SL-P2
Programmable Compact Disc Player
I finally scored one of these units for my personal system. This was another one of those "Holy Grail" pieces of equipment that each of us seems to go after. Back in the early days of CDs (1986) this was the model I originally wanted to get. Unfortunately, when I finally had the available funds to invest in a CD player, the model year had just changed and the SL-P2 couldn't be found anywhere. Fast forward nineteen years and I picked up a cosmetically mint, but only semi-functional unit on eBay for cheap. This particular unit had some tracking problems due to a bad (and no longer available) motor, so I knew the only way I could get it working again would be to find another one (or its little brother, the SL-P1) that was working and swap out the entire disk drive assembly. A few months, some patience, and a bit of luck brought a fully functional SL-P1 to me, and after a bit of transplant surgery, the SL-P2 now works like a charm and sounds sweet.
There are those who say that modern D/A converters and other components found in today's players are far and away better than those produced in the early days of CDs, and that is undoubtedly true. But these old players have a sound--warmer, more intimate--that I find preferable to the almost clinical exactness of today's players. I was simply blown away by how much better this old workhorse sounded on my system! These older units are also built like tanks, long before the days of mass produced, injection-molded black plastic everything that dominates the world of audio today. And c'mon...when was the last time you saw a modern CD or DVD player with a cool prism window with its own disk illuminator that actually lets you see the disk spinning as it plays?
This was last updated 27 April 2005.