Do You Remember Your First CD Player?

Yamaha CDX1 for me as well. Followed by a Magnevox 480 or 482, still buried under a layer of dust in my office at work, connected to a Sansui AU6500 integrated, still churning out digititus...

Magnavox CDB-473.

Magnavox FD-1000. The original top loader, no numeric readout. Shortly, thereafter, Meridian modded it into the first "high end" player, the Meridian MCD

I bought a Sony 101 in the early 80's and very few CD's - just couldn't stand one or the other. A few years later I discovered Cal Audio's Aria II - it really fleshed out the music - but still didn't compete with Vinyl - I bought some more CD's. The I up-graded to the Cal Alpha/Delta - at last I had something that sounded like music - bought lots of CD's. Still have it.

These are memories best forgotten. Those who do remember may need to seek treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder! I remember the first one I heard in Boulder Colorado through a pair of Acoustat 2+2s. I was friends with the staff there, and we looked at each other in disbelief. None of us could convince ourselves that the horrible sound we were hearing was the promised perfection, and that we just needed to get used to the lack of distortion associated with analog.

I then owned a high-end store during the early years and refused to sell those horrific things. I eventually sold the Sonograph because it was rolled off in the highs, relatively cheap and could be listened to for up to 5 minutes without complete audio fatigue. Those were dark (perhaps bright) days best forgotten. As recently discussed in Stereophile by Art Dudly, there are no classic early CD players. Seek treatment if necessary.

Ron