Great video. I'm fortunate to still have my Sony CDP-X7ESD that I bought new just after they were released here in Australia. I hadn't used it for years until about a year ago when I thought I would unbox it and see if it was still operable. The two drive belts were stretched and defective and thus the transport was intermittent, but some new belts solved that issue, and it now sounds as good as the day I bought it. Fabulous engineering that Sony did on that model. Truly a work of passion by the engineers of the time.
I bought my Rega Planet in '97. It has been faultless to this day, everything functions like it did on day one, and it still sounds fantastic. I have absolutely no plans to 'upgrade'... ever.
@@JohnDoe-np3zk i only heard it in a blog when discussed the late 90´s Rega cd players, i haven´t a Rega, i have Pioneer , Revox, Philips, Teac,Technics, Sony DVD/CD player (the one that as better frequencie response than most of others cd players)also a CEC belt drive,it seems to be very good ,but i felt very bad when paying to change the belts, my father bought a better one and gave me this when he was still 89 years old, once i saw in what hi-fi ,the magazine "the most analog cd player of the world "and i think i read words like"... the best in the whole world..." but if my father bought a better one it seems it isn´t, but he passed away last year so i didn´t had time to open all boxes of hi-fi components that belonged to him so i only refer to the ones i have now at home, the philips also won a prize in the 90´s but with a box saying Marantz Dual DAC ,etc.,etc.,
so loved this amazing video on cd players past and present .I fell in love with this format in 1984 marantz cd 73 ..looking forward to part 2 and 3 .many thanks for all the wonderful discussions .Best channel ever .😊
What a greatful journey into the history of CD-Players! Thank you so much! My first CD-Player was a Hitachi DA-1000 from 1984. My last a Marantz CD-10 from 1993 which I use today. It is a very good „analogue“ sounding Player, brilliant.
I only had about 500 & even though vinyl is my favourite I still purchase a regular supply of cd's from magpie today while they are very cheap at £2 each. I am currently in process of ordering another 100 for £180 with bulk buying. I am lucky I am old enough to be around when vinyl was way before cd's so plenty of both formats. Most converted to flac albums too for streaming. More music than I get time to play now. I was born into vinyl & no doubt still die listening to it in my armchair.
However, there are those who believe that music masters today that are published on vinyl or hires have better dynamics. due to the fact that they probably do different Masters. The CD today unfortunately does not have the same status as it did 20 years ago. Unfortunately, the record companies probably think that those who buy music on vinyl or hires demand more and may also have more expensive stereos
Note that there are those who only use the vinyl record to charge extra. The same album on vinyl can be significantly more expensive than a CD has ever cost. who would have thought In the 80s or 90s when someone in the record industry thought that vinyl records were too cheap
Hi Harley, I took you up on your suggestion for a new CD. I purchased the Joni Mitchell CD 'Travelouge' produced by the brilliant Larry Klein.....Joni's x-husband. I just started listening to it. These remade orchestrated pieces sound rich, soulful & beautiful...What arrangements & what an all-star l band performance too. Joni seems to be right in her 'jazzy performance comfort zone' here. Thanks for this high quality recommendation. Regards, David-
@@PearlAcoustics Thanks Harley. BTW, I'm open to taking a listen to another selection of popular music if you have a second particular recommendation of a well record/audiophile level recording. Also, I highly recommend you pick up the Remastered Edition of 'Night Ride Home' by Joni Mitchell. It was produced by Larry Klein as was 'Travelouge'. It is a mind blowing performance Joni is still in great form, the song writing is profound & Joni plays with some of the most inspired modern jazz musicians on the planet. The recording itself is crystal clear and beautifully produced from top to bottom of the frequency range. Kind Regards From New England, David-
@@davidstein9129 thanks David, just listened to this album on the kitchen radio 😉. It’s quite dark in places but as you say beautiful. I will give it another listen in my listening room. Do you know ‘The Joni Letters’ by Herbie Hancock?
Excellent video. Brought back memories of my first Sony Discman which I bought for about $400 AU in the late 1980s. It needed 2 AA batteries which surprisingly lasted for a reasonable length of time. The motor must have been very efficient. I believe the unit had 2 or 3 seconds of playback buffer which was used to minimise vibration and movement effects on the laser reader. Also had an external power supply and output jack. A Gryphon Ethos for $39,000 is very tempting but I may pay off some of my home loan instead. Gryphon Ethos - what a name!
Hi. Excellent video on an interesting topic. I basically agree with all the devices mentioned in the video, but I think the Naim Audio CD2 (1995) would definitely be worth mentioning too. This model was one of the best sounding CD players of its time and also featured iconic “hinged” front loading mechanism for the first time.
Infact I have from 2006 a Naim CD5 X but the pick up and It begin to jump but the pick up Is finished in Italy so I 'll have to buy another one but not Naim any more.
Great video, some good history, some I knew, some not so much. Was fortunate to find a CDP-X7ESD in the 90s, still have it, and it's playing now. Impeccably engineered with a rather vinyl-like presentation. Spent a good while as a tech servicing CD players and related. Favourite players would be older Denon and Sony machines, esp before the 1-bit era. If someone reading has an older player, it's worth knowing a good tech, they still require occasional mechanical service assuming unobtainium lasers hold up. We play on, thank you from New Zealand
I've been an Arcam fanboy when it comes to CD players. I've owned a few of them in the past and a couple of years ago upgraded to the lovely CDS50 SACD/CD player. Thanks for the video.
Hi Harley, I have found another fine quality CD recording that IMO is worthy of a serious listen on you & your viewer's stereo systems..It's another Donald Fagen (Steely Dan) solo release..It's his lesser known 'Morph The Cat' . It's incredibly clean & lean sounding but not at all sterile. The cymbal work of the drummer (young master jazz musician Keith Carlick) is a great example of what I'm talking about. The CD domestic release, of this album is about $10.00 (US) You'll get you a nice look inside the mix. The performance is inspired & the songwriting is quintessential Steely Dan. Hope this helps. Cheers, David-
As a bit of a collector myself, you've made a great video. Thank you for your time. PS. I think that you may find the first 2 box CD player was the Cambridge Audio CD1. Released in 1985. A real trail blazer, it uses 3 of the Philips TDA1540 DAC chips per channel and was designed by Mr Stan Curtis. It still sounds wonderful.
Thanks for you kind appreciation and also to adding to the discussion. I didn’t know about the Cambridge (it didn’t come up in my research). I will check it out!
Harvey, what a trip down memory lane. My dad bought our first CD player, a Sony, in the late in the mid-80s. I remember reading in stereo magazines about most of models you mentioned. Makes me feel old. 😊 Pity no CD12.
My Top 4 players would be: Technics SL-P990, Technics SL-PJ38A (Identical to Phillips), Any of the Pioneer Stable Platter series and the Sony CDP-XA7ES. Actually added bonus, Rotel RCD-965BX.
In ‘ 84 i bought a Marantz CD 73 as i didn’t like the Philips toploader, it was expensive and in golden finish. It was replaced by a Denon DCD 1700 when it was released in ‘88 ? Still own it today as well as my Denon DCD S10 and a couple of DVD Denon’s is my “museum” . Today CD’s are played on my Denon DCD S10 mk 2 which performs superb, and is expected to last me out ;)
forgot to mention,,, I only use the DCD S10 mk2 as a transport even though it has a high quality DAC ,,,while it's very heavy and solid build,, and my integrated amp Devialet Expert 200 just sounds better , which means it has nothing added ,,, it's "a straight wire" ,,,the most neutral amp I have ever tried.
I missed a mention of Moses Wadia and his eye wateringly expensive DACs and Transports. When i was reading about CD players in a Swiss high-end audio magazine I was subscribed to in the 90s, the Wadia stuff was always described as the best of the best. As I understood it, they actually used some kind of supercomputer to solve polynomial equations to get the most accurate reconstruction of the original analogue sound signal. They eventually even had an integrated player (called the Wadia 6, if I remember correctly) for the measly sum of 6000 currency units instead of the 20k for the DAC alone.
You need to check out technics sl pg300. Its an entry level from early 90s but my family had it in their system (mostly all technics), which is all handed down to me, and it still works perfectly, and the sound via "mash" 4dac is very pleasing to my ears compared to much more expensive CD players
Great video. I kept expecting the Arcam Alpha 7 to come up, or so something from Musical Fidelity but we all have our favourites. I've had a bunch of different machines but I think my favourite, even over big heavy two box MF players, is my Oppo BDP-83 universal disc player. A great sounding well built understated machine. I still use it plugged into my Denafrips DAC using a little Chinese I2S adapter.
