The Smallest Portable CD Players Ever Made (That Nobody Bought)

In 1988 Sony flexed its engineering muscle and built the world's smallest portable CD player...then a few months later, did it again.
SJM4306's channel: / sjm4306
DIY Discman LiPo battery guide: hackaday.io/project/165088-so...
Featured music by Dan Mason (danmason.bandcamp.com).
Sources:
Popular Mechanics, September 1988.
Taobao gear listing: world.taobao.com/item/5279711...
Beatles single mini-CD photo: www.liveabout.com/the-beatles...
Madonna CD single photo: i.pinimg.com/originals/65/ff/...
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Please consider supporting my work on Patreon: / thisdoesnotcompute
Follow me on Twitter and Instagram! @thisdoesnotcomp
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Additional music by
Epidemic Sound (www.epidemicsound.com).
Intro music by BoxCat Games (www.box-cat.com).

[@krrk6337]

Every product that came out from Japan bubble era was high tech, high quality and well built. I miss those days.

[@coolelectronics1759]

what do you mean bubble era? curious

[@var_guitar]

@@coolelectronics1759 1986-1991 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_asset_price_bubble

[@watchbreaker1706]

You forget the price… high price. lol

[@gayusschwulius8490]

Yes, but this particular one was a pretty stupid concept, you have to admit that.

[@OhFishyFish]

"high quality and well built", 3 out of 3 aren't working. Sure.

[@adsydas]

LGR : Little laptop TDNC : Little diskmans Me : Huge fun

[@nigel-Rollercam-channel]

I just watched that! Glad I scrolled down to avoid a redundant comment, I will find other ways to waste 1's and 0's on googles servers.

[@estebanvasquez2307]

@@nigel-Rollercam-channel Oh man, I'm gonna start using that last sentence as an insult!

[@nigel-Rollercam-channel]

@@estebanvasquez2307 Oh, Please do, I rarely get quoted🧐

[@theblah12]

Dankpods: GIANT NUGGET

[@jm036]

Diskmans? Discmen?

[@maxdoes_]

"...connecting with the past." [Cut to a close-up of "Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and the News] This is heavy.

[@russellhale7694]

I bought a Sony Discman D-22 with Mega Bass back in 1990 for a holiday from the UK to Australia. I still have it and is works perfectly

[@cellsworth]

Always enjoy the care you put into the extreme close-up shots. This video really exemplifies it; thank you!

[@surrodox]

Also, some CD's art while spinning is quite fun to look at

[@Kalvinjj]

Nothing beats the coolness of physical media being played back through transparent windows (or just the opening itself). Before I replaced my PC case, I had cut a window into my optical drive to see it in action. Still have an optical drive on current case but I do miss that opening... May as well mod this case at some point

[@lucashinch]

I recall one of "The Spin Doctors " albums' had a spiral type artwork on the CD. during the last couple of tracks it would look especially cool at lower RPM resulting in a "minimally hypotonic cd spiral-graph " to view... I also remember Pearl Jams' CD arrwork was unique too.

[@TheMrawesomest]

I used to keep the lid on my PS1 open and push the little thingy to keep the CD spinning.

[@paulbradley705]

apart from spiral cd art are there any cds that have pictures only visible when spinning ?

[@sjm4306]

Yes, glad I could make a small contribution to this video! Hope to see you fix these three beauties in the future.

[@andrewstones2921]

It’s amazing how good the build quality was on 80s and early 90s gadgets like these. I have a Technics SL-XP6 that is from that era and to my mind was the best, it’s in as-new condition and works perfectly so I make sure I use it every 3 months or so in order to (hopefully) have the best chance of surviving longer. These days I feel gadgets are not made to last. When they stopped making CD portables from metal and instead used plastics they did get a lot cheaper and more accessible, but the quality was lost.

[@seriouslyinsanediva]

As with most things plastic, the quality suffers. I picked up an old Singer sewing machine from the early 50's in all metal. It works like new and its sturdy and strong and smooth to handle. I scored it for $40 including the sewing table that it comes in.

[@interlace84]

6:45 Sounds like it's ecstatically roaring out of happiness to be able to finally read something!!!

