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Introducing The Amazing Compact Disc | 1982 | Retro vintage 80s technology
ABC Science ^ | 6.10/15 | ABC Science

Posted on 07/09/2022 10:14:03 PM PDT by DallasBiff

When the first compact discs arrived on the Australian market in 1983, they ranged in price from $900-$1800. The price didn’t hold back the rapid adoption of the technology

(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet; History
KEYWORDS: cd; lp; music; vinyl
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To: DallasBiff

They were SO smart, to get you to spend $19.99 to buy digital music you already owned on vinyl for $5.99, that they forgot to copy protect the medium.


41 posted on 07/10/2022 6:36:03 AM PDT by Jim Noble (I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains)
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To: Dr. Sivana

That may have been where I heard a CD for the first time. It was on Channel 2 news, and the song they played for the demo was “Fame” by Irene Cara.


42 posted on 07/10/2022 7:16:34 AM PDT by M1903A1 ("We shed all that is good and virtuous for that which is shoddy and sleazy...and call it progress" )
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To: DallasBiff
I guess the millenials and Z'ers will never the joy of being able to walk into a record store, buy a 12 inch LP and actually be able to read the liner notes, without a magnifying glass.

Actually vinyl is having a resurgence and presumably most of the buyers are young people. Walk into any Walmart or Target and you'll see a surprisingly large selection of LPs for sale in the music section. You'll see the old mega-selling classics but you'll also see albums by new artists as well. The younger generation might end up with the best of both worlds -- digital streaming for browsing and for portability, and then a small collection of their most treasured recordings on vinyl to listen to at home and to truly own as a physical possession. If the trend continues, it seems plausible that record stores could become a thing again. Wouldn't that be wild! There are also rumblings in the music industry that a new physical format may be on the way.

43 posted on 07/10/2022 7:42:25 AM PDT by Yardstick
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To: DeathBeforeDishonor1
Sound engineers and audio producers will verify the CD is the crappiest audio medium ever. Vinyl is soooo much better sound quality wise. CDs are hollow and tinny.

Record companies were in such a hurry to crank out their entire catalogues onto CD that they didn't bother remastering anything. CDs were printed from 4th or 5th generation audio tapes. After 15 years or so when the remastered versions started hitting the shelves, the sound quality was noticeably improved. I never knew there was a rhythm acoustic guitar strumming in the background of the Rolling Stone's Satisfaction until I heard the remastered audio.

Of course, consumers were a little peeved, having bought the same album on LP, 8-track, or cassette and then again on compact disk and were now being told there was a new remastered version.

44 posted on 07/10/2022 7:52:59 AM PDT by Drew68 (Ron DeSantis for President 2024)
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To: Yardstick

**Walk into any Walmart or Target and you’ll see a surprisingly large selection of LPs for sale in the music section.**

Kinda pricey.

https://www.walmart.com/browse/music/music-and-vinyl-records/4104_1205481


45 posted on 07/10/2022 9:47:56 AM PDT by Libloather (Why do climate change hoax deniers live in mansions on the beach?)
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To: Chickensoup
If I could find some one to set up my audio.

Bluetooth may be the way to go. Small MP3 player and speaker and you're off to the races.

46 posted on 07/10/2022 9:54:37 AM PDT by Libloather (Why do climate change hoax deniers live in mansions on the beach?)
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To: DeathBeforeDishonor1

Vinyl has more depth. CDs WERE hollow and tinny until the engineers figured out you had to mix slightly differently. It’s all about experience. I know a guy who mixes for indie records now. There’s the LP mix, the CD mix, the iTunes mix, the Spotify mix... everybody is a little different and your engineer needs to know what he’s doing, just to get them to all sound the same.


47 posted on 07/10/2022 10:00:07 AM PDT by discostu (like a dog being shown a card trick)
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To: Libloather

Yep, they’re not cheap. OTOH a $25 record nowadays is equal to about $7 in 1980.


48 posted on 07/10/2022 10:46:21 AM PDT by Yardstick
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To: DallasBiff
I really loved CDs for data once it got to the point that you could burn your own. At the time, a 650MB backup device was freaking awesome, even if it was effectively a worm drive. I still have some ancient data archived on CDs. Even better was writable DVDs, for obvious reasons.

For music and stuff, CDs were the bomb. Early ones were pretty well made. I still have the very first CD I ever bought (Dark Side of the Moon). Still works fine. I've tested it, and it is still error-free. More modern disks are a bit more iffy. Like everything else, cheapness of manufacure = crap.

Sound quality of CDs is excellent. I'm not one of those guys with 'golden ears', so I really don't care about the differences between analogue media, i.e., vinyl LPs. A touch of tinnitus doesn't help that much. I rip all of my music and generally use high-quality mp3s (384bps+) rather than a lossless format like flac, because mp3s are pretty much guaranteed to work in any device. Back when you could still get a car with a CD player, most of them actually would play mp3s on a data CD. At the time, I was ripping at about 128-256bps, so I could fit almost 11 hours of music on a CD! When on a trip, I'd have a few disks with different types of music on them. It was excellent.

