Magnavox FD3040 CD Player and What Exactly Is a "First Generation" CD Player?

I don't spout BS, I told you what I bought. I don't know exactly when it went into production and when it ended. SORRY to disappoint you in your quest for ultimate answers.

I never said I OWNED an FD1000, just that it was the 1st generation player produced by Magnavox (in 1982, according to the French site). Your use of quotes seems rather snarky to me. I don't "think" I owned anything, I OWNED an FD-3030, which was clearly stated.

Yes, I was annoyed by your (to me) snarky response, and replied with a snarky comment. Your latest post goes even further, which is unnecessary.

 

A "douche" ... really? You call someone this who is really trying to answer your questions? What's a "pop phrase" anyway? I honestly don't know what you're referring to here. Sorry if I'm not up on all the latest "pop lingo". And yes, I was being a bit sarcastic by saying 'big whoop' about the fact that I couldn't remember exactly when I bought the thing and how much I paid for it, or whether it was on closeout, sale, or regular price. I was being sarcastic because it seemed you expected me to have been totally accurate on small details of a transaction made 30 years ago.

Didn't seem all that polite to me. Hard to "read" intent in postings, maybe we can agree on that.

I believe you misread things that I posted, and was attempting to clarify them for you.

I don't think my comments are "noise" and if they are to you, don't bother responding. You're not paying me to research your questions, so you can't expect too much. Do you think your characterization of my comments as "vague memories of anecdotal bull ****" (and asking if I'm "trying to be a douche") is not overly insulting? I certainly do.

 

As for my question or any other, that is all you need to say when you don't know the answer.

 

Just refraining from posting irrelevant noise to the thread/original question would be more than enough to exceed any of my expectations

 

don't worry, I won't ever bother to post responses to any more of your blather ... good bye and good riddance.

 

Sounds good, thank you.

 

This term is used everyday, everywhere but I cannot find an accurate definition.

Here's hopin'!

Thank you!

 

Sorry it took me a while to get back; I think the mods were about $1100 in early-90s dollars. (That was about twice the cost of the stock player IIRC.) The rebuild was substantial:
- new chipset based around the TDA-1541/S1 "Crown" DAC
- new power supplies for analog and digital sides
- metal panel with vibration dampening for bottom of chassis
- metal rear panel with new RCA jacks
- vibration dampening at various points inside the chassis
- a number of circuit board components were replaced

Google "euphonic technology cd player" for more info. It was a fine sounding player that I might still be using today if I'd not lent it to a family member and never gotten it back!

 

Nice old thread to jump in on as I finally found one.

I purchased a Magnavox FD 3041 a few weeks back at a Catholic charity store/shelter. I finally got around to taking it apart to clean and then test. It had never been opened and the inside had a light layer of dust on it, but nowhere near the drawer. Solder joints were beautifully made 32 years ago and all the screw were perfect. The chassis is a mixture of plastic and metal with a heatsink as its ****.

I finally decided to see how it sounded and hooked it up to my DIY system and set Pink Floyd "Animals" 28DP 5006 JPN in the tray and I was surprised at the quality as Pigs Pt. 1 started up--the beginning can go unnoticed on 75% of setups. I knew it was supposed to be decent sounding machine, and I've not listened with purpose to any new CD specific machines since my old Meridian kicked it. I kept it spinning and processing the 1's and 0's for Dogs while I went into my kitchen to pack the remaining Durban Poison I set aside, just for these occasions. I also figured a 2 finger glass of Richter's US1 would layer nicely on a couple hits of Durban. I walked back into my office as the sound stage started fading. Hit pause, tossed back my glass of rye, inhaled my second hit Durban's best strain of pot, and faded the lights low. Listening to the 32 year old machine churn binaries into dual fluid and warm analog noize was similar to when I first listened to Floyd's UHQR pressing of DSOTM on my newly acquired P3. Fell asleep during Pigs Pt2 as Roger reminded me that all forms of society are relative as long as there will be one person power hungry enough to control others. I tried to repeat the former listening session, but the wife kept telling me to turn it down, and the daughter came in crying because Dippy had chewed up another set of headphones I gave her. Anyway, *cough* I agree with you guys. Great machine to keep an eye out for. I paid $3.22 for it and had it been $20 I would of paid it. But I never wanted to buy online because it isn't as satisfying as finding one that looks and works like I bought it in '86.

I don't know if there's a history about Phillips and Sony competing for market share on players back in the day? Not even sure if they did compete? Philips, in my opinion, had the best part of the Compact Disc platform in selling TDA1541 DACs, drawers, and lasers to the high end audio companies. I don't recall Sony offering guts or whole machines to relabel? I need to re-read that book Perfect Sound Forever again. Not even sure what class of audio manufacturer Magnavox was considered in the early 80's, but had they stayed the course of the digital evolution they could of just kept rebadging Philips, hired a decent marketing director and graphic team and easily moved into a slot near Pioneer or Sony.

