"CD PAL" the superior version of the CD NTSC standard :P

The music on the first CD you used to demonstrate it sounds exactly the way the unit looks.

This sounds way better compared to those unknown China made dvd players which provides tonnes of function. Sound is priority in my opinion.

I still have the very first CD player I ever bought: A single tray Yorx I bought in 1987 for $80 and the damned thing still works!!

The bottom model shown at 1:23 was my first CD player. I remember telling people I would buy a CD player when they dropped below $200, thinking they would never get there. It took about a year.

If this was the cheapest CD player back in 1989, I probably would've bought it.

The sound quality is surprising, as your title says. I appreciate when a manufacturer designs a device that puts out an unadulterated signal. I was really, really, really interested in getting a standalone CD Player at Caldor when they had a Soundesign for $99.99 (I'm guessing 1991-92?) and that is what I asked for as my 8th grade graduation present - it was destined to sit on top of my Channel Master AM/FM/8-track stereo. Instead, my father bought me a Sony CFD-470 bookshelf system, the speakers for which I still use daily (connected to the receiver that my PC is connected to). My first CD? Phil Collins' "Face Value." Not quite as amazing as "No Jacket Required," but still a great album. Thank goodness CDs don't wear out from repeated plays, I was constantly playing "In The Air Tonight" and "I Missed Again."

Early 'cheap' products of any new tech are better than late cheap revisions.

Wow, a completely lackluster and unassuming device packing some actually decent hardware inside. That's pretty neat.

Loading a CD is like loading an audio cassette tape on that thing

Good that it has so few features, where nothing is, nothing can break 😁

the only important feature of any cd player is durability, and this one still works after 30 years while many more expensive models failed long ago

*CORRECTION:* At 12:40 I meant a sampling rate of 96 kHz, not 48 kHz.

If you have any CD-Rs with a paper sticker label, you best copy that to another disk if it still reads. Paper labels kill disks.

Cheapest back then but made in Japan , NOT China , is a win.

It's the CD Toaster!!!

Simple, solid and still doing its job even today (aside from the sleepy LCD!). Great find!

As I own a very large collection of CDs, I've noticed subtle differences in sound quality between players. Your testing demonstrates one cause of those differences, the D/A conversion and design for frequency filtering characteristics. Visually, the Yorx and JCPenney players are appealing on the shelf. If I see one in good working condition at a yard sale or thrift store, I am likely to buy it. Thanks!

Oh man flash back! I had a big fake rack yorx system

I honestly wouldn’t mind having this sitting in my entrainment console.

Somehow, with the design, I imagine some people got a bad impression of audio CDs from that cheap player, or upgraded to higher end players and were wowed by the features they offered.

when you smacked the top 2:58 reminds me of Onlow from Keeping up appearances with his old TV

Cheapest cd player I ever bought was from Richer Sounds in the UK. £29 for an Eclipse cd player. About twice a year they printed vouchers and you could even get £10 off. What hi-fi magazine raved how unbelievably good these players were, mine lasted years and I sold it for more than I paid 👍

You are dead on correct about why CDs took over. The cheapest CD player sounded great while the record players were sounding worse and worse (for what people could afford.) Plus CDs were smaller, less prone to damage and all that. It just got a lot better a lot faster. It was the cost of the discs that made converting over expensive in my family.

That looks so 80s'! And surprisingly good quality sound. Nice find.

Interesting that CD players could be that cheap that quickly into their life-cycle. First ones were released in 1982~ish so in just 6 years or so they went from $700+ to $100~. For modern day manufacturing turn around time's that's not very shocking but given the generally slower pace of development and iteration back then It's pretty darn quick that CD players became so commodified.

flashbacks from the 80s are hitting hard with that first demo CD you played there :) Great review VWestlife, cheers!

I bought one by Crown in the UK on my 15th birthday (1993) for my first CD player, cost around £70 from a shop called Richer Sounds which still exists. It connected to my Hitachi Boom Box (the one with 4 speakers along the front).

CDs are outstanding!

Another fascinating piece of audio archeology, vwestlife. I'm stunned at all the Sony chips in this and the fact that it still works. Many CD players start to stutter after 20 years due to lubrication along the transport rails drying up.

Great review! I really like vertical loading CD players, especially when you can see the whole disk spinning. There's something enjoyable about watching the disk spin, especially on CDs with colorful disc art.

There was also the Philips CD207 (1986/1987), a cheap and basic featured top loader (available in many vivid colors) with outstanding specs. I can remember it had similar price range. A hifi magazine takes this model to the test to find out it was of any quality because of the extremely low price. The magazine did a durability test with 10 or more units of this model, playing for weeks and none of these models failed the test. This model became very populair and Philips sold many, many units of this model. You can find some detailed pictures of this model and packaging on dutchaudioclassics, hower not present the most exciting color: Grey. Google "dutchaudioclassics Philips CD207" or search for "Philips CD207" on google pictures. I have a later Panasonic RX-FD80 boombox that uses the same simple front loader idea of loading a disc. Simple is good and durable.

