Seems I alone have this CD player??

kyrie59

Member
0224171539a.jpg 0224171539.jpg 0224171539a.jpg 0224171539.jpg I've been looking for info on this player, but never see anyone that has one, had one, nor see any pics of it.... except one time!
Anyone know anything about this CD player??
Protech CD3

Thanks (as usual)!!
 
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I've been looking for info on this player, but never see anyone that has one, had one, nor see any pics of it.... except one time!
Anyone know anything about this CD player??
Protech CD3

Thanks (as usual)!!
It has the look of an older Yamaha CDX I've never seen one in my audio travels.
What does it say on the rear? Origin of manufacturing etc.
 
It has the look of an older Yamaha CDX I've never seen one in my audio travels.
What does it say on the rear? Origin of manufacturing etc.
I did another search after posting this, and found a foreign website with pics of a CD player that looked exactly the same (inside)... it's a Teac PD-200. I don't know if it's the same, but I ordered a service manual for the Teac from eBay... eager to see if they're alike!!
Thanks for the post, I didn't think anyone has seen the ProTech, it must of had very little distribution.
Thanks again.
 
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Forgot pic
 

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I've seen ProTech before at Kmart during the eighties. The sound wasn't real bad, just not that good either. If you can afford better I'd give it a shot as great cheap CD players are more than just affordable. That is if you want better sound without spending a bank roll...
 
I've seen ProTech before at Kmart during the eighties. The sound wasn't real bad, just not that good either. If you can afford better I'd give it a shot as great cheap CD players are more than just affordable. That is if you want better sound without spending a bank roll...
Thanks for the help... This is another "too many vintage toys" project. I have several real nice CD players, but there's nothing like some new "old" piece to compare to my other "shelf warmers"... have found some unbelievably warm/musical equipment doing this.
Thanks again!!
 
Thanks for the help... This is another "too many vintage toys" project. I have several real nice CD players, but there's nothing like some new "old" piece to compare to my other "shelf warmers"... have found some unbelievably warm/musical equipment doing this.
Thanks again!!



0A64ABF2-9B39-4A95-A91C-E0E4E51BB038.jpeg 6B8C480A-AFFC-4FC9-A0CD-C80373C782C7.jpeg 4A016FE2-BD87-4432-B5BF-59C8AC9AA8FB.jpeg 29DDF35C-D8C0-419C-A9B6-C2A2A5A2F34E.jpeg

I found one today in good shape. It works too :) it needs a new belt for the tray but I have that in stock so I may stay up late and clean this unit up.
 
Definitely of Yamaha origin. Perhaps a CDX2, but doesn't quite fully resemble that, especially with the press board rear panel. I have a VideoConcepts CD-505 here that is an rebadged Yamaha, nice looking unit though all plastic, has no remote or headphone jack, and minimal controls. Very similar models were OEM'D by Sansui, Teac, and a couple of of outfits in Europe that never saw distribution in N. America. A real oddity, no doubt.
 
If you look at the Dutch list, or the vasiltech list, one can get a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of units. It seems that Sony was putting out a new model every other week in the mid 1980s thru late 90s.
Yet in the second hand marketplace I keep running into models and brands on none of those lists.
It’d be nice if someone made a list for Radio Shack and Emerson.
 
Vintage-audio-laser.com has a pretty comprehensive cross reference for early model CD players through 1985/86 that lists many rare models with their OEM source model. The VideoConcepts CD-505 I mentioned earlier is a clone of the Yamaha CDX1. Attached are pictures of a Universum (a German brand of the time) that is nearly identical to my CD-505 save for the screen printing for the model number and logo. The Protech, regrettably, is not listed, but is almost certainly derived from a Yamaha player.

Image attribution: vintage-audio-laser.com

universum_ad2002_1as.pnguniversum_ad2002_4as.png
 
Given the sheer number of models, and that many of them used similar OEM components (right down the exterior cosmetics ), one can only imagine the type of social and logistical long-distance-telephone and snail-mail networks required to develop and market so many products. I mean, today there is Slack and email and Zoom. But I don't see much innovative and interesting and totally outta-da-box-thinkin' stuff these days. Just very $$ bling at the hifi shows -- YAWN!
The thrift stores are not boring.
 
