Remember when you heard a CD for the first time?*

1983, in a Tweeter store (remember those?)

 

The lack of tricks, pops, and surface noise was a big deal for me. And no distortion. Who cares about depth and stereo sound stage if you can't hear it through record noise on a a $250 Dual table and a $70 MM cart. I didn't even have that.

I feel in love with the CD right away. That first CD I got was Eldorado and it blew me away. You felt like you were really hearing the master. I am sure the people with the $3000 vinyl playback system heard better but most of us didn't have that.

 

Not Me.

My first Cd was The Very Best of The Ventures. I had all the songs on this Cd on vinyl. i knew them inside out.
I popped the Cd in the player, went back and sat on the couch, hit play on the remote and..............

Dissapointment.

The sound was flat, with no 3D component at all. The instruments just sat there. It was like throwing a sheet over my speakers while playing a record.

 

I was so excited about the new technology and the hype and was underwhelmed by the sound. No hiss (compared to my tapes), no rumble, no scratchiness, no pops, no crackles...... no life.

 

I thought a noise reduction switch or mono switch was engaged on my receiver. But was not.

 

LOL. Early CDs players had a switch that turned off 3D images. You enter a special code on your remote and the 3D comes back. Did you read your manual?

 

LOL! That Switch was called "ON".

 

Good one. When did you buy you CD player?
Anything before 1988 was pretty bad. Actually most players after 1988 were almost as bad. My 1988 Sony bragged that it had DUAL DA CONVERTERS. Before that most CD players had one DA converter. What?! Huh?! Yep. Your DA converter would convert the left channel and then run back and convert the right channel. Ad infinitum. A delay circuit would supposedly put the two channels back in time. Regardless of how this plan was executed this stupid design meant high amounts of jitter which meant crappy stereo image.

 

You just have paid for the upgrade.

 

Remember when you heard a CD for the first time?*

No, we don't.

 

If you had spent $30 000 on your player those CDs would have sounded......O.k. at least.

 

Probably made from a copy Dolby 'A' tape but without the Dolby A decode. 1500 CDs just like it went out. But that can be fixed. Now if you had a CD made from a tape that was encoded with Telecom 4 and not decoded then.....You are really screwed.

 

But when I listened to a Tracy Chapman it sounded rather good - "DDD" effect?

 

I had a pseudo hifi system, a "micro" Aiwa. Loved the convenience of the remote. Sounded compressed. I always thought ..if the technology is so good....the recordings must be bad..

 

In June of 1985, I got a CD player for my birthday. I can't remember the brand or model. I did not get any CDs with it. I had about 20 bucks, so I went to the hifi store to buy a cd. At the time, record stores were not yet selling CDs; you bought the CDs where you bought the player. It was slim pickings. I ended up buying "Zenyatta Mondatta". I was not a Police fan, but it was the newest, potentially most digital disc they had. It was clean and bright, and like nothing I had ever heard.

After that, I remember buying: SRV, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, The Cult's Love, 90125, Tommy, Kitaro, Pink Floyd and a bunch else.

 

This.......

 

Two of the first several compact discs I bought in the late '80s were Bill Haley & His Comets and Buddy Holly from the Original Master Tapes on MCA. I was stunned then and I'm still in awe of their audio fidelity to this very day! The CD format is simply fantastic! Any weaknesses compact may exhibit reflect poor mastering, and that's a fact!

 

I read about CD/Players in ... Audio magazine? in 1984 ... found a posting I made here years ago:

I bought a Magnavox FD-3030 at "Poor Richard's" stereo in SF, CA (I drove from Pleasanton to buy it, it was on sale (closeout?) for something like $299). This would have been summer of 1984, I think. CDs were kept in locked display cases and were $24 or more each. A demo CD came with the player that I still have. I think I tossed the player when it quit working several years later ...

I always thought it was a 2nd generation player that was at the time being replaced by a newer model (FD-3040) ... but don't know for sure. I had a Yamaha A-700 integrated amp and a 3 piece "3D Acoustics" sub-sat speaker system. Sounded OK but didn't have spatial depth ...

http://vintage-audio-laser.com/Magnavox-FD-3030

says 1983, for the FD-3040 it says 1984 ... earliest model listed says 1982.

So yes, it was a 1983 model on closeout ... wish I still had it! It had green LEDs that bathed the CD while playing, I think that was a 'fad' later for tweaking the sound for the better ...

 

I changed the year to 1983, not 93.

 

yes, I was waiting for surface noise...

 

There have been releasees in recent years that were download only in that form, here's an example:

Pet Shop Boys - Love Etc. (2009, 256 kbps, File) | Discogs

 

I was always impressed by the background noise of CD - that is, dead silent. So impressed that for a while I forgot that what was happening in the foreground was not all that impressive....

 

I was hitchhiking back to university in '87 and got a ride with a guy who had something like a Discman plugged into his cassette player and/or radio - don't remember how and which it was... were there already Discman players in '87? Anyway, he was playing the Boston debut... that was the first CD I ever heard...

 

I find it odd that some people mention lack of depth and stereo sound stage with compact discs. I've not noticed any such thing except when listening to poorly mastered recordings. I have stereo demo CDs that demonstrate channel isolation capability, and I've never heard one instance of channel bleed-over. With phonograph records, audible crossover in channel isolation is inherent. I've also never consciously heard a compact disc's sound floor, but audible surface noise is inherent in phonograph records and is annoying when listening to quiet recordings. However, what I often hear are lousy EQ choices, poor stereo imaging, compression, and other distortions having nothing to do with the compact disc format itself. Sadly, little care is executed during the mastering process these days especially in the pop genre. This lack of attentiveness and skill in eking the best audio from recordings is what has given the compact disc a bad reputation among some people. Thankfully the genres of jazz and classical are somewhat safe from incompetent mastering technicians. At least that's my observation and opinion.

 

No argument there sir. I hear you. I hear you. Yes, plenty of crap-o-la CD out there I wouldn't use as a paperweight. "Incompetent mastering technicians" is a brilliant phrase. I want it on a tee-shirt. But you are wrong here. Even some Jazz and Clasical CD releases fell victim to the Loudness War. I hope you never have to hear them. And there is plenty of crappy loud compresed vinyl out there too.

Most of us had crappy tables. And as bad as some CDs were I would still rather have a CD with some compresion and Eq on it then a record full of tricks and pops.

The CD is not to blame for bad CD sound. Whereas vinyl is a different story.

YOUR CD MAY SUCK FOR THE FALLING REASONS:

1. Made from a Dolby A tape without Dolby A decode. 1500 releases! No joke.

2. Made from copy of vinyl copy master.

3. Too much compression and / or EQ.

4. Played back on the wrong machine.

Sure, vinyl can sound great. If the record is cut properly from a master or good copy tape, and you have a good system to play it back on. You may have $1500 Nitty Gritty machine but many of us don't.


Can I borrow yours?.....Please.....I promise to be nice and say lies...ahhhh.....I mean good things about vinyl.

Seriously, I love vinyl. But, it is a big pain in the butt to get it to sound right. ​