I bought a Meridian 206 in 1991, still love it to this day. I had the mechanism serviced, about 6 years ago, and I replaced the DAC with the Meridian 203, so it's now an "L" shape! It still sounds fantastic, best value of any electronic / hi-fi component I've ever bought. I've got about 1000 CDs, so plenty to listen to.
Hi, thanks for sharing. I think we can assume, that unless the capacitors have been replaced, it might need an update in order for it to sound at its best. Very impressive that it’s still working
Harley, some interesting UK/Euro choices. I've purchased my players based on sound quality (& price). My players have been: 1985 Philips (first front loader, stolen), Denon DCD1500 mkIV (variable output), NAD C540 (beautiful Burr-Brown DACs), Panasonic DVD-A110 (wonderful DVD audio DACs), Sony BDP-S3700 plus Schiit Modi external DAC. The Panasonic only plays pressed CDs, the Sony plays everything else (including scratched discs). When old Blu-ray & DVD players are no longer capable of playing their primary disc because of a weak laser, CDs (being lower resolution) often still play fine. I look forward to seeing how your recent Philips purchase fares in comparison with older & more expensive players!
I have an original Rega Planet which I still use today. I've also used a cheap Blu-rsy player as a transport which was quite acceptable. I look forward to the comparison video.
Something to mention about anti-skip about the Sony Portable since it might affect the sound quality: The way that anti-skip is achieved on some players is to have a memory buffer the player preloads with music from the CD. In turn, the player plays the music from the memory, preventing it from skipping. However, some players may use lossy compression when storing the music in the buffer. I've got a few Philips CD/MP3 players that appear to do that when you turn on ESP (Electronic Skip Protection), although you can turn it off when it is not needed. Concerning a factor in the development of CD: In addition to what you mentioned, they also wanted a format that didn't require oil like LPs and 45s do.
if you are young and want to watch movies from an optical disc, you are probably watching Blu-ray and not DVD. and then maybe also have a player that can play things like X264 yes then we might be talking about a player from LG Or maybe Panasonic. Although Philips also certainly make such. but Panasonic players can also play Hi-res audio
I'm 29 Years Old as well, and I try buy all kind of support (except dematerialized obviously), I bought my first CD in 2003 (I was 10), and never stopped since. I now own a Technics SL-P550, damn good for the price I paid it (70€ looking perfect with Owner's Manual and Remote included.), though DACs (it's a 2DACs, 18 bits, 4 Times Oversampling system) are a bit soft, and lack a bit of clarity against my studio grade AD/DA. For me, the Rolls-Royce of all CD Players is the TEAC VRDS-25, which weights 17kg, I'd love to hear and own one one day, try their 4 DACs, how they compare against studio-grade DACs (like RME/Merging), but their Vibration free Rigid Disc-clamping System is a masterpiece of engineering, though a bit complicated to service, but do-able.
People used to get told off at Sony for pronouncing it as "Sonny". They were a bit prickly about it, still are. 😛 I just used to keep my head down and ask odd technical questions, which they rather liked, because everyone else was too afraid. Happy days.
Hi, thanks for your comment. Were you based in the US, by any chance? When I did my research, it seemed that the way I pronounced it (how UK people pronounced it in the 1970’s) was once considered correct. And in fact still today in almost the same way in Japan
@@PearlAcoustics Hi, I'm in the UK, but training was both here and in Japan, with a mixture of tech's coming over here and us over to them. 80's through to the late 90's. They would say it something like "Sow-nee" Not as bad as the Matsushita high up's, if you didn't pronounce "Technics" as "Tek-Niks" and said "Techniques" you got a slap round the head. 😁 People in the UK pronounced Sony badly because they knew it wound wind them up, there was still a lot of bad feelings back then, and I guess it stuck.
I enjoyed hearing about the Phillips Sony dual involvement.. I enjoyed a relaxed presentation..very easy to listen to. I even enjoyed the inclusion big a late model Phillips. Dad had Phillips tuner amp and teac tape deck. But I was rather surprised that you missed the range of poineer multiplay cd players specifically the pd-m900 reference series..but any of the PDM would be sufficient. The 1 bit serial pdm-550 for example would simulate a much higher oversampling. Anyway I do enjoy your relaxed approach but I think your list is less classic and more obscure because I hadn't heard of any of the cd player models you mentioned. I really like that you are willing to compare a cheap unit with a 38000 dollar unit. Did you know that there is no standard for what constitutes audiophile quality? So I'll take a look at your next part of this session if I can find it..
Just upgraded my CD from a Arcam CD72 to a New Marantz CD6007..very impressed with sound quality. Worth considering for new against old..Thanks for the content.
The original Rega Planet is actually mostly a Sony, with a Burr Brown DAC on the very end. The optical pickup is a $20 Sony KSS-210A. I have one. It's a very repairable unit. It's a cheap player, electronically, but very clever. Love the unusual look of it, which is why I bought it for $40 at the time and repaired it.
Was a little surprised to see that all the best Wadia, Audio Aero, Resolution Audio, Linn, Esoteric and Sony machines were skipped over. These were some of the most lusted after players made during the last 20 to 30 years and a few of them moved the bar more than several of the players that were listed.
Great video. Only thing I think not mentioned (forgive me if it was), was Beethoven's involvement in the decision for the data capacity of CD's - 74 minutes to fit his 5th symphony. Perhaps nod to SPDIF, Arcam, players and Black Box, Deltec
Hi, thanks for your kind appreciation. indeed… I mention the link to his 9th. Symphony, somewhere in the series… because that was the problem, at the time.
I remember the Sony CDP-101 when it came out. It was $1500 and I thought it was cool and had a nice remote but it sounded like an AM radio. No highs and no lows. I figured they would eventually get better. My first CD player was a refurbished Sanyo CP300. It had good dynamics but not much else that I remember. It lasted 3 months and then the laser went. Then I bought a Magnavox 1041 I think it was but I bought it because it was the player all the audio companies were buying and modifying so I modified it myself. It was a 14 bit player. Guess what, I am still using it today because I have yet to hear anything much better. I also have a bunch of Philips made 16 bit players that don't sound as good. I should say though that I have given up on CD sound and now use a LINN LP12.
Great idea. Like Vinyl yesterday - people today say, CD is dead. I don't think so. Nowadays you can get one CD at used market for 1 Euro. I don't discuss advantages/disadvantages of CD again. I like CD. To your question: there is another Yamaha Player of 1990, which sounds very warm and smooth like Vinyl. It's the CDPX 1030 for 1500 at this time. I have one retreaded. I love it's melty sound. So this is - up today - my best CD Player.
I really enjoyed this, as did the turntable three-part series you did I can’t believe you left out my first CD player, the Revox B225. You can definitely see the late 80s DP 57L turntable heritage in the Denon DP-S1
I was at an hifi show at a hotel at Manchester Airport for the launch of the Philips machine, after the demonstration a very excited Philips rep asked me what I thought of the sound, not great I said, it just was not musical, I don't think he was best pleased. I also bought the Sony CDP 101 on release, another big mistake, I just could not live with the sound and sold it after about 6 months not returning to CD until the mid 90s, now have a Arcam FMJ CD17 and absolutely love it
I had a few CD Players started in 1986 with Hitachi, followed by one of the Sony Players, change to Technics after that had an Esoteric Transport, switched to Denon, followed by Marantz, and finally by NAD.
Today's Sony Walkman. doesn't play CDs, but things like hires files, for example. And apart from the very cheapest models, they are Android-based and you probably also have cassette tape animation on the screen. . There are also models with Wi-Fi and balanced output for native DSD
Please do not mislead people, oversampling is done purely for sampling noise filtering and has absolutely nothing to do with number of bits. It is hard to filter sampling noise at 44kHz when you need to play sound at 22kHz, normal 1st order filter will only get you -3dB at 44kHz (because it does -3db per octave and you need to be able to produce full sound at 22khz), but when you do oversampling you move digital noise frequency away to 88khz or to 172khz which is very far from 22khz so normal first ored filter will do the job just fine then. Oversampling is done in a separate chip, not in a DAC itself. Design-wise TDA1540 (14 bit dac) and TDA1541 (16 bit dac) are very similar, with the later one just having 2 extra bits. BTW TDA1540 being 14 bit sounds very good even compared to modern 1 bit dacs, which makes you think if 24bit is really a marketing snake oil.
