Blast from the past: Review of the first CD player - circa 1983

[Fezmid]

http://www.stereophile.com/cdplayers/193

 

They even talk about AJ in the article!

 

"The remote-controlled model which we received will sell for $1000 when it starts appearing in stores in March '83. This is a staggering cost for your John Q Public type record buyer, but a modest outlay for any audiophile accustomed to the idea of shelling out $1000 for a cartridge to put in a $1000 arm on a $1000 turntable and feed to a $1000 preamp."

[ajzepp]

 

I can't believe they didn't put a pic in that article

 

I wanted to see what it looked like!

[BuffaloBill]

Make me feel old will ya .... remember the first ones for cars ... they skipped all the time ....still better than 8 track technology.

[billsfan89]

Its ironic that Vinyl has made a comeback as the physical medium. While MP3's have taken over as the music medium for the masses more serious audiophiles and people who just like owning an album have moved over to Vinyl.

 

My cousin is big on Vinyl and he tells me its because with modern Vinyl players you get a higher sound quality then MP3's or CD's due to the fact that most music is still recorded in analog and Vinyl is an analog sound while MP3's and CD's are compressed digitally which looses some of the quality of sound.

 

I actually am interested in getting a vinyl player just because a lot of my favorite artists still make records.

[Pete]

Its ironic that Vinyl has made a comeback as the physical medium. While MP3's have taken over as the music medium for the masses more serious audiophiles and people who just like owning an album have moved over to Vinyl.

 

My cousin is big on Vinyl and he tells me its because with modern Vinyl players you get a higher sound quality then MP3's or CD's due to the fact that most music is still recorded in analog and Vinyl is an analog sound while MP3's and CD's are compressed digitally which looses some of the quality of sound.

 

I actually am interested in getting a vinyl player just because a lot of my favorite artists still make records.

I am a huge vinyl fan and have 2 turntables. I bought a nice Harmon Kardon receiver- and was surprised it has no inputs for phone. I need to buy a preamp. Its funny that the new high end receivers do not have phono inputs

[ajzepp]

I am a huge vinyl fan and have 2 turntables. I bought a nice Harmon Kardon receiver- and was surprised it has no inputs for phone. I need to buy a preamp. Its funny that the new high end receivers do not have phono inputs

 

Dude, if you want a great preamp, check out Dr. P at Mapletree Audio Design. He's a retired engineering professor who runs an audio shop out of his home office, and his stuff is great!

[ajzepp]

Its ironic that Vinyl has made a comeback as the physical medium. While MP3's have taken over as the music medium for the masses more serious audiophiles and people who just like owning an album have moved over to Vinyl.

 

My cousin is big on Vinyl and he tells me its because with modern Vinyl players you get a higher sound quality then MP3's or CD's due to the fact that most music is still recorded in analog and Vinyl is an analog sound while MP3's and CD's are compressed digitally which looses some of the quality of sound.

 

I actually am interested in getting a vinyl player just because a lot of my favorite artists still make records.

 

 

If you've never heard it, vinyl on an audiophile rig can be absolutely amazing! Toss on some Dire STraits "Brothers in Arms" and you'll be shocked how good it sounds, man.

[ajzepp]

Make me feel old will ya .... rember the first ones for cars ... they skipped all the time ....still better than 8 track technology.

 

Yep, every time you'd hit the smallest bump in the road, damn thing would skip....very annoying!

[el Tigre]

I remember when cd's first came out,I thought they sucked. Too small,tiny cover art,limited liner notes. Now I think they're great cuz of the space they save. This kind of discussion really makes me feel old.

[/dev/null]

And those things could store a whopping 650MB of data

 

I suspect back in '83 people never expected to accumulate 650MB of data in their lives

[Astrojanitor]

Its ironic that Vinyl has made a comeback as the physical medium. While MP3's have taken over as the music medium for the masses more serious audiophiles and people who just like owning an album have moved over to Vinyl.

 

My cousin is big on Vinyl and he tells me its because with modern Vinyl players you get a higher sound quality then MP3's or CD's due to the fact that most music is still recorded in analog and Vinyl is an analog sound while MP3's and CD's are compressed digitally which looses some of the quality of sound.

 

I actually am interested in getting a vinyl player just because a lot of my favorite artists still make records.

 

man, i am a vinyl fiend. I buy probably 2-3 a week, and have for years. It always comes down to preference, but I love analog. Digital gets too clean, I like the warm tones. if you want to invest in a serious set up vinyl can sound better and clearer than digital--but that gets expensive. Personally I love the fuzz. As an added benefit indie labels tend to include free download codes, or even a free cd, with vinyl. you get the cooler listening experience plus the convenience of digital for free.

