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The CD is 30 years old today

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Re: The CD is 30 years old today

#21

Post by jjjeffrey »

cowsaysoink wrote: post #10
erickhill wrote: post #9

When is the music industry going to actively promote (and select) a high definition music format? Like, Blu-Ray for audio-only?

Is there a problem with the current format lacking definition? I thought the major factor for listening quality was listening equipment rather than the actual format (as the quality on cds is rather good).

TFA from this past submission was the thing that finally persuaded me to believe that CD quality audio is all you need for optimal stereophonic listening.

//news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3668310

Re: The CD is 30 years old today

#23

Post by Turing_Machine »

stan_rogers wrote: post #19
gbeeson wrote: post #4

This article also reminds me of where I used to pick up CD's back when they first came out - Tower Records in Mountain View, CA. CD's - still around; Tower Records - not so much. Interesting how it all worked out.

The reason we loved Tower is the reason it died: just about every one of its stores was a record museum. You could find almost anything you were looking for, which meant that they had to stock just about everything anyone would ever be looking for. If I'd damaged (or inadvertently "lent" permanently) an album that was a somewhat obscure gem in a less-than-popular genre when I'd bought it ten years previous, I could a…

It seems to work for Amazon. Of course they don't need to stock copies in zillions of locations.

Re: The CD is 30 years old today

#24

Post by kree10 »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #7
mtoddh wrote: post #2

Funny, I still remember buying my first CD as a kid, Motley Crue's Girls, Girls, Girls (ouch!). The packaging back then was different and they'd put the CDs in long boxes whereas now you just buy it in the jewel case. I remember how cool it was getting a boombox that had a tape deck and a CD player and being able to make better mixtapes.

Long boxes so that when you put them into the place where the store used to display LP albums the title was still at a comfortable reading height.

I remember reading that longboxes were a way to prop up the LP jacket manufacturers, since the materials and process were similar, but... "citation needed".

Re: The CD is 30 years old today

#25

Post by heywire »

mtoddh wrote: post #2

Funny, I still remember buying my first CD as a kid, Motley Crue's Girls, Girls, Girls (ouch!). The packaging back then was different and they'd put the CDs in long boxes whereas now you just buy it in the jewel case. I remember how cool it was getting a boombox that had a tape deck and a CD player and being able to make better mixtapes.

I had nearly forgot about the long boxes that CDs came in!

Re: The CD is 30 years old today

#26

Post by tisme »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #7
mtoddh wrote: post #2

Funny, I still remember buying my first CD as a kid, Motley Crue's Girls, Girls, Girls (ouch!). The packaging back then was different and they'd put the CDs in long boxes whereas now you just buy it in the jewel case. I remember how cool it was getting a boombox that had a tape deck and a CD player and being able to make better mixtapes.

Long boxes so that when you put them into the place where the store used to display LP albums the title was still at a comfortable reading height.

Another reason was so they wouldn't be stolen so often!

Re: The CD is 30 years old today

#27

Post by tisme »

Three years late to the party (because I couldn't afford a CD player) one customer instead of defaulting on a payment offered me his CD player instead. It came with this CD:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_in_Arms_%28Dire_Strait...

And I'm going to have to play it now, for old times sake. Haven't played a CD in years.

Re: The CD is 30 years old today

#28

Post by sk5t »

zandorg wrote: post #15
erickhill wrote: post #9

When is the music industry going to actively promote (and select) a high definition music format? Like, Blu-Ray for audio-only?

It already exists. It's called SACD.

The primarily advantage of SACD is that the recording has probably been remastered at the proper loudness to suit the tastes of SACD's audience--not for uniformly high levels of noise pollution on FM radio and its ilk.

Re: The CD is 30 years old today

#29

Post by thirdhaf »

stan_rogers wrote: post #17
erickhill wrote: post #9

When is the music industry going to actively promote (and select) a high definition music format? Like, Blu-Ray for audio-only?

There were three and a lot of noise around them at the time: HDCD; DVD-A; and SACD. A very small handful of audiophiles cared, nobody else was paying enough attention to hear the difference. (For the people who are going to bring up Nyquist, that is true of the frequency domain, but not of the time domain, and differences in timing affect spatial resolution more audibly than they do timbre.) Really, it only matters t…

Assuming 44.1kHz sampling rate the smallest path length difference between the ears is approximately 6.8mm. This corresponds to 2.3 degrees (with sounds source at infinity). Humans can place sounds with about 3 degrees of resolution so unless you have some citations I am seriously skeptical about the claim that higher sampling frequencies gives you anything whatsoever.

Re: The CD is 30 years old today

#30

Post by exogen »

dollarpizza wrote: post #20
joeyh wrote: post #5

http://article.olduse.net/7038@philabs.UUCP That's the second ever mention of the CD made on Usenet, back in July 1982. "It has no grooves, the digitally encoded recording lies beneath the disc surface, invulnerable to dirt and damage."

invulnerable to dirt and damage Yeah. Who'd'a thought they'd end up being even more perishable, & way more disposable than vinyl....

What about under the same conditions, I wonder? People handle vinyl pretty delicately, but toss around CDs with reckless abandon.
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