Hey Kelvin! Long time no see. Glad you're back mate.

🤗 GREAT TO SEE YOU AGAIN,KELVIN WE HAVE BEEN WONDERING WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN DOING 🤔THANKS FOR THE TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE💚💚💚

Great to see and hear you Kelvin. Hope you are well mate.

Kelvin, it is not Liquid Cristal Display (LCD). It is a Vacuum Fluorescent Display (VFD) - two completely different technologies. Regards.

Wow. A credit to Phillips that the player is still working after nearly 40 years. Great to see you back, Kelvin.

What a pleasant surprise to see you again Kelvin! KZfaq must like you also. They gave you top of the page placement. At least on my phone screen, and I havent watched one of your videos for over 6 months. I would put more belief in a review by you than reviewers with all kind of fancy test equipment. You still have to have "ears." Your down to earth simple to understand evaluations are refreshing. I got into cd players late, mainly because of a big lp collection, and hearing through the grapevine that analog sounded superior. I started looking into ways to improve cd players sound, 3 decades ago. There are literally about 50 or 60 things you can do inside a cd player to improve its sound. Many external things too. Listening to cds, I always thought digital had great potential. Pre cd era digital lps like The Nightfly and Rio by Lee Ritenour (what an album), convinced me of that. When I finally started getting into cd players in the mid 1990s, my experienced ears couldn't help but notice the edginess, the brashness, the lack of warmth and openness, the mechanical quality of the sound and the glare. Modifying the players, the openness was the first thing that most noticeably improved. Then all the other things came along nicely. I thought the exaggerated leading edges would be the last bad thing to go. But no, the last bad quality to go was the "glare." It's the players, not the cds themselves for the most part that was the problem. Hearing cds without any digital/electronic glare is a revelation. I think cds generally now sound pretty much as analog as analog, but without the noise. I have reel to reel too; not just phono. I've discovered now that cds have that smooth warm sound, with great continuity. I never thought this could happen. I was convinced of analog's superiority. The so call "digital sound" and "digital artifacts" are because of the players themselves. With a very small % of exceptions. So I now have what sounds like a collection of audiophile lps with superior cleanness and all the other good stuff; but they are CDs! I still play lps too & like them. But one doesn't sound obviously more digital than the other any longer. Great video and glad you're back and alright!

Good to have you back on the firm, Kelvin

Great to see you again Kelvin, missed your videos. Brilliant as always mate!

Love this Video. Great to see you back on YT. All the best my friend.

The CD player was a joint development between Sony and Philips. I have a late 80s Technics player that is still going strong all these decades later, it even plays CD-R discs although it was never designed to do so as they hadn't been invented when it was released. The only repair it's ever had was that I had to change the loading belt many years ago. Sony and Philips also invented the SPDIF interface, SPDIF actually stands for Sony Philips Digital Interface.

Welcome back mate! Glad you're fine. Nice review of a packed in features, vintage piece. Philips, among other importand innovations, is also very well known for its disk drives, found in dozens of models of cd players from many, many brands. That hidden, program keyboard is simply adorable...

Great to see you reviewing again , you have a terrific way of reviewing please keep in good health and keep on keeping on reviewing for our knowledge and understanding

Where you been ??

Great to see you again! Your videos are the best on the hifi subject. Greatings from Brazil.

It is great to hear from you again 👍🏽

Real good to see you man just bought a Sony CD player 1990 with a TDA 153 chip that chip is in the same family as the 1986 player you have r2r based ladder DAC big mid-range very analogue sounding welcome back keep in touch with your fans

Excellent to see you again. Keep the videos coming!

Hi Kelvin. sooo happy you're back, mate. Glad you liked the Victor Wooten album, A Show of Hands, as from one bass head to another it's a fantastic album. Looking forward to more content on your channel. All the best.

Glad that great Kevin is back

My Good God..such a nice feeling to see you back..❤

Nice to see you back Sir. I still have my Sony 337 esd and would never part with it it’s a beast.

Kelvin my good man. I had to double take when I saw a fresh post. You are music to my ears man. ❤

Hello Kelvin it's made my day seeing you back on KZfaq. Great review of an old bit of Phillips kit. My first player was a Mission DaD7000 which was a Phillips 104 b I think tweaked! I loved it but I had come from a budget Technics turntable so I guess I've never really experienced a higher quality deck to compare. I agree ref things to go wrong by the way, simpler the better in my book. I hope to see more content from you soon.

I had one of these for 25 years! I loved the sound of this machine. I later added an Arcam Black Box 3 Dac. Considering CD is technically superior to vinyl in every way it's hard to understand why vinyl sounds 'better', but somehow it can. That machine is way past it's sell by date and would sound much better for a thorough service. It was never brash when new and would compete very favourably with some expensive turntables at the time. It's a bit like running a 30 year old car without a service and expecting it to perform well. Good to see you are alive and well mate.