49 posted on 07/10/2022 11:04:07 AM PDT by zeugma (Stop deluding yourself that America is still a free country.)
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To: CatOwner
It look quite some time from the initial release of music CDs to get both the mastering adjusted properly for the medium and the necessary improvement in the digital-to-analog converters (DACs).

That's true. The engineers have to understand the underlying capabilities to get the most out of it. There are other issues as well. Many sound engineers working on major labels and stuff are more likely to be in their 40s-50s, rather than being young whippersnappers, so they are going to be affected by hearing issues that inevitably come with age. That is going to effect the mix to a degree.

50 posted on 07/10/2022 11:10:14 AM PDT by zeugma (Stop deluding yourself that America is still a free country.)
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To: minnesota_bound
Over 2,500 titles on my computer. I had long ago made copies of the cd music I bought so long ago to my computer then have used Youtube and other sources for my music.

Piker.:-) I have 19377 tunes, the vast majority I've ripped from CDs. That's 52 days 11 hours 33 minutes of continuous music, without repeating a tune. Granted, a few of them were albums ripped as one track. DSOTM is one example. I think it's amazing that we can have all this available instantly.

I don't trust online music. It's too easy for the companies to suddenly say, sorry, your stuff isn't available. I've had that happen with books and stuff as well. Screw them.

51 posted on 07/10/2022 11:23:28 AM PDT by zeugma (Stop deluding yourself that America is still a free country.)
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To: Drew68
Of course, consumers were a little peeved, having bought the same album on LP, 8-track, or cassette and then again on compact disk and were now being told there was a new remastered version.

Yeah, that's an issue. On the other hand, a 'remaster' is more art than science. A lot depends upon the engineer and various assumptions he might make.

I love the fact that if I don't want to, I never have to buy another copy of most of my music, since I never use the original media other than to rip it. I did the same thing with my LP albums back in the day. Most of them were played exactly once on a turntable, and copied to cassette, which was then played to death and beyond. Now, when I get a new disk, I rip it and copy the files across 3 or 4 devices, so I have access to it where ever I want. Absolutely love it.

52 posted on 07/10/2022 11:35:29 AM PDT by zeugma (Stop deluding yourself that America is still a free country.)
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To: Libloather
Kinda pricey.

Yes, until you remember that LP records cost $6.99 in the mid-70s, when candy bars were still 15 cents (~$1.29 today).
53 posted on 07/10/2022 11:37:41 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana (What was 35% of the Rep. Party is now 85%. And it’s too late to turn back—Mac Stipanovich )
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To: Dr. Sivana; Yardstick

Was fortunate enough to grow up near NYC. Seven TV stations and a gazillion really good radio stations. Late at night, one radio program would alert listeners that the new album, without interruption, would be played in 5, 4, 3... Get those reel-to-reels warmed up!


54 posted on 07/10/2022 11:49:44 AM PDT by Libloather (Why do climate change hoax deniers live in mansions on the beach?)
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To: DallasBiff

With the exception of computers I am always late to the party when it comes to new tech. Didn’t get my first CD player until 1005, and my first smart phone until 2022.

Bought a Timex Sinclair 1000 computer in 1983 and programmed some work calculations in basic.


55 posted on 07/10/2022 11:54:29 AM PDT by Rebelbase (Crush, smash and obliterate the Liberal New World Order)
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To: Libloather
Seven TV stations and a gazillion really good radio stations

You never even touched your UHF dial, where you could get WNYC channel 31, the Spanish stations 41 & 48, and who could forget the ethnic station, channel 68 with the Hungarian hour and Yugoslavian TV sandwiched in between Uncle Floyd and Sgt. Preston of the Yukon? Uncle Floyd was a hoot.
56 posted on 07/10/2022 11:54:33 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana (What was 35% of the Rep. Party is now 85%. And it’s too late to turn back—Mac Stipanovich )
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To: Dr. Sivana

Could sorta get Philadelphia as well. Good for a few Flyers games.


57 posted on 07/10/2022 11:56:12 AM PDT by Libloather (Why do climate change hoax deniers live in mansions on the beach?)
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To: DallasBiff

My very first CD was Tschaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. The back of the jewel case had a big red sticker that warned that the disc contained a DIGITAL RECORDING OF REAL CANNONS that could DAMAGE YOUR SPEAKERS if played too loudly.

The warnings were silly of course, but it did help hype the new technology.


58 posted on 07/10/2022 11:57:45 AM PDT by Gideon7
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To: zeugma

But do you have any ABBA tunes?..... : )


59 posted on 07/10/2022 11:59:25 AM PDT by minnesota_bound (Need more money to buy everything now)
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To: minnesota_bound
Pretty good amount including -


60 posted on 07/10/2022 12:03:08 PM PDT by Libloather (Why do climate change hoax deniers live in mansions on the beach?)
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