[@ghostmouthzach56]

Techmoan has an excellent video on this as well that came out 5 years or so ago.

[@Arbiter099]

I can't look at old electronics without thinking, "the belts have perished" anymore

[@Firefoxsimp]

@@Arbiter099 haha

[@Kalvinjj]

@@Arbiter099 Also "No I won't replace the caps even tho I know that could help before any of you type in the comments section"

[@bex--]

Wasn’t expecting a second, let alone third CD player. The video kept going and going lol.

[@JasonBoon02]

I mean they were right there in the thumbnail though lol

[@thomasandrews9355]

Some how seeing you have an Utada cd makes me smile. Probably because my wife is a fan of her music.

[@John-jc3ty]

0:17 you made it sound like they did a walkman + CD together

[@Siktah]

Love it, thanks! I do enjoy your teardowns that are brief enough to get to the point.

[@Vercus100]

I've been watching your repair videos for a while. This video inspired me to finally get off my lazy duff and fix my long-laid up Betacam SP machine. Had a problem where the tape would get snagged while ejecting. Turned out to just need a dab of lighter fluid to free up a sticky tape guide. Now I'm finally back in action, recording music to it. Makes super quality analog recordings.

[@taikomotionanimations1089]

why a dab of lighter fluid isn't that flammable?

[@_guillermo]

Your content continues to blow me away. You’re a talent and this platform is lucky to have you!

[@zapperdj]

This type of CD players made a lot of sense when the MP3 format entered the market. I had a Philips EXP431 back in the day and it was really good, you could carry a decent amount of music with you (a bunch of minicds, the player and some rechargeable AAA fitted perfectly in a standard digital camera bag). The alternatives lacked capacity (pendrive mp3 players) or were very expensive (sd card based players)

[@quickford]

I would totally use the D88 to play CDs in my house, just to see the full-size discs sticking out the sides of it and spinning. :D

[@bwaw1972]

Really love your videos. A great form of informative nostalgia (at least for me). Thanks for making them!

[@RBeau]

Fantastic video Colin. Exactly what I was looking for today!

[@PocketPixelYT]

Your videos are so motivating for those of us who create tech videos. You have lovely shots and great scripting / story telling. Always look forward to seeing your videos!

[@SuperNicktendo]

Always nice to see your quirky collection of CD players. I really enjoyed the innovation of the 90s where almost every idea made it to market. Now everything is focus tested and bland. At least until Flex phones take off.

[@coolelectronics1759]

so true!

[@gunsunnuva8346]

Excellent choice of single: Utada Hikaru - Automatic. Fun fact: the album that single is from remains the highest selling in Japan (by millions over second place).

[@cornejo7934]

I love your camera angles. Your videos are like visual ASMR. Amazing as always. :)

[@lc7ineo]

Utad Hikaru!!! I was really into that girl in the early 2ks, awesome!

[@TechCoreDuo]

That’s awesome. Looking forward to seeing the video of the display repair down the line.

[@ipooddude]

i found your channel during Lock down and have been hooked ever since thanks for the great vids!

[@JUSTENization]

A lot of us that have had these players, or first time ever saw them will find your video very fascinating and appreciate the time you took to show us. Hopefully this very video will help pay for all the parts you’ve paid to make this happen. Keep them coming. Very enjoyable video. 👍🏻cheers!

[@garethsnaim8174]

I find your content fascinating, thank you!

[@grandmaster1004]

Dude, I love your stuff! Especially these CD episodes

[@DEVILJAW]

love these these kind of videos thank you for providing these, a relic of my youth.

[@plagueboned5208]

nice! I love your videos mate you always make even something as mundane as a cd player interesting great video!

[@NicksStuff]

17:20 "It can illustrate..." the stubbornness of the Japanese

[@ffxiikd1426]

KZbin recommended this channel for me ..... and i liked it awesome

[@banditandsmokie]

Thanks for the great video, helped me revive my D88 disc man. Love it

[@christopherdowling2606]

Thank you for posting the links to those problematic gears. With that I was able to get the parts to fix my own D-88. Such a great help.