Great to see you back. The truth about audio equipment was hard to find until I happened upon Stereo Review X.

Thank god! we though you had popped your clogs or something. Glad to see you back Kelvin, top bloke.

Hi Kelvin, good to see you.. ive gone down the old cd player route too..im using an old Philips cd104. Sounds amazing with its twin dacs.

Great to see you again Kelvin! I recently bought a Philips CD 160 but it stopped playing after 1 CD. Whilst it did play, I enjoyed the sound of it.

Very good to see you picking up reviews again!

Good to see you back Kelvin. I have a 650 I got back in 2019 and it does look fantastic and with a bit of tinkering it sound great as well, mine now runs NOS from the Td1541 and I've upgraded the op amps

Glad to see your back, keep up the good honest review's

Nice review, honest and to the point. BTW-I enjoyed your Royd review and have been looking for one stateside ever since. Found a pair recently, 20 miles away from me, for $60. You were right, a very special speaker

I'm still using my Marantz CD42 mk2 bought in1993.

So good to see you back!

Hello my Friend It does my hart good to see you upload a video again You have the best channel on KZfaq Ps I just got myself a Yamaha DSP A1 . Its an old av amp from 1998 It was 50£ and sounds amazing as a 2 channel stereo through a pair of Monitor Audio r352 You should review some early high end AV suround amps and receives they were amazing in there day and are Pennies now

About time! I’ve been relying on the repeats.

Welcome back Kelvin !! -from Boston Ma US

Great to see you again welcome back. I actually had one of these, they were very very expensive and got great reviews at the time and were completely out of reach to a young apprentice and hifi nut . BUT...BUT Boots the Chemist started selling end of line models of hifi and camera gear. I was wandering through my Local Boots and spied one of these 650s for the special price of I think £79.89 instead of £279 they had been, so I snapped one up. It served me well for a couple of years, and its "cough " sonic qualities matched my ill matched budget gear beautifully LOL . So I was a happy chappy. As my wages and kit improved my enjoyment of its now slightly tiring soundscape waned but then i picked up a secondhand Audio Alchemy DAC so I fed the digital out through that and used the 650 as a transport for some years again.. So thanks for this video it was a warm trip down 80s HIFI memory lane.

Good to see this old machines alive and working. Mine is a Sony CDP 750 with the same DAC from 1988, only serviced once for a change of the laser lens. Still a main part of my music listening set !!

Hello Kelvin, Nice to see you again! Always enjoy your reviews and remember most of the gear you review. Love the vintage stuff! Thank you!

I really like the sound quality of my phillips cd players .

2 long years, really missed you and a bit worried

Nice to see you again and talking great of the first CD era, yes! i remember it was felt like something coming from the future at the times, very difficult to find music well mastered on CD nowadays but this is totally another story. Keep going on Kelvin

CD players were more convenient and profitable than vinyl and streaming is more convenient and profitable than CD. What's best generally depends on the recording. Great to see you back.

Great to see you back again. I remember my first CDs, Tom Waits and Springsteen albums that sounded simply dreadful to my ears. It was quite some years before a Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista DAC persuaded me to listen to them again.

Yeah! Happy to see a new video from you.

Kelvin- Where have you been?? You haven't aged in the couple of years that you have been missing in action. This video has better sound than the others. Welcome back!!

Hello Kelvin!!! Back around 2016-2018 I bought pre-owned CD players and high-end cassette decks in fine condition for $25--$50 free shipping on Ebay. Since then prices have exploded such that very few bargains can be found anymore. I can't afford to take chances on vintage gear these days.

Really glad to see you back Kelvin. You have been missed.

Hi Kelvin, great to see you back in the hot seat. I've missed your great down to earth reviews, feels like I'm chatting to you in my front room. Yes I agree with you on past cd players, they doo sound hard, brash and uninvolved. Thanks for this, please come back again.

There he is! oy oy Kelvin nice to see you back

Personally, I prefer the 14-bit TDA 1540 converter. I have a Grundig CD 7550 with this converter and it is brilliant. Sounds like a record player. Regards, Kevin. Nice to see you again.

6:55 'Which I guess is this circuit board here, which I kind of gives it a more analoguey sound ... " Your'e one of a kind, Kelvin. So good to hear from you!

