I'm sure if you look hard enough, you could find a knockoff of the Long Time No See CD Player, but you'd be depriving this Hong Kong-based brand of its deserved earnings. The Long Time No See CD Player with the included speaker cover attaches to any metal surface (like a fridge) via magnets on the backside. It's portable and magnet-mountable to a metal surface, designed for private or communal listening, and has Bluetooth connectivity. You do know that translucent and transparent gadgets are back, right? More than anything else, the CD player straddles the line between retro and modern with its modular form factor. The '90s-inspired transparent design - a clear nod to plastic jewel cases - won me right away. While not much cheaper than the MSRP of Muji's Wall Mounted CD Player, the Long Time No See CD Player ($919 Hong Kong dollars or about $117 USD) struck me as an attractive cross between Fukasawa's design and the world's first portable CD player, the boxy Sony D-5 (D-50 outside of Japan). (Yes, that's really the name.) It turns out that I had previously come across this CD player a few years ago when it was a Kickstarter and then briefly sold at Urban Outfitters (purveyors of all things old that are hot again). Many, many YouTube videos, tweets, and Instagram posts later, I landed on the NINM Lab Long Time No See Bluetooth 5.0 CD player. Translucent/transparent tech is having a moment again. Plus, buying the cheap carbon copy wasn’t nearly as satisfying. The dual stereo speakers were tinny, Bluetooth connectivity with my iPhone was janky, and I'm pretty sure it put a sizable scratch in one of the Meteora discs. But as soon as I set it up, it became apparent that the bootleg - even with more modern features like Bluetooth and the ability to play music off a flash drive - from Shiwakoto was a dud. It was $40, a fraction of the $200-ish retail price it’d cost to acquire a new Muji one. Unfortunately for me, the Wall Mounted CD Player is no longer sold in the US, and importing one from overseas would come with a hefty fee on top. It had three charms: the built-in speaker system design mounted to a wall when played, CDs became spinning, mesmerizing artworks to play a CD, you simply pulled on the cord.Īside from its gorgeous design - worthy of being in MoMA New York's permanent collection - I remembered one thing while pining for it as a Muji employee: it was expensive. (Full disclosure: I worked at Muji from 2008–2010, at which point any affiliation ended.)ĭesigned by renowned industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa in 1999, the Wall Mounted CD Player, became an iconic product for its minimalist form and function. Paging through the sea of CD player trash on Amazon, I came across one design that reminded me of a product I had wanted when iTunes and streaming music services hadn't overtaken optical audio discs yet: Muji's Wall Mounted CD Player. I used my PS1 to play the Linkin Park CD until the Long Time No See CD Player arrived. Honestly, I knew I didn't need all the bells and whistles, but if features, like Bluetooth to connect wireless earbuds, were available then, sure, why the hell not? An AM/FM tuner never even made it on my list. Rechargeable battery (preferably with USB-C). I made a checklist of features I wanted in hopes of narrowing down the options: Other big-box retailers such as Best Buy and Target returned similar bargain bin options or none at all. Such is the current state of Amazon: a wasteland of knockoff products knocking off other knockoffs. Good luck figuring out whether HOTT, ByronStatics, or SingingWood are reputable because the myriad fake four- and five-star reviews aren't helpful. The CD player choices essentially amount to some plastic junk from Craig Electronics (somehow still around) or some plastic junk from a brand you've never heard of. What kind of CD player can you get in 2023?Īs expected, Amazon is filled with what can only be described as cheap and shoddy garbage. Naturally, after ordering the three-disc album on Amazon, I typed "CD player" into the Everything Store to see what would come up. The Sony Walkmans and Aiwas of my youth had long hit the landfill. But then Linkin Park released Meteora: 20th Anniversary on CD in April, sending me down a deep rabbit hole in search of a good CD player. I thought I was done with CDs and CD players forever when I got my first iPod over 17 years ago.
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