Do You Remember Your First CD Player?

I got my first in 1987 at a cd specialty store (remember when that was different than a record store?) as a high school graduation gift to myself. I think the brand was A/D/C may be? It was a brand I had not seen before and have not seen since, but it looked cooler than the common brands available at Best Buy, etc, and I bought it on impulse. Cost about $250. I was not an audiophile at the time, so I can't tell what it sounded like, but it sure seemed better than cassettes and scratchy lps on the cheap lo-fi gear I had at the time. It died about 5 years later.

My first cds (purchased with the player--the store threw in 2 with the purchase of the player and I bought 2): Led Zeppelin-In Through The Out Door (symbolic because it was one of the first albums I bouhgt as a child), The Eagles-Greatest Hits, James Taylor-JT, and Rainbow-Down To Earth. Shortly thereafter I recall picking up Deep Purple-Machine Head and Dire Straits-Makin' Movies. Strangely, I still have almost all of these cds. Only the Deep Purple and Rainbow have been replaced with remasters (yeah, I'm still a Blackmore nut).

This reminiscing reminds me of a little rant of mine: It is my recollection that back in the early days of digital cds were about $5 more than lps and cassettes. I'm sure that was somewhat justified at the time by the costs of new manufacturing facilities. But now cds are cheaper to produce than cassettes or lps ever were and the big record companies have never let go of that premium. And they still can't make money?!?!?

Aiwa XC-30M in 1999. that was my first standalone CD player. Before that I had two different 'boom boxes' in the early and mid 90's. Oh yeah, also had one of the Sony discmans. I got that in '94 IIRC.

Just sold the Aiwa this past week. *Sniff* I have a Marantz CC-47 feeding an EVS Millennium DAC 1 at the moment.

Prior to my boomboxes I got all of my music off of the radio. Even when I got the boomboxes, I used to remember getting the cassette decks to record off of radio stations as I went to bed. I found the classical and pulic radio stations used to play some more non-standard fare at night, especially Sunday night. Then the next day I would listen to whatever I could grab onto a single cassette, and scan for some goodies. I could usually manage to find one new, undiscovered gem that way.

It was sort of a poor poorman's TiVo. .. well without categories. And it was radio. ..and without the timer. And without muliple stations. Well heck it wasn't like TiVo at all! At least I could fast-forward thru the parts I didn't like! I have some fond memories of my youth doing just that. Those were good times. No system. No music collection, except what I could tape off of the air. Man, that was music.

Aaron

It was a J@# model...Tried suing company later for emotional distress.

Out-of-court settlement was satisfactory, though...they bought me a turntable.

Back in 1986 I ordered a Technics SLP-100 cd player (silver) from the States as Canadian prices were double. Was so excited when I got it!! I remember it has super fast access to tracks, but boy.... sure sucked when it came to audio! Bled my ears for a few years with that piece of crap till it started skipping like a pre-teen with a rope. Cleaned the lens, re-lubed the laser slider track and then gave the piece of crap to a friend (poor guy... but it was free). Then I bought a Mission Cyrus PCMII. Great machine for its time. I'm up to a Meridian 602 with a 606 DAC. 10 year old gear that sounds STUNNING. If anyone has a spare laser for the 602 I will buy it. NOW! My machine doesn't skip, never has (knock on wood).

Still got it in the basement - on a shelf - collecting dust. I held off forever before buying one, so I missed the bad digital phase. It was still a cheapo NEC unit and doesn't have a digital out, or I would have converted it to a transport by now.

Enjoy,
Bob