Various vertical CD players were built during the first 30 Years of CD but in this article we would focus on first generation vertical CD players. These are interesting because both inventors of the CD player, SONY and PHILIPS made their first generation CD player as horizontal playing CD units. SONY opted for tray loading while PHILIPS went with top loading, closely followed by a tray loading model.
The two biggest first generation CD player manufacturers were of course SONY and PHILIPS. While SONY havent supplied it's units to be rebadged by other manufacturers PHILIPS had many rebadged versions. The biggest supplier of these first generation CD players was however HITACHI. Below you can see the HITACHI based models that came from japanese manufacturers:
HITACHI DA-1000
Lo-D DAD-1000
(Brand name used by HITACHI for the japanese domestic market)
JVC XL-V1
Victor XL-V1
(Brand name used by JVC for the japanese domestic market)
DENON DCD-2000
With an intense activity around the launch of compact disc, french company THOMSON became the main supplier in Europe for these vertical loading CD players from HITACHI. THOMSON owned by this time several french and german brands, so the HITACHI vertical cd player was sold under at least 7 different brand names, including a THOMSON rebadge as well. These are the THOMSON distributed HITACHI vertical cd players:
THOMSON AD 100
BRANDT DAD-001
CONTINENTAL EDISON DAD-9370
DUAL CD 120
NORDMENDE Audio Digital System 2000
PATHE MARCONI PMLA10
SABA CDP-380
