Happy 29th birthday, Compact Disc!!
- Thread starter soundboy
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krazygrrl
Well-Known Member
Mine too. It was very warm sounding. It was super-duper basic, not even a search function within the tracks. :yes:
Doug G.
Lunatic Member
My first CD player was a 1985 Fisher AD-823 and was pretty basic but it DID have index search, fast forward, fast backward, and a cool little window so you could look in there and see if a disc was wobbling.
It also was able to repair discs that skipped on other players.
I thought it sounded fine.
Doug
It also was able to repair discs that skipped on other players.
I thought it sounded fine.
Doug
Better celebrate while sales of the format is on an upswing
As we all remember, it was 29 years ago today when Sony Japan unleashed the Compact Disc upon music consumers.
From wikipedia....
Leave it to the Japanese! A virtual Pearl Harbor on all that was right with the audio world.
krazygrrl
Well-Known Member
I think that is not only pretty strong, but really misplaced as well. The CD was and is, a stroke of sheer brilliance. Just because the various manufacturers chose not to utilize the medium to its full capacity, is certainly not the CD's fault.
:sigh:
mike d
Well-Known Member
I was really late on the CD scene....maybe 1990 or 91! My first player was a Technics single disc machine...the first discs I bought were Concrete Blonde's Bloodletting and Floyd's D.S.O.T.M.! A friend of mine had given me The Joshua Tree and The Moody Blues 'The Other Side of Life'....just so I would have something to listen to when I got home from work!
! A friend of mine had given me The Joshua Tree and The Moody Blues 'The Other Side of Life'....just so I would have something to listen to when I got home from work!
krazygrrl
Well-Known Member
I was really late on the CD scene....maybe 1990 or 91! My first player was a Technics single disc machine...the first discs I bought were Concrete Blonde's Bloodletting and Floyd's D.S.O.T.M.
Hi Mike... greeting to Canada!
It is never too late. I started much later than that. The Joshua Tree is a lovely!!!
I much prefer single disc players over these multi-players, but hey, that is just me.
blackfly
Fidelius Claritus
I agree. A well recorded album on CD on a good system truly is remarkable. I find all those who put CD down as a non-format tend to be heavily biased in favour of LP, not good sound, period. The CD is given a bad rap based on mathematical therory (16 bit, 44.1K) but as Einstein often said "that which counts often can't be counted, that which can be counted seldom ever counts". I stand by this reasoning.
TerryO
Super Member
Just remember that many at the time, wanted higher bit rates than 16/44 including Dr. Thomas Stockham who invented the digital recorder. He thought that it wasn't good enough and the newer formats certainly have proved him right. A few months back (in April) our Audio Club had a presentation by Jules Blumenthal, who built Soundstream #1 by hand (and which he now owns), to play the original digital recordings for Telarc's 1812 Overture, The Rites of Spring, etc. It was absolutely excellent, far better than any commercial CD version.
All the original scientists and engineers from Soundstream, Dr. Harry Lee, Bruce Rothaar and Jim Russell (who also pioneered the CD) also attended (with the exception of Dr. Stockham, who unfortunately passed away at a fairly early age) and each gave a brief talk about various aspects of the digital recording and reproduction process.
Best Regards,
TerryO
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70salesguy
Only 99 easy payments!
That picture of the Magnavox (Phillips) CD Player was "borrowed" from me. I still have that player. I don't think it is "ugly" at all. IIRC, at least 2 companies sold a "modified" version of that player at prices multiple times higher than what the Magnavox sold for! Perhaps it was Mission and Meridian?
Mine still operates perfectly and sounds great! I have other players, but the Magnavox remains my favorite. I was probably one of the first 10 people in the county where I live to purchase a CD player.
I actually purchased my first CD a few weeks prior to purchasing the player. It was Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.
Back then, there were no stores in the county that sold CDs. You had to go to Charlotte to find them. As a result, I became a customer of a mail order CD wholesaler that would sell to me with a minimum order of 25 discs. I worked with a bunch of other folks that worked long hours as I did and were ready to purchase CDs but had little time to go to Charlotte. They paid $1 over cost to cover shipping and handling, which was still cheaper than in the store. That extra $1 would cover shipping and pay for 1 CD for me in each order.
Eventually, the availablilty of discs at local stores eliminated the need to mail order them.
palasr
Active Member
I see little reason to celebrate. The CD is a self-limiting medium, and should be put to rest as soon as possible - you do know that it's original intent wasn't for music, but rather medium density data storage as pioneered by Philips. By simple virtue of the fact that so many competing physical digital formats - DVD-A, SACD, Blu-Ray, etc - have come (and gone) to market since the advent of the Redbook standard 29 years ago says everything you need to know; the race for ever higher sampling rates and word lengths is an ongoing battle, especially on the professional side of the story. You'll find very few recording studios that adhere to the Redbook standard for capture and recording, only dithering down to output a final consumer product for the masses (the CD or worse) Today's constant desire for miniaturization and subsequent lossy compression algorithms (MP3, et al) takes us further and further from the artistic intent, with less and less information available to the listener (if you can't hear the difference between an MP3 and a standard CD of the same material, your problems go deeper). The kids today don't even know what they're missing, because they've never heard/experienced it to begin with.
Thanks, I've had my rant and feel better. Have a pleasant weekend.
Thanks, I've had my rant and feel better. Have a pleasant weekend.
The cd is my favorite medium for listening to music. I am willing to trade the warmth of vinyl for the convenience & scratchless sound of the cd. The majority of the albums I still have are not in the greatest of shape & it would be too expensive for me to replace them. (If I could find them.) I have around 2,000 cds and will continue to buy them as long as they are available. As a matter of fact I think I will stroll down to my local music store next week & buy a few cds to celebrate their birthday!
krazygrrl
Well-Known Member
Hear Hear!! :thmbsp: I too think that the CD is a fabulous medium, although I have far fewer CDs as you do, but I will continue to buy them as well. :yes:
daviddeep
Well-Known Member
I'll always have a soft spot for the the Compact Disc format. It came out when I was a teenager and it seemed quite futuristic at the time. No needles, no surface noise, and not having to brush off the CD before every play seemed like a revelation.
I got my first player (a nice enough but unspectacular Technics SL-PJ1) in the fall of 1985. I also remember having to save up to be able to afford CDs which cost close to $20 at a time when that same money would buy more than a tank of gas, and most LPs cost less than half as much.
I got my first player (a nice enough but unspectacular Technics SL-PJ1) in the fall of 1985. I also remember having to save up to be able to afford CDs which cost close to $20 at a time when that same money would buy more than a tank of gas, and most LPs cost less than half as much.
SingleAction
Active Member
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You got something better to do?