If a CD player could be made small enough to fit into a coat pocket, it certainly would fit in a boombox, too, and so dozens of manufacturers have added CD boomboxes to their lines. If you're shopping for a portable CD player or CD boombox, you can save a lot of aggravation by doing some homework first - not the usual kind of homework, mind you. However, if you don't have a regular compact disc player at home, you may want to look for a portable or boombox that can also do most of the things that a home player can do. Here's a short list. The best way of doing this is a number pad on the player, which lets you punch in, say, track 9.
Cheaper players have little arrow keys that step from one track to the next.
That's OK, but it's a lot easier to dial up the track just like you'd press the buttons on a telephone. A programmable memory, so you can listen to tracks on a CD in any order that you want. Second, look for closeout sales on last year's models before you stash the cash on a new 92 player. CD players change faster than Michael Jackson's videos, so manufacturers are always looking for ways to get the older models out of the way. Check the local stores first, and then look at the mail-order ads.