Do You Remember Your First CD Player?

Sony CDP-610ES back in the mid-1980s. Bought each Telarc CD as it was released -- I remember the store used to keep their CDs behind glass.

Perfect sound forever. :-)

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...

Rotel RCD 930 BX , 1992.

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.

Sony Discman, 1987

Onkyo Integra DX-200, 1986, still operational and in active duty.

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.

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

Yup,

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).

My first and still ticking...Onkyo DX-C606...1992

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.

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.

going strong still, a little noisy but easily drown with the music.

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.

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.

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.

onkyo integra,wow i have arrived...huh?

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

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.

paid $100 (1987-88?) for a cdp that had big blue and red control buttons on it, looked like a toy, really (was it a sanyo?). first cd i bought to play was led zep's in through the out door. almost made my ears bleed and i did not buy another cd for years. gave the unit away and went back to my tape deck.

Yes, but not the model number.. It was a very early (maybe 1st generation) Sony. I'm only posting to say I gave it to one of my brothers who is still using it today- it has never, not once, needed to be serviced. He tells me the door is slow to open and close, but still works fine (I imagine the sonics are another story)

My player was bought in about 1985 -- some pioneer for about 300.00 +/-. First cd was Stevie Wonder recorded fully digitally, it was the disc with the song part time lover. Man, I thought it was the coolest thing...

I believe it was the first 4x sampling CD player made. About 1982. I remember the 1st Phillips, Sony, and Phase Linear were the only players in existance when I bought it.

Nakamichi OMS 7, still have it but of course it doesn't work. It worked flawlessly for 13 years and started skipping one day. Sound wasn't too bad with 16X oversampling. Went back to vinyl though and occasionally listen to redbooks on a Sony XA20 ES

In 1983 or so, I bought an early Philips unit followed by a Sony Discman in 1984 (that one was really ghastly!). The first good sounding player was a Tandberg 3015 I picked up in 1985, to the best of my recollection. I really liked that one. There was also an early Sony carousel player in my system around that time too, but I've pretty much blocked that one out.

Mine was an Adcom GCD-575 that I paid $650! for in about 1989. It was head and shoulders above the cheaper drives I listened to, and served me well for over 15 years. Just last fall the transport finally gave up the ghost, and I replaced it with a $250 Onix XCD-88. The Onix blows it away, and I haven't even started with the mods yet. :-)

My first CD player was in 1987. I don't remember which company anymore even though they were still very new. I do remember my next one after it though somewhere between late 1988 and early 1989. My parents bought me a Carver CD player along with an integrated Carver amp and some JBL floorstanding speakers as a holiday gift. My friends brother sold audio equipment and I begged for months to get a system from him at a good discount.

I'll never forget that system, it was my first real Hi-Fi system. My really good/close friends still remember the "Sonic Hologram" TM because of how great that system sounded at the time in our age group (I was only 15). Spending that kind of money on equipment at that age was unheard of among my peers, and so was the sound quality of my system compared to everyone else's dinky one-piece-asian-stereo-stack.

Thus, an addiction was started, and I'm not referring to just the audio equipment (read below). Of course, compared to my parent's LP collection and whole house Hi-Fi system it probably wasn't anything special. At the time though, it was everything to me. I spent most afternoons floating in the digital aether on my bed, in my room after school.

Mine was a JVC, bought in 1989. I still use it in my excercise room. It has a digital out, a headphone jack and even has a variable out, although I've never that feature.

1985 Magnavox CD 650 which I still use in my main system in my NJ Beach house system: Jolida 102B integrated driving a pair of Spendor S3/5's with a REl Storm III. Sometimes I think this simple system with the Magnavox bests my big rig in my everyday house.

dbx dx5. Still works perfect to this day and has some of the best error control ever incorporated into a unit. My view.
c-ya
ToddG

A JVC unit, for the longest time, I only had just one cd. The music would skip sometimes and I thought it was the player,after all cd's were say to be perfect in every way. I gave the player away to a relative, and went back to lp's, only to find it was the disc itself and not the player. He still has the jvc cd player.

Mine was a Sony D5 portable CD player purchased new in 1986. It still works to this day! Amazing longevity after all it's been through. I bought during my college partying daze.

Yes, the Magnavox CDB 650 is still being used today. Other components have come and gone.

