the cheapest CD player from the 80s

[ChrisW6ATV]

Very cool!

There was a magazine starting in the mid-1980s called "Digital Audio" (later called "CD Review" and published into the 1990s or later), that had an article about the first sub-$100 CD player, a model that sold for US$88 perhaps about the same time as your player was made. I remember the review saying it sounded pretty decent, and also commenting on its fiber board cabinet bottom (they called it "cardboard").

Your experience is yet another thing I love about the CD format. Decades later, with NO adjustments or parts replacement, and it sounds as good as new.