Grundig CD 7500
(1983 - 1984)

The CD 7500 is in fact -you guessed it- a Philips CD 303.
Unlike the original Philips, the CD 7500 is fairly rare although also available in the 1984 catalogs in a black version which I have never seen outside said 1984 catalogs... The CD 7500 was btw originally planned to be named CD 3000.

Time display is limited to "relative" and "absolute" (relative for track time, absolute for disc time) while the two rows of green LEDs indicate the number of tracks present on the CD (top) and the track currently played (bottom).
What feels strange nowadays about these 1st gen' players is the imossibility to skip directly to a track: pressing "next" will only put the drive in fast-forward mode until it bumps on the next Q tag. A little slow indeed but still faster than any tape-based format ! None of this, however, prohibits proper music listening which only needs one button (Play) to begin.

I don't know if Grundig kept the wonderful green lighting of the loading tray Philips did design for the CD 303. It was a lighting which turned playing a CD into something far more high-end, intriguing and science-fiction-esque than any mega-buck Wadia... Compact Disc was exciting then, and really close to science-fiction: it did show on the CD 303, in spades, and it doesn't ever since.