It is pretty incredible to consider the volume of arrangements and intercooperation of various manufacturers, as well as retailers in the 70's and 80's that lead to so many unique products, as well as so many clones being made. While virtually all the manufacturing was in Japan, many large established brands and smaller retailers wanting private label products alike from all over the world managed to get things like these oddball CD players done and on the market with surprisingly short lead times.

I've read anecdotes about the extensive contract manufacturing network that existed within Japan at the time, and I find it quite fascinating how even big outfits that were generally in direct competition (like Sony, Pioneer, Sansui, Marantz, Matsushita, Hitachi etc.) would get into arrangements where one of them could contract for a semi-custom (or just rebadged version) of another companies existing product so they would have a model to offer where their own internal lineup fell short.

As just some example, Sansui sourced some of their early CD players from both Yamaha and Toshiba. They sourced a Laserdisc player from Pioneer. Pioneer sourced an early portable CD player from Sony. And this sort of stuff went on all the time, especially in the 1980's

Even more interesting to me were the semi and fully customized products like the Concept gear at Pacific Stereo, Setton, MCS by JC Penney (mostly of NEC and Matsushita manufacture), Lafayette and the like, and were quite often serious products of good quality that could stand shoulder to shoulder with any of the majors of the time. It took real effort to design and get these products made, in an age where design work was much more time consuming, and international communications weren't nearly as fast or easy as they are now.

Maybe it's just me, but I'd love greater insight into how these projects came together. Most of that historical knowledge is impossible to tap though, as it was never really written about, but was all behind the scenes.
 
If you look at the Dutch list, or the vasiltech list, one can get a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of units. It seems that Sony was putting out a new model every other week in the mid 1980s thru late 90s.
Yet in the second hand marketplace I keep running into models and brands on none of those lists.
It’d be nice if someone made a list for Radio Shack and Emerson.
Emerson & Radio Shack? Hey, don't forget about Curtis Mathis & Philco CD players!

I have a Curtis Mathis CD player; it's a rebranded Panasonic I think. And I have a nonfunctioning Philco CD player, which is basically a Phillips, and it has the venerable TDA1541 DAC IC inside.
 
Maybe it's just me, but I'd love greater insight into how these projects came together. Most of that historical knowledge is impossible to tap though, as it was never really written about, but was all behind the scenes.
One of the weird things was when it came to certain internal components -- say DAC or DF ic's -- a few part nos were/are complete mysteries. No datasheet, etc. Some have speculated that "obfuscation" to signature of ND docs. But the situation may be more nefarious than that. Lifted design, IP theft, etc. Surprising number of Japanese models with those ghost components.
 
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Indeed. I've seen discussion of same a few times online, and is a rabbit hole I've not really gone down. I'd not be surprised at IP theft/industrial espionage knocking off an existing chip design in order to avoid the cost of R&D, and then being very careful not to disclose what's inside the black box.

Keep in mind that early on, there were but a handful of DAC's, and demand was enormous once the market for CD players took off. Burr Brown, Philips, Sony and Hitachi had the notable early entries. Oddly, Hitachi had a DAC designed fully in house and used in their inaugural CD player, DA-1000. Mid production, they abandoned it and redesigned the audio board of the DA-1000 to use Burr Brown chips.

I've never found any documented reason for the change, and there was no apparent premature failure rate on the Hitachi part to justify a sudden change. I surmise that maybe the Burr Brown part was either less costly in quantity (though this rather seems unlikely versus an internally developed and supplied part) or maybe they were judged to sound better and thereby a design change was spec'd. We'll probably never know. I own examples of the DA-1000 with both versions, and honestly the Hitachi DAC sounds fine to me. So, I question whether it was an issue of sound quality that drove the change.
 
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