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

Although I was born in the '90s, I mostly bought cassettes when I was a kid, because they were so cheap

I didn't really start listening to CDs on a regular basis until new cassette releases were phased out in Australia - which would have been around 2002.

Late adopter, hey?

 

I just remember ~~ I was kind of amazed at there being no surface noise. Nice. But wasn't really 'sold' on the sound or audio 'feeling'.

Still loved LPs but liked cassettes (analog & I made my own on Maxell II chrome).

 

Basement of my cousin's house, Led Zeppelin 4.

 

I was in my 30's when CDs came out but I couldn't tell you when I heard my first.

 

CDs had been out a for a few years and I hadn't heard one. So one day I decided to go to a hifi store for a demo. I first checked that they weren't busy, explained that I was curious to hear as I hadn't heard a CD yet, and was upfront that I wasn't interested in buying one. They were willing to give me a demo, I expected that they had one in a system but it took 15 mins before they were ready. They sat me in front of a system set up in the middle of the room, directly between two small speakers. I recall the sound being very good, especially from the small speakers. I also recall that the system was much better than my hifi at the time, and taking that into account in my impressions of the good sound.

But I didn't rush out to buy a CD player. Partly because of limited finances. I wonder if I unconsciously noted some artificiality to the sound. Later, making friends with an audiophile retailer, I was able to hear how good turntables provided superior reproduction to CD players. I waited 10 years before I felt the gap between the two had narrowed, and bought a quality CD player - it was very listenable, but it wasn't as good as my TT. It died about 5yrs ago, and was amazed at the improvement the replacement CD player brought, and felt that the vinyl/CD differences were now much less noticable.

 

I remember it very clearly. It was 1995, at my Aunt's boyfriend's house. He was playing Rebel Yell by Billy Idol.

I mean, I was 6 years old so I can't comment on the audio quality, but for Christmas that year, my aunt got me a Kenwood portable CD player and a copy of Rebel Yell for myself. I was thrilled I could listen to the same song on a loop over and over and over again until I got tired of the saxophone hook in "Catch My Fall" and asked my mom if we could go to the record store to get another CD.

My mom wound up buying probably ten or fifteen CDs AND a new bookshelf stereo system for herself. But I know she was jealous that I got a CD player before she did!

 

I remember my first Sony CD player, $1,000.00, the CDP-101. I thought it was unbelievably great!

 

Many audiophiles had the experience you had. I am glad mine wasn't. But I was lucky. Those 1981- 1985 players were vile.

 

I heard Donald Fagen’s the Nightfly when it first came out and bought it immediately before I even owned a CD player. The players were expensive back then. I made a tape off the CD until I could afford my own CD deck.

 

$1 000! Then you must have purchased you CD player back in 1982. Damn! Did you pay your rent that month?

I had a $120 dual turntable with some $40 cart and no elliptical stylus back in 1988. I remember hearing Past Masters 1 and 2. Everything was so clean and clear. I had never heard the stereo mix of I FEEL FINE before. Blew me away! I wondered if it was the same song. Finally the master.

 

Lucky for us CD players got better.

 

Bought a Sony CD player mid 80's and the first CD I heard was The Talking Heads "Stop Making Sense" which amazed me at how quiet and crystal clear it sounded.

I put my Technics 1700 MKII turntable in mothballs for the next 30 years after that and went CD's fulltime until I rediscovered my vinyl 5 years ago. Now digital and vinyl are a regular part of my daily listening habits.

 

I don't remember my first experience hearing a cd but I remember seeing one the first time. It was my Dad's and at the time he also had a laserdisc player. I remember looking at the disc and thinking hey this is cool it looks like a miniature laser disc. I wonder if they'll ever be able to fit a movie on this. It seemed impossible at the time because of how big laserdiscs were and the fact it took both sides to fit a movie on it.

 

Heard my first CD in late 1986. Top Gun soundtrack!

Blown away by the sound quality compared to anything I had heard before. Back in those days, I was still a teenager, collecting cassettes and the occasional LP, no disposable cash for a CD player or CDs. Wasn't until 1988 that I got a boombox with CD player and bought my first CD - Rod Stewart's Out Of Order .

 

i'm here to thank you. i've picked up a copy of the deutsche grammaphon windor, vierne, et al cd. it won't come as a surprise to you that 36 years after its release it remains a superbly gorgeous title to showcase a system with. i swear i feel air moving.

 

I remember it was on Christmas day sometime in the late 80s. I remember being impressed by the lack of tape hiss. I was also impressed that the music played consistently from beginning to end without having to change sides. I didn't listen to records back then so I had no way to compare my experience with the sound of LPs. What I do remember was replacing my cassettes with CDs which I was more then happy to do.

 

I was young and didn't really know or care about CDs or sound quality. I just knew that they were expensive. The first I vaguely remember hearing was on my brothers ghetto blaster.

I never really did buy into CDs that much. I bought a few here and there, and burned some myself. In the early 200s, they were all stolen out of my car. Never bought any since then. I burned a few, but when car stereos with USB ports became popular, I said screw CDs all together. Don't miss them a bit. I am more into vinyl or digital files.

 

That was the first player I ever listened to - at my friend's store. But I would wait until the late '80s to buy my first player - a Yamaha if I recall correctly. But months before the player, I bought Sarah Mclachlan's Touch and Melissa Etheridge's eponymous releases, both on CD, as encouragement to do so.

In between I continued to buy dozens and dozens (and hundreds) of releases on vinyl - which I mostly re-bought on CD eventually.

Jeff

 

No. I was only a few days old.

 

I believe the first song I heard was "Fight for Your Right to Party" by the Beastie Boys. This was on a friend's Sony Discman at school around spring 86. It sounded nice and clear but I do not remember feeling "blown away".

 

At a trade show as a demo. I remember the clarity of sound and no background noise. I bought one of the first to hit Australia and had a choice of about a dozen CDs.

I have a few more now

 

I think it was a house party in late summer 1986 - Genesis Invisible Touch.

 

It would have probably been 87-89. There was almost no rock n roll on CD then. But, my first CD was probably Yngwie Malmsteen; either Rising Force, Trilogy or Odyssey. I just remember Odyssey sounded like an ice pick in the ears compared to the vinyl. But, like a lot of other folks during that time, the idea that you could play the disc as much as you like and it would never skip, or have pops, etc was like something that could not be imagined. And, it was so damn easy being able to go from song to song if you didn't feel like listening to the whole thing. At first, CD`s were way too expensive at like anywhere from $25-35 for some of those early rock titles; back when you could get vinyl for $3 or 4 a title.

 

Hmmm...another very good but not perfect format was my reaction. My other reference points were my car radio (horrible, but it was in a Spitfire so it didn't matter), a TD125/SME 3009/V15 combo (coupled with all the foibles of records), a good Nakamichi cassette deck, and an A77 (the best of the bunch but also a gigantic PITA).

 

My neighbor purchased a Sony CD player I want to say 1983-84 or so. He brought it over to hook it up on my system, we put on a Telarc Star Wars CD he had and we nearly blew the windows out of the room that day! It was amazing! Later after owning one myself and after years of being so biased in favor of CDs, I started to realize my records when compared to CDs (A-B comparison) in most cases sounded more lively/life like. There's a trade off to everything, lower noise and the like on CDs, but when you have a proper recording on either format, both can be very enjoyable.