Buzz
Sony debuted the Discman in the 1980s, a portable CD counterpart to its wildly popular cassette Walkman. I owned a couple of Sony Discmans in the '90s, and they were nothing special—basic clamshell plastic devices with a few buttons and a compartment for AA batteries. But the Sony D-88 stood apart. This portable CD player was so slim, it couldn't even accommodate a full-size CD inside.
Let’s rewind for a moment.
A standard compact disc (CD) measures 120mm in diameter, or about 4.72 inches. However, there’s also a rarer format, the Mini CD, which typically has a diameter of 80mm (3.15 inches). These smaller discs were often used for CD singles, bundled with computer hardware for drivers, or as novelty items at conventions. They’re also the reason tray-based CD players feature circular cut-outs: these allow smaller discs to sit in the middle, where the spindle grabs them. (The cut-out size for the spindle remains the same regardless of the CD's total diameter.)
Sony's D-88 Discman, released in 1988, envisioned a world where the Mini CD was actually popular, and people would carry around collections of CD singles. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a reality I ever experienced, but it’s an interesting scenario to consider. What’s even stranger is that the D-88 can play a full-size CD, with the spinning disc sticking out on both sides, whirring away, ready to shatter into pieces. What could possibly go wrong?! Check out this fantastic Techmoan video explaining the entire fiasco:
As the video points out towards the end, Sony had previously pulled similar stunts with a Walkman that was too small for a cassette (I had one of those! You’d pop it open to extend it to full size), and even a record player that was too small for an LP (which was kind of cool, since at least it wasn’t meant to fit in your pocket).
Alright, I’m curious—did anyone actually own one of these gadgets? If so, what CD singles were you rocking back then?
