Do You Remember Your First CD Player?

Sony ES 520 II. Lasted from 1987 to 2005.  Happy Listening!

First player I purchased new was a Yamaha CDX-2 that died about three to four years after I bought it. Next came a NAD 5000 Monitor Series which was definitely an improvement, then an Audio Research CD 2 and currently a Cambridge Audio 851C that I use the DAC input with a Bluesound Vault 2. Haven’t played a CD through the Cambridge since I purchased the Vault. I remember that Yamaha was a cheap, poorly made unit,  but was a lot of money to a kid just out of school. Think the first cd I bought was Sting, The Dream of the Blue Turtles which set me back almost twenty bucks. I wasn’t buying a lot of CDs back then, that’s for sure.

Philips CD80. Built like a tank, weighed a ton.

My first CD player was a Meridian MCD.  Purchased it somewhere between 1984 and 1985.  Sweet sounding machine, especially for its time.   But the damn thing would overheat.   My dealer got so frustrated with dealing with it that he offered me a very generous credit that I could put towards anything I wanted.   I put the credit towards the purchase of a Revox B126 which served me faithfully for 25 years or so until it finally gave up the ghost in 2012.

Technics on 1984.

It sounded harsh and bright.


My next one California AudioLab which I got 1989 was much better with more refined treble.

NEC CD803 in 1982, paid $800.00 and kept till I bought a Phillips CD80 with digital out to a PS Audio Digital Link II with an Audio Alchemy DTI filter between the two, kept that system in play for 18 years.

Toshiba XR-P9.

The Carver CDP with tubes. Purchased late 80s. Used with a PS Audio Elite integrated, Vandersteen 1Bs and Kimber cables.

Toshiba XR-P9.

My first CDP was a Sonographe (Conrad Johnson codification of a Magnavox?Philips machine).  It worked flawlessly for me until I replaced it with a Sony SCD-1 SACD/CD player.

Not really. Maybe one of those 90's Aiwa boxes. But nothing dedicated until my Cairn Fog in 2003. 

Talk about bringing an old thread back from the dead. My 1st CD player was a ADC 16/2R around 1984/85. I still have it along with my 1st Receiver purchased in High School (Technics SA-205). The CD Player still works and sounds REALLY Good.  This coming from somebody that currently has a Luxman D-08U, Esoteric K-01X and Marantz SA-10. High praise indeed.

Yamaha CD-1.  Listed for 1300.00 USD.  Dealer gave me a good price on purchase price.  Fantastic sound.  It was MIND-BLOWING.

Sony D5 diskman portable. There weren't many cd players in 82 or 83 ha ha

A California Audio Labs Icon MkII in 1991.

Magnavox cdb 473 fairly good sound at the time.

Mine was a Denon DCD 1700 mk2 bought in 1987 for I think USD 700.

I have only ever owned one "CD player". I have been a vinyl junkie all along and resisted the move when CDs first hit the market.

My first disc player that would play CDs was a Sony MDP-333 Laserdisc / CD player. I replaced it with a Pioneer DVL-919 Laserdisc / DVD / CD player when DVD hit the scene. That was replaced with a Pioneer Elite DV-59AVi when I sold off my Laserdiscs.

When I put together a dedicated two-channel system several years back I used a first generation Sony Playstation SCPH-1001 for CD playback. I purchased my first real CD player, an Opera Consonance CD-120 Linear that I used for two years. I recently replaced it with a Parasound Halo D 3 so I could also listen to my small collection of SACD and DVD-A that I accumulated when I used the Pioneer Elite “universal” disc player.

I seriously doubt I’ll ever buy another CD player – I believe the future is in PS Audio PerfectWave Transport/DAC type products.

Sony CDP-520ES, bought in the early eighties, 1983, I think. Currently using an Arcam FMJ CD23T.

One of those highly touted (at the time) front loading Magnavox players circa 85-86.

I think the first CD I purchased was either a CBS Masterworks recording of "The Moldau" by Smetana (also the first piece on vinyl LP I ever listened to as a kid), Dylan's "Blood On the Tracks" or Roxy Music's "Avalon".

Next came a Sony for 3-4 years, a Cal Audio for about 10, and then my current Denon.

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.

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....

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 !

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Yes I do.
I am still using it.

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).

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

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...

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

Now I remember why I love you guys...

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 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. :-)

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.

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

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.

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...

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)

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.