I bought my RXD-700 CD-Receiver a couple of years ago and still marvel at its pure design: A dominating volume knob, just the required buttons to switch between tuner, cd and an aux input, and a prominent VFD display. All other buttons - of which there are plenty - are accessible behind a latch and hidden most of the time.
I bought the RXD-700 because of its elegant design, and because the name Sony inspired confidence in its inner values. I have not been disappointed, both the design as well as the electronics and mechanics stood the test of time. Now, this is not high-endreceiver, it is not conceived for the power- or feature-hungry user, and for many, the sheer idea of packing a CD player in a receiver is reason alone not to buy this unit. Maybe this is why the unit never sold in huge numbers, and apparently was not a big hit for Sony. Another reason might be the champagne color, reminescent of the classic Esprit series, but difficult to combine with other devices in black or silver.
There are two things I dislike - or maybe that's too strong a word, I should say, appreciate less - about the RXD-700: The CD player door is of simple plastic (as opposed to the rest of the frontplate, including the bottom latch hiding the many small buttons), and the player lacks CD-Text, although the VFD display could make perfectly good use of that (and does so for all the RDS services!).
A nice touch of the unit is its built-in clock, which also serves as an alarm. For many years, the RXD- 700 was my alarm clock! And did I mention that the unit has a nice remote-control, with a motor driving the volume knob? Time will give me reason: The RXD-700 merits to be considered a classic of the 90s.
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