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My first player was a Sony D50 (tiny unit)
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The D50 was an interesting product; the first portable released in 1984. Its design brief allegedly limited the size to no more than four stacked jewel cases. Which it achieves successfully, so long as you don't want to use it, as that doesn't include any power source. You can dock it either to a battery box in a holster, or to a mains PSU with a line output port that 'converts' it into a tabletop player. My CDP-101-owning friend and I both have them too, and like our original HiFi players, IIRC each unit has had one breakdown. I didn't have my D50 in the early days; as an inveterate mixtape maker equipped with a top-of-the-range personal cassette, I had less interest in portable CD before CD-R.
Which reminds me of a CD-dubbing frenzy that occurred when I got my first portable MiniDisc. I was moving into larger and larger live sound production jobs and MD was a powerful tool that unlocked many possibilities for the events noise boy on the move. Equipped with Sony's best portable CD and MD units in my bag, a stash of media and a mini-TOSLink cable, I could sit comfortably in my hotel room (or bar) editing tomorrow's show.
Moving into CD-R was less immediately successful. I had many issues with my two Philips CDR775 dual machines, which I eventually abandoned in about 2003 with Sony's launch of the RCD-W100 (which I still have in regular use) They were the only Philips products I had ever been unhappy with.