Introducing the World’s First 3D Printed Ultra High-End CD Player

Whether you like to listen to your favorite music on an old-school record player, an iPod, or a CD player, typically you would do so on a device that you purchase online or at a retail store. For one group of developers, friends, and inventors at Botz&Us, they simply didn’t want to follow convention. Instead, they wanted to think outside of the box and create their own unique music player.

Led by a man who calls himself “Andrei the maker,” they decided to create what we believe is the first ever 3D printed CD player — and we aren’t just talking about your normal run-of-the-mill CD player either. We are talking about an ultra high-end machine.

“I have been building speakers for about 12 years now, so I was always very passionate about audio, music and building/modifying audio equipment – a strong hearted audiophile,” Andrei tells 3DPrint.com. “One of my friends makes these amazing audio kits — amplifiers, volume controllers, cd-players etc., and they are very very high end kits – we are talking equipment that costs £300-£500 in kit form and will match anything over £1500-£2000 – just to set the scene.”

Since Andrei got his MakerGear M2 3D printer a little while ago, he’d been dreaming of printing out a pair of working speakers as well as cases for his equipment.

“The point is that with 3D printing you can do some fancy stuff for vibration damping, combine different materials and create composite structures with pockets, etc., to get very interesting damping and response,” Andrei tells us.

This gave him the idea to try to create a 3D printed CD player, one which could far exceed the quality put out by your conventional music players on the market today. Using SolidWorks, Andrei designed all of the mechanical parts, the case, the internal structure, the optical block’s support, and various other “minor” additions. Then using his MakerGear M2 equipped with an E3D V6 + Volcano hot end featuring a large 0.8mm nozzle, he 3D printed the needed parts.

“Now with a normal nozzle, say 0.4mm, this would take hours — about 11 hours just for the base and side walls,” Andrei explains. “In total it would take more than 32 hours on a generic setup. This is where E3D comes into [play though]. It is one truly amazing nozzle and the prints it makes are absolutely amazing — very strong and very fast. The whole unit now takes about 6 hours for all parts needed to print.”

As you can see in the photos and videos that Andrei provided to 3DPrint.com, this CD player doesn’t look like your traditional CD player you would find at a store. At the same time, Andrei tells us that the performance is “absolutely phenomenal.” He has benchmarked it against other CD players by companies such as Arcam, Audiolab, Burmest, Sugen, and Cyrus.

“It is up there with these guys,” Andrei tells us. “Overall it is an amazing player and a great performer.”

Andrei and his team are not yet done. This is just the first iteration of the 3D printed CD player, as he tells us he is currently just finishing his next version, which will be 3D printed in exotic filaments such as wood and carbon fiber.

What do you think about this incredibly unique 3D printed creation? Would you like to get your hands on this high quality CD player? Discuss in the 3D Printed CD Player forum thread on 3DPB.com. Check out the video below of the CD player in action.