It doesnt have to be practical (though bonus points if it is) what is the earliest time people could have something akin to iPods?
AH Challenge: Personal music players as early as possible
- Thread starter snowzinger
- Start date
We had Walkmen (and clones) in the 80s. That's the same principal as an iPod, but with cassettes (so no random track order). And I seem to recall personal CD players in the 90s. Which did have random play.
Or are you talking about earlier than that?
Or are you talking about earlier than that?
terence
Banned
Have you people left primary school yet?
The first Sony Walkman (named as such) was launched in 1979. It was actually a descendant of the TC50 (see image) that was carried on all the Apollo missions between 1968 and 1972. (One crew used it to play "Into the Wild Blue Yonder" on blast off from the moon.) A stereo version was kicked around during the '70s, but never really gelled until the brand name came up and the cost was reduced by making it playback only.
Portable CD players were already around by 1986/1987.
In the mid 1980s, a potential successor to the CD and a precursor to the Ipod was a device using what was then called 'a string floppy'--actually a sort of crude memory stick. The product disappeared after the inventor approached various large companies for funding.
Further back there were plenty of pocket-sized radios with an earpiece for private listening ( I had my first one around 1961), OK they were AM mono only--but that's all we had.
There were several portable (women's handbag-sized) record players using a slot that could be used as in-car entertainment or as a carry unit in the 1950s--Motorola, RCA, Dansette and CARPLAYER all made models. (Wow and flutter for those pre-digital types was awful). There were plenty of very small (walkman-sized) reel-to-reel tape recorder/players around in the 1960s.
An uncle of mine had a wire recorder (non-tape) about the size of a paperback book made by Grundig of WW2 vintage (wish I had it now!).
The lack of ubiquity was both a function of cost and the availablity of source material---you either had to buy the records or tapes or laboriously record your friends.
Several models already available in the 1960s
The earliest Edison wax cylinder phongraph was so crude that there is no practical reason that it could not have been invented as far back as you like--say Ancient Greece. (Such a device actually makes great furniture for an AH Roman Empire novel as a dictaphone). It contained no electronics or amplification or electric motor. So, how about a craze in Periclean Athens. All the kids are listening to that crazy nine-string lyre and pan-pipes music that pollutes the morals of youth. Functionally, one would need a pretty good horn for outdoor use, maybe some form of headgear--, oh, and a slave to turn the handle.
The first Sony Walkman (named as such) was launched in 1979. It was actually a descendant of the TC50 (see image) that was carried on all the Apollo missions between 1968 and 1972. (One crew used it to play "Into the Wild Blue Yonder" on blast off from the moon.) A stereo version was kicked around during the '70s, but never really gelled until the brand name came up and the cost was reduced by making it playback only.
Portable CD players were already around by 1986/1987.
In the mid 1980s, a potential successor to the CD and a precursor to the Ipod was a device using what was then called 'a string floppy'--actually a sort of crude memory stick. The product disappeared after the inventor approached various large companies for funding.
Further back there were plenty of pocket-sized radios with an earpiece for private listening ( I had my first one around 1961), OK they were AM mono only--but that's all we had.
There were several portable (women's handbag-sized) record players using a slot that could be used as in-car entertainment or as a carry unit in the 1950s--Motorola, RCA, Dansette and CARPLAYER all made models. (Wow and flutter for those pre-digital types was awful). There were plenty of very small (walkman-sized) reel-to-reel tape recorder/players around in the 1960s.
An uncle of mine had a wire recorder (non-tape) about the size of a paperback book made by Grundig of WW2 vintage (wish I had it now!).
The lack of ubiquity was both a function of cost and the availablity of source material---you either had to buy the records or tapes or laboriously record your friends.
Several models already available in the 1960s
The earliest Edison wax cylinder phongraph was so crude that there is no practical reason that it could not have been invented as far back as you like--say Ancient Greece. (Such a device actually makes great furniture for an AH Roman Empire novel as a dictaphone). It contained no electronics or amplification or electric motor. So, how about a craze in Periclean Athens. All the kids are listening to that crazy nine-string lyre and pan-pipes music that pollutes the morals of youth. Functionally, one would need a pretty good horn for outdoor use, maybe some form of headgear--, oh, and a slave to turn the handle.
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I don't see any image... however, I agree with your openingHave you people left primary school yet?
The first Sony Walkman (named as such) was launched in 1979. It was actually a descendant of the TC50 (see image) that was carried on all the Apollo missions between 1968 and 1972. (One crew used it to play "Into the Wild Blue Yonder" on blast off from the moon.) A stereo version was kicked around during the '70s, but never really gelled until the brand name came up and the cost was reduced by making it playback only.
Portable CD players were already around by 1986/1987.
In the mid 1980s, a potential successor to the CD and a precursor to the Ipod was a device using what was then called 'a string floppy'--actually a sort of crude memory stick. The product disappeared after the inventor approached various large companies for funding.
Further back there were plenty of pocket-sized radios with an earpiece for private listening ( I had my first one around 1961), OK they were AM mono only--but that's all we had.
There were several portable (women's handbag-sized) record players using a slot that could be used as in-car entertainment or as a carry unit in the 1950s--Motorola, RCA, Dansette and CARPLAYER all made models. (Wow and flutter for those pre-digital types was awful). There were plenty of very small (walkman-sized) reel-to-reel tape recorder/players around in the 1960s.
An uncle of mine had a wire recorder (non-tape) about the size of a paperback book made by Grundig of WW2 vintage (wish I had it now!).
The lack of ubiquity was both a function of cost and the availablity of source material---you either had to buy the records or tapes or laboriously record your friends.
Several models already available in the 1960s
The earliest Edison wax cylinder phongraph was so crude that there is no practical reason that it could not have been invented as far back as you like--say Ancient Greece. (Such a device actually makes great furniture for an AH Roman Empire novel as a dictaphone). It contained no electronics or amplification or electric motor. So, how about a craze in Periclean Athens. All the kids are listening to that crazy nine-string lyre and pan-pipes music that pollutes the morals of youth. Functionally, one would need a pretty good horn for outdoor use, maybe some form of headgear--, oh, and a slave to turn the handle.
Seriously, how can people not be aware of Walkmen etc?
More seriously, if we're talking about a digital music player, that's going to be somewhat later... like maybe the early '80s, if this man's idea got off the ground.
You mean your parents did not have an Audio Technica Sound Burger back in the day?Minaturized phonograph players?
terence
Banned
I'd quite forgotten about that, but seeing it again reminded me that in, I think, the late 1950s, Robertson (they of the Gollywog on the jamjar) ran a promotion where they supplied a minature record player and record ( both made of very thin plastic film) on the label of the jamjar. One turned the record with one finger and 'Golly' sang a song and delivered a message.
terence
Banned
This is exactly the product that I was talking about, except the version I saw in Tokyo had a 64kB removeable memory, called a string floppy. I wondered what happened to it.