History of Hi-Fi: Revox 225 CD – Representative of the first generation of CD players

Certain factors create a good CD player. Surprisingly, many of these factors were already present in the first generation CD players, such as the Revox B225. 

Text: Kari Nevalainen
Photos: Manufacturer, image sources

In these golden days of streaming and separate DACs, CD players no longer have the same function they had in the first decade of the 21st century. Many who have kept their CD collections might still want to revive listening to CDs for nostalgic reasons, if not for other reasons. There are indeed signs that CD discs compliant with the Red Book standard are making a comeback, just as vinyl records did over ten years ago. 

But what about a decent CD player, if you no longer happen to own one? No worries. It’s still possible to head to the store and buy a new production CD player, as there are still hardware manufacturers who keep CD or SACD players in their lineup and even develop them in parts – in recent years especially I’ve been focusing on the rotary mechanism. These are not just any manufacturers, but well-known names like Marantz, Technics, Accuphase, EMM-Labs, Esoteric, DCS, AMR, Musical Fidelity, Luxman, Cyrus, Cambridge Audio, and so on. There are options from a few hundred euros for players like the Metronome Dreamplay Kalista CD, whose list price is over 70,000 euros!  

There is also another option that, in addition to everything else, won’t be particularly expensive: turn your attention to older CD players. During the 20 years that CD players were standard in mass-produced products, many excellent, still technically completely reliable CD players were manufactured. You just need to know what to look for.   

Their own group among this group consists of first-generation CD players, referring to players from the first decade of the 1980s, from 1983 to 1993. While still quite available on the used equipment market, these capable and desirable-to-own pioneers are not particularly expensive. For a long time, these players have been a subject of growing interest not only among collectors but also among underground audio enthusiasts and DIY enthusiasts.

The Revox B225 is recognizable by its typical appearance, where the red contrasts with the aluminum gray upper part and the dark gray lower part. The case is made of steel and the front panel is filled with buttons. Only a few, not so essential parts, are made of plastic. Unlike other CD players based on the same electronics, the B225 stands out for its informative LCD display. (Image source: Dorotheum)

Robust mechanics 

There are certain technical prerequisites for a high-quality CD player. Surprisingly, many of these prerequisites were already present in the first-generation CD players. Let’s take for example the mechanism that spins the CD disc.

In the Revox B225, the CDM0 mechanism is attached to the bottom of the metal disc tray so that the entire mechanism comes out of the player when the disc is played. The principle is the same as in the Philips CD-303 player. (Image source: Audioscope.net)