 

Start here: The History of the Magnavox Corporation »

I think it's fair to say the brand at that time was all but forgotten in audio circles. I remember thinking it unusual that Philips would bring it back for their new technology in the US. I'd have been happier had my CDB650 said "Philips" on the front panel as would later models from the company. It was a very good player, though.

 

Magnavox in the 1980's was part of NAP, (North American Philips). They had been acquired by Philips in the early 1970's.
Philips could not use their own brand name for many years because of the old Philco Corporation blocking it. They used Norelco instead.

With their acquisition of Sylvania GTE in the late 1970's they brought the old Philco brand name into the fold.

They could have started using their own Philips branding on the new CD players in 1983 but decided on Magnavox instead. Perhaps to favor the old Magnavox Console dealership still in place. And a lot of folks didn't even know Magnavox was Philips, who had co-developed the Compact Disc with Sony. Bad marketing for sure.

 

Great info. Thanks guys. Sounds like it was really Philips being the one to steer their CD player market share down the drain. Not that it matters now, and Philips has many tentacles around the world.

I take it Philips created their own DAC chip and Sony their own? Interesting to note that Schiit has brought back the multi-bit DAC (TDA 1541 was multi) with their BiFrost upgrade. It's brilliant in my opinion because it's a quantifible sound anyone can notice. Not just someone who knows how to listen well.

 

Philips consumer electronics business as a whole wasn't run as good as Sony's unfortunately. Philips was a Tour De Force in engineering though, and they had many firsts, among those the first consumer monolithic DAC chip, the TDA1540D which was at least 2 years ahead of anyone, including Sony. Granted it was only 14 bit, but most other manufacturers were still struggling to get all the circuitry crammed into a single chip. A fact that delayed the CD launch for at least a year. Philips had their player ready by 1981. Sony was still trying to get their multiplexed 16 bit DAC out the door.

The beauty of the Philips approach was the early use of 4 times oversampling digital filter and noise shaping, giving the TDA1540D, an effective 16 bit resolution. And the gentle analog filter used afterwards allowed for less phase shift in the audible range. Sony's chip was shared between channels, causing a slight delay, and used horrible Chebyshev brickwall filters.

The Philips swing arm CDM-0 transport was also groundbreaking. Very expensive to manufacture using a die cast chassis and virtually indestructible.

So the better player was definitely the Philips one. But Sony outsold them with their brilliant marketing and things like infrared remote control and the impressive (for the time), tray loading mechanism.

I used to favor multibit based DACs. I like the warm sound the old TDA1540D DACs with ceramic packages impart to the sound of my Marantz CD63 (Philips CD100 clone).
But I think it all comes down on the design of the chip itself and the implementation.

I believe Schiit uses an industrial multibit DAC, originally not designed for audio. Most, if not all, multibit audio DAC chips are no longer produced. A standard ladder multibit DAC cannot do high resolution PCM or DSD, which are musts in my book.

The Sabre range of DAC chips, which are Delta Sigma are very musical, IMO. I use a Resonessence Labs Concero HD DAC using the ESS9018-2M and I can say it's some of the best digital I've heard, specially with DSD based material. Ironic, in this age of vinyl renaissance. Digital sounds better than ever!

 

I'd almost forgotten there were Sylvania-branded CD players in the US. IIRC the first one was almost the exact same as this original Magnavox:

 

They must be a rarity! If you have a picture, post it here!

 

Here is a picture of my Marantz CD-63 that I purchased last year. The pale gold finish goes perfectly with my tubed Marantz components...

 

Gorgeous. The top loading CD players were the most optimal for the consumers. But not for the distributors due to shipping, for more reasons than size, IMO.

How did you find it?

 

I found mine in the UK. Had it shipped over the pond. Easy to convert to 120V, but it requires some soldering.
I agree on the top loaders, I think the market wasn't ready for them. They required to be placed on the top shelf, which proved not practical. The design is gorgeous though...

 

A lot of those old top of the line mainstream brand manufactures CD players from back then still sound pretty good today and my guess is many are still working. They were built like a tank.

There biggest problem was they were rather sensitive to skipping when jarred compared to modern players.


I still have my Sansui CD-X711 from 1991.

Was a floor demo I got for $275 back in 1992, MSRP was $1100.
I use it in my office system, and it sounds very good compared to some of my more modern players/DAC combos.
It's very classy looking too with a true black lacquer front panel.

I have the matching companion Sansui AUX 911 DG integrated amp too which is a very nice unit.

 

I also remember these early Hitachi units with their unique loading system:

 

Interesting, never saw one of those.

 

That Sansui is very sweet looking. Now I will always be looking out for one to pair with my AU-317--actually it would be stacked with several other players I have in my home studio.