSICIANS STILL LOVE THE CD BECAUSE OF THE GOOD MARGINS. THEY CERTAINLY LOOK NICE, AND PLANNED LISTENING TO AN ALBUM HAS BECOME RARE TODAY THANKS TO PLAYLIST RECOMMENDATIONS ETC. WHICH CAN BE FUN! READING THROUGH THE BOOKLET AND LEARNING LYRICS. IS THERE SOMETHING ELSE LIKE THAT TODAY? THE CD WAS FOR DECADES THE MEDIUM AND IS STILL PART OF OUR EVERYDAY LIFE, ESPECIALLY SLIGHTLY OLDER PEOPLE APPRECIATE THEIR CD COLLECTIONS LIKE GOLD. NEWER DEVICES BROUGHT MP3 FUNCTION. A NORMAL CD-R TAKES ABOUT 80 MINUTES OF AUDIO OR 700MB OF MP3S.
Here is a link to CD Jewel Cases on Amazon.
Here is a link to rechargeable AAA Batteries on Amazon.
Here is a link to SONY DISCMANs on Ebay.
MINI-DISC PLAYERS ARE QUITE EXOTIC IN THEIR FIELD AND WERE ON THE MARKET FOR SOME TIME. SONY ALSO GOT IN ON THE ACT AND LAUNCHED A FEW DEVICES DURING THE FORMAT'S LIFETIME, THE FIRST OF WHICH WAS BACK IN 1992. MINI-DISC PLAYERS WERE SLIGHTLY SMALLER THAN CLASSIC DISCMANS, WITH A SLIGHTLY SMALLER CD CONTAINED IN A PLASTIC CASE. THESE DISQUS MAY HAVE BEEN APPEALING BECAUSE OF THEIR SIZE, BUT THEIR USE WAS NOT COMPLETELY THOUGHT OUT AND WAS FAR TOO DIFFICULT FOR DAILY MUSIC ENJOYMENT. MINI-DISC PLAYERS WERE ULTIMATELY RECORDERS, THEY WERE RARELY PART OF AUDIO SYSTEMS AND THEREFORE NOT SUITABLE AS A UNIVERSAL MEDIUM. IN ADDITION, ONLY A SHORT TIME LATER THE INVENTION OF THE MP3 FORMAT RESULTED IN A DIGITAL REVOLUTION, MUSIC WAS NOW NO LONGER BOUND TO A SWITCHABLE HARDWARE FORMAT. THE MINI-DISC FORMAT WAS STILL YOUNG, BUT STILL SEEMED STONE OLD WHEN THE FIRST MP3 PLAYERS HIT THE MARKET. IF YOU'RE REALLY INTO SOMETHING FUNKY, A MINI-DISC PLAYER IS A GOOD CHOICE, BUT PROBLEMS ARE LIKELY TO ARISE.
Here is a link to SONY MINI DISC Discs on Amazon.
Here is a link to SONY MINI DISC Players on Ebay.
THE VERY LAST YEARS OF OUR MUSICAL JOURNEY HAVE BEEN STREAMLINED BY STREAMING PROVIDERS, AND THAT'S EXACTLY HOW WE STILL ENJOY MOST OF OUR MUSIC TODAY. BUT UNTIL THAT TIME THERE WAS ANOTHER SOLUTION. THE MP3 FORMAT WAS AN INVENTION OF THE FRAUNHOFER INSTITUTE AND FORMED A DATA STANDARD, WHICH ALLOWED TO ENJOY MUSIC IN HIGH QUALITY AND IN PREVIOUSLY UNIMAGINED SMALL DATA SIZE. THE FIRST MP3 PLAYERS CAME TO THE MARKET FROM AROUND 1998. AN ABSOLUTE TECH BOOM WAS THE RESULT, THE FIRST MP3 PLAYERS STILL HAD A SMALL MEMORY SIZE AND COULD ACCOMMODATE APPROXIMATELY ONE COMPLETE ALBUM. THE DEVICES WERE POWERED BY BATTERIES, RESPECT TO EARLY ADAPTORS WHO TRUSTED RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES, SAVING A FORTUNE AND PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT. ALMOST EVERY MP3 PLAYER CAN BE RECOGNIZED AS REMOVABLE MEDIA FROM A COMPUTER TO THIS DAY AND THUS ALSO USED.
Here is a link to SONY MP3 Players on Ebay.
ENJOY MUSIC!