Your first CD and first player (oldsters only)

[Webern]

First player was a Marantz but I can't recall the exact model. I had already bought a handful of CDs which I can remember!

Bach Brandenburgs, violin and keyboard concertos Pinnock/English Concert

Schubert song recital Elly Ameling

Stravinsky Rite of Spring Bernard Haitink

The Bach especially seemed to benefit from the new medium, sounding very fresh with its period instruments.

Much earlier, I remember the impact of reading the famous March 1983 issue of Gramophone magazine, with reviews of CD players and early releases. From that date I wanted a player but it took me a while to save up.

 

[Diamond Joe]

Thanks to JamesMellor for reminding me, my first CDP was a Sony CDP-35 which I bought in 1986 for £200 (or thereabouts), and my first CD, like so many others here, was Dire Straits Brothers in arms.

I remember that I was a tiny bit disappointed by the sound quality, I was expecting to be blown away by it, especially after the marketing hype surrounding CD's introduction, but it was good and I quickly fell for the convenience and lack of pops and crackling, it's been my main source* of music ever since.

Edit: *not the CDP-35, that's long gone!

 

[BigH]

I never bought any Dire Straits cds, I have Love Over Gold on cassette.

 

[davidf]

My first player was a Marantz CD65 which was bought from Richer Sounds (we all have to start somewhere!) around 1984/1985 during my last year at school. I was then able to play my one and only CD which was Level 42’s The Pursuit Of Accidents, which I’d bought at least a month earlier!

It actually seems weird to think that 5 years later I was in the industry...

 

[bigfish786]

First CD player was a Sony CDP 500M. Five disc carousel player, which I thought was brilliant.

First CD was Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.

Both bought in 1988.

I remember sending off for other CDs through Britannia Music Club !!!! Anyone remember that?

 

[Infiniteloop]

I bought my first CD even before I had a CD player. It was Mozart's Symphonies 35 and 41 - Neville Marriner and The Academy of St Martin-in-the-fields. I was mesmerised by how futuristic it looked. Bought from HMV in London. It was late 1986. I had just finished my MA and was jobless... But it gave me hope for the future in a strange sort of way.

Anyway a few months later, I was in employment and finally fiscally unembarrassed after six long years of student budgeting. The first thing I did was buy a Sony CD player. It wasn't the most expensive, but neither was it the cheapest. Unfortunately I can't remember the model number. I'd decided to ditch my old Aiwa music system and Sony turntable (a lowly PS LX2 - I remember that bit) that had seen me through my student years, so listened to it via some pretty good headphones. Akai, I think. It sounded good, if a little sterile. Over time I added a Musical Fidelity A1 Amp and Monitor Audio R300MD speakers. The hot-running (you could literally fry an egg on its casing) A1 adding some necessary warmth to the sound (It's also what got me interested in Class A and Valve Amps).

I've digressed too far now, but thanks, Major, for rekindling these memories!

 

[nopiano]

MY first player was a Marantz CD63b, the black finished top loader. I’d never liked the sound of the early players, and that was when I was still working on Saturdays in the HiFi shop. They had Hitachi front loaders ( there’s one on eBay right now!), and Philips and Marantz top loaders. And a Toshiba I can’t remember well.

I recall Roxy Music’s Avalon being played most of the time, and various Denon imported CDs, mostly classical, such as Blomstedt’s Beethoven cycle. I think a Denon sampler might have been the first CD I bought, but Brothers in Arms wasn’t far behind, along with Ricky Lee Jones’ self titled album, with the show favourite Easy Money one of the tracks.

Someone has already mentioned the magic of the actual discs, that jewellery like quality and the light spectrum they reflected. Shame the cases were such carp!

 

[Al ears]

So long ago I cannot remember either..... ;-)

 

[iMark]

Like most people that bought a CD player here in NL my first one was relatively simple one by Philips. Philips sold an incredible amount of CD players here in NL. It was marketed here as a Dutch invention. It must have been around 1987 or 1988 that I bought my first one. It didn't have a remote control but it could be programmed, which was great for playing CDs that had a couple of tracks I didn't like. I can't remember what the first CD was I ever bought. One of the early ones I remember clearly was one I bought in 1989: Elvis Costello's Spike. It had an extra track (Coal Train Robberies) that the LP didn't have.

 

[MajorFubar]

It had an extra track (Coal Train Robberies) that the LP didn't have.

Yeah that was quie common back then, helped to justify the fact they were aout 40% more expensive than records and tapes, at least here in the UK.

 

[gasolin]

nr 2 rotel rcb-965bx le upgraded to discrete

Nr 3 Marantz CD5005 Great budget player

Nr 4 Nad C516BEE (not 100% match in design but it's a nad that still matches my Nad C316BEE V2 amp)

 

[matthewpiano]

My first CD player was a Saishio CDX-200, when I was around 9 years old. It was quite quickly replaced by a much better Sony CDP-110 when my Dad upgraded his own system, and I spent many happy hours with the Sony.

The first CD I bought, with Christmas money around that time, was a recording of Schumann piano works by Jeno Jando on NAXOS. I still have it now.