On This Day In 1983 Philips Launched The CD.

[jamesperrett]

Originally Posted by wireman

I think the first DDD mainstream CD was Brothers in Arms.

Ry Cooder's Bop Till you Drop was recorded digitally and released on vinyl in 1979. It was released on CD in 1983 so that CD release predates Brothers In Arms by a couple of years. Steely Dan were also recording digitally at the same time so some of the early Steely Dan CDs would have been DDD.

[tony brady]

I don't think Steely Dans Gaucho is digital even though it came out in 1980. all the ones before are definitely not. Donald Fagans night fly may be digital.

the next major digital release after bop till you drop was Fleetwood Macs Tusk

[Beobloke]

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

You may be thinking of California Audio Labs and their models like the Tempest, which was nothing more than a Philips CD player stuck in a bigger box with a valve output stage tacked on. Cynical "high end" at its finest!

My first CD player was a Yamaha CD-29, given to me for Christmas by my grandmother. My father gallantly volunteered to allow it to be set up in the lounge rather than my bedroom and he took the opportunity to upgrade all his equipment to the matching Yamaha models with some Mission 707 speakers!

The player eventually moved to my bedroom and became part of my system and I was convinced that CD was the future and thought i was set for life. Then my uncle gave me his pride and joy in the form of a Garrard 301. I was moderately concerned that it sounded better than the Yamaha, and things were never quite the same again...

I now use a Marantz CD-94 and CDA-94 combo and they are truly exceptional.

[Andrew2]

We got our first CD player (a Marantz CD54) in 1984 I think. Our one and only CD for the first week or so was a compilation of Wagner excerpts/overtures, but sadly the original recording or the transfer was distinctly lacklustre with a dull top end and not much 'oomph'. Our next CD purchase was Bruckner's 4th symphony (Carl Bohm 1973) which really showed off CD's capabilities.

[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

[ben]

My first CD player was a Richer sounds special (Goodmans I think) in 1990. Absolute junk, had to send three back. Can't remember what happened in the end. I think the following year I picked one no-name player up at a French hypermarket at a knock down price that served me for about ten years!

[Aub]

Originally Posted by Beobloke

You may be thinking of California Audio Labs and their models like the Tempest, which was nothing more than a Philips CD player stuck in a bigger box with a valve output stage tacked on. Cynical "high end" at its finest!

.

Yes, that must be it. I think i saw it in a Hi-Fi mag, about 1990.

Thanks

Aub

[locknut]

I've had a few PDO CDs succumb to the dreaded disc rot, where the silver layer yellows, then develops pin holes. The worst one was a Hendrix double CD, which looked like a colander when you held it up to the light. Error correction did a remarkable job, but eventually, it was too much.

I still have quite a few which have suffering the 'bronzing' only, and still play fine.

[Maarten]

I wonder if such a rotted CD is restorable by replacing the reflective layer. Probably not cost effective, though.

[knobtwiddler]

Originally Posted by tony brady

I don't think Steely Dans Gaucho is digital even though it came out in 1980. all the ones before are definitely not. Donald Fagans night fly may be digital.

the next major digital release after bop till you drop was Fleetwood Macs Tusk

I have always thought that Dan used the Mitsubishi 14-bit digital machine. I have a few releases made with them and they sound absolutely amazing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digita...cial_recording

I have never seen someone list the dynamic range of a record in the comments section before:

https://www.discogs.com/master/17020-Steely-Dan-Gaucho

(would have to be a Dan fan to do that...although judging on how dynamically limited so many digital releases are, I wouldn't blame them)

NB - by the time digital recorders got a foothold in studios, the wonderful NE5534 opamp was around. A/B/X studies demonstrate that no one's yet determined the difference between digital formats once above a certain threshold. Done right, I wouldn't bet anyone could tell the difference between good 14-bit digital and DSD / 192K were the test truly A/B/X.

[Richard_FM]

One of Abba's later albums used an early digital recording system, I've got the feeling it needed a lot of effort to get the mix to sound right on vinyl.

[nickdoofah]

My 1'st player was a Technics SPLG500A Philips CDM4 mech bought in 1991 to add to my existing silver fronted Technics separates system from the 80's! A remarkable & competent player with amazing instant track access & tons of program/edit features for recording to cassette tape! Most discs were cheaper discount discs as new ones were too expensive! the 500A was unforgiving with poor quality flat sounding discs........
I was still buying records well into the 90's as they simply sounded better than on CD - Think Genesis - We Can't Dance & indeed Phil Collins - Both Sides Albums..... Both with a dynamic range that I had yet to hear from a CD!
Everything changed when I bought the Bob Marley - Uprising CD around 1994/5! This disc really blew me away as they say or is it 'I'm in the right wheelhouse' these days?
The simply astonishing transfer to CD had been done so well, a tiny trace of studio tape hiss if you had the volume up loud enough & a sound that made me sit up & listen! I must say there were very few albums that matched the feel that CD gave me! Very easy to remember my emotions that day when I got home & played it! Of course these days many of us can make CD's up using any source & all the initial 'Hard Sounding' traits from the early days are long gone! I love to transfer some of the more obscure tracks from those Ronco/K-Tel compilation albums to digital & often make up compilation CD's for both home & car! Remember how low the quality was on those albums....Now it's possible to 'Remaster' any track you want & make it sound very good compared to the original record! Same with cassettes too, old recordings I made all through the 80's always on BASF chrome tapes usually borrowed albums etc & radio shows etc!
So I love CD's these days for those reasons....As for many of CD's released well into the 90's, some were really dire quality which is why I stuck with records until they were no longer available

[locknut]

Originally Posted by nickdoofah

As for many of CD's released well into the 90's, some were really dire quality which is why I stuck with records until they were no longer available

Absolutely. Some of the early analogue reissues on CD were poor. I remember buying Neil Young's Harvest fairly early on, and it really was a shockingly bad transfer, so compressed and lifeless - not a patch on the vinyl. The later remastered issue is superb, like chalk and cheese.

