D-600

The D-600 is never meant for pocket carry. Built as an AC-powered unit that could also run from a car battery, it sat somewhere between a home player and a portable, with internals drawn heavily from Sony's full-size CD hardware and a stable signal path that worked well through both headphones and line out. Physically it behaved closer to a compact component than a personal device.

Portable CD still had not fully settled into a single use case at this stage. The D-600 could sit on a desk, plug into a home system, or be mounted in a car with the right accessories at a time when factory CD players were still uncommon. It belongs to that awkward but interesting period when mobility often meant "movable" more than truly handheld.