What I didn't miss in 1984 with my first CD player was the turntable rumble, pop, ticks, non-fill s-c-r-a-t-c-h, off center pressings (which irritated me the most!), and the warp of vinyl. I did discover that the way I listened to music on CD had to change verses the way I listened to it on vinyl. I had to get used to not having to "listen" for vinyl's anomolies. For me, CD verses vinyl is not an absolute dogma of one is "superior" to the other. I listen to and can easily enjoy both. However, there is a definite difference of experience between both formats.

Thanks for sharing your views on the Philips CD650. I bought mine back in '85 and it still working. Only the remote for it no longer works. I agree with your comment on the high end versus vinyl, but having lost some of my high end hearing, it's not an issue. Lol Anyways, I am probably going to do a complete recap on it, as this player is still one if the best ever made to this day.

I bought one of these in 1987 and still use it today. I haven't heard a better sounding CD player. Mine was purchased in the USA and is branded Magnavox but is otherwise identical, including the British spelling of "Favourite." Like yours, mine makes a faint whirring sound when it spins, and the loading mechanism sometimes malfunctions. This was well reviewed at the time. I bought mine for around US $380 new. I use it with KEF 104.2 speakers and an Adcom GFA 555 II amplifier. Only the preamp has changed over the years. It's a pleasure to hear your opinions even if I don't agree with all of them. Thanks for the trip down memory lane, which, for me, is my current system. Is your lava lamp for sale?

The HiFi Master is back 😎

Welcome back Kelvin!

Great to see you back. Looking forward to more content. Hope you are well,Kelvin.

Great to see you back kelvin. You analyze these things so well ,tons of experience that most reviewers don't have. I am roughly your age and remember this period of transition and agree to every bit you said. Hope to see you reviewing old equipment and More.

Hello Kelvin, great to see you back!!! Great video, as always btw. Hope more to come.

Great to see you back. Are we going to get more than one video this year only joking hope to see more from you. Great video I can’t remember what model it was. But when CD players first came out, I brought myself a Phillips, CD player cost me £795 Back in the day, I think it was the first brand of electronics I ever brought after leaving school even though they’ve been out for a few years at that point

So glad to see you back! And I could not agree with you more about the CD player. I am 60 years old and went through the whole thing. A big circle back to vinyl and analog which cannot be beat

Kelvin, welcome back! I own a couple of Marantz CD73's which are a little older than your Philips player. I have restored one and the sound quality is seriously impressive. "Warm" is probably a good description of the sound. It has limited functionality but it's the music that counts. Sony/Philips/Marantz first players were all pretty darn good machines. Probably should note that Marantz was owned by Philips at the time and they appeared to be Philips defacto premium brand for a while. You are spot on when describing the mid range quality of these early players although the CD73 has no shortage of bass.

Very glad to see you back!

So glad to see you back Kelvin!

Welcome back was a bit worried.

Hope you’re well Kelvin. Glad you’re back. I had this CD player….I remember it came with a load of stickers for your CDs to help with the programming. You just typed the cd program number and the machine played the tracks from the disc that you had selected previously.

Great review. Agree with you on lack of raffinment on the top end. Had this machine on daily duties for around 15 years. But these machines can be upgraded to sound really highend. There have been important developments for highend cd players over the last two decades. The beauty is, these improvements can be retrofitted in older machines also when you are a skilled diy audiotechnician. This cd player is worth it to do so, because it has very good bones. Love this channel, all the best from the Netherlands.

Great to see you back. I was in Audio Gold the other day. What a place.

I own a preloved 'universal' disc player that I digital out of to a DAC and the sound is great though I'm all in with streaming in the main (via vintage kit of course). I recently bought my daughter an all in one CD/ radio unit as she wanted to physically own stuff from her favourite bands. It seemed madness to buy a vinyl for her wall at current costs so I steered her to CD. She loves it and has raided my CD collection mostly accumulated in the 90's, which followed my vinyl phase and before my download phase. She also scours charity shops, no wonder the CD is coming back too

Good to see you again Kelvin. Hope youre doin fine. Anyway,like you i remember that time pretty well. CD-Audio around the mid-eighties became suitable for the masses,because player prices fell steeply. The technology trickeld down so to speak into the middle and even a bit later into the consumer class. Personaly i got my first player in the late eighties. (Up to that time i was busy buying records from the bins and 2nd hand markets. Truth being told it was vinyljunkie time because you could get really rare and good stuff for literaly a buck or two....) Well,back then we had a little circle of friends who were all musiclovers and hifi nuts. But only one had a CD players at that time, a exellent sounding but already aging Technics SL-P10. We also had a bit of a connection to a very good hifi /high end shop back then. In fact as we decided to finaly buy CD players we could choose from a bunch of loaned gear from that store. A bunch of Phillips and Sony players up to 1k in price. After some listening sessions the Sony players were choosen over the Phillips ones. Especially the larger players from that model generation (CDP-950 and CDP-750) sounded very close to a pretty decent turntable.

