Compact Disc Turns 30, MP3 Doesn't Bother to Send a Gift

Well...this makes me feel ancient.

I recall that an audiophile friend of mine managed to raise enough cash to buy what (I believe) was the first commercially-available CD player. I think it was made by Philips. I can't recall the cost but it seemed pretty expensive at the time. Annoyingly it was prone to skipping from the vibrations of the (much too loud) music we played, so he had to do a variety of things to mechanically isolate it. And I don't think the laser lived too long.

CDs were hard to find too. Only a few shops had them and even then it was just a handfull. There was much grumbling about availablity and excitement when a new or old title would come out on CD.

But they sounded much better than Mr. Edison's wax cylinders that we had been using up until then!

Coincidentally I went to work for Philips a few years later and spent much of my time there working on their CD players. (Ah...the good old days. I miss you, Philips. Come back - all is forgiven!)

Anyway, here's a little more about the early CD:

http://www.marantzphilips.nl/philips_press_first_philips_cd_prototype_1978/

I remember my first CD was DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince - He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper in 1988. That is 21 years ago and when CDs were really starting to first hit mainstream.

Here is a blog entry from a few months ago about the Evolution of the Optical Disc

Yes well, I remember playing Def Leopard's Pyromania Album. Album, not CD. I even remember using my finger to play the album in reverse to figure out what the intro of Rock of Ages was saying. At the time we all believed it was something played backwards:

Gunter glieben glauchen globen

Turns out it was just Jibberish. There's an hour I'll never get back. You kids with your internet don't know how lucky you are. Back in the day when we wanted to figure out a lyric we had to buy the album and pray the lyrics were provided on the cover or as an insert, or we had to just play the song 100 times till we figured it out.

Good riddance to the CD, I have better memories of my tape player anyway and MP3s are far better.

"...and MP3s are far better."

Better for portability, personal ownership, price, compression, true rendition of the original performance? A true audiophile would argue for days, perhaps weeks about the validity of that statement. Me? It depends on what you're playing the audio back through...

I'm no audiophile. When I say better, I mean better for myself. The portability is the biggest thing for me.

I did a radio show for a couple of years on WQFS out of Guilford College in NC. Might have been '95 to '97. CDs were not ever what they were originally promised to be, like indestructible, the packaging, has always been lousy. Still for a DJ, it was a definite advantage to know how long a track was going to play.

I just found an original 78RPM Elvis Presley "Jail House Rock" record.

Treat Me Nice is on the B side.

Cds & related dvds 7 player/recorders are the biggest planned obsolescence junk ever made(so far)- ain't long before laser, or spin motor, or logic, or power supply fail- the more complicated anything is- the sooner it will fail. Yet mkers can make reliable product if they want- but would last forever, so no more sales of new units!. Take dry cells for instance- brand new fully charged- come back to them in a year say- flat- not used in any equip- this includes all brands & sizes incl alk- yet a Casio pocket calc I bought new in 1983 still has original Casio AA cells installed(2)- still measure as fully charged!. No leakage, no self discharge, no corrosion of cell case or contacts!(& yes- the calc is used often). The advent of flash memory is amazing & very welcome- will supercede hard drives & just about anything else currently used.

I do not remember my first CD but after buying about 170 of them I definately remember number 100, I had to do something special so I bought the original master recording of Pink Floyd's Dark side of the moon. It came on a gold plated disc.