Do You Remember Your First CD Player?

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.

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