[Welsh Anorak]

My first CD pl;ayer was a Marantz CD65 in 1985.

My then girlfriend phoned me from a shop in Chester saying she'd bought it for £350 and did I mind? Luckily I didn't, having intended to take the plunge and she's got fed up of me mentioning it.

A few weeks later I attended a hi-fi show where the Marantz salesmen were extolling its virtues. 'I know, I've got one' I told them. 'You can't have - it's being released here thuis week!' They refused to believe me...

[knobtwiddler]

Ha! My first CD player was the Marantz CD65MK2. I worked my summer holidays in STC Greenwich (in the Clean Room) in order to pay for it. Once I'd picked it up from the local hifi emporium, I ventured over the road to the large record store, looking forward to buying some CDs... My mood changed when I was instructed to go to the back of the shop, where a measly selection of CDs sat, in the rear right corner. There can't have been more than 20 of them... I chose 2 that were near to my taste. To this day, I can't say I've ever bought more than 10 CDs in my life. My interests have always been for US import 12"s and it's only been in recent times that commercial CDs have catered to me (aside from home made CDs - of which I have many). My partner has hundreds of commercial CDs.

The current Marantz CD6004 is a step back from the 1988 CD65MK2 in many ways: it has a noisy transformer that hums, and it takes an eternity to load and locate tracks. Its only advantage is the USB socket. I lost the remote for the CD65, but luckily my partner's Philips remote works fine with it! I wonder just what the difference is between the Marantz and Philips players...?

I'd like to get the CD65 back in action. I suspect the drive belt's gone. I've never serviced a CD player before. Am wondering if it'll need the lens cleaning as well. Is it worth giving to a pro? I have a well equipped workshop, but amps and mixers are my thing, not CD players.

[ben]

Originally Posted by knobtwiddler

I'd like to get the CD65 back in action. I suspect the drive belt's gone. I've never serviced a CD player before. Am wondering if it'll need the lens cleaning as well. Is it worth giving to a pro? I have a well equipped workshop, but amps and mixers are my thing, not CD players.

What are you waiting for?
At least open it up, clean the lens with a Q tip and some IPA, order some small drive belts or o rings online for the drawer then try a CD. At least you'll be able to ascertain if the laser comes on (obviously never look directly into it).

Anything more serious than the above is likely to be trickier and need a scope and service docs, but let's not jump the gun!

[stevehertz]

Originally Posted by knobtwiddler

.... I ventured over the road to the large record store, looking forward to buying some CDs... My mood changed when I was instructed to go to the back of the shop, where a measly selection of CDs sat, in the rear right corner. There can't have been more than 20 of them... I chose 2 that were near to my taste.

You were lucky. The first time I went to buy a CD from a record shop there were about five of them in glass case. Donald Fagen's Nightfly, Dires Straits' Bothers in Arms and few more that I can't recall but were of no interest to me at the time. Oh, there may have been a Pink Floyd one in there. Yes, CDs were seen as prized possessions and were displayed in glass cases!

[stevehertz]

From this web site they say that the CD era is over. Well, that's a matter for debate. For sure, as a format it is waning, but the fact is many, many, people still buy new ones and the format is used by millions of people all around the world - that can hardly be the end of an era, well not in my book anyway. Apparently Americans bought 46.6 million CDs in 2021.

They say, "During its creation and launch, the CD was poised to be the successor to vinyl. And while it did replace vinyl and cassettes as the format for nearly two decades, its primary focus shifted into a data storage medium over the years, especially it’s later years. With the CD-ROM and CD-Rs, compact discs went on to become much more than just an audio format. But all good things must come to an end, and unfortunately the end for the CD came when mp3 players and music streaming services took the audio helm in the new millennium.

"To quote ABBA and bring this whole thing full circle, “Thank You For the Music” compact disc. Gone but never forgotten."

Gone?!

This is the site:

https://kodakdigitizing.com/blogs/ne...released-on-cd

[G6Tanuki]

Most people think of music-CDs as things you buy, but in times-past I had an extensive collection of 'music' CDs I'd burned myself using "Nero", and which stored quite a few hours of music per CD. MP3 files, of course, and back at the end of the 2000s they played quite happily on my Pioneer in-car system.

The CDs and player have long since gone, but the MP3s remain, these days travelling on a 64Gb USB stick.

Cunning thing about the Pioneer is that it read an entire MP3 file [one song] into memory from the CD, then spun the disc down. I believe some of the Sony CD-Walkman systems used the same approach both to conserve battery power and to provide an 'anti-jog' function when you were subjecting the thing to lots of vibration or bumps that would cause a reading-in-realtime CD mechanism to potentially lose registration.

[Paul_RK]

Originally Posted by stevehertz

From this web site they say that the CD era is over.

"And while CDs are technically still being made today, it may not be long before this blog will have to be updated with the last band to ever have an album produced on CD. It’s only a matter of time …"

Substitute LP for CD and I doubt there would be much difficulty in finding similar pronouncements from 30-odd years ago. As Yogi Berra observed, it's hard to make predictions, especially about the future. Both formats have a lot going for them, and CDs haven't even had their first nostalgia-fuelled revival yet: unless I missed it, since I've never stopped buying the things.

Paul