Harley - great & interesting presentation - thank you! If you ever have a chance, I would like to hear your review & opinion of the Yamaha CDX1100U (1987). "The Yamaha CDX-1100 is the first player to achieve the performance of 18-bit digital decoding from a 16-bit digital-to-analog (d/a) converter." "The CDX-1100 uses 18-bit quadruple-oversampling digital filters for each channel" I've owned one since they first came out and believe I'll never need another. They seem to be highly valued by others (?) because I sometimes see them listed on EBAY in the $1,800 - $2,000 USD price range
@@PearlAcoustics Glad to! We once performed a blind comparison test of a freshly bought Marantz CD-67 SE against a Theta transport and its DAC with Conrad-Johnson pre and power amps on a pair of Analysis Omega planar speakers. The test included Vocals, jazz, classical music and wind instruments. As it turned out, all four listeners, including the owner of the aforementioned system, preferred the warm sound and the rich low end of the Marantz its overall musicality and its extended sound stage over the Theta. I took a very demanding symphonic piece for the Theta to finally stand out. Needless to say that there was plenty of laughter, teasing and a long discussion over what consists value for money and a pleasant listening experience.
I love how you don't focus entirely on high end electronics. It's not the whole story and there are music fans of all budgets. I'm a huge fan of finding gems amongst more inexpensive items.
Two notes: 1. The Philips CD player was not called Pinkletje, but Pinkeltje. Named after a character from a Dutch children's story. 2. Today, Philips only produces medical instruments. The modern DVD player only uses the Philips brand name.
Hi thanks for your comment. Indeed, I hadn’t seen the typo error. (I speak Dutch so I know how it should be spelt, but thanks for the correction). And indeed, Philips is only a brand name today.
Only just found your channel but really enjoying the content and your presentation. You’re clearly a fan of Rega products but I haven’t yet heard you mention Naim Audio. The have a real following, almost cultish at times! What is your opinion of their products? Or is that something you wouldn’t broadcast 😂
Hi, so glad you are enjoying my videos. Naim is a really top class HiFi brand, the only reason I have not covered them yet, is for some reason I have not ever got around to purchasing any of their gear. I know some of our clients have Naim amplification. Maybe they’ll reach out to me one day! 😉
Thanks Neil. Very kind. The piano music is ‘Philia’ performed by my good friend Stefan Maylaers. It’s on Spotify and also on the album ‘Thinkin about Belgium’.
Hi Auggy, I do mention Esoteric, but I was focusing on trying to get a balance between’High-end’ and affordable. And also on those who drove the development process. All the makes you mention are outstanding HiFi manufactures, and especially if it were on amplifiers, I would have to include all of them I guess! 😉
Marantz and Phillips of that era had exactly the same CD players, even down to the same board numbers. It is far stretch to say "they had interchangeable parts" because they were exactly the same inside, the difference was in the cosmetics. No, later marantz and phillips all used TDA1541 and TDA1541A meaning they were all 16 bit dacs. SOny continued to use Phillips TDA1541A because they were very good but used own transport and control chips.
Hi thanks for your comment. And for your clarification. All I can say is I was briefed by by one of the senior engineers working for Philips in Hasselt, Belgium during the development of the machines in question. I also used as my reference websites like Dutchaudioclassics. Maybe this helps?
I suppose the Technics SL-P1200 would have been an interesting one to include as I believe radio stations including the BBC, I think, used one for music playback.
Your selection is really fine, but there is one specific design you missed but worth to mention. Stable platter mechanism in Pioneer's. As a variety how engineers tried to fight with vibrations of the disk and, well, actually Pioneer's PD-95 is a desirable device.
You left out the Pioneers with the stable platter mechanism. I had one, it just didnt skip even with scratched cds. The ones with digital outputs still are good cd transports. I still have my Sony X7, it has been repaired three times but it isnt going anywhere.
I play with an Aya5 16 bit ladderdac with the Philips 1541 TDA dac chip How it is implemented here the dac itself is pretty special ! I have played with Saber dac for years, my current 16 bit is no better, but oooh, it still performs beautifully …. I'm done with the Philips 1541
The Philips CD100 or CD300 were the early kings, not Sony. Four times oversampling and 14bit DAC, and unbeliavbly powerful and to the point sound. Not only that, the Philips variants used a single laser tracker, the Japs needed three beams to sort out what was going on.. ;-) NE5532 chips.. My CD300 works today, its an iconic heavy machine thats very fun to listen to
Pioneer CD turntable? load with CD label side down. And their controversial Legato Link (oversampling)? The mid 90s Sony with their fixed lens mechanism was technologically interesting too.
@@PearlAcoustics The BBC's technology program - Tomorrows World - introduced the CD in around 1980 - there's an urban legend that during the segment the presenter Maggie Philbin is supposed to have spread jam on a CD, cleaned it off and then played it. To demonstrate it's resilience as a medium - or maybe it's unsuitability as a snack ? 😀 It doesn't seem to have happened, but ask anyone of a certain age if they saw it, and most of them will say yes...
Being a teenager in the 1970's, LP's were the best sound you could buy (next to Reel to Reel). And had my share of 8 Track. But, when CD players came out around 1985 (reasonable price) I was Sold. Owned about 300 LP's and gave away in early 1990's, no regrets, no more distortion. My experience with LP's, Columbia and Atlantic were not bad, Warner Bros was horrible, usually 10 or so plays and just went to hell with sound quality. So now have over 300 CD's and 5 Pioneer and 1 Luxman CD Player.
One of my instructors in grad school James Russell was the inventor of the triple interweave process used on CDs for its error correction system. SONY is correct. They wanted to make sure that the CD could fit Beethoven's 9th without having to change CDs. That's where the capacity of a CD came from, Beethoven.
Thanks for your comment. Agreed. However, I believe it was the Philips team that determined the capacity of the CD itself. This was back in the mid 1970’s.
@@PearlAcoustics this is where I will repectfully disagree. It was sony, as the 9th is something of an obsession with the Japanese. This per my professor.
@@kevinfestner6126 Hi Kevin. I am sure he’s correct. However, Philips invented the CD (including its specifications) before Sony ever heard of it. But it’s not an issue - the important thing is that Beethoven 9 fits on it! 😉 Enjoy the music
Maybe sort of... "The original target storage capacity for a CD was one hour of audio content, and a disc diameter of 115 mm was sufficient. However, according to Philips, Sony vice-president Norio Ohga suggested extending the capacity to 74 minutes to accommodate a complete performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony on a single disc , however Kees Immink of Philips denies this. The extra playing time subsequently required the change to a 12 cm disc. According to a Sunday Tribune interview the story is slightly more involved. At that time (1979) Philips owned Polygram, one of the world’s largest distributors of music. Polygram had set up a large experimental CD disc plant in Hanover, Germany, which could produce huge amounts of CDs having, of course, a diameter of 11.5cm. Sony did not yet have such a facility. If Sony had agreed on the 11.5cm disc, Philips would have had a significant competitive edge in the market. Sony was aware of that, did not like it, and something had to be done. The long-playing time of Beethoven's Ninth imposed by Ohga was used to push Philips to accept 12cm, so that Philips’ Polygram lost its edge on disc fabrication." So maybe just an excuse on Sony's part if the above is true
@@pc750-V4 James Russel, who taught one of my grad school courses stated that when Sony was designing the Walkman, one VP came in with a block of wood, and said, this is the size it will be, no larger, no smaller. When Russel worked with Sony on the error correction of the cd, the parameter was, it must fit Beethoven's 9th. Russel stated this is how sony designed, based on one goal parameter. Probably why the L cassette failed. Sony had some major flops, as well, like Beta vs VHS. Lon Neuman, an engineer for Sony who was responsible for some of the early use of Sony digital equipment in the entertainment business, esp at Warner Bros, confirms the cd we have today was from Sony's development and not Phillips. In fact Sony built for Warners in Burbank a complete sound studio. In it's day, it was the state if the art. I was in it many times, and it was wowing. I did note that one of the mix down speakers were not JBL, but locally made RSL 3800s. I was in a Sony built cd disc mastering studio in Pasadena used for demonstration purposes. Sony wanted to be the go to standard. They used a digital beta machine as part of the process. I took humor in that. In the early days of digital, Sony was very aggressive in getting its foot in the door in the entertainment industry. It had it's own office of engineers in an office building in Burbank, at the time, in the same area where Warners, Universal, Disney, NBC, ABC, and the famous Burbank Studios are. Sony, no baloney 😂 . When I think back to those days, L.A. was a dynamo. Now look at it. This is why I'm in Las Vegas, where we're trying to build an entertainment biz here, and we've made some progress.
I was 29 years old in 1995 when my parents were thoughtful enough to buy me my first CD player! I was buying mostly cassettes at the time. I never purchased another cassette again. I still buy an occasional record, but I still buy about 25 to 30 CDs every year. I think it's a truly great invention. Physical music media forever.
