The CD Turns 30 Today

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The CD turns 30 today. The first compact disc player and commercially available CD were launched on October 1st, 1982.

On October 1 1982, Joel’s sixth studio album, 52nd Street, was the first commercially released CD album…which means CDs are 30-years-old today. It’s worth noting here that 52nd Street wasn’t a new album – it was launched initially in 1978, but it was selected for relaunch on the new digital audio disc, rolling out alongside the first CD player – the Sony CDP-101 – in Japan.
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Holy cow I'm getting old, it just doesn't seem like that long ago.
 
It must have taken a long time for them to become popular. I don't remember seeing them much until the early 90s.
 
They were horrendously expensive initially. And had little content. But by the late 80s had come down considerably. We have some music CDs that were produced in West Germany during that time period. I want to keep them just for that.
 
Hehe, a bunch of you young grasshoppers don't remember a time *before* CD [DVD]. Like I don't remember a time *before* 8-track. :eek: I killed way too many Walkmans back in the day. :D
 
Have a story to share.

Around 1983 when I was 15 I was out with friends and one of them stopped at his older brothers apartment. He had something cool to show off. It was a Sony CD player and about 5 or 6 cd's. I do not remember what cd's were but I do remember he said he had to take a personal loan out from his bank for $500 or $600 to buy it.
 
ir0nw0lf said:
Hehe, a bunch of you young grasshoppers don't remember a time *before* CD [DVD]. Like I don't remember a time *before* 8-track. :eek: I killed way too many Walkmans back in the day. :D
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But do you remember 4-track or reel-to-reel tapes :)

Someone gave me an old reel-to-reel tape to play with when I was a kid, but I actually started with cassette tapes as I though there where a better solution than 8-track. Took a few years, but I was eventually proven correct :)
 
Man oh man.

My first CD player was a crappy TEAC I got cheap from a pawn shop because it didn't work.
I took the cover off and found it had been a roach habitat. The lens of the laser pickup had some kind of spooge or something on it. I cleaned it up and it worked fine. This was back when a single disc CD player was $150-$250 with just basic features.
I had a few CDs that I purchased anticipating the day I would finally be able to afford a CD player.
I think the first thing I listen to was Floyd; Dark side of the Moon. An album I probably heard 100 times on cassette tape. I was floored at the dynamic range and the low noise of a CD. I gleefully advanced to the next track by just pushing the button. BIG deal back then. Before this you had to have an expensive cassette deck with the "track seek" feature and that didn't always work (wouldn't work at all with a live album).
The LAST CD player I bought (for home use) was a Philips CDC875. This is was a 6 disc player that uses a magazine. This is back when Philips they sold the stuff made in the Netherlands in the US. Some very high quality gear. This unit would play a CD-R audio CD. That is significant because this was made before the CD-R format was invented. I still have the player; but the laser pickup is getting weak. I hung on this piece and long since sold off all my other high end Philips gear. (I use to work for Philips/Magnavox)
 
codeflux said:
what's a CD? :)
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I had to look it up in Wikipedia to figure it out. I think I have it right, but maybe one of the forum's fossils can correct me if I get it wrong...

It's like a MicroSD card that stores a lot less stuff and is big and circular. Also, it's harder to use them to rewrite data since you have to use some kind of laser thingey on it. If there's evidence you don't want people to find written to it, they're probably a lot harder to swallow than a SD card too.
 
@Dr. Righteous--do you remember these?

http://www.hifinews.co.uk/news/article/philips-cd100--vintage/9401/

I inherited one from a rich audiophile friend in the mid-80s after he saw how much I loved it. I felt I had died and gone to Heaven since CD again offered random access like the old vinyl LP albums but without the hiss, scratch and constant care they required. Also had A-B repeat I think which has pretty much died out over the years. The top loading affair was always a bit finicky and I finally bought my first "slide out" model at Radio Shack around 1988--paid a ton for it too as I recall.

I do remember spending most of a paycheck buying Deutsche Gramophone classical recordings and looking for DDD versions to get the most bang for the buck as opposed to AAD or ADD versions. I have always preferred the single-player versions and the last I bought is a Marantz model single player. Don't use it so much any more since the computer has a CD player. Still have some of the expensive Deutsche Gramophone CDs and they still play flawlessly!
 
I remember by big bro bringin' home a cd player when I was young. He was ranting about spreading jam on them and them still working, lol.

Them were the days :D
 
joblo37pam said:
It must have taken a long time for them to become popular. I don't remember seeing them much until the early 90s.
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Wasn't it like, a luxury item that people referred to, like DVDs were considered in the late 90's?

Hell, I remember being a kid in the 80's and my parents finally got around to getting a stereo system with a CD player on it. It was this huge monstrocity that they put on their 'entertainment system' right above their record player that had those massive headphones for.

