My first MP3 player.
Something jarred my memory this morning and made me think of the first MP3 player I ever owned.
I bought the Diamond Rio PMP300 in 1998 at the Oklahoma State University Student Union Bookstore. It cost $200 and it held 10-12 songs, depending on their bitrates.
It had really poor battery life (running on a AA battery), and of course with only 32MB of storage, it was really an absurd purchase. In fact, really the most vivid memory of this player is how much my ex-wife yelled at me when she found out how much I spent on it. Little did she know that I had paid for it with money I had been hiding from my karaoke DJ gig at George’s Stables (across from Eskimo Joe’s).
But, damned if I didn’t feel like something special when I was walking along campus listening to something the size of an iPod nano when people of the day were still using portable CD and (gasp!) cassette players.
I don’t really have any earth-shattering conclusion or corollary to this memory, other than the fact that 11 years later I have a phone roughly the same size as the Rio that holds 1458% more songs than it did (without optional 32MB memory upgrade, of course). And, you know, that’s nothing overly interesting in itself. And, I can’t really say that this was the device that began my technolust or life as a gadget connoiseur. I’m pretty sure that started in middle school. I just wanted to share something curious today, that’s all.