I used to love the old '80s cheap stereo thing where they used to plaster the front of devices with redundant wordage like "Advanced Graphic Equalizer System", and fancy, meaningless graphics and even fake buttons or a "spectrum analyzer system" which was just some fixed LEDs, or maybe a LED VU meter if you were really lucky.

Never knew how much I missed that laser tracking sounds

Ah yes, this brings back some memories, when I was about age 12 and staring in the shop window of our local Philips store (a chain of stores all around the country that only sold Philips and sub-brands Aristona and Erres). The Erres-branded midi system that came closest to what I could afford had a front-loading CD player just like this one, 2 7-segment displays for track and (I think) 2 LEDs for play and pause. Even by this time (about 1989) front-loading was associated with cheap and therefore it didn't seem like a good buy to me at the time. If you wanted a cd-player, this was your cheapest option, although CD was still a bit "a thing of the future" at that time, I certainly didn't own any CDs in 1989.

I had one of these! Loved that you could see the CD spinning. However there was always a very slight noise (possibly from the motor) that came through the RCA outputs that was usually audible between tracks. Otherwise, the sound was great. I ended up giving it to my cousin and bought a Technics.

I had one that was very similar. It was a tray loading Sharp I purchased at Pacific Stereo in Reseda, CA around 1987. It was on clearance for about $100 and I was happy to get it. At one point I had to open it up to get out a disc that got stuck. The component arrangement on the PCB was very similar.

I wouldn't be surprised if Funai was the OEM that actually built this thing.

So without the sensor to detect if there's a CD in there, will the motor spin up when you hit play even if there's no CD loaded?

We were selling these! The brand was Sherton (99% sure) You are right, these were never sold separately, only as part of the system. I believe that was in 1987.

I like the front loading style! I've seen a few CD players from the '80s with that mechanism. Another style you never see anymore are the top-loading changers with a plastic dust cover, probably to fill in the newly-vacant space where the turntable would normally go.

That Colors in Motion CD sounds like 1987 even though it's from 1997. Funny how even low end Japanese stuff was quite fine back then. They were just well made, I always seek the stuff.

Another masterpiece buddy... can’t wait for your next turntable review or repair.

18:21 Such a reflection many of us have made, summed up in so few words, it's a shame it's buried at the end of this video, I would gladly welcome a whole video inspired by that idea!

One more unit that was just below $100 from the late 1980s was the Crown CD-70. It is a top loader similar to the Sears one you mention. The CD-70 lacked the ability to scan through a track, you could just skip forward and backward, and it would mis-track way too often. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find an advertised price for this unit in an old magazine or catalog.

Even the chepeast CD player sounds amazing, I think that's the great thing about CD format... you have to spend lots of money to have a turntable with equivalent sound quality.... way above $1000 and maybe more.

I find it quite impressive that the thing is still working. Most modern CD players break after a few years. Also, awesome choice for the Colors In Motion CD :)

The CD player lovers enjoyed this. Price point is and was a big deal. The technology, the systems - the designs- the marketing. Our huge CD libraries appreciate your info and great camerawork.

I like how you have a Tandy 1000 in the background. That's so cool.

Dang! This has the best DAC I have ever heard from a cd player in my whole life. This sounds better than the DAC in my standalone blu-ray player or blu-ray rom in my laptop. This player in your video has a very nice warm analog sound you don't usually hear from cd's. Thanks for sharing!

It's pretty neat that this CD player uses essentially the same chipset as the more expensive contemporaries of the time. Probably helps explain why it sounds so good! Not at all what I was expecting to see when I read "cheapest CD player" in the title of the video. Honestly, I'm a huge fan of how simple and efficient the design is, as It makes for easier servicing and solves my pet peeve of sticky loading drawers. (I had a thrift store Sony CD-102 that did it, and my Kyocera DA-310cx still does it when it's cold, despite replacing all the belts and lubing it accordingly.) In this regard, this CD player is a winner in my book.

That player reminds me a lot of the similarly cheap Soundesign model you once demonstrated. I am somewhat amazed that the transport belts are still good.

Inspired by this video, I recently purchased the same Yorx player from a Shop GoodWill auction. I didn't have to do much to get it working. While cleaning it, I discovered that if you press “Stop” (instead of "Play") after a disc is loaded, the player will briefly spin the CD, read the TOC (table of contents), and then the display will show the number of tracks on the disc. You can then skip up or down to select the track you want to begin with when you press "Play." I'm not sure how handy that function actually is, but it's cool to know that it's in there. Handwritten on the back masonite panel, presumably by a store clerk, in descending order: O - $199.95, N - $99.95, $69.99, and $49.99. Since the last price was not crossed out, I assume it was originally sold for $49.99.

