I bought a CD player in 1986, partly out of curiosity. I think that the first CD I bought was Duke Ellington: All Star Road Band. Around the same time, I picked up some Japanese Riverside and Prestige reissues - The Unique Thelonious Monk, Brilliant Corners, Sonny Rollins Plus 4. All of these sounded good back then and still do.
That said, there were some terrible sounding CD issues back then. I've gotten rid of those.