The Compact disc is 30 years old today

Happy Birthday you shiny, glorious things. Bought my first young one, by Paul Young I believe, in 1984 or '85.

 

Are you kidding me? Man oh man!

 

Once I got CD, I never looked back.

 

That's astounding. I have no idea how many I've bought over the years but it's considerably more than the 2,000 or so I've kept the herd culled to.

 

Happy birthday CDs! You aren't as cool as the LP or as convenient as the digital file, but you certainly are a good friend.

 

My first CD's were Tull's Greatest Hits and Phil Collins No Jacket Required because it had a bonus track - an enticement I loved with early CD's.
I bought thousands over the years until around the year 2000 or so, but now they sit in storage.

I just never grew to love them or their sound as I do my vinyl records.
It's a completely different experience that for whatever reason never quite resonated with me.

But Happy Birthday wishes are certainly in order. To thrive for 30 years in this market is an accomplishment.

Any prediction on 40.......?

 

yeeeaaaahhhh!

 

got my first player on sale for $600 from $1000 in 1983. 1st cd, Rumours. Bought
the Japan Abbey Road not too long after in '84.

 

Damn I was happy when the CDs came out! No more tapes that sounded crummy to start with and only got worse with time before shredding. No more cleaning heads, demagnetizing, and other sorts of annoying maintenance. (What was the gunk on the heads? The tape breaking down? Dirt?) The tapes stuck around for a long time though for use on my Walkman, a piece of fragile battery-chomping technology that I'm glad to be rid of. In short, for me the leap into the digital world was a no-brainer. Any yup, those CDs did and do sound magnificent.

I'm of the generation that skipped vinyl completely much to the horror and tut-tutting of many folks here on SHF who feel that CDs are an abomination being sterile, thin, having "only" 40,000+ samples per second, blah blah blah. I don't hear it that way. Although my folks had a turntable it wasn't too great and most importantly wasn't in my room! It sounded OK but I didn't see the point b/c I could make tapes from CDs which I deemed to be my long term format of choice.

And strangely, just this weekend I started the process of burning my CD collection to flac!

My first CDs were Sgt. Pepper's and McCartney's All the Best both of which have a much dearer place in my heart that my first tape, Rush's Fly by Night.

 

'52nd Street' was the first disc I heard played in a stereo shop, 'Rumours' was the first one I heard on headphones, 'Synchronicity' the first one I heard played all the way through on the radio, 'Sgt Pepper' the first one I purchased.

 

Ditto. It's still the best format overall to me.

 

The audio CD is a mediocre product -- not as high fidelity as analog, not as convenient as weightless digital. Hardware support is waning, particularly in the automotive sector. Young listeners haven't embraced CDs, and may never.

I join the many voices predicting the imminent demise of the CD, and won't miss it at all.

Cheers!

 

****ing - A it is a great day indeed!

 

I can pop a CD right into the player. No wasting time messing around with the computer or dealing with backing up or transferring files or worrying about what happens if a downloading service goes under. That's way more convenient to me. Plus, you have to keep buying new MP3 players every couple of years and re-transfer files to it, etc. Too much of a pain in the butt to me, for very little payoff.

Oh, and I own the CD- no "ifs", "ands" or "buts" about it. That's always a reassuring thought.

 

I'm a CD man, I love them!

I like the fact that sometimes just like back in the day, you get a poster or booklet.

I remember the very first time I heard a CD, It was Wings Over America and I was totally blown away by the clarity of sound! After a lifetime of listening to records, the difference in sound quality was very noticeble.

 

CDs got me back into music in a serious way, funny thing is LPs are doing that for me NOW, but i really do love both formats.

 

Happy Birthday, CD!

 

I remember reading about Compact Disc technology in Stereo Review, well before I ever saw or heard a CD player. Dang, I was hooked just from the article. A lot of it was over my head but I recall the writer saying something to the affect of "all this technology just to play back our favorite music as good as it can possibly sound".

The fact that it was read by a laser light and would never wear out was what had me stoked.

I remember stumbling across the first player I had seen at a local furniture store called Roberds. I can't be sure now, but I think the CD player brand was Symphonic (not sure, may have been Technics). The salesman put in a CD by the Police and played King of Pain. I remember being very skeptical from looking at the smallish never-heard-of-the-brand Symphonic, and then the music started. Good lord! The clarity, the depth, the bass. I was awestruck and my jaw hit the floor.

I've since learned that CD, or at least it's implementation, isn't always perfect, but I've been a fan for many years. Maybe I was just lucky, but I never really experienced the tinny, lack of bass sound that many seemed to have heard in the 80s from CDs. Maybe the CDs I bought just sounded better, I dunno.

 

When all factors are considered - I think it might be my favourite format.
First CD was ATCO A Trick Of The Tail. Before I owned a player.

 

Happy Birthday CD.

Boy, am I old.

 

Regardless of the pro's and con's of the CD format, it was without doubt a revolutionary product for consumers.

I was a fairly early adopter in 1985 and it blew me away. Mainly because I was very fussy about surface noise on vinyl but over the years I returned to vinyl with a renewed need for analog and a more relaxed approach to the medium.

The CD format has a special place in my audio nostalgia and always will.

 

CD made me sell my vinyl collection and later I had to rebuy it ....... good riddance I say !

 

That response fits me to a T.

But I do worry about not being able to buy a cd player in a few years, or needing to digitize some of the collection because I won't be able to haul as much actual physical product around with me in the future.

 

Happy Birthday CD!!

My first CD was the Toshiba-EMI pressing of "Abbey Road." This was about early 1983 I think? I saw it in the NYC Tower Records and saved up (it was $25 in 1982 dollars, over $55 in today's money!) and bought it a few weeks later. I didn't even own a CD player! But it was The Beatles, and on a new audio format, so I had to have it. I finally heard it (and loved it) when I finally got my first CD player that following Christmas.

Of course what's left out is, it sounded so bad becaused they used a high-generation reprocessed stereo tape of the LP, not because of the CD itself or any problems with early CD sound quality. (It was a copy of Elvis' Golden Hits, a copy which I saw displayed next to Abbey Road in Tower Records but didn't get. Hey...these new CD things were so expensive it was either Elvis or the Beatles, not both!!)

I can kick myself now because that pressing is as rare as hen's teeth these days. It was pulled so fast I'm amazed now to remember Tower had a few copies for sale even after it was yanked.