[@timblake5844]

6:43 Semisonic Feeling Strangely Fine...... Closing TIme, Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end. One of my absolute favorite songs. Thanks again for the good video Colin!

[@Mr_L1n4x]

Man to think that when my grandpa died my uncles wanted to toss to the trash his discman, I'm so glad that I recover it model D-171 in mint condition

[@s4kii]

And this was done in 1988... Amazing stuff. Great video! 👍👍

[@xero110]

13:07 I had the same player (on the right) back in the day. I used a cheap'ish set of Sennheiser headphones. I used that setup to fall asleep for a long time.

[@EsbenH]

I love how you mix up the hands-on repair with perspectives on the tech and Sonys reputation to miniaturize component at the time. Also, the macro shots are amazing - thanks for a great video.

[@ThisDoesNotCompute]

Thank you! I’ve learned that while I find the historical/social context of retro tech to be interesting, some people just want to see the hardware. I’ve been trying to find the right balance between the two.

[@alexanderbelov6892]

Sony still makes miniature electronics even if it does not look tiny. Their Ultra HD BlueRay players like Sony UBP-X700 (or UBP-X800), so on, have very compact PCBs with tiny components, so that contemporary computer PCBs may appear bulky aged findings of electronics archeologists.

[@Evercade_Effect]

Totally geeking out over this and very educational.

[@iceman8443]

Hi I like your videos the most as far as tech and retro tech goes. Just keep up the awesome work!!

[@ondrejsedlak4935]

Good stuff. I actually got into mini CD-Rs back in the day, for audio, VCD and MP3. The MP3 option was most useful but I also used the VCD format for 24 minute TV episodes.

[@isaiah7617]

I really like the three for one this time around! Excellent content as always.

[@williama29]

I love watching your videos I mean it is always fascinating and just fun to watch and learn

[@shanapagdilao3580]

That "Utada Hikaru" CD WOW! I Love Utadas Songs

[@kylehazachode]

I wish double-sided CDs didn’t come out so late in the CD’s lifespan. Double-sided mini cds would have definitely caught my attention and would probably curtail my first minidisc purchase. I can picture myself rocking mini-cd players throughout high school, especially if they eventually made mp3 compatible players.

[@paulbradley705]

Never heard of double sided cds. I know double sided DVDs.

[@BLUE_OCTOBER-TRIX]

They did make MP3 compatible minidisks i used to use them all the time I still have my minidisk player with some minidisks

[@awdx4g63]

Very eye soothing video. Never seen someone in US so complete in collecting all accessories for a single SONY product. Good job. Your j-pop CD surprised me !

[@FatBlokeDoingStuff]

I haven't listened to Feeling Strangely Fine for ages. Thanks for the reminder!

[@valkasolidor6727]

I bought my Sony D50 in mid 1985 while stationed in Germany (then West Germany) and it is still completely functional. I also have the battery case that I bought along with it. As you are probably aware it operated on 5 "C" cells which as I recall would last well under two hours. For what it's worth the first CD I purchased was the newly released Dire Straits album Brothers in Arms.

[@kennethconnors5316]

well made video , interesting and informative brought back memories

[@RaimarLunardi]

8:51 Utada Hikaru disk!!!! love it!

[@yaerukun]

in 1:17 too

[@lucashinch]

I once had the Sony D-828 K car discman featuring anti-shock , mega-bass , dual illumination , remote and a plethora of other unique and useful features. I always have great memories of that discman.

[@Kylefassbinderful]

I really miss the old Sony logo that looked like an S made up of dots, it almost looks like braille.

[@Kalvinjj]

I have it on my wireless headphones transmitter - good old analog infrared, use the headphone's circuit as a receiver for my better headphones to play games on headphones on the living room TV, let me tell ya that any rhythm game works flawlessly with those as they have downright zero delay from their analog nature (yeah, almost zero, of course they probably have theoretically some nanoseconds or what). The logo on the tall rounded 90's looking transmitter (which it in fact is, older than me may I add) really is a nice touch from the past, when Sony specially had the balls to try anything. And: ye they still worked flawlessly even if I got them 2nd hand... other than one old electrolytic cap. It's so much "built to last" that you can actually find a fully detailed service manual for it with all the circuit board traces laid down and the schematic, with full Bill of Materials. Then nowadays some manufacturers hide the service manuals as much as possible so you really can't repair it...

