30 Years Ago, Sony Launched the CD Revolution

I got my first one when I was a senior in highschool in 1990! It was a Sony but I can't recall the model.

Oh wow. Yeah I remember my first CD player, it was a Sony CDP-X7ESD. I was already an addicted audiophile, and when I made the format switch I wanted to do it first class. That player provided 6 years of some of the best listening I have ever done. It was finally killed by the first PC I hooked up to a stereo using decent sound card, and I ripped my whole CD collection. Those files still exist, and that is the solution I prefer to this day.

I got my first CD and CD player in 1987. Boy was it a quantum leap in audio compared to my crappy record player at the time.. I couldn't believe how good CDs sounded..

My first CD player was a Sony in about 1983. The dealer gave me a copy of The Crusaders, Street Life.


I bought Hotel California on the way home that day.


I haven't bought a CD in years, although I was given one by the artist the other day.

I owned this very player. Cdp101. I bought it in October 1983 and paid $765 plus SC sales tax so it was $800. Retail was $900.
Loved that thing . It had a smaller than normal width and NO remote control!

I still have the sony cdp-200 . in its original box. was purchased at chelsee audio back in the 80's .tower records only had 5 disks available LOL i went there every week to see if they had any new ones .
I assume it still works ,it has been boxed up for some 20 years . makes me feel old

Got my first CD player in late 1982 or early 1983 I believe. It was a Denon model (DCD 2000?) that held the CD vertically. The door would open much like a cassette player. Still own the first CDs I ever bought back then (Telarc titles I believe) and they look and play like the day I bought them.

I got my first cd player in '94. Still have it and use it today. Very well built 'cause I must have dropped it 578 times.



If I remember correctly, my first CD was Master of Puppets.

The first radio station in the world to broadcast a CD was WFMT Chicago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WFMT (see Technical Achievements)

http://timeoutchicago.com/arts-culture/chicago-media-blog/15041817/wfmt-celebrates-60-years-as-chicago-radio’s-cultural-oasis

Here's an article and photo from Billboard of June 17 and June 19, 1982. The premier date was June 8, 1982. Sorry about the bad rez, that's all I could find.

wfmtcd.jpg 102k .jpg file

wfmtcd2.jpg 70k .jpg file

Can't remember the exact date, but I went to local dealer Listen Up's unveiling and demonstration of the first CD player. It was on stage in an auditorium, and when they pressed the open button on the player, and the CD tray magically slid out, the audience actually gasped. They also did the old trick of having live musicians playing on stage, and one by one the musicians got up and left, leaving only the recording playing.

I don't remember my first CD or CD player, but I remember in about 1986-87 a friend got one. That's when I had my Al Gore moment. I invented the MP3 player at that time. I remember saying something like "I bet some day...you'll have a device that instead of buying a CD or something else physical...you'll just go to the store and download a song or album to your device."

I guess I invented the MP3 and iTunes at the same time.......sort of.

LOL

I got my first CD player for Christmas 1990 with The Beatles - Revolver. Yamaha CDX 390 (I think - best guess based on my google image search). I was in eight grade at the time and I saved up that winter and spring and bought a used Denon receiver and Infinity speakers from a college kid. That lasted as my main setup until just after college in 1999, when I picked up my first DVD surround system.

My very first CD player was a Sony portable, the D-7S. It was notable for being much smaller than Sony's first portable, the D-5S, and had a soft carrying case with a strap instead of the hard shell case that came with the D-5S. (The battery pack was a NiCad rechargeable that attached to the bottom of the player.) This unit would last me a couple of years until a storm one night fried something inside of it--the unit wouldn't successfully play anything after that, so I eventually got a later model, the D-10, to replace it, and that one would last me several years more.

I got the D-7S in early 1986, and my very first CD to go with it was...Aerosmith's Done With Mirrors, of all things. (I still have the original longbox for that one, with the mirrored art and text, can you believe it?)

Nowadays I rely on a Sony CDP-275CE 5-disc changer for most of my CD needs, but I also have another Sony portable lying around somewhere in case I need it.

I think it was like 1992 or 93, around then when i got my first cd player. It was a Fisher, can not remember the model but i was like 16 or so at the time. Got it for my birthday. I remember joining one of those cd clubs where you got 12 cds for a penny and then had to buy like 4 more or something

I have that Living Eyes record on vinyls, haven't listened to CD for a long time.

