Do You Remember Your First CD Player?

Year 1989, CD player: Technics SPL 333. Still working but it does not like non originals recordings.

sony cdp-501es in 1985 that i bought in japan prior to getting out of the navy. sold it in the early 90s when it started skipping. built like a tank and weighed a substantial amount as i recall.

Hello,

My first CD player was the Sony CDP-497 in 1996. And then a NAD C520. Finnally, I have now a REGA Planet 2000.

Was yours one that loaded the CDs vertically, where you pushed a button and the tray came out to abour 45 degrees, you laid the CD in and closed the tray, kinda like a cassette? That was my first CD player, around 1985, and I loved it. Of course I was 12 and didnt know any better. I had that little guy up until midway through college when it died.

"Buscis2":

Yes, I sure do.......

Mines was an NAD 5255. I bought it in 1985, and I paid $600.00 (in 1985 dollars) for it. I used it in three different systems for the eight years that I had it. It died in 1993 (it has gotten a lot of heavy use during the time I've owned it). It was later replaced by a JVC XL-M509TN 6 + 1 CD Player/Changer. And compared to the NAD that it replaced, it turned out to be a piece of shit. No soundstage....... poor imaging....... no bass to speak of, and surely, no dynamics either. But things took a turn for the better three years ago when I took my Pioneer Elite DV-37 out of my home theater system and hooked up (just for the hell of it at the time, and it turned out to be the best decision I've made at that point). I was so surprised by how good its audio section was that it became a permanent fixture in audio system. Now, I think that the Pioneer was several notches better than my old NAD was. And while the Pioneer wasn't considered a world beater then, at least, I finally gotten my audio system back by then, and all was happily ever after after that.

But back to the NAD 5255????? I've gotten this player after a lenghty audition, and I've found out that I've liked the sound of it. The separation was astounding back then. It was one of the very few players that have had separate D/A converters for each channel back then (something that even a lot of more expensive players didn't even have). Before I've the NAD, I was set on getting a Luxman (forgot the model number for $50.00 more at another dealer). And to think that I've used it in three different systems before its untimely death in 1993. It was used in a Polk Audio/JVC/Luxman system back in 1985, a KEF/NAD/Nakamichi system in 1989, and a KEF/NAD/B&K/Nakamichi system in 1990. Man, that brings back a lot of memories, doesn't it???

And back then, my first CD's were the following:

(01). James Ingram -- "It's Your Night" -- 1983
(02). Jeffery Osborne -- "Don't Stop" -- 1984
(03). Culture Club -- "Colour By Numbers" -- 1983
(04). Stevie Wonder -- "Original Musiquarium" -- 1982
(05). Madonna -- "Like A Virgin" -- 1984
(06). Tina Turner -- "Private Dancer" -- 1984
(07). Phil Collins -- "No Jacket Required" -- 1985
(08). Stevie Wonder -- " In Square Circle" -- 1985

And now, my collection is approaching 1,000. And they are being played on a Pioneer Elite DV-37 DVD/CD Player. I'm still trying to scrape together enough pennies to get that Meridian 507 and then an SACD Player after that. If I don't ever get around to getting that Meridian, then I understand that there is always a Cambridge Audio Azur 640C or a Rotel RCD-1072.

--Charles--

My first player was an Alpine AD-7200. It was in the mid 80's and paid around $1K CDN for it. Kept it for several years and sold it. Used a Sony ?99 portable as makeshit until I purchased a used Sony. Had it for a few weeks and sold the thing. Had a couple more there after until I purchased the PD-65. Now having problems with lack of bass.

Using a cheap Toshiba dvd player at the moment. Can't stand the Pioneer at this point. Was discusted when I switched between the two. If I can't get it resolved soon I'll sell it to a non audiophile and purchase something else. Now between a rock and a hard place. Cheers!

A DUAL model %$#@ or something. Purchased it at a NYC shop in 1983 I think. This Dual CD player was in the initial wave of CD product offerings and had this funky front door which when opened would accept the disc vertically. Took forever (45 seconds) to cycle open and close. The contraption looked like a shoe box. Still have it somewhere in the attic surely. Audibly it was torture!

Hey.. Ya got me thinking EBay's vintage audio section??
To Funny.

Of course I remember it. It IS a NAD 521i. Hey, I'm 23 and new to audio, okay????

I guess if it counts, my dad has an old Technics CD player from the late 80's. I listened to that a lot.

It was a Sony player, something like a 505es. I believe it had favorable write ups in Stereo Review or High Fidelity. I bought it in 1985 and it was bright and glared horribly through the treble range, and where was the dynamic range they promised? I replaced it with an es608 in 89 which I still own and use in a second system. I still like the es608.