Excellent as always 🇬🇧❤️

Thank you for the review! I found the exact same model - but branded 'Veston' - at the thrift store a few days ago. I'm happy to learn more about it. I liked the external design (typical of these years) as well as the command minimalism. The sound is very good, but the player can't play the discs or tracks that have minor scratches or tiny spots of dirt. It can only play pristine CDs.

Maybe one day, I'll make myself a cheapo hi-fi stack. I love the cheaper components, they tend to have a unique look to em and if you look right you can get some great sounding stuff !

I like that you can see the disc spinning.

This is Brian. Thanks for testing this unit with a cd-r. Sony equipment wss notorious for not playing cd-r and cd-rw discs. This is a nice unit for its price. You are my hero for testing affordable units that slipped through our fingers in the past because people think you must spend more to get more. I have to mention that I've opened alot of sony low end boom boxes and equipment from that era and found all Goldstar chips inside. And sony sold them at high prices.

Reminds me of an AIWA boombox i had around the time this was made, front loading cd player didn't skip much at all for an early boombox player. Still regret getting rid of it years ago though.

This reminds me of my first cd player I got for Christmas in 1985. Mine was branded ' Electrosonic ' and I believe came from Caldor. Very similar except it didn't have a see through cd holder. When I was 20 and had a decent job, I treated myself to a top of the line JVC component system. The cd player I got was the 2nd in line model with all the bells and whistles available at that time ( 1989 ). I was VERY disappointed in it's sound quality which was rather tinny and it skipped with moderate bass. The cheap Electrosonic sounded better and hardly ever skipped except at very high volumes.

Always loved those CD players with a window embedded into the disc tray, so you could see the disc spinning. Something i really loved about my parents' compact double cassette-Radio-CD boombox from Philips, back in 1991. The first CD player we ever had in our family. Must have been listening to countless CDs on that thing and always loved seeing the disc spinning inside and hearing the soft noises of the disc drive as it started to skin or when you skipped a track.

I like that you put that analyzer on there to show the high frequency roll off you get from CDs.

Great info video!

In a few years, when all of the other fancy programmable CD players with their fancy detection of loaded disks and new fangled indicator displays have died, these will be treasured.

Pretty cool the lack of features is to it's advantage I reckon and very decent sound quality.

I love that it's junk on the outside and good on the inside, not the other way around like so many products.

That sounds better than my Discman from 1995 does, and certainly better than Apple Music’s streaming. I’d buy this in a heartbeat if given the chance to see it in person.

And after 31 years it still works like new.

My sister had a Bush boombox with a front loading CD mechanism. Always pretty cool seeing the artwork spinning around

1:25 my first ever CD player was #12 on the catalog photo. A Magnavox. That thing was a beast. It lasted forever. When I was DJing in clubs I even carried it around to play mix CD's so I could take a break. Dropped it down the stairs of the nightclub and surprisingly it still worked. I had it for over 20 years and then I think heat finally got to it as I was DJing at another club where the AC was out and it finally died. As for the JCP CD Player, it looks like the one my wife had when we were dating. After we got married she left it at her parents house. I should check next time we visit there but chances are it is long gone since we have been married over 20 years now.

I can be more minimalist via connect an old PC CD drive to a PC power supply and connect some speakers to the drive. 😉 That would be only "play", "skip forward" and "stop". That's it. No display, no anything else, just only a flat volume knob and a stereo "headphone" equivalent output. 😊

I owned the LXi Top-loading CD player. It was extremely basic in operation and very sensitive to vibration from people walking around or whatever. But it did work. Soon replaced it with a JVC tray-loading CD player that was light years beyond the LXi.

My first CD player was a Sharp DX-610H. It cost $69 at the local supermarket. It was not programmable, and it had no remote control, but it worked well for 10 years.

amazing the optical pickup still works. Maybe it used a sony KSS pickup which were very robust. Its normally the laser pickup that fails in a CD player

In simplicity there is beauty and this one sounds good and that's what matters

Excellence of content always in this channel. Greetings from Seoul. The CD loaded by tray was very common, I recently bought an INKEL tape deck with tray loading. Researching I discovered that this was not so rare in the past but the question remained: Was the design of loading CD by tray inspired by tape decks? Thanks for the video and on the other hand, it is the first CD player I see using tape decks inspired loading.

Even compressed, this audio sounds good. Interesting selection near the end!

That was my very first cd player. I had bought a new Sharp stereo in 91 but it didn't come with a cd player. My old friend gave me the Yorx.

vw love your posts!!! Thank You!!!

