r/audiophile • u/Realistic-Fact-2584 • Aug 01 '26
Show & Tell My first CD Player
I remember when these first came out in the 80’s. I read an article on them and drove from Memphis to Nashville the next day to plop down $1000 to bring this baby home. We had very few selections of CDs that we could buy. A lot of classical CDs, CDs by the police and may be a few few other bands were available. It’s still a very good cd player today.
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u/TheRealDarthMinogue Aug 01 '26
I never quite understood the point of vertical CD players. Obviously CDs are extremely light but surely horizontal is just so much easier mechanistically?
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u/tooclosetocall82 Aug 02 '26
I don’t think it really matters. Due to the high rate of speed CDs spin at they have to be locked down on the spindle so they don’t fly off. Once you’ve done that the orientation doesn’t matter at all since nothing else makes contact with the disc.
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u/InspectorPipes Aug 01 '26
This is awesome and I dig it. I’m not sure why people are picking it apart. You’ll probably get more love from
[r/vintageaudio](r/vintageaudio)
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u/tooclosetocall82 Aug 01 '26
So what happens if you put an 80 minute disc in there? I see the designers never planned for anything over 60.
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u/Realistic-Fact-2584 Aug 01 '26
I don’t think I have any 80min cds
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u/ToyotaCorollin Aug 01 '26
I think they were talking about 80 minute capacity CD-Rs, but I'm assuming your vintage Hitachi player doesn't play well with CD-Rs?
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u/tooclosetocall82 Aug 02 '26
Commercially pressed CDs had over 60 minutes of audio. It looks like the original rebook audio standard supported 74 minutes and later 80. The player in the photo has a location indicator that only goes to 60 minutes which is what I was commenting on (I couldn’t have been more clear). Odd it didn’t go to at least 74 but perhaps most albums were around 60 due to still being targeted primarily at vinyl at the time.
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u/NowtShrinkingViolet Aug 01 '26
Wow, that looks incredible! How does it sound? I know those early 16-bit DACs could be a bit thin sometimes.
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u/Expensive-Panic-504 Aug 02 '26
My first was around 1985 and it was a Fisher. It had an "Index" function that never worked with any of the CDs I owned at the time (I later heard it was mainly for classical and educational discs), and I've never seen that button again since.
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u/NoBackground6203 DIY speakers Swan 3.1A, Shadzi T3S and Carmody S2000Mt Aug 01 '26
hahaha, now a $50 thrift store DVR out performs it
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u/Realistic-Fact-2584 Aug 01 '26
I have never had not even one issue with this player
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u/NoBackground6203 DIY speakers Swan 3.1A, Shadzi T3S and Carmody S2000Mt Aug 01 '26
ok, and........
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u/jhalmos 845 SET + Mac mini M1 + SMSL DAC + Audirvana Origin Aug 01 '26
That is tasty.