VINTAGE GEAR

Sony D-5 Portable CD Player

Steve Guttenberg  |  May 17, 2012

Sony introduced the world’s first portable CD player, the D-5, in late 1984, just a year after its first home player, the CDP-101, revolutionized the audio market. In the 1970s, Sony Walkman cassette players were as ubiquitous as iPods are now, and the new Discman players were poised to be the next big thing.

But analog was still a big part of our everyday lives, and most people were playing LPs and cassette tapes, partly because CDs were selling for double the price of LPs at the time. According to Sony spokesperson Marc Finer, the combined sales of all brands of CD players sold in North America in the format’s first year were just 35,000 units. The D-5’s retail price was $300, less than half that of the least expensive Sony home player at the time—and affordable enough to capture a much larger market. Sony launched an MTV spring break promotion campaign with the CBS, RCA, Warner, and Polygram record labels to get the kids on board with the new technology. The company also launched the identical D-50 player for markets beyond North America.

While the D-5 was sold as a portable, an AC power adaptor was included for home use. Finer recalls that a good number of D-5s were in fact played only at home, using the docking accessory and its stereo RCA outputs. I have a friend who still owns a D-5, and he says it’s a solidly built machine, nothing like the flimsy models that came along later and sold for under $100. Of course, the D-5 didn’t have a buffer to prevent skipping, so you could walk with it—gently—but jogging would have been impossible.

COMMENTS
Jarod's picture
Submitted by Jarod on May 18, 2012 - 9:29am

This one brings me back. I remeber the Discman promotion that MTV did now that I read this. I had forgotten since. Thanks as always for bringing me back Steve! I had the later released Discman that was If I remeber about $110. Cant remeber model but it was super cool at the time walking around listening to CDs, that is if it wasn't skipping. A fly landing on the thing would make it skip.

dnoonie's picture
Submitted by dnoonie on May 18, 2012 - 4:51pm

WOW...way back then...I owned one of these...should have kept it but wanted something more portable. A great player...my first CD player actually.

I went through several portable CD players trying to find something comparable and ended up with a Technics SL-XP5, also a great solid player, neither of these players skipped when playing in the car unless they got airborne (as in a fast stop or on a dirt road), MUCH better than any portable CD tech that came afterward. The Technics is about the same size as the Sony but the battery's included, it's smaller without the battery. The Technics was also my only player for a number of years.

schrammalama's picture
Submitted by schrammalama on May 21, 2012 - 9:47pm

I went from 8 track to CD when I bought the D5 in high school. There was no battery, but they sold a battery case that used 4 C or D cell batteries. I basically turned the cd player into a cassette deck form factor.
I can't remember my first disk, but I'm afraid it might have been The Firm.

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