My first CD Player and CD Collection

Pic credit: https://www.lelong.com.my/

In the early Nineties, when portable CD players(Discman) entered the market, I purchased a Philips AZ-6827 player that cost me 6200/- and I raised a personal bank loan to buy that.

I also took the player with me wherever I went, had a special sling bag for that and though I didn't have any CD collection, I borrowed a few from my friends Balachandra Shetty and Premnath Shenoy. I proudly showed my new possession to my friends and colleagues, they were curious to listen to the sound of digital music and stood in a Q to try the headphone and feel thrilled!

However, my joy and pride was short lived.

The player went phut after the Six months warranty period, for replacement of laser lens the local service center in Valencia quoted 3800/-. By then, new player was available for Rs.4200/-.

Wonderful!

So much for the sexy looking Philips Made in Malaysia CD player, but many Chinese players later entered the market costing just Rs. 1200/- or even less!

That's not all. I saw an offer in a leading newspaper for 10 Western Classical Music CDs at Rs. 2800/- released by BBC Music, giving a discount of 40%. I was crazy about exploring new music then and wanted to develop taste for western classical music.

I also dreamt about sitting on the rocking chair with a glass of fine whisky in hand and watch the Sunset, listening to awesome classical stuff of masters like Beethoven, Bach, Mahler, Stravinsky, Brahms, Shastakovich, Strauss, Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi. 

Those slim jewel case packed CD collection started arriving by post promptly after two months of sending the DD. I was overjoyed to see the collection building up and also started to act like a snob in front of my friends, condemning Bollywood songs. My gait and manners resembled Jeeves in Wodehouse story.

Whenever someone asked me about pop music of Michael Jackson, Abba, Boney M, Baby Elephant Walk or Come September, I showed an indignant look and shrugged my shoulders saying,

"Too immature. Not my kinda stuff you see!" 

Yet I had not opened the seal of any of the CDs received. I wanted to open them one by one after I received the entire lot of 10 CDs.

After the 8th CD was delivered, they stopped sending further CDs and they also refunded the proportionate amount promptly, notifying me that they had discontinued tie up with BBC Music. Such was the professionalism shown by the company and their collaborator in India.

Then I opened the first CD and played it. Though the music was pleasant, It sounded a bit slow. Then I tried the next one. That was a bit better, but again soporific. Stravinsky and Shastakovish were the best with some wild violin concertos and I was a bit overjoyed to repeat playing them. One was Christmas music and I played it aloud attaching my CD player to amp and speaker on the midnight of December 24. My wife suddenly woke up, looked startled and said "Some disturbance somewhere.... was that a thief?"

I was stupefied. All my efforts in surprising my wife with Christmas music had failed. 

I tried to appreciate the music by playing the CDs repetitively for the next few days. Sometimes my wife would wake me up at dinner time, sometimes the sound of door bell by some visitor would do that job. 

Though the CD Player deal was a colossal flop,  my new Classical CD Collection was proved worthy, saving me all that money spent on tranquilizers or sleeping tablets.