[jhalphen]

Hi to all,

Philips and Sony commercially launched the CD system at the 73rd AES (Audio Engineering Society) Convention at Eindhoven, Netherlands, March 15-18 1983.

I was there, representing Ampex Professional Audio at the tech exhibition.
Among the usual products, we were launching a new line of 1/4 inch & 1/2 inch recorders, so had several Audio Division Design Engineers over from Redwood City (Calif, USA) to "baby-sit" the machines.

I couldn't keep the guys on the show floor! They were all over town buying either the Philips or Sony player and discs, whatever they could get their hands on, in cash.
In 24 hours, the entire supply had dried up.
From memory, about 20 disc titles were available.
Fun memories!

My first player was a Sony D50 (tiny unit), which I went to collect at Sony Broadcast HQ/France. i was on a VIP list for the first 50 players in France. It still works.

Best Regards
jhalphen
Paris/France