In the market for a Discman/CD Walkman

Hello all. New to the forum. Forgive me if I am asking things that have been asked before.

I found a Sony Discman D-33 on Offerup.com for $5.00 that I am picking up today. Comes with the power adapter and the owner is very insistent I bring a CD and headphones to try it out. Gives me some confidence in the fact that it will work.

But just knowing how my brain operates, I am now in DAD (Discman Acquisition Disorder). So, two questions:

1. Any models I should avoid at all costs?
2. What are the "holy grail" models I should look out for and what makes them holy grails?

In a perfect world, I'd love anti-skip protection with line out and optical out.

 

D-33 is a solid Discman, not a Holy Grail by any standards but waay better than anything which came out later. I would go as far as saying that 1991 (when D-33 was born) was the break-point, anything produced later was an exercise in cheapiness.
D-J50 from 1991 is a Holy Grail (but Good Luck getting one!) What makes D-J50 a Grail (aside from the looks) is its PCM66 Pacific Microsonics DAC and... the looks!
When I had an unhealthy collection of Discmans (see my very first post here), D-33 was my workhorse//Gold Standard during my restorations. Unbreakable and reliable.

Forget about Ati-Skip: once engaged the sound collapses into the mushiness WAY below MP3 horrors. D-33 has a line-out. Just a few (two?) Discmans had an Optical-out, but nowadays it is totally irrelevant: for the ultimate Sound Quality off CDs for your main stereo you should look elsewhere, not Discmans

The best-sounding Discman? Sony D-50MkII/(Sony D-7), Technics SL-XP5 and Denons (DCP-150 and DCP-100) Avoid Sonys, I had a few and they were Very difficult to calibrate, even when I had all the necessary tools for that! Technics and Panasonics worth buying have a very special (+6V/0/-6V) power adapter, and those are Not sold separately

As someone with an unhealthy love for Discmans (even though my whole collection of 5k+CDs is now gone into digital Heavens...) I am looking into buying this Panasonic:
Panasonic SL-NP3 Portable CD Player DISCMAN 1986 Japan Made
its battery pack has to be rejuvenated (an easy fix) but no Discman will sound better than this model!

 

At $5 for a working Discman you can't go wrong. Back in 1989 when I decided to buy a CD player the cheapest new one was £100 (£244 in today's money).
CDs were also about £12 each. Nowadays every Charity shop here has them, sometimes as cheap as three for £1. I think that is why I am anti streaming. The £2K+ I spent on CDs through the 90s is probably now worth a fraction of that.

I actually like the more recent Sony Discmans. They sound far better than the fist CD player I had, a Hitachi "HiFi" separate from about 1987, and will run for tens of hours on a couple of AA batteries. Jorge mentions Anti-Skip and I agree with him about that. However, on all the Sonys I have had it can be turned off, either with a switch or a menu function. However, I have an awful sounding Panasonic where it can't. The Sonys don't really need it. Even with anti shock turned off they need a violent shake to make them skip. In contrast earlier players I had like the Hitachi and a Sanyo portable would skip if just gently tapped. I wouldn't pay a lot for one but sertainly wouldn't dismiss them. I paid about £60 new for my first real Discman (very similar to the blue one in about 2001 and was so impressed I bought my sister one as well.



p.s I decided I had better check prices. This was in the 2002 Argo Christmas supplement.



Neither of the two shown cost me more than £10

 

I definitely want to pick up a few more Discman/CD Walkman units as spares.

I always amazed me that Sony could miniaturize the CD player so fast. I can't believe the first Discman came out in 1984. And those late models that were no bigger than a CD itself are marvels in miniaturization.