CD Player

[DADoES]

 
This Magnavox model FD3040 was my first CD player.  It had tons of program features and was very heavy.  A "glitch" on the design was that only the play, stop, ff, rev, etc. buttons were labeled directly.  All the rest of the many silver buttons of identical size and the little black number keys at the right were labeled on the black escutcheon which was difficult to see in low-light conditions.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

I miss CD players that had the “calendar” display for programming the tracks on your discs (which I do with 99% of mine—even when I keep the tracks in their native-numerable order, I like to see “Program Mode”) so here is what I had to settle for just to get a free-standing full-sized model that is isn’t put into a portable or a boom box unit, of which “something just for playing your Compact Discs no longer seems to be made:

— Dave

 

[iowabear]

That Magnavox is a great looking unit.  This was my first player...the cheapest one money could buy.  I later sold it and upgraded to a Technics unit because I wanted a remote control.

 

 

 

 

[iowabear]

Actually this made me curious and there a still quite a few new CD players (both single and changers) available for sale on Amazon.  I thought they might have gone the way of cassette decks already.

 

[retro-man]

New ones still available

I bought a new 6 disc remote control Onkyo cd player last month at Best Buy. One of the only ones I found available. I had a 5 disc Sony but it was getting up in age and the plastics inside were becoming brittle and breaking by themselves on usage. Door would stay locked and do nothing. Took it apart and found a couple of pieces of plastic that were broken off making the unit unusable. New one is fully featured and works great.

Jon

 

[foraloysius]

I have a Rotel RCD 855 that I bought new in 1987. Recently I bought a new amplifier and a new tuner, also from Rotel, the CD player works fine with the new equipment. I am thinking about buying a coax cable to connect the cd player to the amplifier so that the bit converter of the new amplifier gets used for the cd signal instead of the 32 year old one in the cd player.

 

[tomturbomatic]

I still use mine in my car, which also has a tape deck. I have not played anything in the player that is part of the old homo entertainment system in years or decades.

 

[DADoES]

 
My current (March 1995) Sony CDP-C445 5-disc carousel is erratic/malfunctioning.  Worked OK some months ago, then the tray recently went to randomly/continually opening and closing.  I got four discs off the tray between cycles.  The one loaded was tricky but it eventually dismounted and I got it out.  So I guess that's the end of that player.

 

[mattl]

I have hundreds of CD in my basement, have not touched one in years. maybe a decade. On the very rare occasion I do get a CD of a rarity I like it gets ripped at a very high quality level to my NAS and the cd joins the rest never to see the light of day again.

Streaming is so much more convenient for me, I have about 100 Pandora stations and only use 4 or 5 of them, but it does run 24/7 as background music throughout the house. I use Amazon Prime music in the bathrooms in the morning when I get ready, a little more energetic music then.

I recall buying the first Technics CD player way back in the 80's, I think it was a SP-1, cost a fortune at the time. I've probably bought a dozen more over the years, but my musical interests have changed and I don't feel the need to keep buying CDs especially when I may only like 1/4 to 1/2 the tracks. With Pandora I feel I'm supporting the artist - at least micro marginally- they do get paid a little for each track played.

 

[iowabear]

In retrospect, I really feel like the changeover from vinyl to CDs was overblown.  For all their new technology they didn't sound *that* much better.  For me at least, they didn't really change the amount of enjoyment I got from listening to recorded music.  More convenient,  sure, but I don't think it was worth all the money I spent back then re-buying albums.

 

"Game changer" technologies (as in once I experienced them I didn't want to go back) were VHS-HiFi, DVD and the first widescreen televisions (ED or HD) that could display DVD widescreen movies without (or minimal) black bars.  Blu-ray is nice upgrade but I'd rather watch a good movie on DVD than a bad one on Blu-ray. 

 

[askolover]

I bought my first one in 1988, a Toshiba, from Walmart.  I still have it and it still works!

 

[petek]

A Mitsubishi was the first player I bought sometime back in the early 80s iirc. There certainly was/is a difference between an LP and a CD when it comes to sound quality, the CD I think is superior and it never develops snap, crackles and pops. Most of my audio collection was classical music and it would drive me bonkers to hear any of that noise after a few plays which is why I never had a big collection of records. Once I got the CD player all bets were off and I started buying CD's like crazy. These days however I seldom play one and just ask Alexa to play what I like. I don't even have my stereo set up any more. Two Alexa Pluses in the living room synched for stereo and that's it , plus a few more scattered about the house so the music follows me. The sound quality is decent enough from the two Alexa Pluses, in fact they sound better than the Bose Wave radio/cd player at less cost.

 

[48bencix]

No CD players in cars

There are very few new cars with CD players. Volkswagen puts them in the glove compartment. Ram truck offers them as an option remote from the radio system. Some Lexus' have them. I know most people stream now, no purchase of music at all, just renting it, which is fine. But I would still like to play the CD in the car. I did not steal 40,000 mp3's during the Napster time. I do not have any digital music. Oh sure I could rip my CD's and play through most new car systems, or use Spotify or Pandora. I am trying to be modern, but may keep my cars that still have the CD players.

