NEC CD-803E (1983)
Twenty-six pounds of first-generation CD ambition, priced high and built like a tank.
Overview
The CD-803E showed up at the very front of the Compact Disc era. It weighs 26.4 lbs. (12 kg) and measures 16.93 inches wide by 5.9 inches tall by 14.17 inches deep. That is a big player. Audio (September 1983, p.19) called it "physically one of the biggest players in the market" when it appeared at that summer's Consumer Electronics Show. Manufacturers were still working out how to pack laser optics, servo systems and early digital decoding into something a consumer would put on a shelf, and the size shows it.
The specs NEC published were serious for the time. Frequency response is quoted as 5 Hz to 20 kHz. Dynamic range and signal-to-noise ratio are both "more than 90 dB," and total harmonic distortion is under 0.01% across the full band. Channel separation is rated at more than 70 dB. Wow and flutter is listed as "below measurable limits," a phrase that was still a novelty in consumer audio in 1983. Output is 1.5 volts fixed, with a variable output adjustable from 0 to 1.5 volts. Average access time is 3 seconds. The player draws 48 watts from a 120 V, 50/60 Hz supply. Original list price was $1,300, though Audio (September 1983, p.19) reported an expected selling price of $1,000 at the trade-show debut. So pinning down what these actually cost at retail takes some care.
The feature set is deep. A numeric keypad lets you program up to 99 selections for playback in any order, and a "Sub" key permits programming by index numbers within a track, not just by track number. The front panel carries the full transport set - play, fast forward, reverse, stop, pause - plus Repeat, Memo, Memo Play and Clear keys for managing stored programs. The display shows elapsed time from the start of the current selection, total elapsed time from the start of the disc, remaining time to the end of the current selection, and total remaining time to the end of the disc. It also shows the program number, pre-emphasis status and programming-error indication. The rear panel has two sets of output jacks (fixed and variable), an output level control for the variable pair, a headphone level control, a voltage selector, and an Auto Start switch for use with an external timer.
The remote control set it apart. A battery-powered infrared unit duplicates the transport buttons and the numeric, Sub, Memo, M Play, Repeat, Search and Clear keys. It works over roughly a 30-degree off-axis angle at distances up to about 15 feet. Audio (September 1983, p.19) noted that the CD-803E was "one of the few CD players offering wireless remote control of all functions." In the early CD market that was a real distinction.
NEC's approach to filtering shaped how the player was received. The company developed what it called ND (non-delay) filters for pre- and post-D/A conversion, cutting off frequencies above 20 kHz. NEC's own literature claimed the filters produced sound "clear and utterly devoid of phase distortion throughout the entire audible frequency range." Audio (November 1983, p.53) reported that the exact circuit details were not made available to the reviewer, who suspected NEC's decoding approach leaned more toward Philips (and Magnavox in the U.S.) than toward Sony. The review also noted a purported phase-shift correction filter, similar in concept to the Meyer Sound MS-8201 that had been covered in the March 1983 issue of Audio.
Audio (November 1983, p.53) was emphatic about the sound. It called the sound quality of the NEC unit "excellent; certainly as good - in every nuance - as that of any CD player I have tested thus far." The reviewer went further and stated that the sound quality "cannot be faulted in any way."
The criticisms were just as specific. Audio (November 1983, p.56) found the front-panel complexity exasperating. The fast-forward and reverse features were sometimes erratic, with the laser pickup occasionally bouncing back to the track currently being played when the user wanted to advance. Search and scanning did not operate quite as quickly as claimed. Programming, while more elaborate than on any other machine tested to that point and capable of handling more tracks, was "a bit too complicated for my taste." The same reviewer noted that the unit failed to accomplish the same degree of error correction that other players managed, particularly when traversing the opaque wedge and in dust-simulation tests. The size and weight also drew direct criticism: the reviewer wondered why it had to be quite so large and so heavy when other players offered essentially the same playing and programming features.
The error-correction shortfall is the detail that matters most to anyone considering one today. Early CD players varied widely in their ability to mask missing data, and the CD-803E was reportedly behind some contemporaries. On clean, well-pressed discs this is unlikely to matter. On marginal or scratched media, it may.
Collectibility is a mixed picture. The CD-803E is a first-wave CD player from a major Japanese manufacturer. It has the wireless remote, which, like all such accessories, is frequently missing from used examples. It also earned a strong sonic endorsement from a major review publication. Against that, it is enormous, front-panel operation is fiddly, and it does not have the name recognition among collectors that some early Sony and Philips machines enjoy. Period dealer listings show the model trading used for $500 in 1986 and $450 by 1987, a steep drop from its four-figure original price. Current market values are not documented here.
For the collector, the CD-803E is best understood as a time capsule of 1983 CD engineering: overbuilt, feature-dense, sonically capable, and ergonomically awkward. It rewards patience and a clean disc collection. The remote, when present, is a genuine bonus. The weight is not a bug — it is the physical signature of an era when nobody yet knew how small a CD player could be.
eBay Listings
As an eBay Partner, we earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support our independent vintage technology research.