[@technicalmachine1671]

That's how you know It's a Sony

[@coolelectronics1759]

so cool! I am visually impaired I wonder if you can feel it? or was it printed on and kinda like what IBM does with there logo?

[@abdulrahmanalsheikhali3162]

I've hit that like button even before I've watched the video and I didn't regret it after I watched it thank you for your effort really good work

[@Gadgetman1989]

Love your channel!!!

[@bloodsuckinflea]

Seeing these players does bring back some memories. Only reason physical CDs continue to be purchased, for me, is that it is difficult to find lossless music without ripping it from the CD. Bandcamp is a good source for musicians who use it, but it is still an admittedly small catalog.

[@umbrellacorp.]

Such Nostalgia, I loved the 80's and the 90's.

[@nuclearmonster]

Wow! Love these lil guys

[@sophist1cated]

I had this Mini-Crown-Player back in the days. Never thought that it will become so value.

[@josephwood499]

I had one of the first Discman with a card size remote control. It sounded great and never failed to read a disc.

[@ahyonvlogs]

Greatly done!!!

[@purplegill10]

I'm usually someone super into more modern-looking tech, but there's something about that 90s Sony black-square-rugged-minimalist-whatever design that I just LOVE.

[@williamschneider3355]

I used to have a D-88, and regularly used it as a portable CD player (for 5 inch discs) when I would walk to the video store. It was a great conversation piece, but sadly I moved on from it when I wanted a player with ESP and an FM radio.

[@weesta]

THANK YOU! I just removed cleaned and lubed that same gear on my D15 and it finally works!

[@clamssssssss]

Respect. 10/10 creators won't admit they couldn't fix something these days. Proud of u

[@SeifEddineB]

I loved this episode. I personally would like to own some of my audio devices I grow up using. Specifically an Aiwa casette player with radio, a cheap common CD player from Sony which reads mp3 and an MZ R55 mini disc player. I wish I can find these.

[@Kumimono]

Urgh, the crunching sounds those make... Great video. :)

[@mvShooting]

Hikaru Utada? Great!

[@ShiggitayMediaProductions]

I was hoping I wasn't the only one to notice that... and it's not the first time he's shown an Utada CD in his videos lol

[@Deanster101]

Seeing standard size cd played on mini CD player....mind blown.

[@De.therapist]

The Art of playing with old gadgets love it dude. 👌

[@villeelomaa7836]

Thanks for the video. I have a D50 which my dad bought in 1985 or 1986. It still works fine.

[@Wawrzino]

SJM4306 :) nice to hear about him here

[@HansBaier]

I love the design of that time. Such a quality feel of those CD players.

[@petershorrock3191]

Amazing work legendary simply the best 🥰

[@ahmedp800]

I love your videos, so much.

[@KRAZEEIZATION]

I had a Sony Discman in 1990 and it was heavy, huge battery that didn’t last very long! I love Sony’s amazing innovations. Parts can add up for old devices!

[@SteveBrandon]

Today I learned that Sony used the "CD Walkman" branding on a handful of players made before the year 2000, the year "Discman" officially became "CD Walkman". My CD Walkman D-NF430 from 2004. that I legitimately still use because I'm a total physical media guy and also because it's also a radio, isn't close to being as small as the units shown in this video but it's still pretty small, 137.8 x 137.8 x 31.1mm, and it's only 31.1mm thick because the housing for the single AA battery (and possibly also the AM antenna?) bulges out several millimetres from the rest of the body. It's still slender enough to easily fit in the lower pockets of any jacket I have.

[@Verdoux007]

I don't know how to fix anything, but for some reason these kinds of videos are fascinating.