What did my parents use it for back then? Neil Diamond CDs. It wasn't until I was a teenager in the mid 90's that I realized they had good music on CDs too.
 
I was just excited that I could skip to the next song with the push of a button instead of hitting the fast forward button, stop, play, (not there yet), fast forward, stop, play, (still not there yet), fast forward, stop, play, (shit I went too far), rewind, stop, play........the tape broke. Where is the scotch tape?
 
ballistic90 said:
Wasn't it like, a luxury item that people referred to, like DVDs were considered in the late 90's?
Click to expand...

I would have to assume that's the case. I was young, but I don't remember ever seeing a CD player until I was in junior high in the early 90s. It just seems odd that it took a decade or better for them to gain any popularity.

MP3 players have been around for a little over a decade now, but have been mostly popular since their inception.
 
The best feature on those portable CD players was the anti-skip came along :cool:
 
cocheese256 said:
I was just excited that I could skip to the next song with the push of a button instead of hitting the fast forward button, stop, play, (not there yet), fast forward, stop, play, (still not there yet), fast forward, stop, play, (shit I went too far), rewind, stop, play........the tape broke. Where is the scotch tape?
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LOL!

Reminds me when I was a kid and I wanted a tape recorder for Christmas.
I got one but only 1 friggin cassette. Getting more tapes was not going to happen.
So I used it until the tape gave up. That was the end of it.
 
tordogs said:
@Dr. Righteous--do you remember these?

http://www.hifinews.co.uk/news/article/philips-cd100--vintage/9401/

I inherited one from a rich audiophile friend in the mid-80s after he saw how much I loved it. I felt I had died and gone to Heaven since CD again offered random access like the old vinyl LP albums but without the hiss, scratch and constant care they required. Also had A-B repeat I think which has pretty much died out over the years. The top loading affair was always a bit finicky and I finally bought my first "slide out" model at Radio Shack around 1988--paid a ton for it too as I recall.

I do remember spending most of a paycheck buying Deutsche Gramophone classical recordings and looking for DDD versions to get the most bang for the buck as opposed to AAD or ADD versions. I have always preferred the single-player versions and the last I bought is a Marantz model single player. Don't use it so much any more since the computer has a CD player. Still have some of the expensive Deutsche Gramophone CDs and they still play flawlessly!
Click to expand...

That is one of the really old models before even my time.
Philips had probably the best design in the laser pickup on the market. It was a radial linear motor, without gears, or the threaded shaft most use today. It had a very fast seek time and was very reliable.
 
Dr. Righteous said:
Man oh man.

My first CD player was a crappy TEAC I got cheap from a pawn shop because it didn't work.
I took the cover off and found it had been a roach habitat. The lens of the laser pickup had some kind of spooge or something on it. I cleaned it up and it worked fine. This was back when a single disc CD player was $150-$250 with just basic features.
I had a few CDs that I purchased anticipating the day I would finally be able to afford a CD player.
I think the first thing I listen to was Floyd; Dark side of the Moon. An album I probably heard 100 times on cassette tape. I was floored at the dynamic range and the low noise of a CD. I gleefully advanced to the next track by just pushing the button. BIG deal back then. Before this you had to have an expensive cassette deck with the "track seek" feature and that didn't always work (wouldn't work at all with a live album).
The LAST CD player I bought (for home use) was a Philips CDC875. This is was a 6 disc player that uses a magazine. This is back when Philips they sold the stuff made in the Netherlands in the US. Some very high quality gear. This unit would play a CD-R audio CD. That is significant because this was made before the CD-R format was invented. I still have the player; but the laser pickup is getting weak. I hung on this piece and long since sold off all my other high end Philips gear. (I use to work for Philips/Magnavox)
Click to expand...

I've had a cheap portable CD player before that could read CD-R audio discs I recorded without problem, and I got it from my brother. I thought it came out before CD-Rs were even a thing. I was not aware it was a problem. In fact, I thought it was a function put into new CD players to keep them FROM playing CD-R formats.
 
I didn't realize CDs came out back when we still had vinyl, cassettes & 8-tracks to choose from.
Oh wow, so many blank stares out there...L:confused:L
 
I I still fucking use them because MP3 and compressed music sounds like ASS and I am not going to fucking pay for a ass sound compressed mp3 or other download format.

I rather buy the damn disc use cds at home and rip the damn disc to my phone or other mp3 players than p[ay for a crap mp3 only fucking apple hipsters are dumb enough to do that.

http://techland.time.com/2012/10/01/pono-neil-young/


Fucking neil young has the right IDEA I will pay for his new audio format as download or on bluray disc.

http://techland.time.com/2012/10/01/pono-neil-young/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GrgTiqZCF0&feature=player_embedded



<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2GrgTiqZCF0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


I will fucking hang on to CD's like dudes who grew up with vinyal records still vinyl onto it. If vinyl was not so fucking huge I would have more of them and If i had a fucking vinyl record player to play it. I have a big enough problem storing bad as looking lasterdisc for my pioneer laseractive even though I never watch the things anymore.
 
