“Don’t let these clothes fool you! I’ve got money!” – Paul R. Beane, famed Lubbock Broadcaster

Occasionally on the internet B&O collectors are miffed at certain comments made toward various B&O products. In particular, the CD X. The CD X has been accused of being a “shadow” of the Philips CD100. Take a look for yourself.

Well, the basics are there. Indeed the CD X is a much prettier box. If we go further we can say the famous ReVox B225 CD player uses the same transport as the CD100. I know because I have seen it after tearing down a ReVox for comparison. As for the Philips CD100, where in the United States will I be able to see one? Probably the same place I might find Danish Chilli.

So, how far should we complain about such issues? Philips is indeed a very strong company and manufactures machines with a high percentage of parts manufactured from their own resources. It is impossible to begin a short discussion on shadows in the audio world… the discussion would last well into the next daybreak if not the next decade. And I really need more sleep!

If we look at the automotive world we can see such variations on themes. When a particularly nice car comes out (Mazda Miata/MX-5, for instance) the first owners in any community stand out. After more of these cars are found on the street the excitement dwindles down until the Miata MegaForce Option is released. Then the original trendsetters become passe motorists. Further, specialty custom shops are willing to turn any passe automobile into a “one of a kind”. Once the passe automobile begins to bounce at the flip of a button under the dashboard supreme shadowing is a reality. With my Hyperbo 5CD I am as guilty as sin but I would NEVER do such a thing to a CD X unless performance improvements or parts problems are an issue. I hope when I am dead and gone that my CD X does not become a boat anchor. It would look nice just sitting there somewhere.

You can tell how good a bad joke is by the number of moans it produces. Let me hit you with a really good moaner… “What do you call a Chinese woman who works for the postal service?… Mai Ling”. You can also tell how good a custom automobile is by how many speeding/acceleration tickets a 17 year old mook has to the car’s credit.

I recall reading an article about an automotive executive who had a very nice classic vehicle in storage. On one occasion he took a friend to see the car. The executive was not aware that some of his engineers had toyed with the car and turned it into a real Los Angeles Barrio Wagon as a joke! Talk about the shadows and laughs over that Curtain of Charity! Weird to say the least!

The CD X is just plain weird and beautiful. The PLAY button is actually a Power button. The Play command is truly a Play command. Weird… two play functions! The Stop command is actually a Pause command. The servo board is alien and very discrete. The decoder board is what we usually like to see in a CD player… lots of CD specific chips. Unlike the CD 3300 which can be tested via software commands and individualization of PC boards the CD X must be tested as a complete unit. For goodness sake, the front control panel microprocessor sends a reset pulse to the slave microprocessor! This makes for a very difficult machine to troubleshoot at times. This is particularly annoying when an untrained technician accidentally installs the I2C command lines into an empty adjacent slot without thinking. The result? A burned out front panel microprocessor due to 12 volts DC being sent directly into one of the I2C lines. Ouch. Usually the LED display and LED driver chip may survive such catastrophe so the final cash investment is under $100. If the LED display and the MM driver chip go we can add up to $150 for a full repair of this accident. I recall the first time I saw the “empty slot” and it threw me for a loop. Thank goodness I questioned the CD X on this point at that time. I didn’t charge my client for the extra 30 minutes it required to understand the empty slot issue.

All in all the CD X is a pretty keen machine. If Carroll Shelby doesn’t own one then he might not know anything about Mustangs! He sure knows his chilli, though!

© Copyright Anthony Garza, used with permission.