I think it is important to have physical media, for two reasons, one: to be able to hold and read along to what the artist is projecting(and for the art), and two: if we have back-up power, we will need music to make it through the coming apocalypse. This is a GREAT experiment! I wish I'd thought of it.
I have no more room for CDs, so I've gone over to the dark side, uncompressed streaming. I use Amazon Music Unlimited, Echo Link player & a Fire tablet (for control) & have enjoyed hundreds of 'new' albums in the last few months. I have filled in the 'holes' in my classical & jazz back catalogs. I use YT channels for new release influences. I do miss liner notes but something had to give.
I use roon with qobuz into a blue sound node 3 into an external dac, sounds fantastic. I use a cd transport and also a turntable. The streaming absolutely wins hands down.
Good informative video. I've always liked CDs for three main reasons. No contact playback, small size versus playing time and virtually NO noise, no wow, no flutter on playback. I've had a Technics player since 1990, no repairs, gets played at least 15 hours each week, still sounds great to my old ears.
At the beginning of the 1990s, there could be big sound improvements in just two years. A Denon 1992 sounded significantly better than a Denon from 1990 and then we are talking in the budget class Type corresponding today to 200 to 250 €. note at the time Denon won CD tests. The fight was well between Pioneer and Denon
Though i am a fan and have DENONs from that golden era of the hifi industry i must confess that the fight for the leadership was not only between Pioneer and DENON. Sony, Marantz , Yamaha and some other companies also had excellent models.
rega ear 1 sounds very? decent to me büt thöse p€$keyy nön ´cööl devveiß? plückce v v rega cdp knobs look designey büt hal to oper8 a device ? sonys are so pretty and i love when you can do everything on the device instead öf an art piece that isnt even (Föölleyy) 5kD?? in some rentat holiday flat i think was a tv with such tiny buttons ´rc´ -.- ´GiF blööD?? whats nice except the rega cdp enterpri$€ ´Löök??? burmester ör ecöm-nör are light ahäeD vv szellF view närmöhR€D jaja germs nö XxD
What an interesting video. Can't wait for part two. I'm from the Netherlands and a vintage Philips audio lover. In the 80's and 90's they made their best audio products in collaboration with Marantz en Grundig.
@rogervd666gamer. Greetings from the U.K. I still have my Philips CD650 which I bought new in 1986. As a vintage Philips audio lover, you will know all of the technical innovations and features of this CD player. Last year, I took the player out of storage and sent it to a specialist in Israel who completely overhauled and updated the machine ( including the addition of a FEMTO clock system). It sounds absolutely fantastic and I measure the sound performance of all other CD players against my Philips CD650. Is there a comparable Marantz CD player from that time? You and yours stay safe and well.
@@markmiwurdz202 Oh, that's also a nice vintage Philips CD Player. At the moment I use the Philips fa890 amplifier, cd850 cd player and the fb821 speakers. I like that u use this old Philips CD Player, the most people throw them away. If you give the player sometimes some love it will play almost forever, the old Philips magnetic swing arm drives are not fancy but they last many many years.
@@artisans8521 oh, that's a shame. Do you already know what's wrong with it. Most of the time it's a bad elco or cold solder joints. This can be fixed for almost nothing.
I bought the first Sony as a package system as soon as it first came out and it still plays as good as the day I first had it. The touch buttons on the front needed to be modified when I had it serviced two years ago. The CD drawer seized but now is as good as new. It still produces a great sound. Built like a tank. The drawer glides out with no shudder like cheaper brands.
My first CD player was a Philips player, can’t remember the model except it was a front loader and had battleship build, even the CD draw was all metal construction. Be about 1986 or 1987.
I also purchased a Philips model around 1987. The big attraction for me was the remote control and variable outs that I used to go directly to a Kenwood power amp. Heaven!
Great video. I'm fortunate to still have my Sony CDP-X7ESD that I bought new just after they were released here in Australia. I hadn't used it for years until about a year ago when I thought I would unbox it and see if it was still operable. The two drive belts were stretched and defective and thus the transport was intermittent, but some new belts solved that issue, and it now sounds as good as the day I bought it. Fabulous engineering that Sony did on that model. Truly a work of passion by the engineers of the time.
Thanks Laz! Great to hear your Sony is back in action.
Still have a CDP-101 Still (kinda) works. Sounds like shit compared to my CDP-X-303ES though.
I bought my Rega Planet in '97. It has been faultless to this day, everything functions like it did on day one, and it still sounds fantastic. I have absolutely no plans to 'upgrade'... ever.
Thanks, that’s good to hear.
the brand offers upgrades to it´s 90´s cd players for free
@@RUfromthe40srega has zero support for the planet 2000 at least in the us. Laser bad? Your unit worth zip.
@@JohnDoe-np3zk i only heard it in a blog when discussed the late 90´s Rega cd players, i haven´t a Rega, i have Pioneer , Revox, Philips, Teac,Technics, Sony DVD/CD player (the one that as better frequencie response than most of others cd players)also a CEC belt drive,it seems to be very good ,but i felt very bad when paying to change the belts, my father bought a better one and gave me this when he was still 89 years old, once i saw in what hi-fi ,the magazine "the most analog cd player of the world "and i think i read words like"... the best in the whole world..." but if my father bought a better one it seems it isn´t, but he passed away last year so i didn´t had time to open all boxes of hi-fi components that belonged to him so i only refer to the ones i have now at home, the philips also won a prize in the 90´s but with a box saying Marantz Dual DAC ,etc.,etc.,
so loved this amazing video on cd players past and present .I fell in love with this format in 1984 marantz cd 73 ..looking forward to part 2 and 3 .many thanks for all the wonderful discussions .Best channel ever .😊
Thank you. So glad you enjoyed it
What a greatful journey into the history of CD-Players! Thank you so much! My first CD-Player was a Hitachi DA-1000 from 1984. My last a Marantz CD-10 from 1993 which I use today. It is a very good „analogue“ sounding Player, brilliant.
My pleasure, thanks for your very kind message
CDs rule. Being buying them since 1988. And will always be my choice of music format.
Yep. Buying them since 1985 - Have about 4000 now. Mind you - All of them get ripped to my USB HDD for playing.
I only had about 500 & even though vinyl is my favourite I still purchase a regular supply of cd's from magpie today while they are very cheap at £2 each. I am currently in process of ordering another 100 for £180 with bulk buying. I am lucky I am old enough to be around when vinyl was way before cd's so plenty of both formats. Most converted to flac albums too for streaming. More music than I get time to play now. I was born into vinyl & no doubt still die listening to it in my armchair.
However, there are those who believe that music masters today that are published on vinyl or hires have better dynamics. due to the fact that they probably do different Masters. The CD today unfortunately does not have the same status as it did 20 years ago. Unfortunately, the record companies probably think that those who buy music on vinyl or hires demand more and may also have more expensive stereos
Note that there are those who only use the vinyl record to charge extra. The same album on vinyl can be significantly more expensive than a CD has ever cost. who would have thought In the 80s or 90s when someone in the record industry thought that vinyl records were too cheap
‘91, but same
Hi Harley,
I took you up on your suggestion for a new CD. I purchased the Joni Mitchell CD 'Travelouge' produced by the brilliant Larry Klein.....Joni's x-husband. I just started listening to it. These remade orchestrated pieces sound rich, soulful & beautiful...What arrangements & what an all-star l band performance too.
Joni seems to be right in her 'jazzy performance comfort zone' here.
Thanks for this high quality recommendation.
Regards,
David-
Dear David, thank you very much for your feedback. I am so pleased you are happy with my recommendation. Enjoy!
@@PearlAcoustics Thanks Harley. BTW, I'm open to taking a listen to
another selection of
popular music if you have a second particular recommendation of a
well record/audiophile level recording.
Also, I highly recommend you pick up the Remastered Edition of
'Night Ride Home' by
Joni Mitchell. It was produced by Larry Klein as was 'Travelouge'. It is a mind blowing performance
Joni is still in great form, the song writing is profound & Joni plays with some of the most inspired modern jazz musicians on the planet. The recording itself is crystal clear and beautifully produced from top to bottom of the frequency range.
Kind Regards From New England,
David-
@@davidstein9129 thanks David, just listened to this album on the kitchen radio 😉. It’s quite dark in places but as you say beautiful. I will give it another listen in my listening room. Do you know ‘The Joni Letters’ by Herbie Hancock?
Very interesting topic, wonderful list. Great to have an educated look back in time. I'm very excited about the comparison to come.
Thanks Jürgen
Excellent video. Brought back memories of my first Sony Discman which I bought for about $400 AU in the late 1980s.