Yes, It was a mMagnovox 14 bit player that I bought at Service Merchandise. I still use it about once a week. It has issuesbut its not nearly as bad as some Sony's I have heard.

My first CD player was a Sony CFD-S47 boombox that I've purchased about 3-4 years ago, now it is at work as I'm listening to UNTO ASHES on it. It seems I'm the last person in America to own a CD player.

Jposs, if your post was meant for me, yes the Dual loaded cds vertically like the old toasters.

1998993, I entirely agree. It was early, slow, and a piece of crap.

Philips (Magnavox) CDB-473 back in 1987. Did not take the CD format seriously back then and still have the same opinion today. My TT sounds far superior.

I got my first in 1987 at a cd specialty store (remember when that was different than a record store?) as a high school graduation gift to myself. I think the brand was A/D/C may be? It was a brand I had not seen before and have not seen since, but it looked cooler than the common brands available at Best Buy, etc, and I bought it on impulse. Cost about $250. I was not an audiophile at the time, so I can't tell what it sounded like, but it sure seemed better than cassettes and scratchy lps on the cheap lo-fi gear I had at the time. It died about 5 years later.

My first cds (purchased with the player--the store threw in 2 with the purchase of the player and I bought 2): Led Zeppelin-In Through The Out Door (symbolic because it was one of the first albums I bouhgt as a child), The Eagles-Greatest Hits, James Taylor-JT, and Rainbow-Down To Earth. Shortly thereafter I recall picking up Deep Purple-Machine Head and Dire Straits-Makin' Movies. Strangely, I still have almost all of these cds. Only the Deep Purple and Rainbow have been replaced with remasters (yeah, I'm still a Blackmore nut).

This reminiscing reminds me of a little rant of mine: It is my recollection that back in the early days of digital cds were about $5 more than lps and cassettes. I'm sure that was somewhat justified at the time by the costs of new manufacturing facilities. But now cds are cheaper to produce than cassettes or lps ever were and the big record companies have never let go of that premium. And they still can't make money?!?!?

Aiwa XC-30M in 1999. that was my first standalone CD player. Before that I had two different 'boom boxes' in the early and mid 90's. Oh yeah, also had one of the Sony discmans. I got that in '94 IIRC.

Just sold the Aiwa this past week. *Sniff* I have a Marantz CC-47 feeding an EVS Millennium DAC 1 at the moment.

Prior to my boomboxes I got all of my music off of the radio. Even when I got the boomboxes, I used to remember getting the cassette decks to record off of radio stations as I went to bed. I found the classical and pulic radio stations used to play some more non-standard fare at night, especially Sunday night. Then the next day I would listen to whatever I could grab onto a single cassette, and scan for some goodies. I could usually manage to find one new, undiscovered gem that way.

It was sort of a poor poorman's TiVo. .. well without categories. And it was radio. ..and without the timer. And without muliple stations. Well heck it wasn't like TiVo at all! At least I could fast-forward thru the parts I didn't like! I have some fond memories of my youth doing just that. Those were good times. No system. No music collection, except what I could tape off of the air. Man, that was music.

Aaron

It was a J@# model...Tried suing company later for emotional distress.

Out-of-court settlement was satisfactory, though...they bought me a turntable.

Back in 1986 I ordered a Technics SLP-100 cd player (silver) from the States as Canadian prices were double. Was so excited when I got it!! I remember it has super fast access to tracks, but boy.... sure sucked when it came to audio! Bled my ears for a few years with that piece of crap till it started skipping like a pre-teen with a rope. Cleaned the lens, re-lubed the laser slider track and then gave the piece of crap to a friend (poor guy... but it was free). Then I bought a Mission Cyrus PCMII. Great machine for its time. I'm up to a Meridian 602 with a 606 DAC. 10 year old gear that sounds STUNNING. If anyone has a spare laser for the 602 I will buy it. NOW! My machine doesn't skip, never has (knock on wood).

Still got it in the basement - on a shelf - collecting dust. I held off forever before buying one, so I missed the bad digital phase. It was still a cheapo NEC unit and doesn't have a digital out, or I would have converted it to a transport by now.

Enjoy,
Bob

I do not remember the model #'s of my first two cd players but the second two were a Hafler player and the JVC XLZ 1050 which was the first player I had owned that had an obvious sonic advantage over the others I had owned.

The first player I heard at a dealer that made my jaw drop was a Wadia ran through Levinson gear and Thiel 3.6's when they first came out.

Greg

It was a boom box around 1992.

In the early eighties I was the general manager of a chain of high end audio stores in Southern California (up until 1989). I had been reading about CDs for a few years and couldn't wait to get one in. When they finally became available we ordered a Micro Seiki unit (I think it was a model 101). It was a toaster style machine made by some other company and private labled for Micro. There were so few CDs available then that the machine actually came with five CDs in the box!

