Tandberg 3015A (ca. 1987)
The Tandberg 3015A is a compact disc player, and the period press rated it unusually well. In the U.S., the address given for inquiries was Tandberg, 122 Dupont St., Plainview, N.Y. 11803. The list price at review time was a serious $1,895, which put it squarely in high-end territory.
Audio (November 1987, p.142) was emphatic. The reviewer had surveyed more than 100 CD players and called the 3015A one of the best he had ever heard. He also noted it was the first Philips-based 16-bit player that genuinely sounded better than the earlier Philips 14-bit machines. The implication was that Tandberg had taken a good digital platform and improved it with careful analog engineering. The continuation of that review (p.144) pointed to the output stage, which used polypropylene capacitors and high-precision metal resistors.
A six-player comparison in HiFI-Stereo (December 1988, p.84) placed the 3015A alongside the Cambridge Audio CD2, Denon DCD-1520, Philips CD-960, Sony CDP-707ESD, and Yamaha CDX-1110U. The surviving scan keeps only the table's structure, not its full measurements.
Beyond these reviews, documentation on the 3015A is thin. No service literature, catalog sheets, or production dates have surfaced in the usual channels. Tandberg is far better remembered for its open-reel and cassette decks than for digital audio.
Known from period reviews:
- Philips-based 16-bit CD player
- Polypropylene capacitors and high-precision metal resistors in the analog output stage
- Price at first review (Nov 1987): $1,895
- U.S. distribution: Tandberg, 122 Dupont St., Plainview, N.Y. 11803
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