Not bad. The vents on those larger caps look like Panasonics? Well made!

I want to hear more of the Maura Glynn song, I can't find anyting online about that album except for a link on amazon costing $148 :( Where can I find the cd? (I actually kind of like the agent biscuit track too)

I believe players like these are why CDs actually took over, and especially why cassettes got the bad rep they still carry: anything that can play a CD is already working with a crystal clear, noiseless, 100% perfect signal. That, audiophiles will argue, is something cassette players could never have reached, and while true, that’s not the real problem to the budget consumer: the real problem is cassette players needed some modicum of effort to get close. Sure, CD was winning at the highest end, but really, CD didn’t have much on DAT, DCC, or even VHS Hi-Fi, if anything at all (if you want proof, listen to Whitney’s I Will Always Love You, anywhere you wish. That track’s master was a DAT.). The common folk couldn’t tell a mid-range tape in a mid-range deck from a CD: the CD’s actual achievement was to be affordable for people who never experienced equipment good enough to know that. The same goes for “reliability”: cassettes were reliable too, given occasional deck cleaning, but the CD could reach folks who were too casual (or stupid) to know.

You forgot to mention the most obvious missing feature. A remote. I'm surprised it doesn't say "Professional" on there somewhere.

Interesting points brought out on vid. Thanks.

I guess other than features, I don't see how using a very cheap CD player is ever going to be bad. The nature of playing a CD doesn't change depending on price unlike a record or cassette. Also, interesting you brought up the tray window. I remember when I was a kid my dad thought I was crazy for wanting a CD player where I could watch the disk spin as the unit played it. Of course that was back in the early 2000's when there were all sorts of different portable CD players. I remember finally getting one for Christmas with BOTH the window and even the ability to play MP3 CD's and absolutely having a ball with it lol. CD's might be obsolete, but I still enjoy using them even now. - And you can't tell me their any less useful or obsolete than a record or cassette.

Are there dry solder joints on the LCD board? I noticed when you turned the player on, it showed the number 10 until you tapped the case a few times, even after that, the digit on the left hand side was fainter than the one on the right.

you always play so much cool music.

I enjoyed the music on the video. Maybe you can do a Vlog featuring music from your favourite genres.Thanks!

Memories: I was at work on a Sat. night in '86, and during a break I was looking through the paper and saw ads for a stereo store out in Framingham that was having a ONE DAY sale, that day, the big lure being 2 models of CD players, a Pioneer and a Sharp for $175 each. Called a friend and told him if he'd go out there (from Boston) to pick me one up, using his credit card, I'd take him out to a nice dinner. I wanted the Pioneer, as it was the more prestigious brand at the time, but it was some kind of a bait and switch, they basically refused to sell him one, and he called me from the store because they were putting such pressure on him to get the extended warranty for $29. That's where the sales reps made their money in those days. I had to give him a pep talk to resist (spend $29 to protect $175 for 3 years? ha ha!) It was quite a while before regular prices came down below that, and I was the first among my friends to get a CD player, a bare bones Sharp. It was a stereo component, it had no speakers. By the time it gave out 10 years later, I was able to get a Sony 5 CD carousel player (a component) for $99.

But anyway ... there are more than 20 years between production and these test. And it's stil working fine. This fact cannot be taken for granted.

Can you upload the agent biscuit instrumental jazz song you use in the video cuz i wanna hear it and i keep rewinding it many times. And i cant find that album anywhere.

Was there a CD NTSC?

Liquid Crystal Display Display gave me a good chuckle. lol

I remember finally being allowed to get a CD player in 1991. My father's decision was I was allowed to get one from Service Merchandise in exchange for him keeping my daily allowance for 3 months and a ton of extra farm chores during that time (allowance for the time would have been $90 but it was put into an account where I couldn't access it until I turned 18.) He also set a limit of $100. With the 3 months of labor done my mother and I go and I'm crestfallen to find the cheapest they have is a front-loader from Magnavox (like the AZ8100) for $125. No getting it that day; had to go home, get dad to agree to an extension which was 2 more months for the extra $25.

im kinda diggin agent biscuit. Can't seem to find it anywhere online so do you think ya can rip the disc?

I bought my first CD player in 1984, the Sony D-5, it was on sale for $500. 😎🍕🍺🇺🇸

Ok, can someone confirm something, that CDR track with the band on the front sounds like a track by Igorrr - very noise , is it ir is it just similar because I'm confused.

I always liked the vertical playing units. Reminds me of the first CD player we had growing up. It was a Hitachi boom box we got at Sears that came with 5 free albums. For the longest time those were the only cds we had! 😆

what's the pc program you used to display freq. response?

My parents wouldn't even opt for this in 88.. we still were jamming with tapes