On This Day In 1983 Philips Launched The CD.

[Mark1960]

Were the jukebox type cd players available in the uk? I still have the Pioneer PD-F1007 that I brought back from Chicago to the UK at the end of my work assignment. Its not been used much in the last 10 years but just powered it up and the mechanism still seems to work, not tried hooking it up to the surround sound system to see if audio is still working. It holds up to 301 CDs, but I never had more than a third of that used.

My first CD player was either sanyo or sony, I forget which, that had a tray to hold five CDs. I think my son still has it, I gave it to him when I moved to Canada because it was 240 v only.

[tritone]

Originally Posted by hamid_1

pre-recorded CDs are very durable if looked after properly. The jury's still out on CD-R discs. I have some over 20 years old. A few have gone bad, all from the same batch.

True, pre-recorded CDs 'are' very durable due to the manufacturing process of the disc, the silver foil in them is pressed by a very high quality glass master plate with all of the info on it, whereas the CD-R’s foil is laser etched by your optical drive, they can deteriorate over time, they need TLC.

[Craig Sawyers]

Originally Posted by Sideband

I worked for Philips at the time. I don't remember the date of official launch but I do remember the development phase and hearing a demonstration before it was officially launched. It was a recording of the 1812 overture with real cannons played into a pair of Philips Motional feedback speakers.....the big ones in our audio demo room. I'd never heard anything like it. That was from one of the first CD player of course, the Philips CD100 with a Sony chipset......For those not aware, the CD was a joint development between Sony and Philips. Sony had their chipset ready before Philips......

That is very interesting indeed!

And yes - the Sony/Philips collaboration is shown in the digital format SPDIF Sony Philips Digital InterFace.

Craig

[wireman]

Originally Posted by tritone

Just a side note on the topic;

A couple of years later when CD’s came out, info was sometimes included on the disc about how the programme music on the CD disc was produced, the recording process, mastering then obviously the disc itself. DDD, or ADD.

I did not have a turntable with my first 'hi-fi' which started with amp and tape deck and went straight to CD a year later. I think the first DDD mainstream CD was Brothers in Arms.

[red16v]

Originally Posted by locknut

I bought a Philips CD350, the full width version of the more diminutive 14 bit CD150. Can't remember where from, possibly Sheffield Sound Centre?

After a year or two, replaced that with an ex service stock 16 bit CD650 I bought cheap from Boots in Doncaster. It later developed treble distortion, turned out to be more SMD ceramic caps failing around the DAC - I found some had been replaced previously by fat green mylar caps soldered to the underside of the pcb.

I still have the CD650, though it's had a few repairs now.


Does anyone remember their first CD purchases? I bought Queen - 'The Works', and Joan Armatrading's 'Sleight of Hand' from W H Smith, so I had a choice

Yes, I worked in central London and popped up to Tottenham Court Road and bought a Philips unit. Around 1987 but I can’t remember the model - it did have fts. CD’s seemed few and far between and in the nearby shops there only seemed to be a very limited choice, I bought ‘Tango in the Night’ by Fleetwood Mac. I hated it then and I still hate it now.

I transferred all my CD’s to my iMac a long time ago and gave the CD’s away, I’m not sure if that makes me a heathen or not but I listen mainly for background pleasure and it is more convenient.

[Richard_FM]

Originally Posted by Mark1960

Were the jukebox type cd players available in the uk? I still have the Pioneer PD-F1007 that I brought back from Chicago to the UK at the end of my work assignment. Its not been used much in the last 10 years but just powered it up and the mechanism still seems to work, not tried hooking it up to the surround sound system to see if audio is still working. It holds up to 301 CDs, but I never had more than a third of that used.

My first CD player was either sanyo or sony, I forget which, that had a tray to hold five CDs. I think my son still has it, I gave it to him when I moved to Canada because it was 240 v only.

I remember Richer Sounds selling a Pioneer CD player that could take 100 discs in the 1990s. I often used to pick up their brochures from the Stockport shop, but unfortunately used to throw them away as they would update them every month.

[Paul_RK]

My five-disc Pioneer player in '88 came as part of a stack system in the local auction - the amplifier was a then recent JVC A-X1 memorable only because I found its sound extraordinarily dull and flat - and my immediate visit to Durham for a disc to establish whether the player worked resulted in a heavily discounted copy of The Cure's Pornography. Like every CD I've ever bought, it must be somewhere on the premises.

[stevehertz]

Originally Posted by Richard_FM

I remember Richer Sounds selling a Pioneer CD player that could take 100 discs in the 1990s. I often used to pick up their brochures from the Stockport shop, but unfortunately used to throw them away as they would update them every month.

Someone else made a similar beast, I think it was Sony.

[Junk Box Nick]

Originally Posted by Ted Kendall

Agreed, excellent series. They're threatening to ditch the CD (again), in which case it's goodbye from me - what's left is not worth the price of admission.

I read the discussion and will do the same if it comes about, Ted. I find the magazine rather thin on content these days, though I do have a wonderful library as a result.

I buy few CDs these days – other than the odd gem I find in a charity shop – because I have pretty much all I want.

Thinking about it, if we ignore the recent resurgence of LPs and assuming that the CD is on the way out, the CD’s longevity is about the same as that of of the ‘popular’ period of the LP.