[Dan]

And those things could store a whopping 650MB of data

 

I suspect back in '83 people never expected to accumulate 650MB of data in their lives

First computer I ever worked on had a 20mb hard drive. We got grant money and decided to upgrade it, so we got a 120mb hard drive. It was unreal! Never would we use that much hard drive space. Never! I mean ever! People from other labs would come over, just to look at our computer. (I don't remember the price, but it probably cost about as much as an entire computer wouldl today.)

 

Now I have a 1gig usb drive on my key chain. Unreal.

[\GoBillsInDallas/]

I have always wondered, that with all of the technology we have today, why someone has not yet invented a device that could play vinyl by use of a laser scanning device or something like that.

[ExiledInIllinois]

Yep, every time you'd hit the smallest bump in the road, damn thing would skip....very annoying!

 

I have a 2006 Jeep TJ... I can still make my CD's skip... I just be doing some serious wheeling or hit the railroad crossing doing 98!

 

[ExiledInIllinois]

I have always wondered, that with all of the technology we have today, why someone has not yet invented a device that could play vinyl by use of a laser scanning device or something like that.

 

A laser stylus?? How would that physically read the groove. Don't you need a mirror to send the signal back?

[ConradDobler]

I have always wondered, that with all of the technology we have today, why someone has not yet invented a device that could play vinyl by use of a laser scanning device or something like that.

 

Here ya go...

 

http://www.elpj.com/about/how.html

[Steely Dan]

I'm not an audiophile. I don't even have an equalizer hooked up to my stereo but I do remember the days of the first CD players. One of my friends in high school was a brilliant kid. He graduated in the top five of our 500+ student class. His father was pretty well off and he bought one of the very first CD players ever made. My friend had gotten a Talking Heads CD and we were listening to it together. He was playing with the feature that allows you to pick the order of the songs. He looked at the CD and says; "I wish they had like David Byrne's suggested order to play them in." I pointed out that Byrne's preference would be the order of the songs on the CD.

 

IIRC, a lot of artists wouldn't record on the new digital format until they expanded the number of sound codes. I think Neil Young was one of them.

 

As long as we're walking down technological memory lane I have a couple more memories. I remember my aunt was a huge Tom Jones fan and had an eight track tape player. You'd listen to it and Jones would be singing a song and the sound would go down real low in the middle of a song and then there'd be a CHA-CHUNK and the sound would rise back up and continue from where the song had left off before the track change.

 

I also remember my father buying one of the first hand held calculators for $200. It could only add, subtract, multiply and divide, I think.

 

I also remember getting cable for the first time and the remote control was a big box about the size of a football stadium that was connected to the cable box via a thick wire. If you wanted to change channels you would have to press a button for that channel. Hey, since it was wired at least you never lost the remote.

 

I also hate to admit that I'm this old but I remember playing "Pong" with my brother and thinking it was the cat's meow.

 

I also remember the days of having to get out of your chair to change the channel (three major networks and some UHF channels, if you were lucky) and the dial would click fairly loudly along each step to the next channel and it could take about twelve clicks to go from one channel to the next. If I turned the dial any faster than one click at a time my father would suddenly appear and grouse; "Slow down!! You're gonna break the dial!!" It was uncanny the distances he could hear me changing the channel from. It must have been a psychic thing or just severe cheapness. The TV we had back then was a color TV with a 13 inch screen.

 

I also remember the pre-microwave days. Now people get pissed off about having to wait three minutes for their chow.

 

(In my best crotchety old man) "Kids today don't know how well they have it!!"

[Just Jack]

I also remember the days of having to get out of your chair to change the channel (three major networks and some UHF channels, if you were lucky) and the dial would click fairly loudly along each step to the next channel and it could take about twelve clicks to go from one channel to the next. If I turned the dial any faster than one click at a time my father would suddenly appear and grouse; "Slow down!! You're gonna break the dial!!" It was uncanny the distances he could hear me changing the channel from. It must have been a psychic thing or just severe cheapness. The TV we had back then was a color TV with a 13 inch screen.

We had a 19" that liked to go for car rides. Yes, I'll explain. The TV would act up and no amount of smacking the side would help. Since my grandfather worked with electronics, we'd load the TV into the station wagon (for you youngins' think of a mini van but shorter) and take it to his house on a weekend. By time we got there, he couldn't find anything wrong with it.

[Fezmid]

The TV would act up and no amount of smacking the side would help.

I remember having to do that with our TV too! The picture would get funny (usually weird colors), and smacking it would "fix" the problem.

[Booster4324]

First computer I ever worked on had a 20mb hard drive. We got grant money and decided to upgrade it, so we got a 120mb hard drive. It was unreal! Never would we use that much hard drive space. Never! I mean ever! People from other labs would come over, just to look at our computer. (I don't remember the price, but it probably cost about as much as an entire computer wouldl today.)

 

Now I have a 1gig usb drive on my key chain. Unreal.

 

My phone has 16 gigs, really need to upgrade that soon...