It needed 2 AA batteries which surprisingly lasted for a reasonable length of time. The motor must have been very efficient. I believe the unit had 2 or 3 seconds of playback buffer which was used to minimise vibration and movement effects on the laser reader. Also had an external power supply and output jack.
A Gryphon Ethos for $39,000 is very tempting but I may pay off some of my home loan instead.
Gryphon Ethos - what a name!
Thanks Petra. Lovely contribution
Hi. Excellent video on an interesting topic. I basically agree with all the devices mentioned in the video, but I think the Naim Audio CD2 (1995) would definitely be worth mentioning too. This model was one of the best sounding CD players of its time and also featured iconic “hinged” front loading mechanism for the first time.
Thanks! Very kind. Indeed the Naim is a worthy contender
Infact I have from 2006 a Naim CD5 X
but the pick up and It begin to jump but the pick up Is finished in Italy so I 'll have to buy another one but not Naim any more.
@@PearlAcoustics yet not mentioned. lol
@@auggysimcity 😀
@@marcostefanoboietti6013 The Naim 💿 has served you well though for 17 years !!!
Great video, some good history, some I knew, some not so much. Was fortunate to find a CDP-X7ESD in the 90s, still have it, and it's playing now. Impeccably engineered with a rather vinyl-like presentation. Spent a good while as a tech servicing CD players and related. Favourite players would be older Denon and Sony machines, esp before the 1-bit era. If someone reading has an older player, it's worth knowing a good tech, they still require occasional mechanical service assuming unobtainium lasers hold up. We play on, thank you from New Zealand
Hi Frank, thanks for sharing your back story and for your very kind appreciation. Best wishes from Belgium
We didn't mention Sim audio moon evolution Supernova nor the Cambridge Audio 840C
No indeed… I guess I should a top 40! Thanks for your comment
I've been an Arcam fanboy when it comes to CD players. I've owned a few of them in the past and a couple of years ago upgraded to the lovely CDS50 SACD/CD player. Thanks for the video.
You’re very welcome. Arcam do indeed have a very good reputation. Enjoy your player!
I'm using the Alpha 7se at the mo and it's amazing.
Great tour of some grand (and not so grand) machines.
Thanks!
Hi Harley,
I have found another fine quality CD recording that IMO is worthy of a serious listen on you & your viewer's stereo systems..It's another Donald Fagen
(Steely Dan) solo release..It's his
lesser known
'Morph The Cat' .
It's incredibly clean & lean sounding but not at all sterile.
The cymbal work of the drummer
(young master jazz musician Keith Carlick) is a great example of what I'm talking about.
The CD domestic release, of this album is about $10.00 (US) You'll get you a nice look inside the mix. The performance is inspired & the
songwriting is
quintessential
Steely Dan.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
David-
Dear David, thank you so much for this tip. I don’t know the CD. I will put it on my coffee listening list! 🙏
As a bit of a collector myself, you've made a great video. Thank you for your time.
PS. I think that you may find the first 2 box CD player was the Cambridge Audio CD1. Released in 1985. A real trail blazer, it uses 3 of the Philips TDA1540 DAC chips per channel and was designed by Mr Stan Curtis. It still sounds wonderful.
Thanks for you kind appreciation and also to adding to the discussion. I didn’t know about the Cambridge (it didn’t come up in my research). I will check it out!
@@PearlAcoustics You can't know everything! His next two machines (CD2 and CD3) both used 4 TDA1541 DACs.
@@abbersj2935 thanks!
Harvey, what a trip down memory lane. My dad bought our first CD player, a Sony, in the late in the mid-80s. I remember reading in stereo magazines about most of models you mentioned. Makes me feel old. 😊
Pity no CD12.
Sorry about the lack of CD12, to be honest, I didn’t really know it and it didn’t pop up on my research. I am very curious to hear one now!
My Top 4 players would be: Technics SL-P990, Technics SL-PJ38A (Identical to Phillips), Any of the Pioneer Stable Platter series and the Sony CDP-XA7ES. Actually added bonus, Rotel RCD-965BX.
Do you rate the Rotel RCD-965BX? I've Just bought one.
@@james9789 oh yes! The 965BX is a top player! And quite rare these days! You’ve made a good purchase for sure!
@@jacksonsystemslimited great to hear thanks I'm waiting on some interconnects so I'm having to be patient.
@@james9789 if you need it servicing have drop Mend It Mark a message see what his availability is.
In ‘ 84 i bought a Marantz CD 73 as i didn’t like the Philips toploader, it was expensive and in golden finish. It was replaced by a Denon DCD 1700 when it was released in ‘88 ? Still own it today as well as my Denon DCD S10 and a couple of DVD Denon’s is my “museum” . Today CD’s are played on my Denon DCD S10 mk 2 which performs superb, and is expected to last me out ;)
Thanks for sharing
forgot to mention,,, I only use the DCD S10 mk2 as a transport even though it has a high quality DAC ,,,while it's very heavy and solid build,, and my integrated amp Devialet Expert 200 just sounds better , which means it has nothing added ,,, it's "a straight wire" ,,,the most neutral amp I have ever tried.
I missed a mention of Moses Wadia and his eye wateringly expensive DACs and Transports. When i was reading about CD players in a Swiss high-end audio magazine I was subscribed to in the 90s, the Wadia stuff was always described as the best of the best. As I understood it, they actually used some kind of supercomputer to solve polynomial equations to get the most accurate reconstruction of the original analogue sound signal. They eventually even had an integrated player (called the Wadia 6, if I remember correctly) for the measly sum of 6000 currency units instead of the 20k for the DAC alone.
Indeed…. I missed that one! 😉 Thanks for your comment
Tad disappointed the Marantz CD-63KI signature didn’t make the list. Some amazing kit out there. Thoroughly love some of the engineering masterpieces.
Yes, nice machine but cutting back to 20 was difficult
You need to check out technics sl pg300. Its an entry level from early 90s but my family had it in their system (mostly all technics), which is all handed down to me, and it still works perfectly, and the sound via "mash" 4dac is very pleasing to my ears compared to much more expensive CD players
Thanks for the advice…
Great video. I kept expecting the Arcam Alpha 7 to come up, or so something from Musical Fidelity but we all have our favourites. I've had a bunch of different machines but I think my favourite, even over big heavy two box MF players, is my Oppo BDP-83 universal disc player. A great sounding well built understated machine. I still use it plugged into my Denafrips DAC using a little Chinese I2S adapter.
Hi Jim, thanks for your very kind comment. An old machine of high quality, with a digital output does wonders. Enjoy
I bought a Meridian 206 in 1991, still love it to this day. I had the mechanism serviced, about 6 years ago, and I replaced the DAC with the Meridian 203, so it's now an "L" shape! It still sounds fantastic, best value of any electronic / hi-fi component I've ever bought. I've got about 1000 CDs, so plenty to listen to.
That’s great, thanks for sharing
I buy at least 1 cd EVERYDAY, always new/sealed. I love them!
👍
Cd will always be my format of choice great video once again :)
Thanks Jimmy!
Missing MicroMega milestone.
Very interesting, I own a working Sony CDP 101, it sounds a bit brittle to my ears but still it’s very well built.
Hi, thanks for sharing. I think we can assume, that unless the capacitors have been replaced, it might need an update in order for it to sound at its best. Very impressive that it’s still working
My old big love, Sony CDP-X777ES (1991/1992).
Great sounding compact disc player.
Mine too!
I remember, that in Germany you get a special Swoboda Audio Modification Kit for this Sony player in 1992. They’ll received several trophies.
Great job on the video, very informative and somehow, interesting.
Thanks Rick.
My Pioneer PD-91 played perfectly for many years. It now it sounds like a belt is slipping or the lazer mechanism is failing.
These things can usually be repaired quite easily
I've decided to have it repaired, it's been a good reliable machine for many years, also sounds rather good.
Harley, some interesting UK/Euro choices. I've purchased my players based on sound quality (& price). My players have been: 1985 Philips (first front loader, stolen), Denon DCD1500 mkIV (variable output), NAD C540 (beautiful Burr-Brown DACs), Panasonic DVD-A110 (wonderful DVD audio DACs), Sony BDP-S3700 plus Schiit Modi external DAC. The Panasonic only plays pressed CDs, the Sony plays everything else (including scratched discs). When old Blu-ray & DVD players are no longer capable of playing their primary disc because of a weak laser, CDs (being lower resolution) often still play fine. I look forward to seeing how your recent Philips purchase fares in comparison with older & more expensive players!
Thanks
I have an original Rega Planet which I still use today. I've also used a cheap Blu-rsy player as a transport which was quite acceptable. I look forward to the comparison video.
