Do You Remember Your First CD Player?

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.

Technics on 1984.

It sounded harsh and bright.


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

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.

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

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.