Great to see you Kelvin! Have to agree about the CD player sound. I ended up going through about 5 cd players to find one that was decent sounding. Non of them really did. I use an R2R dac now. Also, I repair hifi and CD players generally have a maximum operating time on the laser - and can be expensive to source. DC Servo's fail even on good units and can be difficult to fix. I can recommend old Rotel and Sony units from mid 90's to mid 00's. They just keep going, and the Sonys sometimes have all the programming and jog dial features. P.S... Anyone heard a Sugden A48 mk2? There's one for sale near me and I'm very tempted.

What a nice surprise, been too long.

Always enjoy your videos, keep 'em coming

Missed you dude.

DAC technology improved a lot in the earlier days. The 1-bit (bitstream) DAC that became popular in the 90s was a significant improvement for CD audio.

Glad you are back.. I missed the jumbled descriptions

Hey, good to see u back, Mr. Greetings from Spain!

Hey Kelvin, great to see you back. I have a Sony CDP-XB920E. I'm not an expert like yourself but I still enjoy listening to CDs on it.

Really good to see you back top stuff

Welcome back Kelvin, good to see you again! ☺

OMG you're back

After all the hype in the build up to CD's introduction I was really relieved to discover that the ones that I heard in the early days, sounded pretty terrible. So, luckily, I never sold my vinyl. Of course I have digital sources now, but I can never lose myself in music in the way I can with a good vinyl LP.

2 years ago I had a listen to this very CD650. Couldn't really tell it sounded any better than a modern-day DAC, at that time the Ares II. So... sold the CD650.

My brother has a CD 101 with the toploader. A big advantage is that it plays damaged discs pretty well. I've got a slightly later model.

So good to see you and hear your voice, Kevin! There is so many audio equipment you MUST tell us about!

Kelvin, I was so happy to see you doing a new review! Fans from Michigan.

I got 3 CD players : Philips cd 104 Philips cd 480 Philips cd 620 All sound good !! 😊

Hi Calvin, nice to see you back, I ve missed your videos! There is something true in your words on direct and fast comparison of sound. BR, Joe, Austria

Really nice trip down memory lane with this vintage Phillips. My father bought in 1983 the Marantz cd-73 with a cd from the Berliner Philharmoniker, it was Vivaldi's Four Seasons. I'm 14 years old and sit with my father in front of this cd player and this thing starts playing and it blew me away. I'd never heard such clear and beautiful sound, we also had a good record player, Denon DP 47F, but this cd player fascinates so much that I'm a total cd fanboy till today.

A light in the darkness has lit up again. Good to see you.

Great to see you back on your channel Kelvin … it’s been too long , although I’ve enjoyed looking back through past episodes the last 12 months 👍

GREAT TO SEE YOU AGAIN , , that trip down to that used audio shop video was very nice as all the good shops like that are now shut down in my city ...., Picked up an old luxman lv 105 CD player that has tubes in it , coolest part is the bypass function , has rca pre in , can be used as stand alone in line tube buffer for a sreamer, tape deck ,etc , also has two rca outputs , one fixed the other variable , can go to directly to Amp , plays well with the older stuff , pairs best with my Mc 250, after the tubes have warmed up for ten minutes things change in a interesting way . A whoosh of big air , Yes.. Did that a/b thing back in the day with cds too , It was a high end tape deck in the end that showed me what I was missing with cds in the 90s .

Great to see you back. Entertaining me and boring my wife!

I have an early 90s technics cd player, it has issues playing very low bass at the appropriate level. I suspect it's just old electronics in the output stage. My 10 years newer Yamaha player has no issues with that. The yamaha also has an adjustable output level, so I matched it's volume with my tapedeck and tuner. Can't match with the turntable as the volume of the pressings is all over the place. old electronics, capacitors specifically will affect most equipment of this age

Bought mine in '86. Still works and for 22 years employed to real time burn the free CD's, some 800, from all the local libraries, via the Phillips' digital output into a Tascam CD recorder's digital input and use an Audio Note DAC Kit for playback.

Hi kelvin So glad to see you again, was wondering how you were ? Glad to see you looking well and back doing some reviews! I would be really interested if you could do a review of your favourite CD players for me to try out myself! Any chance of that please kelvin? Thanks so much for coming back and entertaining us with your excellent reviews! Welldone my friend! Warm regards Paul 😊👍

I still have a Philips CD 880 , still sounds good to me although the drawer can be a bit "sticky " to open.

Good to see you! I have gotten into your videos lately, and was worried there will be no new ones coming.