Philips CDP101. I bought it June 1984. It is still in the family. It impressed me for being different than vinyl but in reality now 24 years later I realize that vinyl is still king but CD's will too always have a place for me.

Denon DCD 1500 II.

This was at a time cd had become religion. I remember a magazine that as a matter of principle (!) would list any cd-player it reviewed in its reference class table since this was the ultimative sound, always reproducible, always better than anything achievable with analogue gear, forever, amen!
I thought the Denon was fine, different from but at par with the Technics SL-QL1 'table with Ortofon TMC200 we owned, certainly not "lightyears better" as I was supposed to find it if I wished to belong to the knowledgeable crowd. Hah, even that magazine has come a long way since then.

sony es 555xp
purchased in 1992 was second from the top sony at the time.

had for 15 years until i bought a naim cdx-2 which has now been upgraded to a naim cds-3.

I absolutely cannot believe that this thread is still going after over four years.

Now I remember why I love you guys...

I resisted cd's for a long time and stuck with vinyl until it started getting really hard to get new releases. Around '94 I broke down and bought a Denon something or other. I was really surprised at how bright and un-enjoyable it sounded.

The place I bought it from wouldn't take it back and somehow or another I stumbled on Innovative Audio in Brooklyn. I went there looking for a better Denon or a Sony or something and they must have been rubbing their hands together when they saw me coming. He A/B'd a Nad (I think) that was in my price range with a Cal Icon that wasn't and the proverbial light bulb went off in my head. Game over.

I still have the Icon, still like the way it sounds...

Magnavox CDB 650 for me as well. I upgraded to a rotel rcd 855. Still have that one in the closet.

Yep, Rega Saturn. Just bought it 6 months ago. I stuck with my turntable rig I've owned since the 1980's (SOTA/SME). Just got married and we (she) needed the convenience of CD's, since she was not allowed to touch my turntable rig! I can't believe I finally did it.....got married and bought a CDP!!! At 44 years of age, it's about time (for both).

Yes I do.
I am still using it.

1988 Magnavox boombox. I got it as an Xmas present along with Sting's Dream of the Blue Turtles cd. This cdp lasted up until my junior year in college when I inadvertently backed my car over it after a long day drinking at the beach. There are great memories with that cdp...I did a lot of things (legal and illegal)to the music that cdp produced.

Mine was a Mission, which was basically a Phillips with a superior analog output circuit in a separate potted module that was stuffed in the box with some foam to keep it from rattling around. I had gone to an audio shop all prepared to buy a Sony, but the Mission sounded so much better that I was sold on it. The Mission used a pair of D/A converters for the two channels, whereas the Sony time multiplexed one D/A. I used this player for at least 15 years.

A little history...Oversampling was a Philips idea (which they didn't bother to tell Sony about) so that they could use a good 14-bit DA instead of the flaky 16-bit ones that were common when CDs were introduced. Everyone agreed that the oversampling 14-bit Phillips ran circles around the Sony units.

I bought it in '87.

It broke after like two years. I'd always heard to stay away from extended warranties but for some reason this was the one time I actually bought one. How 'bout that!

But the warranty was from the infamous Crazy Eddie. It/he was was bankrupt by then. How bout that too.

Yes,a Sony CDP-302. I still have it, and it works perfectly. My girlfriend got it for my B'day. She spent way more than she should have(I'm glad she did!). She got me that instead of a ring...that's why I married her
a couple of years later(love had a little something to do with it also). We're still married today, because
she understands(allows...) my addiction...:-)

Mark

My parents bought me a Pioneer pdm 60 in '87 for graduation. I used it until last year. Now it's at a buddys house getting used almost daily. It came with a single cd cartridge and a 6 cd cartridge. The cd had to go in upside down. I never once had an issue with the 6 disc changer.Ever.

My first player was also a Sony CDP 101 that I picked up new in '83. It was cool being the first kid on the block with a CD player but there were only about a dozen rock albums on CD at the time. Despite it's shortcomings I thought that the Compact Disc may actually take off and replace vinyl !

JC Penny baby! It was made by NAD, but was branded differently (can't remember the name). Remember when JCP's had an electronics department? They actually had some decent mid-level equipment - I bought a Proton tuner from there and it was pretty darn good....

The CD in my Fisher "Portable Stereo". I remember it was a top loader and I had cracked the cover from wacking it to get it to play, lol. Was really fussy about disc quality. Pawned it off a few years back for I think $20.