In my formative years, we always had something like this playing music as we played basketball. From the age of say 13-16 we would camp out in someones driveway or a park and play pickup basketball pretty much all day during the summers. Many D batteries were used in those days. Whoever had the loudest box with the most bass would get to play their box. I was friends with some kids whose dad repaired electronics, so they always had the best box. My folks weren't interested in competing with that so I had the weakest box. That all changed as we got our drivers licenses, and we proceeded to put amps and subs in our cars. That caused a whole other wave of competition. This was from 1988-1993 timeframe so by then I think the boom box era was mostly over. The boom car era was just getting cranked up though. I have that to thank for my poor hearing in crowded restaurants now. Im relatively young, and started noticing it in the past few years. I cant hear well enough to hold a conversation with lots of ambient noise. Hearing loss is completely preventable, and its much too late by the time you notice it. sucks...