Good to hear the Planet is still delivering
Something to mention about anti-skip about the Sony Portable since it might affect the sound quality: The way that anti-skip is achieved on some players is to have a memory buffer the player preloads with music from the CD. In turn, the player plays the music from the memory, preventing it from skipping. However, some players may use lossy compression when storing the music in the buffer. I've got a few Philips CD/MP3 players that appear to do that when you turn on ESP (Electronic Skip Protection), although you can turn it off when it is not needed.
Concerning a factor in the development of CD: In addition to what you mentioned, they also wanted a format that didn't require oil like LPs and 45s do.
Thanks very much for your comment and the additional information
if you are young and want to watch movies from an optical disc, you are probably watching Blu-ray and not DVD. and then maybe also have a player that can play things like X264 yes then we might be talking about a player from LG Or maybe Panasonic. Although Philips also certainly make such. but Panasonic players can also play Hi-res audio
Another wonderful compact disc player was Pioneer PD-91.
Thanks
I'm 29 Years Old as well, and I try buy all kind of support (except dematerialized obviously), I bought my first CD in 2003 (I was 10), and never stopped since. I now own a Technics SL-P550, damn good for the price I paid it (70€ looking perfect with Owner's Manual and Remote included.), though DACs (it's a 2DACs, 18 bits, 4 Times Oversampling system) are a bit soft, and lack a bit of clarity against my studio grade AD/DA.
For me, the Rolls-Royce of all CD Players is the TEAC VRDS-25, which weights 17kg, I'd love to hear and own one one day, try their 4 DACs, how they compare against studio-grade DACs (like RME/Merging), but their Vibration free Rigid Disc-clamping System is a masterpiece of engineering, though a bit complicated to service, but do-able.
Thanks for your comment Thomas
People used to get told off at Sony for pronouncing it as "Sonny". They were a bit prickly about it, still are. 😛 I just used to keep my head down and ask odd technical questions, which they rather liked, because everyone else was too afraid. Happy days.
Hi, thanks for your comment. Were you based in the US, by any chance? When I did my research, it seemed that the way I pronounced it (how UK people pronounced it in the 1970’s) was once considered correct. And in fact still today in almost the same way in Japan
@@PearlAcoustics Hi, I'm in the UK, but training was both here and in Japan, with a mixture of tech's coming over here and us over to them. 80's through to the late 90's. They would say it something like "Sow-nee" Not as bad as the Matsushita high up's, if you didn't pronounce "Technics" as "Tek-Niks" and said "Techniques" you got a slap round the head. 😁 People in the UK pronounced Sony badly because they knew it wound wind them up, there was still a lot of bad feelings back then, and I guess it stuck.
@@AstonsVintageTechnologyWorkshp thanks so much for your sharing your extremely interesting experience. What days they must have been! 😀
Extremely gud information about CD players kudos to u from India 🇮🇳
Thanks!
I enjoyed hearing about the Phillips Sony dual involvement.. I enjoyed a relaxed presentation..very easy to listen to.
I even enjoyed the inclusion big a late model Phillips. Dad had Phillips tuner amp and teac tape deck.
But I was rather surprised that you missed the range of poineer multiplay cd players specifically the pd-m900 reference series..but any of the PDM would be sufficient. The 1 bit serial pdm-550 for example would simulate a much higher oversampling. Anyway I do enjoy your relaxed approach but I think your list is less classic and more obscure because I hadn't heard of any of the cd player models you mentioned. I really like that you are willing to compare a cheap unit with a 38000 dollar unit.
Did you know that there is no standard for what constitutes audiophile quality?
So I'll take a look at your next part of this session if I can find it..
Hi. Thanks for your input. Indeed there are so many cd players, it was very difficult to choose. Pt.2 will come out in a couple of weeks.
Still use my Cambridge Audio CD3 daily.
Interesting introduction of CD players from the 80s to now... Would like hear your review on Shanling ET3 if possible.
Hi, thanks for your kind appreciation. I am very keen to hear the Shanling too!
Just upgraded my CD from a Arcam CD72 to a New Marantz CD6007..very impressed with sound quality. Worth considering for new against old..Thanks for the content.
Thanks Darren
The original Rega Planet had a manual loading mechanism. You lifted the top up and slightly back to get to your CD and lowered it back down again.
The original Rega Planet is actually mostly a Sony, with a Burr Brown DAC on the very end. The optical pickup is a $20 Sony KSS-210A. I have one. It's a very repairable unit. It's a cheap player, electronically, but very clever. Love the unusual look of it, which is why I bought it for $40 at the time and repaired it.
The OPPO blu ray players (now discontinued) are considered excellent audiophile machines to play cds
Was a little surprised to see that all the best Wadia, Audio Aero, Resolution Audio, Linn, Esoteric and Sony machines were skipped over. These were some of the most lusted after players made during the last 20 to 30 years and a few of them moved the bar more than several of the players that were listed.
Hi, please feel free to list the ones you are thinking of and share your thoughts on what made them extra special.
Great video. Only thing I think not mentioned (forgive me if it was), was Beethoven's involvement in the decision for the data capacity of CD's - 74 minutes to fit his 5th symphony. Perhaps nod to SPDIF, Arcam, players and Black Box, Deltec
Hi, thanks for your kind appreciation. indeed… I mention the link to his 9th. Symphony, somewhere in the series… because that was the problem, at the time.
I remember the Sony CDP-101 when it came out. It was $1500 and I thought it was cool and had a nice remote but it sounded like an AM radio. No highs and no lows. I figured they would eventually get better. My first CD player was a refurbished Sanyo CP300. It had good dynamics but not much else that I remember. It lasted 3 months and then the laser went. Then I bought a Magnavox 1041 I think it was but I bought it because it was the player all the audio companies were buying and modifying so I modified it myself. It was a 14 bit player. Guess what, I am still using it today because I have yet to hear anything much better. I also have a bunch of Philips made 16 bit players that don't sound as good. I should say though that I have given up on CD sound and now use a LINN LP12.
Thanks Anders
Great idea. Like Vinyl yesterday - people today say, CD is dead. I don't think so. Nowadays you can get one CD at used market for 1 Euro. I don't discuss advantages/disadvantages of CD again. I like CD.
To your question: there is another Yamaha Player of 1990, which sounds very warm and smooth like Vinyl. It's the CDPX 1030 for 1500 at this time. I have one retreaded. I love it's melty sound. So this is - up today - my best CD Player.
Thanks!
I really enjoyed this, as did the turntable three-part series you did
I can’t believe you left out my first CD player, the Revox B225.
You can definitely see the late 80s DP 57L turntable heritage in the Denon DP-S1
The Revox was a lovely player! I thought about including it, but had too many options
I was at an hifi show at a hotel at Manchester Airport for the launch of the Philips machine, after the demonstration a very excited Philips rep asked me what I thought of the sound, not great I said, it just was not musical, I don't think he was best pleased. I also bought the Sony CDP 101 on release, another big mistake, I just could not live with the sound and sold it after about 6 months not returning to CD until the mid 90s, now have a Arcam FMJ CD17 and absolutely love it
Thanks, a very interesting comment
I'm looking forward to the next installements. Shame there is no mention of any KI Marantz players.
Next one’s coming in a couple of weeks….
I had a few CD Players started in 1986 with Hitachi, followed by one of the Sony Players, change to Technics after that had an Esoteric Transport, switched to Denon, followed by Marantz, and finally by NAD.
Quite a journey!
Fantastic talk, thank you!
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it
You missed the Denon DCD-1700 from around 1989. This was very highly regarded indeed. Possibly the first 4x oversampling player ?
Indeed
No Marantz CD-63 KI Signature? This was the daddy in the late 90's, it took on all comers and beat most.
Thanks for the tip
I started working in a stereo store in 1981 , the CDP-101 came out just before Christmas and retailed for $995.00 .
Wow, that was an expensive piece of kit
Today's Sony Walkman. doesn't play CDs, but things like hires files, for example. And apart from the very cheapest models, they are Android-based and you probably also have cassette tape animation on the screen. . There are also models with Wi-Fi and balanced output for native DSD
Please do not mislead people, oversampling is done purely for sampling noise filtering and has absolutely nothing to do with number of bits. It is hard to filter sampling noise at 44kHz when you need to play sound at 22kHz, normal 1st order filter will only get you -3dB at 44kHz (because it does -3db per octave and you need to be able to produce full sound at 22khz), but when you do oversampling you move digital noise frequency away to 88khz or to 172khz which is very far from 22khz so normal first ored filter will do the job just fine then. Oversampling is done in a separate chip, not in a DAC itself. Design-wise TDA1540 (14 bit dac) and TDA1541 (16 bit dac) are very similar, with the later one just having 2 extra bits. BTW TDA1540 being 14 bit sounds very good even compared to modern 1 bit dacs, which makes you think if 24bit is really a marketing snake oil.
