Regency TR-1

This is where carrying music around begins. The TR-1 reached U.S. stores in October 1954 at $49.95, built around four germanium transistors from Texas Instruments, and it was the first transistor radio American shoppers could buy. You could not choose the songs, only the station, but you could take the station anywhere in a coat pocket. More than 100,000 were sold, enough to put the word "transistor" into everyday speech. Every pocket player after it, from cassette to hard drive, owes something to the idea that music no longer needed a living room.