[Ted Kendall]

Originally Posted by stevehertz

Someone else made a similar beast, I think it was Sony.

I have one of the Sony whoppers in the "to do" pile - I think it's 100 discs.

[hamid_1]

A long time ago, a friend of mine and fellow collector of old electronics, had a CD jukebox made in the UK by Arbiter Leisure of London. It used a Sony CDK-3000P changer mechanism which could hold up to 60 discs. The jukebox was styled to look like a giant compact disc. I've attached a couple of photos from the sales brochure. It was coin-operated, intended for use in pubs, etc.

Internally, the 'brains' of the Arbiter Discmaster jukebox was a BBC Master computer, successor to the BBC model B, as used in UK schools in the 80s. When a new disc was added to the jukebox, the owner had to type in the track titles on a keyboard. The user could then select a track from the on-screen list, insert the required money and listen. The computer instructed the changer to pick the correct CD and play the chosen track. I think it dated from around 1988. It must have been one of the first CD jukeboxes. It almost seems quaint now that pocket-sized MP3 players have been around for the last 20 years.

[stevehertz]

Originally Posted by Ted Kendall

I have one of the Sony whoppers in the "to do" pile - I think it's 100 discs.

I wanted one badly at one point. But then I got to thinking how difficult it would be to fix, as I would be buying an old one that almost certainly would have 'issues'. A worker would be good though. CD album juke box - bring it on!

[Ted Kendall]

Originally Posted by locknut

Nor me, I've always preferred the sound of the 4x oversampling players to the 16 bit and bitstream players, even before you start modding.

I still have a CD104 and like the noise it makes - at worst, it doesn't get in the way, and at best it's very pleasant. I find the idea of hacking it back to 14 bit rather perverse, in fact.

I've described this elsewhere, but when I drove a comparison of the available CD players for TRU engineers in late 1983, those with the Philips convertors sounded "all of a piece" and easy to listen to, whilst the various flavours of Japanese convertor technology were less so. Curious, given that we relied heavily on the Sony PCM-F1 for acquisition at the time and had no complaints about its audio quality.

[arjoll]

Originally Posted by hamid_1

yable, but a disc can quite often be repaired by polishing out the scratches. A more serious problem: I've come across some CDs marked "MADE IN U.K. BY PDO" on their inner ring where the silver surface has changed to a bronze / gold colour over time. The disc then becomes unplayable - there is no cure.

I went through my CD collection at the start of last year and re-ripped them all to FLAC. I found two that were showing signs of degrading, although both were still playable and EAC showed no read errors and the CRCs were fine.

They were Peter Gabriel's "So" which I bought new around 1987/88 so one of my earliest CDs (with the original LP-influenced track ordering that Gabriel didn't approve of) and Steve Taylor's "Squint" from 1993. Both show what appears to be corrosion of the aluminium at the edges, with the Gabriel disc also showing light coloured "blotches" throughout. I didn't check the manufacturers on either.

[DrStrangelove]

One of my CDs developed curlicues on the surface that caused read errors.

I thought it was toast but surprisingly enough it responded well to the toothpaste cleaning trick which was rather pleasing considering the cost of replacing the thing.

No idea if the CD104 would have played it but numerous other drives failed to do much with it until it was cleaned.

[Maarten]

An important difference between pressed discs and (re)writable discs, is that in the former, the data is pressed into the plastic disc itself so it's slightly less sensitive to degradation of the metallic layer.

[Red to black]

Originally Posted by Maarten

An important difference between pressed discs and (re)writable discs, is that in the former, the data is pressed into the plastic disc itself so it's slightly less sensitive to degradation of the metallic layer.

what was usually fatal for 'normal pressed' CDs though was if the label side, ie. the reflective layer was scratched or otherwise degraded beyond the capabilities of the error correction system, the playing side damage could usually be polished out if the damage wasn't too deep and you had the patience.

Ripping to a format of your choice could also recover an otherwise unplayable CD on a normal player, as the computer would recall the last data it successfully recovered and would attempt to try and try again to recover the next bit of data, this was hit and miss of course as it depended on how much damage was present.

[Aub]

Wasn't there a CD player made, I think, by an American company called California Dream, that used valves in all the signal path electronics appart from the drive mechanism?

Aub

[Red to black]

Originally Posted by Aub

Wasn't there a CD player made, I think, by an American company called California Dream, that used valves in all the signal path electronics appart from the drive mechanism?

Aub

I thought that was just the 'gimmicky' output stages as the complexity of CD data processing stages in the decoding, servo, DA conversion and error correction would have likely need an office block packed with valves even if it was possible

[DMcMahon]

Unfortunately I cannot remember the model details but while site working out at the Philips Nijmegen Wafer Fab in Holland I brought my first CD player from the onsite Philips staff shop.

I was able to get staff discount (even though I was not a Philips employee), cannot remember how much, but do remember it was quite substantial, maybe somewhere around 30%.

Shortly afterwards I brought the Dire Straits CD "Brother in Arms" which had recently been released (I see now by Googling this was in late 1985), I loved the music and the sound quality was really excellent.

The player gave me many years of good performance but eventually started playing up, so it got replaced.

There were several Philips CD players in the staff shop, I chose one that was in the middle price range because the higher priced ones were very expensive.

David