Sony CDP-R1/DAS-R1 CD player Specifications

Sidebar 2: Specifications

Description: Two-piece CD player with separate D/A processor. Controls: CDP-R1: AC Power, Drawer Open/Close, Play, Pause, Track Advance/Retreat. DAS-R1: AC Power, Source selector (CD, Aux 1, Aux 2). Infra-red remote control.
Dimensions: Each unit 18.5" W by 5" H by 16" D. Weight: CDP-R1, 38 lbs; DAS-R1, 38 lbs.
Price: $8000 (1988); no longer available (2017). Approximate number of dealers: 20.
Manufacturer: Sony Corp., Park Ridge, NJ 07656 (1988); Sony Electronics, Inc., 16530 Via Esprillo, San Diego, CA 92127-1708 (2017). Tel: (858) 942-2400. Web: www.sony.com.

COMPANY INFO
Sony Electronics, Inc.
16530 Via Esprillo
San Diego, CA 92127-1708
(858) 942-2400
ARTICLE CONTENTS

COMMENTS
volvic's picture

Always wanted one could never afford it. It also represents the height of Sony's creative powers and a time when they were a leader in high and mid-fi. I also associate this gear with an era and time when physical media and retail outlets that sold CD's ruled, sadly now gone.

Axiom05's picture

When did this originally appear in Stereophile?

volvic's picture

Late 1987, early 1988.

volvic's picture

Looking at it again, it could still look current in any modern home set up. Beautiful, so loved Sony during that era.

John Atkinson's picture
Axiom05 wrote:
When did this originally appear in Stereophile?

December 1988. For some reason, the field in the database was blank. I have added the date.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

Salvador Rodenas's picture

Hello everybody specially to John Atkinson, I'm not sure if he planned to reprint this review or not, before I made a request. Anyway, I thanks him publically for doing it. I own the R-1 combo and I can tell for experience that the sound of this CD sound is in the same league of that offered by my SCD-1 in SACD format. Despite some ad claims, the wheel isn't invented every year.

klara's picture

Oh I;m starting to remember my VCR. I still have hundreds of tapes and a working player but then I still have hundreds of cassettes and a car and a player that will play them. In a few years I will be able to say I have hundreds of DVD's and CD's. I also have hundreds of photos on floppy discs that I cannot look at, and at some point I will have 10000 photos on my computer that will be unusable. But I have photos from the 30's on paper that I was just looking at the other day and will be able to look at forever, the black and white ones, the colored ones have mostly faded away.
Still, like Craig said "the VCR offers really no advantages over new technology” and in a few years the same might be said bout DVD or CD player. Actually had to type my essay on the issue and came up with some interesting points:
1) If you are watching a VHS tape with lots of shows/segments, and you stop watching it and put it back on the shelf, the next time you get it out and put it in the VCR to play it you know exactly where you previously stopped watching it. You can't do that with a DVD.
2) Most people only have DVD PLAYERS--not recorders. VCRs record.
3) VCRs would record any show that you wanted. Apparently DVD recorders can't record shows that have a blocking signal in them.
4) VCRs could record 6-8 straight hours of the same channel just by pressing 'record' or setting a single program. With most DVRs you have to set it to record each show individually.
5) You could set your VCR to record at the same day and time each week, or the same time every day, or the same time every M-F, so you could record the same show (for example the 9 a.m. playing of 'SportsCenter') without having it automatically record every other time that show airs repeatedly during the day. To do that with a DVR you have to go to that airing on each day's schedule and hit record (assuming that the listings don't distinguish between new episodes and repeats).
6) With a VCR, you can have as large a collection of recordings as you want. If you run out of new tapes, you could just go buy some more. With a DVR you have a maximum capacity, at which point you have to start deleting programs to make more room.
7) You could record something on VHS and take it with you to another room with a VCR--or even another house. You could lend the tape to friends/family for them to watch at their own house. With a DVR you have to watch it in the room where it was recorded (except that you can watch it on your computer/phone/tablet if you have Xfinity X1).
8) With a VCR you can keep your recordings forever. With a DVR if you cancel your cable you lose your whole collection.

hollowman's picture

The followups to the D/A processors were the "Pulse"-based DAS-R1a and DAS-R10. The latter is very elusive. No service manual or schematic. The R10 was, perhaps, the finest Red-Book DAC ever made. It is rare as hen's teeth including reviews and literature about it.

Sometimes, a major manuf. will produce such a product, with a very high price point, as proof-of-concept and (possibly) to sell to executives and oil barons with deep pockets. Such as the case with the Schlumberger TT. Designed by the French Oil company Schlumberger /

Perhaps the CEO was an audiophile, and asked some of his engineers to design and make the ultimate turntable for his own use.
Not an uncommon occurrence! Mr Matsushita (parent of Panasonic/Technics/National) was a bicycle fan. And that led to the Panasonic bicycle company (no longer made but highly prized by enthusiasts).
Back to Schlumberger TT. Seems to have been made in 1970 with a linear arm, and highly engineered drive system . It can sound THIS good:

https://youtu.be/9PNtvgjCVe0

X