Time Capsule from 1983: Magnavox/Philips FD1000 SL CD Player

After many years of server based computer audio (presently running a Meridian Explorer USB DAC ), I came across this beautiful Magnavox CD player, the American version of the Philips CD100, the first CD player released to the public.

The player came with the original box and all the goodies, including a binder with the manual, sampler disc, and a cleaning cloth. All in mint condition. It even had the original receipt from the store in Eugene, Oregon dated December 1983. Player itself was manufactured in August 1983, exactly 30 years ago this month!

I connected it to my tubed Marantz rig/ Chartwell 15 ohm LS3/5A's and I was pleasantly surprised at what I heard. Very smooth, almost analog-like sound. No harshness, shrillness or brightness at all.

The Magnavox/Philips unit was unique among first generation players in that it employed 4X oversampling digital filtering along with the fabled TDA-1540 14 bit DAC. This effectively provides 16 bit resolution without the use of harsh analog "brick wall" filters.

The transport is also legendary, the CDM-O with swing arm laser pickup. It uses no belts or gears and lasts pretty much forever.

Philips had it right the first time with this player. The styling is timeless, it's simplicity very appealing to me. The circuitry very musical. It has withstood the test of time very well.

I found myself listening to CD's from beginning to end which I seldom do nowadays, specially with the iPod Touch controlling my computer setup.

Some pics for your enjoyment...

 

Oh, I am crying inside. Chartwell LS3/5As. If you like this player, it must be a good one. I've never heard a more perfect reproduction of the human voice than on those little Chartwell monitors. I weep everything I think about how my college roomate talked me out of a set because "they didn't have enough bass." To think what they cost then and what they go for now...

 

Yeah, the Chartwell's sound amazing with the right program material. Voices are amazingly accurate on them. My pair is from 1978, before Chartwell was purchased by Rogers. Never been repaired or modded. I am in heaven with them!

 

You are welcome! I will take it out on special occasions when I want something different than randomly browsing thru 15,000 FLAC tracks on my PC server. The Magnavox with its top loading disc window gives you a nice visual experience as well.

 

Many congratulations on a great find. Now you can waste untold hours here:

http://www.dutchaudioclassics.nl/Philips/




Compare the photos of the CD-100 to yours!

 

Hahaha! Been browsing that site and others for days before my FD1000 arrived.
The binder on the Philips version has a different CD sampler I noticed.

Actually, I have the Philips CD100 fever right now, so I purchased a Philips branded CD100 as well, it arrived from London last week. That one without the box or accessories. It is presently not working, but I am guessing it's a simple fix, like bad caps in the power supply. Will leave the Magnavox all original, like a museum piece and upgrade some parts on the Philips unit. We'll see...

 

That was my first cd player. Gave it eventually to my younger brother. Unfortunately, it stopped working some years ago and I think he got rid of it.

 

Great minds and all that!

Yes, I noticed that too, the Magnavox says "Sampler USA" so clearly they were making discs for specific markets. These samplers feature in the Show Us Your Rarest CDs threads in Music.

Good luck in getting it fixed.

It is so funny to look at those old circuit boards. They all seemed so high-tech back in the day, nowadays every thing is surface mount, and tiny, tiny, tiny (not so easy to work on).

 

That's really awesome, crooner. So cool to see one in pristine condition with all packaging materials intact.

 

Another related player was the Meridian MCD.
Apparently an audiophile version of the CD-100?

http://www.stereophile.com/cdplayers/285meridian

 

Yeah, I look at that Philips circuit board and think "I could work on that!" It's lovely!!!

 

I am green with jealous. I'm such an audio nerd, I pine for my lost Chartwell's harder than any girl I ever lost.

 

I had a Magnovox CDP back in the day. Front loader though. Same 14 bit technology though. Target was closing them out for $99.00 so i bought one on the advice of another audiophile buddy.
He did some mod's to it and it really rivaled much more costly players. Robust little thing. Got hit by lightening three times in one day. Third time the door opened, and it shut off.
Wouldn't power up again. Thought it was dead. A month later I plugged it in and it worked great. I've usedsurge protection devices since.
Chadbang, if you love natural vocal reproduction, have a listen to Green Mountain Audio speakers. Absolutely amazing. Best I've heard.

 

Thanks for reminding me of this brand. They used to get rave reviews over at Headfi eight or nine years ago!

 

Those old Philips CD players were pretty cool. Amazing what Philips did for music with cassette, CD, and PolyGram.

Around here, Magnavox CD players weren't easy to find except at independent Magnavox TV stores, if they carried audio stuff. I had a friend who had a 650 Magnavox and despite the crude display, it was a great CD player.

I knew Philips was a well known brand outside of the US, but Magnavox wasn't known for audio then in the US, so marketing was poor for the US market. Philips wasn't widely used in the US prior to Philips buying the Philco brand. I knew they were rebranded Philips units that were well rated in the magazines.

The US CD sampler most likely was a result of artists on PolyGram labels that were on non-PolyGram labels in the USA then like Elton John and Dire Straits.

 

Yes, Philips marketing in the US was not good at all. Magnavox was mostly known for consoles, TVs and the Odyssey video game, not separate hi-fi components. I don't understand why they insisted on using Magnavox when they had already acquired the consumer electronics business of Sylvania GTE which gave them the rights to the name "Philco". Earlier they were prevented from using "Philips" because it supposedly sounded close to "Philco", but by 1983 this was not an obstacle anymore.

Perhaps the North American Philips (NAP) management didn't have enough faith in their corporate brand "Philips" and decided to continue using Magnavox through the 1980's.

I understand they [Philips] were not able to use "Marantz" as they did not own the rights to the brand in the US. They only had bought the rights for the rest of the world.

You are absolutely right about those artists being non-Polygram in the US and the probably need for a different sampler for the US market.

 

That one was based on the later CD101 which is almost identical. The original MCD did not include the extra electronics housed on the bottom, only the MCD-Pro.

The MCD sounded great but poor soldering quality and the use of tantalum caps in the signal path was heavily criticized at the time.

Having heard a stock Philips CD100, it seems to me the extra mods were overkill, IMHO.

 

I had a nice Magnavox CD changer in the early 90s and when it failed under warranty they sent me an even better Philips model from Europe.

 

IIRC, Frank Van Alstine had quite a side business modding those old Magnavox models years ago.
http://provideocoalition.com/sony/s...eklyNews&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=081513

 

The Magnavox FD1000SL retailed for $800 when it went on sale in March 1983. The invoice on my unit, dated December 1983, shows it was sold for $650.
By the end of 1984, they were slashing them at $299, like this ad on the MIT Journal shows:

 

Wow, that's very cool! An acquaintance of mine gave me a 1983 Sony CDP-101 from way back when, but unfortunately I didn't get the box or manual for it. It looks downright clunky compared to the sleek Philips player. Haven't even turned the thing on for 15 years at least.

BTW, even $299 for a player in 1984 is now worth about $672, which is quite a chunk of change. Those $13.56 CDs would now cost about $30 each in 2013 money.

 

I've been amazed by them. I'm not easily impressed. They are much better now than they were 8-9 years ago too.

 

Very cool player. I had a Philips way back when. I think my first decent player was a Dbx DX5.

 

I sold the first CD player in the HiFi store I was working in Melbourne in the early '80's (1983) and it was a Philips 100. I also remember the sampler that came with it had an amazing track (imo) called "Pirates" by someone called Florence Warner. If you go to youtube you can hear it.