Do You Remember Your First CD Player?

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.

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.

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

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.