The CD is 30 Years Old Today

Saw this in today's paper, thought it was interesting... The Compact Disc is 30 years old today. The first commercially available CDs went on sale (in Germany, apparently) on this date in 1982.

A Look Back: Mass production, sale of CDs began in 1982

It's fast becoming a way of dating oneself to mentione that one remembers the use of CDs. But when the term "compact disc" was first used in the '70s to refer to prototypes developed by Philips and Sony, it had massive potential. By 1981's Sony's CD products were being displayed at industry shows.

On August 17, 1982, mass production of CDs began. The first commercial CD released was Billy Joel's "52nd Street." The format remained the dominant storage device until the turn of this century.

ROCK!!!

Happy birthday to my favorite format. Here's to hoping for another 30+, old gal. Don't let the digital bast*rds grind ya down!!

I did not know that.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Saw this in today's paper, thought it was interesting... The Compact Disc is 30 years old today. The first commercially available CDs went on sale (in Germany, apparently) on this date in 1982.

A Look Back: Mass production, sale of CDs began in 1982

It's fast becoming a way of dating oneself to mentione that one remembers the use of CDs. But when the term "compact disc" was first used in the '70s to refer to prototypes developed by Philips and Sony, it had massive potential. By 1981's Sony's CD products were being displayed at industry shows.

On August 17, 1982, mass production of CDs began. The first commercial CD released was Billy Joel's "52nd Street." The format remained the dominant storage device until the turn of this century.

Do you have a link to the original story? Some guys here at work would be interested in this.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Do you have a link to the original story? Some guys here at work would be interested in this.

I just copied it from the daily "A Look Back" feature in our paper that points out interesting things in history that happened each day. (the vintage photo is a random one I found on Google Image Search.)

I'm trying to see if the article is on the paper's web site but so far... no luck.

I've seen pictures of that Sony one on Audio forums. It has a cool flip out door like a cassette. I also learned that a lot of the Philips cd players were branded as Magnavox in the US.

Phillips:


Magnavox:


I still have the first cd player I bought:

A Sony CDP-C20 that still works, but has a bit of a rumble when it changes discs.

Love the CD. I will always buy one if the band(s) put them out.

You know, you really haven't heard music until you've heard it played on the original Magnavox CD100. If you're serious about good sound, you already have one. Nowadays, there's nothing like it, they haven't made anything to match the quality of the CD100 for years and years. You guys can go digital if you want but personally I'm going to stick to the classic stuff.

Mostly makes me feel old.

Dark Horseman wrote:

Mostly makes me feel old.

HA! Try being me! Of course, I already knew I was old.

Orion Crystal Ice wrote:

You know, you really haven't heard music until you've heard it played on the original Magnavox CD100. If you're serious about good sound, you already have one. Nowadays, there's nothing like it, they haven't made anything to match the quality of the CD100 for years and years. You guys can go digital if you want but personally I'm going to stick to the classic stuff.

That's the Phllips/Maggie from above! I'd love to have one of those..............

Orion Crystal Ice wrote:

You know, you really haven't heard music until you've heard it played on the original Magnavox CD100. If you're serious about good sound, you already have one. Nowadays, there's nothing like it, they haven't made anything to match the quality of the CD100 for years and years. You guys can go digital if you want but personally I'm going to stick to the classic stuff.

My favorite CD players are the models that contain a tube-output section, they are very expensive but sound amazing. The signal goes through the DA conversion and then through vacuum tubes prior to the output, pair that together with a high end Tube amplifier and WOW.

S.D. wrote:

My favorite CD players are the models that contain a tube-output section, they are very expensive but sound amazing. The signal goes through the DA conversion and then through vacuum tubes prior to the output, pair that together with a high end Tube amplifier and WOW.

I love the sound of tubes.....from amps to tuners

solid state or digital can't compete (EVER) IMHO

Fat Freddy wrote:

(in Germany, apparently)

That is actually true, the first Audio CD Manufacturing plant was in Langenhagen (that's near Hannover) in Germany and on 17. August 1982, the first 3 Audio CDs were produced:
An Alpine Symphony from Richard Strauss, played by the Berlin Philharmonic
The Waltz from Frederic Chopin, played by Claudio Arrau
and The Visitors from Abba
Interesting is that CD players weren't even available at the time, the first time those CDs were sold was in November 1982 in Japan. (Have you ever seen a Sony CDP-101? one of the first commercial CD Players, it's a smurfing monster and the tray looks like it could swallow 5 CDs at once )
It wasn't until 1983 when CD player became cheaper and worldwide available.

I think my parents got a CD player around 1985/1986 it survived for a quite a long time. It lived longer than their second CD player that finally died today

S.D. wrote:

My favorite CD players are the models that contain a tube-output section, they are very expensive but sound amazing. The signal goes through the DA conversion and then through vacuum tubes prior to the output, pair that together with a high end Tube amplifier and WOW.

If you go with tubes...use Vinyl, CDs won't cut it soundwise. There are so many albums that still (regardless of how many remasters, rereleases and what not, sound better on Viny and there's SACD in between, which is also a whole lot better than CD)

My first CD player was a Kenwood in 1985, it had a 5 magazine cartridge and right below, it had a single disc input. It was like the best thing ever! It finally stopped working around 2000, and the funniest thing, around 2-3 years later I found another one at a pawn shop just like it for $25. It worked for a couple of years and it too, went kaput.

My first cd player was back in 1990. It was a component piece of a mini Sony hi-fi system I had at the time. It was a single cd player - very cool for its time, looked extremely futuristic and I felt like I had a piece of a Star Wars spaceship.

Those were the days...

ShadowAngel wrote:

If you go with tubes...use Vinyl, CDs won't cut it soundwise. There are so many albums that still (regardless of how many remasters, rereleases and what not, sound better on Viny and there's SACD in between, which is also a whole lot better than CD)

Well of course I would *prefer* analog, I just mentioned those CD players because of the topic of this thread. 1/2 inch Reel to Reel running at 30ips is far superior to vinyl, but kind of hard to get those unless you break into the record company vaults and steal them.

I have some SACDs and also some blu-ray audio (identical bit rates & sample rates).

My brother got my parents to buy him a cd player in 1986 (Toshiba Model XR-P9). Funny thing was he wasn't much of a music fan at all. Thing would take like 4 D batteries and would proceed to kill those in about twenty minutes. The power base was this big triangle shaped thing. First CDs I got were Boston's Third Stage, Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet, and John Mellencamp's Scarecrow. My brother got Janet Jackson's Control, Information Society, and Genesis's Invisible Touch. Needless to say this was all very pricey which I think we counted as an early Christmas present.

I would not buy another CD after those initial three until about 1989 when Kemp Mill Records started pricing them at 11.99. Didn't start buying regularly till about 1991. By then I was in college and everyone always made fun of my outdated player. I loved the thing. It still plays beautifully after all these years and holds a place of honor on the home office shelf.

scottmitchell74 wrote:

Love the CD. I will always buy one if the band(s) put them out.

What he said.

I still have the Magnavox front loader I bought in 1990. Works great! My first CD was the first Holy Soldier whose name escapes me right now.

I have a Technics 5 cd changer.

I have a CD player in my car that rarely gets used - only when I pop in a new CD on the way back from the store (which is rare these days due to the dwindling CD selections), usually use my ipod.......

Come to think of it, I don't even own a stand alone CD player anymore! I use my Blu Ray player to play CD's at home!

thejokeriv wrote:

Come to think of it, I don't even own a stand alone CD player anymore! I use my Blu Ray player to play CD's at home!

That blu-ray player sounds better anyway.