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PaulParrot's first CD player


Parrot

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This one that sold on eBay isn't mine, but it's the same model. I got mine in 1984 for $299 on a close-out special and it came with a coupon for 10 FREE CDs of my choice. This was still back in the first-generation, high-dollar CD player era, when $1000 was a fairly normal price. That was an excellent machine, worked well for 6 or 7 years and then it started acting up. Sounded one heckuva lot better than the Sony units of the time.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3272&item=3858955016&rd=1

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Here are a couple of old snaps from 1987, shortly after I purchased my Khorns. In the first one you can see the Magnavox CD player on the first shelf down. Two shelves down from it is my old EICO HFT-90 mono FM tuner. The EICO HF-12 was elsewhere in the room. The TV resided there for about a day.

mageico.jpg

Here is a bad photograph of three of my reel-to-reel decks. From left to right a Revox A77 half track, a Revox A77 quarter track, and a Crown 880 quarter track. The cactus is partially obscuring the right Khorn. I think my entire CD collection at the time was on those bottom two shelves!

crownetc.jpg

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Marantz, from the best of my recollection, also did a model based on this same chassis. Later Meridian released a version in overseas markets. It featured 14 bit 4 times over sampling processor. I was too slow and missed the first model. But I purchased the model after that, being a gold coloured Marantz CD12 (I think that's the model number - I gave it to my mother and it's now boxed up somewhere in my mess). Surprisingly good sound from 14 bits. Construction quality leaves the current crop of competitors well behind.

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Here is an example of MY first CD player. I bought it about 1992 or so. I finally had to buy one of these damn things because just about any new music I wanted to hear was available only on CD. I still have it--it's part of my garage system and it's still going strong--built like a TANK!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3272&item=3860162968&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

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I bought a portable Sony D4 back in '87.

I was sick of cassette eating car decks, and I didn't want to pay the price for a decent deck.

Soon found out line-out wasn't enough gain for car amps, volume out wasn't much better.

We took one of those little powered pair of speakers for a Discman, trashed the speakers, and used it for a pre-amp for the little D4 Sony in the car/van.

I had a '66 Econoline van that had a pair of 12" Kickers in some old Fisher cabinets, some magnavox squawkers, radial domes, 6x9's, a couple of amps....a rolling PA speaker. Poor man's stereo.

It was the Tinnitus wagon, but when you rolled into a keg by the river and threw the doors open and got away from the van 50, 100 feet, it didn't sound bad.

Once somebody in a Jeep cut myself off rather bad in traffic. The Discman sat on the doghouse on a pillow.

I slammed the brakes hard enough to just SLAM the little Sony on the floorboard hard. I thought it was shattered, It retracked and started playing again.

(Any new one would have been smashed into pieces.)

Of course, I could buy 5 or 6 portables for what I paid for it nowdays.

Vintage CD players.....too bad they didn't have little odometers, or hour meters....

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On 12/18/2004 8:25:51 AM scott0527 wrote:

Paul, your decor has come a long way since early 80's! Thanks for the old pics.

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You're welcome. That was a basement apartment I lived in a while, complete with $3-a-sheet paneling. The square footage in there was great although it needed a higher ceiling. I'm glad I had tip-toes on the bottoms of my Khorns because there was one time after a heavy storm when the edges of the place had a quarter-inch or so of water. Tip-toes saved the day.

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On 12/18/2004 1:49:17 AM mike stehr wrote:

I always wanted the D-555....I liked the DSP option.

I think they were around $500 new back then?

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thereabouts, saw a reference of $499.99 retail, seem to recall getting mine for closer to $400.. Musical little player, including a write-up on portables that Steve Rochlin published last year.

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