I remember when they came out. I had strong beginnings of a high end system. I was also in search of detail and slam. I had a AR turntable… considered good at the time, but nothing like a real audiphile table. Serface noise was always notable.
I bought a Nakamichi CD player… somewhere in here. I was really delighted. I got dead quiet background, slam and more details. But there was something missing. I still played a lot of vinyl. But I traveled a lot, so that this replaced my 2 briefcases of cassette tapes I traveled with.
Your impressions at that time depends on your associted equipment and what you were searching for. Most people then did not have $10K in their system like I did. But I was pretty clueless on “natural sound” at that time. I wanted volume and slam. I got it… but I pursued vinyl and better analog as my primary listening medium… well until my digital end equaled it in sound quality… a couple years ago.
I found that Nakamichi CD player in my storage room last year. I hooked it up for fun… that was a very high end CD player for it’s time. I cringed… unplugged it… took it upstairs and threw it in the garbage. I would never want any music reproduced so badly… tinny, hard, unmusical.