I hooked it up to our best system and was ready to be blown away! It sounded sooooo bad that we all thought that it must be broken! Unforunately, we were wrong - it wasn't broken, it just sounded like it was. I was so disappointed!!

All the machines we tried back then from the various comapanies (and we went through a lot of them) were so sad that we refused to sell any machine until the second generation units arrived. Even though they weren't that much better, at least you didn't have to go screaming from the room when they were playing!

The first pretty decent machine I liked was a Magnavox 560 that was heavilly modified me as far as vibration control was concerned and Walt Jung did significant mods to the electronics.

Barry

Like one post already above, I bought a Denon DCD-1500 in 1986. I still have it (in a secondary system), it still works well, and still sounds pretty good.

My first cd player was a Sony X202ES which I bought in 1994. I still have the player and it has not given me one once of trouble. Of course I've upgraded since then but it still is a great player.

I got my first CD player many, many years ago as part of (shudder!) a Fisher rack system. It was a changer that used a little tray (each which had an eject button) for each CD. I got a CD a few days later. I never liked this CD player. Either the player or the CD I had was bright, and needed the tone controls. In short order, I drifted away for varous reasons. I completely lost interest when I heard my first good system--based around a turntable. That, and the low cost of used records, made me decide to forget about CD.

I stayed record based for many years. Finally, in 2001, I decided to get a CD player (an old Rotel) so I could get CDs from the library. I have to say that, overall, if I had to choose one and only one source, it would still be the LP. But, I care more about what's on the recording than the format, and CD has come a long ways--a good CD can sound decent even on my antique Rotel.

Yes, a Yamaha, forgot the model designation, but it was the one in a chassis that was not the usual full width. Was not the first model that Yamaha made, probably more like the second, but it was the first reasonably priced CD player that came out after the Sonys ans Philips.

Phillips model CD150(1986?). Had to get into the digital revolution early. WOuld do comparisons with MF PF Dark Side... on my ariston for copmparison. Wonder how it would A/B with my cary 303/200. Ha. Should talk to the kid and get it back for a night. Yes it still works! God bless Phillips.

In response to Jc2000 My first player was a JVC 6 disc changer purchased in 1987. I had a NAD receiver 1 pair of Radioshack Minimus 7's, a cheep pair of bookshelf BOSE, and a pair or home made 10 woofers. At the time it was awsome.

DENON DCD 920 (optical !!) 1989

Bought 3-4 CDs (supposedly good sounding ones) in 1984 and borrowed a Meridian CD player, first modded unit, at the same time. All discs (including one from Ref Recordings) sounded awful - not a musical note to be found. Went back to analog and the first player I actually bought was a 1987 Sony 555ES, cost about $500.00 as I remember. Was fine for background and house cleaning.

I now only own a CD system and am happy with DAC and transport and a lot of remastered jazz, rock, and classical CDs. I don't own a turntable even though I have 100s of LPs including Lyritas, EMIs, etc. I'm not considering SACD at this time; I refuse to buy Kind of Blue one more damn time!

I happened to be driving by an Audio/Video store in a near by town when an ad came on the radio saying this store had just received one of the first shipments of cd players in Canada. If you were one of the first 50 people to get to the store you could have one for the low,low,price of only $500.00(cdn).Regular price was supposedly $1500.00.
I wheeled around and got in line and purchased the unit (a Technics-model forgotten).I spent the next two hours trying to find a cd to play on it.
When it was finally fired up, I thought the thing was broken.Laser bright sound that was like a head drill.I spent the next year or two returning cds cause I thought they had to be defective they sounded so bad.
My next cd player was a Rotel RCD 855.A step in the right direction. My buddy has it and still enjoys it.

It was 1985, somewhere around that time, plusr or minus one year.
I was going to college and had little disposable income.
A local radio station had this promo where they'd read out a number combination that you needed to find in a dollar bill. I had a match, called in, and won. I think it was three 5's.

The prize station's frequency, $103.50. I went to a RS, and they had a discontinued model on sale for $99.

KP

my first cd player was a nad 5425 from 1990 , i sold it for loose change in 2001 and still sounded great and working well, i now have a teac p 700 transport and musical fidelity a324 dac combo.

Yes, I bought the first Philips @'83 '84 for $800, after selling my record collection to the Fresno State library for $600. There were maybe 4 Telarc CDs available locally for $24.99 each. (And SACDs are SO expensive at $18.99) I was the only one in the dormitories who had one. Within the next year, the local tower had a 4'/4' rack with about, oh 24 titles in that annoying plastic with the insert above the CD case. In '86, three years after the introduction, one could go to San Francisco and choose from @300 titles. Wow. Three years after the introduction as they say! All I remember was about '88 the whole Tower store seemed to go CD and records just disappeared. Still I rarely stumbled across someone with a CD player at college parties.

