The First Discman

1985 Sony D-50 Mk II

A year after releasing the first portable CD player, Sony found itself racing to defend its own invention. The success of the D-50 had drawn attention throughout the industry, and within months, competitors were unveiling their own interpretations of portable players that were smaller, lighter, or simply cheaper. Sony’s engineers set out to prove that the company which created the category could still define it. Their answer arrived in December 1985 with the D-50 Mk II, the player that finally made compact discs truly portable and gave the format a name that would endure: Discman.

The original D-50 had already shown that a CD player could be built around the footprint of the disc itself. The Mk II made it self-sufficient. Sony restructured the internals to include a slot for the BP-200 rechargeable battery pack, which attached flush to the bottom of the player instead of requiring an external case or dock.