My second CD player was an Akai CD-A70 that I could program with words. They were "Without", "To" and "And". It was super easy to program and play the tracks I wanted to listen to.
Edited by Tazishere - 10/2/12 at 12:38pm

my 1st was in 87-88. It was a Symphonic, yellow displays, and you could hear the hiss from tape they made the cd from. My 1st were Billy Joel, Court and Spark, had others but have I CRS anymore. Then my friend bought that, and I picked up a walkman CD player. LOved it! My fat stupid friend would go out and buy CD's but had no player! Moron! He evntually ended up with one of my buys. The 1st 5 I bought cost $20.00-$25.00 each. The 1st deck was $250.00.

I started with the Sony D-5 Portable, then purchased the Sony D-7 (with the bottom fitting battery pack) for use in the car with one of those funky Cassette to CD adapters.

The D-5 was a rugged beast, not so much the D-7 which was much more compact but more prone to breakdowns.
Back then (mid 80's) they used to actually repair these things- but the D-7 was so compact the local authorized Sony repair guy couldn't fix it and Sony ended up replacing it under warranty.

My first CD was Sade "Diamond Life (1984)".... still a wonderful CD.

Funny- I can't even recall how many years it's been since I've played a CD, everything gets ripped to MP3 now then stored on my server.

That looks very much like my first cd player, a Yamaha CDC 745, that I still have in my rack. It still plays excellent but it has developed a nagging problem where the tray sticks until you reach in and use your fingernail or a knife to push down on the top edge of the tray and it has never been dropped .

I remember going to Rich's, now Macy's back when they still sold electronics and watching the Kenwood rack stereos with the cd facing you and spinning inside a smoked plastic cover. I think they sold for about $1,000 then. I remember being mesmerized by the spinning 51/4 " disc and the sound, ahh the sound.

cool mine in the CDC-605. I think it was manufactured in 1990.

My first CD player was from Kenwood in about 1984 or 1985. 1st CD was Pink Floyd 'The Wall'.
Actually waited a year or so to buy the recording because I knew I would be buying a CDP soon and did not want to buy it on vinyl and then turn around and replace it on CD.

Yamaha CD-2 bought on the U. S. naval base Subic Bay, Philippines Oct 85. I already had about a dozen CD's before I bought the player.

Kenwood DP900, 1985. First CD was Rush, Moving Pictures, I believe. Player still works (one of my college buddies is still using it). Can't remember what I paid for it.

Ok I went and found my player and unboxed it , still fires up and works great . still in new condition .took some pics for you guys enjoy!

Our 1st player was a Technics model bought in 1987 or 1988. The first CD was the Cheap Trick album with The Flame on it. What amazed me was no snap crackle pop or his before the music began to come out of the speakers. It was just pure audio.

It is amazing to see this disc form factor has evolved from a disc that could hold 70min of 2ch LPCM audio16bit depth sampled @ 44.1kHz to a disc that can easily hold a 2.5 hour movie in HD resolution with 7.1 lossless audio.

coolest thing EVER!

I remember getting my first one in 1985. One of the first CDs I listened to was Frankie Goes To Hollywood "Welcome to the Pleasure Dome". I was amazed at how good it sounded and all the detail that I could hear. I then proceeded to trash all my records. I didn't want to touch a record again after listening to CDs. Of course now I don't even buy CDs. All my CDs are in strorage and have been converted to a portable music format.

I've trashed all my CDs players since then. In 1995 I got minidisc and started using those instead of CDs since I could make my own mixes from the CDs I had.

Hehehe.....I started buying CDs before I bought my first player. I had about 10 titles by the time I bought the player. It was great having several titles to listen to once I bought my player.


Like another poster said, very cool!

I wish I had kept my first player. (getting sentimental in my old age )

First player was a Sharp that I bought at Montgomery Wards back in 1986. First CD was Pink Floyd's 'The Final Cut' which I had on vinyl, but ended up with a big scratch on it. Perfect time to replace it! Don't have the player anymore - think I sold it at a garage sale or something. Still have the CD. I remember my second CD - Moody Blues 'Days of Future Passed' purchased also in 1986. Still have that one too! Both play perfectly, but I usually listen to the version saved on my music server.