NEC CD607E purchased in 1983. I remember playing it and trying so hard to convince myself that this was better than my records (because "they" told me it was). I didn't realize it until many years later, but that player gradually turned me off of music. By 1994 when that player finally failed I virtually never listened to music in the home and had sold most of my cd's. (The turntable was long gone, too). I got no enjoyment from it. Luckily I still listened to live music, and when I began regularly attending Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts in the late '90s I decided that I'd like to have a small library of classical music and I gave recorded music another shot, and now I've got something I can listen to and enjoy. Thankfully.

I read reviews after reviews on cd players and came away with the Mission DAD 7000 in 1986.

Never gave me a bit of trouble.In fact, is still working to this very day.

I'll throw my mits in the ring. It was a "Fisher" Can't remember the model # I'm thinking it was around 1983-84. It was a piece of junk, but @ the time I thought it was so wonderful.

Having a CD player vs. a TT? No more cleaning records....Also, I remember my old JVC receiver (40 WPC) with nice walnut veneer sides w/ real glass faaceplate for the AM/FM section. Can't forget about my Cerwin Vega's U-123! I thought I was GOD!

How things change.

How embarrassing. This shows both how young I am and how poor I was for a rather long time. I got my first cd in 1994 when a store I was working at just out of college was selling off a few cd's it played in the store for a $1 each. Even though I wasn't yet a jazz fan I bought a Wynton Marsalis disc and a Stan Getz disc. However I couldn't afford a cd player until 1999 or 2000 I can't quite remember. At that time though I decided to go whole hog and start building my "dream stereo" so I bought a new original Rega Planet and haven't looked back. With my latest purchase, hasn't arrived yet, that would make 6 cd players in about 5 years. Sick, eh?

PBB- Yamaha CDX1?

Mine was a Yamaha CD-X1 (along with my first CD - Peter Gabriel's "Security") in 1984 for $400. Amazingly, I have not replaced it until recently with a NAD C542. Absolutely stunning difference in detail and low frequency clarity. I do not miss the Yamaha in the least - though it served me well.

CD

Cost me $500 in Europe and started skipping like a mutha after 2 years.

My first was a Carver with tube output stage. Don't remember the model number or price. It was OK but no great shakes although it always worked. Then I bought the full AA stuff, DDE3.0, DTI Pro32, Pro Drive all upgraded with latest stuff. Sounded pretty good when everything was working. Still respect the AA pro drive, thought it was an excellent unit for the money and never had any problems with it. The other AA stuff had real reliability issues though. This CD stuff has come a long way but what a battle to get here.

Yep, still have it and it still works fine. Magnavox CDB560. Got it in January of 1987 for $100 new. Kid got it for a Christmas present, but said he couldn't afford CD's which cost way more then LP's.

In my closet I still have serial number 33 of the first 100 CDP-101s imported into the U.S. There were 10 CD's available at the time, I still have 3 of them. One was Miles Davis, Man With the Horn. Does anybody think this is worth anything?

paul

No, I don't recall the name of the CD player, but the year was '84. I recall the size was an odd one, perhaps 2/3 the width of a typical modern player. Some of my earliest discs included Tricycle - Flim & the BBs, a Sheffield Labs sampler, Man With he Horn - Miles Davis, Warning - Billy Cobham, Think of One - Wynton Marsalis (The only one of those early disc that I still have).

Mine was a Teac I purchased in 1987

I bought my first CDP late in 1999. Talk about early adopters. My s.o. was so happy--she could now buy music and listen to it (she'd been afraid to use the Linn Sondek).

It was the turn of the millennium and we danced it in with the player--a Cambridge Discmagic transport and Dacmagic 1 converter. Horrible converter, sound like a plush toy, all warm and fuzzy. Turned it in on the same company's IsoMagic as soon as I could.

Ditto TVAD ... an old JVC ... and I still have it in a 'background' system, and it is still working.

I'm almost embarrased to say it, but I've been lurking off and on at Audiogon for years. This is the first thread that basically "compelled" me to actually post. I smiled as I read through all of the entries ... and had to say something..

My first CD player was a Denon DCD-1500 in 1986. Basically I ate potato chips and steamed corn for months in order to afford it... I still have it, and it's interesting that everyone who purchased one of these says that it still works. My second was an Adcom GCD-600, my third is a Wadia 850, and my fourth is a Denon 2900. The last two are both still actively in service.

My first CD was Bob Dylan's three CD box set Biograph, incidentally purchased prior to my first CD player.