Cube said:
I I still fucking use them because MP3 and compressed music sounds like ASS and I am not going to fucking pay for a ass sound compressed mp3 or other download format.

I rather buy the damn disc use cds at home and rip the damn disc to my phone or other mp3 players than p[ay for a crap mp3 only fucking apple hipsters are dumb enough to do that.

http://techland.time.com/2012/10/01/pono-neil-young/


Fucking neil young has the right IDEA I will pay for his new audio format as download or on bluray disc.

http://techland.time.com/2012/10/01/pono-neil-young/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GrgTiqZCF0&feature=player_embedded



<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2GrgTiqZCF0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


I will fucking hang on to CD's like dudes who grew up with vinyal records still vinyl onto it. If vinyl was not so fucking huge I would have more of them and If i had a fucking vinyl record player to play it. I have a big enough problem storing bad as looking lasterdisc for my pioneer laseractive even though I never watch the things anymore.
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Can I nominate this for best crazed rant of the day?
 
Oh and the only vinyl i got is MJ's thriller and some special edtion sega vinyl records and I have never listen to them thriller was one of the first cds and it is the only way I listened to it on CDs.

and the CD player cost fucking $700 back in 1983 so I did not fucking see one outside a store as a kid until the 90s when they started to become common and not expensive and that whole cd-rom craze kicked off in fact my first cd player was the fucking sega CD/Sega cdx and Turbo duo/tg-16 cd and my CDrom drive in my PC. then they was common in the 90s.

I grew up with fucking Tapes until I was like 9 mostly bootleg tapes and some real tapes from the store, CD's was like some fucking future tech that used fucking lasers and kids was in awe and amazement.



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1-Sega-CD.jpg


Sega_CD_Console.gif
 
I just bought a Sony CDP-101 off ebay...

Im going to fucking fix it and turn it into a shrine for the CD format.
 
Cube said:
I just bought a Sony CDP-101 off ebay...

Im going to fucking fix it and turn it into a shrine for the CD format.
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When I was a really little Skribbel, I put up a web shrine to a certain Final Fantasy character. Now that I'm a much more mature, adult Skribbel, I sort of think I was being silly. It never got any hits anyhow except from friends I asked told to visit so they could sign my guestbook.
 
I still borrow music CDs from the library (when I don't feel like listening to ads on Spotify).
 
I brought the Denon CD into the store back in 82 and it had incredible build quality and sold for $849.95. The problem was it sounded really bad so it actually made it easier to sell higher end turn tables and cartridges. Although the PCM recording process had been around for a while (on modified Beta and VHS tape machines) all the music engineers only knew analog and it took them years to get digital to sound “OK” but it really never sounded better than vinyl, CD never achieved the audio range of analog or vinyl. It wasn’t until Sony came up with SACD that digital was able to reproduce and exceed the frequency spread of analog.

Philips original idea was to sell a flat square piece of plastic as the media and scan it with a laser and it was a total bust with the public.

Sony realized if CD were to have a chance the media had to be round and spin because that’s what customers expected when they played music. As a result Sony got a one year agreement for all CD Licensing for themselves and the rights to sell the license to other manufactures. Major screw up on the part of Philips.

Just for historical reference when the DVD was released it took only 18 months to surpass the market penetration CD already had.:)
 
I remember when Best Buy had half a aisle of Mini CD's albums, next thing I knew, that half a aisle turn into a tiny small section. :(
 
LOL @ 1982.

People were busy copying from radio to audio cassette or from vinyl to audio cassette. Compact disc was unheard of until the late 80's ( at least in the UK ).
 
BillR said:
CD never achieved the audio range of analog or vinyl. It wasn’t until Sony came up with SACD that digital was able to reproduce and exceed the frequency spread of analog.
Click to expand...
Single-bit pulse-density modulation has a lot of problems Redbook-spec PCM simply doesn't have. The problems Redbook CD audio has are minor and mostly inconsequential: reduced effective bit depth at lower amplitudes, but bit depth is still pretty good even at very low amplitudes, and quantization noise, which is effectively eliminated with sufficient dithering techniques. We've gotten quite good at dither in the past 30 years, to the point where we can get an effective 19 to 20 bits per sample from a 16-bit word.

It's all masturbation at the end of the day, anyway. 12-bit/38 KHz PCM would've been just fine. What we got with Redbook borders on overkill as far as theoretical quality is concerned, which makes the push for higher-resolution consumer formats of severely questionable merit.
 
I think I still have one of the original CDs, it was Kenny Loggins The Gambler. It still plays too, because they were made with two layers of plastic on the media, unlike the single layer stuff they use now that falls off the backside after a few years of handling.
 
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