Philips had envisaged CD as a 14-bit EFM format, and speaking and co-developing with Sony, it was upgraded to 16-bit PCM.
Indeed David.
Good view, but I would have included the Arcam Alpha, to these ears the first digital source at real world prices to match my TT for musicality.
Thanks for your appreciation. And thanks for the tip re your Arcam, I need to check it out.
Of course my own long term fix is a Naim CDS3/555, I fear the laser failing and it ending up in landfill.
@@200Strat that would be a very big shame!
i sold all mine except for the Mofi's and the DCC;s, looking for a good transport now.
Harley - great & interesting presentation - thank you! If you ever have a chance, I would like to hear your review & opinion of the Yamaha CDX1100U (1987).
"The Yamaha CDX-1100 is the first player to achieve the performance of 18-bit digital decoding from a 16-bit digital-to-analog (d/a) converter."
"The CDX-1100 uses 18-bit quadruple-oversampling digital filters for each channel"
I've owned one since they first came out and believe I'll never need another. They seem to be highly valued by others (?) because I sometimes see them listed on EBAY in the $1,800 - $2,000 USD price range
Hi Jim, thanks for your kind remarks. It seems you have a wonderful machine there. Would love to hear one, one day.
I'm surprised you did not include a Marantz CD-67 SE or a CD-63 KIS.
Either one would make for a hilarious blind test experience.
Hi Milt, thanks for your comment perhaps you can expand a little on your statement? How so hilarious?
@@PearlAcoustics Glad to!
We once performed a blind comparison test of a freshly bought Marantz CD-67 SE against a Theta transport and its DAC with Conrad-Johnson pre and power amps on a pair of Analysis Omega planar speakers. The test included Vocals, jazz, classical music and wind instruments.
As it turned out, all four listeners, including the owner of the aforementioned system, preferred the warm sound and the rich low end of the Marantz its overall musicality and its extended sound stage over the Theta. I took a very demanding symphonic piece for the Theta to finally stand out.
Needless to say that there was plenty of laughter, teasing and a long discussion over what consists value for money and a pleasant listening experience.
@@miltfrangos5997 😀👍
Akai CDA7 (1985) is the best I've ever heard, don't know exactly why...
I love how you don't focus entirely on high end electronics. It's not the whole story and there are music fans of all budgets. I'm a huge fan of finding gems amongst more inexpensive items.
Thanks. I couldn’t agree more. More expensive does not always mean better.
Two notes:
1. The Philips CD player was not called Pinkletje, but Pinkeltje. Named after a character from a Dutch children's story.
2. Today, Philips only produces medical instruments. The modern DVD player only uses the Philips brand name.
Hi thanks for your comment. Indeed, I hadn’t seen the typo error. (I speak Dutch so I know how it should be spelt, but thanks for the correction). And indeed, Philips is only a brand name today.
Only just found your channel but really enjoying the content and your presentation. You’re clearly a fan of Rega products but I haven’t yet heard you mention Naim Audio. The have a real following, almost cultish at times! What is your opinion of their products? Or is that something you wouldn’t broadcast 😂
Hi, so glad you are enjoying my videos. Naim is a really top class HiFi brand, the only reason I have not covered them yet, is for some reason I have not ever got around to purchasing any of their gear. I know some of our clients have Naim amplification. Maybe they’ll reach out to me one day! 😉
Really interesting as always Harley - many thanks :-) By the way, what is the piano music that you use on your videos?
Thanks Neil. Very kind. The piano music is ‘Philia’ performed by my good friend Stefan Maylaers. It’s on Spotify and also on the album ‘Thinkin about Belgium’.
meridian. mark levinson. wadia. krell. cec. linn. accuphase. esoteric. spectral. i guess i'm living in an alternate universe.
Hi Auggy, I do mention Esoteric, but I was focusing on trying to get a balance between’High-end’ and affordable. And also on those who drove the development process. All the makes you mention are outstanding HiFi manufactures, and especially if it were on amplifiers, I would have to include all of them I guess! 😉
I think you could have included a Marantz KI signature,the Naim CDX model & any of the Audionote UK CD players.Otherwise this is a great overview.
Thanks. Indeed there were so many excluded.
I have a sony x555es & its great
Nice
fantastic video, fantastic
Many thanks!
@@PearlAcoustics Never thought about improving the channel picture?
I’d these players all the same when using a separate DAC, I’m wondering if digital music streamers would all the same when using an external DAC, too.
Interesting point. I am guessing they would. Might be worth a try with my team…
Marantz and Phillips of that era had exactly the same CD players, even down to the same board numbers. It is far stretch to say "they had interchangeable parts" because they were exactly the same inside, the difference was in the cosmetics. No, later marantz and phillips all used TDA1541 and TDA1541A meaning they were all 16 bit dacs. SOny continued to use Phillips TDA1541A because they were very good but used own transport and control chips.
Hi thanks for your comment. And for your clarification. All I can say is I was briefed by by one of the senior engineers working for Philips in Hasselt, Belgium during the development of the machines in question. I also used as my reference websites like Dutchaudioclassics. Maybe this helps?
You missed the classic Marantz CD-67SE and the upcoming Schiit Urd.
I suppose the Technics SL-P1200 would have been an interesting one to include as I believe radio stations including the BBC, I think, used one for music playback.
That’s absolutely possible. Maybe someone will verify that?
Yep, they were used and abused by the radio stations. Good decks but the lasers were/are horribly expensive. Pain in the bum to repair too.
Your selection is really fine, but there is one specific design you missed but worth to mention. Stable platter mechanism in Pioneer's. As a variety how engineers tried to fight with vibrations of the disk and, well, actually Pioneer's PD-95 is a desirable device.
Thanks, great input.
Put me down for the Discman for the WIN!..
😀
Pt2,is out now, so you can see how it gets on!
You left out the Pioneers with the stable platter mechanism. I had one, it just didnt skip even with scratched cds. The ones with digital outputs still are good cd transports. I still have my Sony X7, it has been repaired three times but it isnt going anywhere.
Indeed, Pioneer was an oversight
I play with an Aya5 16 bit ladderdac with the Philips 1541 TDA dac chip How it is implemented here the dac itself is pretty special ! I have played with Saber dac for years, my current 16 bit is no better, but oooh, it still performs beautifully …. I'm done with the Philips 1541
Philips made a "discman" in the late 80's that looked beautiful as it was made by Bang & Olufsen. At that time B&O was taken over by Philips.
Interesting
I buy on average about 150 CD's each year...increasing as they are cheaper than before.
Absolutely
i'd add the Studer D730
Very nice machine and beautifully designed and constructed
When is Part 2 coming?
In a couple of weeks
The Philips CD100 or CD300 were the early kings, not Sony. Four times oversampling and 14bit DAC, and unbeliavbly powerful and to the point sound.
Not only that, the Philips variants used a single laser tracker, the Japs needed three beams to sort out what was going on.. ;-) NE5532 chips..
My CD300 works today, its an iconic heavy machine thats very fun to listen to
Pioneer CD turntable? load with CD label side down. And their controversial Legato Link (oversampling)? The mid 90s Sony with their fixed lens mechanism was technologically interesting too.
Indeed, indeed. Isn’t it fascinating how manufacturers look for creative ways to improve new technology.
The CD was invented so that Tomorrows World presenters would have somewhere to put their strawberry jam...
A little more explanation might be necessary here 😉?
@@PearlAcoustics The BBC's technology program - Tomorrows World - introduced the CD in around 1980 - there's an urban legend that during the segment the presenter Maggie Philbin is supposed to have spread jam on a CD, cleaned it off and then played it. To demonstrate it's resilience as a medium - or maybe it's unsuitability as a snack ? 😀
It doesn't seem to have happened, but ask anyone of a certain age if they saw it, and most of them will say yes...
@@colderwar Thanks - that sounds very much like the BBC! Shame there’s no footage of it 😀👍
Pinkeltje not Pinkletje
Was a dwarf karakter in dutch children books (29 ! by Dick Laan.)
Thanks Karel, I will have to read it one day 😀!
Being a teenager in the 1970's, LP's were the best sound you could buy (next to Reel to Reel). And had my share of 8 Track. But, when CD players came out around 1985 (reasonable price) I was Sold. Owned about 300 LP's and gave away in early 1990's, no regrets, no more distortion. My experience with LP's, Columbia and Atlantic were not bad, Warner Bros was horrible, usually 10 or so plays and just went to hell with sound quality. So now have over 300 CD's and 5 Pioneer and 1 Luxman CD Player.