 

[twintubdexter]

This was my first CD player

<span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Built by Phillips/Magnavox in Holland I think. It was given to me by Magnavox when I was an electronics department store assistant buyer. This was strictly forbidden by the Company, in fact the lengthy rule book said you were only allowed "to accept a small gratuity such as a box of candy" from vendors. Rumor had it that an appliance buyer accepted a new Thunderbird from Ford when they owned Philco. </span>

 

<span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">The little Magnavox was really wonderful. Very pricey, very heavy, no remote, but it did have separate buttons to cancel tracks you didn't want to hear...very handy. At the time there was just a small handful of CD's available, all made in Europe and mostly classical. The only "regular" disc I had was the Barbra Streisand/Andy Gib "Guilty" album which I still have. Most of my friends at the time had never seen a CD so it was great fun demonstrating the player and it's spectacular fidelity. They were mostly amazed at the small size of the disc itself. </span>

 

<span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">I like and enjoy CD's as much as I ever have and still buy them today. I have hundreds of them. The little Magnavox is long gone. They pop up on eBay and sell for quite a lot. I have an Antique Apparatus (made near me here in Torrance and now owned by Rockola) "Wurlitzer-looking" jukebox that holds 100 CD's and is one of my favorite things. I bought it from a guy in San Diego for practically nothing and got it working perfectly...a miracle since I know nothing about repairing electronics especially anything solid state. I will always like CD's 

</span>

[this post was last edited: 8/29/2019-15:49]

 

[foraloysius]

Philips

Oh yes, I remember that one, the Philips CD100. I remember that they were very expensive. After a while they got more affordable. When that happened I bought the next model, the CD104.

 

[launderess]

Have a Meridian CD Player

Don't ask which model number, as cannot recall ATM.

Enjoy playing compact disks, find the sound streets better than LPs (own a turnstile as well), and better than downloaded/streamed music. Latter of course could be a matter of what plays the stuff.

Great thing about so many people going off CDs is one can find stacks at local thrifts, many new in package for very little money. Over years have culled down our collection, but still have about two bookcase shelves worth.

Rent vehicles often so yes have noticed starting about several years ago CD players are found less and less. There's me with a collection of disks intending to hear whilst driving, and nothing to play them on. In particular have a few classical disks with music one finds soothing for driving and or keeping one company on a long ride home when driving solo.

 

[cfz2882]

I have about 20 CD players-none older than 1986,CD players exotic and expensive before 1986.My faves are the Philips-Magnavox swinging pickup ones(disc on these must place playing side up)-mine are 1987-89.Newest one I have is a Denon made in 2010.

 

[paulg]

My first, a Magnavox

At the time when I wanted to purchase my first CD player, I was working as a tech for one of the largest TV repair chains around. I was repairing every player made and decided to pick my favorite.
I picked a Magnavox. Cannot remember the model but it was identical to the Philips CD104 that Foraloysius shows above.
I used to joke - “This CD player could track a pizza!” That Magnavox player was heavy, beautifully built and would play any disc. It could play every bad track on the Philips test disc as well as others.
People may not remember, or know that a CD player’s ability to track any brand of disc was a feat in the 1980’s. At that time primarily Philips and Sony were printing CDs and (as it appeared to me) many other CD players that didn’t use a Philips or Sony chipset / optics struggled with off-brand CDs.
That Magnavox player worked for years. When it finally gave up the ghost, I was working for Sony. My Sony player is well over 20 years old and still works fine.
As a side note, while working for Sony, I felt I had heard every CD player known to man and felt they largely sounded the same. In the late 1980s Sony came up with a CD player (cannot remember model) that was well over the $1000 mark. When I heard it play my jaw hit the floor. Smoooooth as silk. Gosh I wish I had bought one. All I can remember is that is was black, weighted base and used the BU-1 optical block.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

MY first CD player was a Pioneer bought in 1993, and with the way it had to be cleaned & the laser adjusted every year, I had even gotten a service contract, which got me free cleanings, so that seemed to be the only repair/servicing that it ever needed...

But it was at Montgomery Wards so naturally, as Wards went bankrupt, (I believe around 2003, when it was ten-years-old & still a good runner) the ability for the coverage ended, and I'd even gotten refunded for the pending contract, while afterwards, I got by without the annual cleaning/adjustments, and with the way the system was aging, though still played, I was just contempt to keep on using it until it broke, which it then, after twenty-years, in 2013, did...

So the player that I use, is that CambridgeAudio, which despite the quirky door not opening/closing, seems like a perfectly sound unit, which despite I'd never, so far, had even gotten the cleaning/laser adjustment for, still relentlessly works like a dream, six-years-and counting...

Only, good, full-sized integral unit, but still sadly even there, at the price paid for it, no calendar display for helping me keep track track programming (of which even in the past, I had still made the mistake of skipped/repeated songs in error)...

-- Dave