The CD 303 is an updated CD 300, still fully first generation Compact Disc Player, although the last of the three original Philips to reach its definitive shape and layout. The update consists of the addition of a digital display. The rest is exactly the same and can be found under the Marantz CD-73 and Grundig CD7500 banners.

Inside is the everlasting CDM-1 which many still consider as the best CD drive ever produced. It is no wonder most of the 1982-1986 CD players using the CDM-0, CDM-1, CDM-2 and the first two versions of the CDM-4 are still playing as if the 25 years separating them from today hadn't existed ! These drives were built to last a full lifetime. The very early production units sported the CDM-0.

If the CD 300 and CD 303 didn't sell as much as the smaller, cheaper, but mechanically identical CD 100, there are plenty of them around just the same. I for one was lucky enough to find a new-old-stock CD 303 in its original and never opened box. I am now using it daily and if the sonics ar no match for my Sony CDP-X777ES, let alone the d/a section of my DTC-2000ES DAT, they are still fully respectable. The digital to analog section is the same as in the CD 100 or later CD 104 : TDA-1540 and SAA-7020.

Looks-wise much more impressive in the flesh. The green LEDs set inside the drawer siding the spinning CD give a mysterious and glowing atmosphere which no other CD player I have seen managed to evoke as naively and, thus, effectively.

Also, I know that when my two CDP-X777ES' laser blocks will have gone to dust, my CD 303 will still be playing CDs like it did in 1983, in 1993 and in 2003. And like it will in 2013, in 2023 and, quite probably, in 2033. With a bit of soldering, one can easily add a PCM output to any of those players to have them become unbeatable and everlasting drives.

Prototypes of the Philips CD 303 and Marantz CD-73 can be seen in the Invisibilia section of this website.