Statement CD player with a fairly limited production run but which sold very well nevertheless.
The technology inside is... well - each brand had its own kitchen recipe for d/a conversion, servo accuracy and more. Here, the digital filter works on 20bit / 8fs for 22bit accuracy and the two d/a ICs themselves are of the Bitstream / 1bit kind, followed by two I-PDM correction chips - a sort of time base corrector for audio.
FET stages, beefy EI trafo, 15A recifiers, 48,000µF of caps, large PCB tracks, 160g brass clamp etc - the works.
500k¥ and 24kg - impressive there, too. But after all, GT did stand for Gigantic & Tremendous, as originally coined for the GT-2000 series.
However, the GT-CD1 drive is a Victor motor, as used in Victor's own XL-Z999EX (and variants) and the Denon DP-S1 : easily recognizable with its star-shape and 4mm spindle, also used in the 1990 Yamaha CDX-1050.
Remebering the many Micro Seiki direct-drive motors were made by Victor, the early to mid 1990s japanese high-end seems to have been party time for inter-brand technology lending, mending, sharing and borrowing !
The GT-CD2 is basically the same but cheaper on the drive itself, the puck and the non-glossy wood ; it also has only s-e outputs.
But, facing front, bar the natural wood, they look identical.