[@stephendevore3902]

Many of the laser mechanics only had one laser to control the ability for the laser to read correctly. Then they came out with the separate control to keep it in check and playing then they added the buffer feature for skipping to all players as was advertised??? I have used these players at one time and in store displays . I think Sears advertised one. Memories. Showing the build quality on the second player was really fascinating to see. It almost look like it was built today with obvious limitations. Amazing to see how far we have come and to see the cd is still hear and Note The DVD format spun into Bluray and now 4k.I know Im very Punny🤣

[@paranoidhumanoid]

The designs are legendary.

[@ThriftyAV]

You keep having to fix tiny little electronics! Thank you for this video!

[@hernanj1599]

I still have the sony discman dnf 401. Incredible sound!! Looks new!!!🥰🥰🥰🥰

[@richardcruzjr]

I bought this as in impulse at my local Wherehouse new in 88. I used this almost everyday until it died in the early 2000s.

[@coolelectronics1759]

I always think its so cool that you can play a 2021 brand new cd on some old wood grain CD player from the early 80s!

[@rafaelsuarez3059]

One major characteristic of the D80 that you forgot to mention: it's all-plastic; the solidity of the previous metal designs is clearly missing, as well as the sober sophistication that made Sony the king of cool tech in the 80s. In pursuit of lower price tiers, Sony went from an all-metal design in the D88, to a plastic & metal D82, to an all-plastic D80, losing along the way what made Sony-branded gadgets desirable. By the late 90s there was nothing special about Sony portable tech.

[@migalito1955]

Good luck Colin on an eventual total repair or one that allows useable to be fitting. I must say you have more persistence than I would have showed for each of the three devices. Somehow I think hammer labeled "take that" would have been sorely tempted to have been implemented.

[@christophsuess7646]

Great Video!

[@stroomratxd2862]

Man i love the 80 s portable music players i still use them today!

[@emancaindec9731]

Techmoan reviewed this exact model few years back... Awesome piece of tech!

[@dalmowehr8245]

perfect docu!

[@IanTindale]

I bought one of these (the first one, the D88) at the time. It wasn’t particularly good at playing a CD whilst walking along, which I often tried. I mean, you could if you were careful, but it was a bit like holding the player as if it you were trying to imitate a steadicam. Also if anything touched a normal size CD while it was spinning it just stopped it rotating briefly. It wasn’t completely impossible to walk with it and listen to tunes, holding it out, but you couldn’t do much else while you walked. I did it a few times during that summer. I’ve still got a few mini CD singles somewhere, most of the time I used normal sized CDs in it, and mostly only when I got to where I was going.

[@robowenmikels]

I love that those "It's a Sony" stickers, tend to outlive the internal components. My Sony Walkabout (WA 55) still has the original stickers but doesn't work, properly, and the carry strap has disintegrated. I think it only needs the belt for the FF/Rev setting but I never wanted to order it from Czechoslovakia (or whichever country, the guy with the only stock of them, is located).

[@StevenStaton]

I bought the D-5 in the summer of 1985, later adding the remote and the external battery case.

[@CDISBETTER]

Alpine had a gear problem in their cassette mechanism much like this Sony player and after breaking several gears i tried heating the post with my soldering iron and within seconds the gear started to loosen up and was easy to removed and lubricate. cheers.

[@joes9954]

I wanted a D-88 for years and finally found a NIB one in St. Thomas when I worked on cruise ships. Sadly however it was defective as part of the interior was slightly bent and would scratch the CD. Back it went.

[@daKaosjr]

The shot at 15:31 shows the exact thing you need to adjust to likely get the laser working properly: the small thing with a philips head is the trim pot for adjusting the laser.

[@quantumleap359]

We had a dollar store here in the States back in the late 90's that had a big selection of CD-3 music discs. They were blowing them out at 2 for a dollar, so I bought one of each. Fats Domino, The Vogues, and several other artists were on these discs. Only a few songs per disc, but very cool. My Technics drawer loading CD player has a position in the drawer that will accept the 3 inch discs. Audio Magazine, long gone (sadly) offered a 3 inch CD as a promo thing. I forget what was on it, but just one more added to my collection.

[@jayd8743]

Love the way you find stuff I never knew about... And I sold Sony stuff only a few years later lol.