Grundig CD7500

The CD 7500 is in fact -you guessed it- a Philips CD303.

Unlike the original Philips, the CD7500 is fairly rare although also available in black style.
The CD7500 was btw originally planned to be named CD3000.

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 difference in track skipping procedure : pressing "next" or dialing in a track number to go to will only put the drive in muted 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.

Grundig did keep the wonderful green lighting of the loading tray Philips designed for the CD303.
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 CD7500, in spades, and it doesn't ever since.


A nice large image and plenty more to come about the CD7500 at the indispensable
vintage-audio-laser.com ; about Grundig in general here.