Thanks for your comment
Where's the sony playstation 1?
Indeed, I didn’t mention it and chose the Sony discman portable instead! Indeed, perhaps that was an oversight
Playstations have been the cornerstone of all the great disk format wars
One of my instructors in grad school James Russell was the inventor of the triple interweave process used on CDs for its error correction system. SONY is correct. They wanted to make sure that the CD could fit Beethoven's 9th without having to change CDs. That's where the capacity of a CD came from, Beethoven.
Thanks for your comment. Agreed. However, I believe it was the Philips team that determined the capacity of the CD itself. This was back in the mid 1970’s.
@@PearlAcoustics this is where I will repectfully disagree. It was sony, as the 9th is something of an obsession with the Japanese. This per my professor.
@@kevinfestner6126 Hi Kevin. I am sure he’s correct. However, Philips invented the CD (including its specifications) before Sony ever heard of it. But it’s not an issue - the important thing is that Beethoven 9 fits on it! 😉 Enjoy the music
Maybe sort of... "The original target storage capacity for a CD was one hour of audio content, and a disc diameter of 115 mm was sufficient. However, according to Philips, Sony vice-president Norio Ohga suggested extending the capacity to 74 minutes to accommodate a complete performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony on a single disc , however Kees Immink of Philips denies this. The extra playing time subsequently required the change to a 12 cm disc.
According to a Sunday Tribune interview the story is slightly more involved. At that time (1979) Philips owned Polygram, one of the world’s largest distributors of music. Polygram had set up a large experimental CD disc plant in Hanover, Germany, which could produce huge amounts of CDs having, of course, a diameter of 11.5cm. Sony did not yet have such a facility. If Sony had agreed on the 11.5cm disc, Philips would have had a significant competitive edge in the market. Sony was aware of that, did not like it, and something had to be done. The long-playing time of Beethoven's Ninth imposed by Ohga was used to push Philips to accept 12cm, so that Philips’ Polygram lost its edge on disc fabrication."
So maybe just an excuse on Sony's part if the above is true
@@pc750-V4 James Russel, who taught one of my grad school courses stated that when Sony was designing the Walkman, one VP came in with a block of wood, and said, this is the size it will be, no larger, no smaller. When Russel worked with Sony on the error correction of the cd, the parameter was, it must fit Beethoven's 9th. Russel stated this is how sony designed, based on one goal parameter. Probably why the L cassette failed. Sony had some major flops, as well, like Beta vs VHS.
Lon Neuman, an engineer for Sony who was responsible for some of the early use of Sony digital equipment in the entertainment business, esp at Warner Bros, confirms the cd we have today was from Sony's development and not Phillips. In fact Sony built for Warners in Burbank a complete sound studio. In it's day, it was the state if the art. I was in it many times, and it was wowing. I did note that one of the mix down speakers were not JBL, but locally made RSL 3800s.
I was in a Sony built cd disc mastering studio in Pasadena used for demonstration purposes. Sony wanted to be the go to standard. They used a digital beta machine as part of the process. I took humor in that.
In the early days of digital, Sony was very aggressive in getting its foot in the door in the entertainment industry. It had it's own office of engineers in an office building in Burbank, at the time, in the same area where Warners, Universal, Disney, NBC, ABC, and the famous Burbank Studios are.
Sony, no baloney 😂 . When I think back to those days, L.A. was a dynamo. Now look at it. This is why I'm in Las Vegas, where we're trying to build an entertainment biz here, and we've made some progress.
I was 29 years old in 1995 when my parents were thoughtful enough to buy me my first CD player! I was buying mostly cassettes at the time. I never purchased another cassette again. I still buy an occasional record, but I still buy about 25 to 30 CDs every year. I think it's a truly great invention. Physical music media forever.
I buy that amount monthly!
@@scottchegg1209 Big deal. I buy that many every week!!
I wasn't implying that I spend tons of money...
@@ericjensen9091 I wasn't implying that either
@@rockmusicvideoreviewer896 ok
This is fantastic, cannot wait for part 2. I’ve loved cd’s ever since my first player in 1990. You have the best audio channel on RUclips.
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks!
Get a grip don
If you bit technological it would be best chanell
CD: the greatest physical format of all time.
Absolutely
I think it is important to have physical media, for two reasons, one: to be able to hold and read along to what the artist is projecting(and for the art), and two: if we have back-up power, we will need music to make it through the coming apocalypse. This is a GREAT experiment! I wish I'd thought of it.
Thanks
@TheCharlesAtoz: My problem is my “dumbness” at streaming. In many cases, 💿 CDs is much easier for me than streaming reliably.
I have no more room for CDs, so I've gone over to the dark side, uncompressed streaming. I use Amazon Music Unlimited, Echo Link player & a Fire tablet (for control) & have enjoyed hundreds of 'new' albums in the last few months. I have filled in the 'holes' in my classical & jazz back catalogs. I use YT channels for new release influences. I do miss liner notes but something had to give.
I use roon with qobuz into a blue sound node 3 into an external dac, sounds fantastic. I use a cd transport and also a turntable. The streaming absolutely wins hands down.
Extremely gud information about CD players kudos to u from India 🇮🇳
Good informative video. I've always liked CDs for three main reasons. No contact playback, small size versus playing time and virtually NO noise, no wow, no flutter on playback. I've had a Technics player since 1990, no repairs, gets played at least 15 hours each week, still sounds great to my old ears.
Thanks, much appreciated. Thanks for your comment too.
At the beginning of the 1990s, there could be big sound improvements in just two years. A Denon 1992 sounded significantly better than a Denon from 1990 and then we are talking in the budget class Type corresponding today to 200 to 250 €. note at the time Denon won CD tests. The fight was well between Pioneer and Denon
Though i am a fan and have DENONs from that golden era of the hifi industry i must confess that the fight for the leadership was not only between Pioneer and DENON. Sony, Marantz , Yamaha and some other companies also had excellent models.
But noise and flutter are good things and is gave Analog the warm and imperfect sound.
rega ear 1 sounds very? decent to me büt thöse p€$keyy nön ´cööl devveiß? plückce v v
rega cdp knobs look designey büt hal to oper8 a device ? sonys are so pretty and i love when you can do everything on the device
instead öf an art piece that isnt even (Föölleyy) 5kD?? in some rentat holiday flat i think was a tv with such tiny buttons ´rc´ -.-
´GiF blööD?? whats nice except the rega cdp enterpri$€ ´Löök??? burmester ör ecöm-nör are light ahäeD vv szellF view närmöhR€D jaja germs nö XxD
What an amazing journey down memory lane! I loved how you spanned the entire history and went into the design as well as sound quality. Great job!
Thank you so much!
What an interesting video. Can't wait for part two. I'm from the Netherlands and a vintage Philips audio lover. In the 80's and 90's they made their best audio products in collaboration with Marantz en Grundig.
Thanks
@rogervd666gamer. Greetings from the U.K. I still have my Philips CD650 which I bought new in 1986. As a vintage Philips audio lover, you will know all of the technical innovations and features of this CD player. Last year, I took the player out of storage and sent it to a specialist in Israel who completely overhauled and updated the machine ( including the addition of a FEMTO clock system). It sounds absolutely fantastic and I measure the sound performance of all other CD players against my Philips CD650. Is there a comparable Marantz CD player from that time? You and yours stay safe and well.
@@markmiwurdz202 Oh, that's also a nice vintage Philips CD Player. At the moment I use the Philips fa890 amplifier, cd850 cd player and the fb821 speakers. I like that u use this old Philips CD Player, the most people throw them away. If you give the player sometimes some love it will play almost forever, the old Philips magnetic swing arm drives are not fancy but they last many many years.
@@artisans8521 oh, that's a shame. Do you already know what's wrong with it. Most of the time it's a bad elco or cold solder joints. This can be fixed for almost nothing.
I bought the first Sony as a package system as soon as it first came out and it still plays as good as the day I first had it. The touch buttons on the front needed to be modified when I had it serviced two years ago. The CD drawer seized but now is as good as new. It still produces a great sound. Built like a tank. The drawer glides out with no shudder like cheaper brands.
My first CD player was a Philips player, can’t remember the model except it was a front loader and had battleship build, even the CD draw was all metal construction. Be about 1986 or 1987.
I also purchased a Philips model around 1987. The big attraction for me was the remote control and variable outs that I used to go directly to a Kenwood power amp. Heaven!
Yep! $100 at Adray's for the Magnavox badged version, built by Phillips in the Netherlands. About 20+ lbs, all metal. Still have two of them!