I had owned the first of the first. I purchased the unit in 1982. It was a Sony CDP 101. It was the most obnoxious, raspy, annoying, piercing, grading, non-musical component I had ever heard.
Also, at the time, the complete CD library that was available consisted of about 15 CDs.
Now? I listen to my newest CD rig more than I listen to my turntable. My, how times have changed.
What was your first CD player and when did you purchase it?
In 1982 or 83 Pioneer SDLP-1 or something like that. I remember the first CD rack at Tower records had something like 20 titles surrounded by a sea of LP records. It didn't take long for them to take over. Most 20 year old kids don't even know what a record is. I wish SACD had done the same thing, but I doubt it will.
Mine was a Sony Discman bought for like 350.00 in the late 80's...thought I was in heaven, and pretty cool too,nobody else had the Diacman for still some time after I had mine..now it can be had for like $10 and it probably sounds better lol
I looked it up and the Sony Discman I had was a CD-2. I believe it was the second-generation Discman. I purchased it in 1986.
AFter that, I had a JVC player with, I believe, the one-bit "MASH" DAC. I had it for many years (nine?) until I replaced it with an NAD 512 in 1997. That was a huge upgrade in sound. I am still using the NAD as a transport for my Musical Fidleity X-DACv3.
Anyone remember an M.S. Brassfield mod of a Phillips (CDB-465 & other models?) from 1987? ACI (the Jaguar speaker folks, in Wisconsin I believe) distributed it. I had one then & really enjoyed it at the time.
It was the Adcom GCD75(I think). It had an A-B button to repetition of any section of a track that you wanted. The FIRST time I saw a CD was in '86(I was 25 at the time). There was a girl that lived across the street that I was trying to "Get Busy" with. When i saw the silver disc, she said "Watch this" and threw it across the room. To my amazement, it played perfectly when inserted in the CDP.
Mine was a Philips CD104, 14-bit resolution and 4x oversampling. I bought it in 1985 only because the vinyl being sold by the majors at that time was rubbish - thin, light, and riddled with dust-attracting static. But despite the cheapness and poor specs of the Philips it was respectable. I recently found some cassette tapes I recorded with it and they are definitely listenable. Which is more than I can say for some of the cdp's I've heard between then and now.
I was just cleaning up some old gear to sell and discovered i still have my first cd player, a Phillips CD101 (Anyone know anything about these). I hooked it up to my Marantz 2325 and i think it sounds better than all my new stuff. Just goes to show ya, you should clean your closets regularly.
First was a Sonographe player (a Philips modded by Conrad Johnson), second was a Wadia 6 player, third was a Sony SCD-1, and finally, a Naim CDS3. So far, I had the Wadia the longest time. None of these machines have had any serious problems (the Wadia had one problem with its control circuitry shortly after purchase, but no other problems for the remaining 8 years until I gave it away).
i still use mine that i got for xmas 93. sony cdp-315. prior to it i was buying cassettes. i would save up my lunch money(2.00 a day) and at the end of the week i would buy a tape at sam goody. oh man i remember getting dinosaur jr.,the dead milkmen, the dead kennedy's,fugazi,bad brains, the pixies,sonic youth,sebadoh. those were the days
Mine was a Yamaha w. oversampling 2 times. One of the first. I sold it & bought a Maganavox 630 I think. Then I bought the big heavy Marantz. That was a very musical player. All bought in the 1980s. Fond memories. Sold my Yamaha to finance the purchase of a Colnago bicycle. Sold the Magnavox because I didn't like it. Sold the Marantz to go travel. Less choice back then. Wadia, Theta & Krell were great then.
Denon DCP-100 portable bought in fall of 1990. With a pair of headphones it was my entire system for years. After buying a cheapo Kenwood 5-disk unit it went into a closet only to resurface last fall when I picked up some old gear & needed a cd player. Kind of like an old hammer - it's not fancy, it just works.
High School graduation present, 1990. A sony single disc player, but I can't remember the exact model number - something like CDP-486. I used it, and my roomate's similar player extensively when DJing in college. Sadly my guitar amp fell on it 2 years ago. Up until then it still worked...
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.
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.
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).
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?
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.
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.
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.
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?
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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