Remembering when CD's first hit the market......

lightman1

I was living in Ireland in '83 when I saw my first CD and CDP. A Phillips unit who, if I'm not mistaken worked with Sony do develop the recording and playback of CDs. I was stunned, no hiss, no rumble!! Who needs vinyl and cassette anymore!! I bought my fist cdp when I moved to NC in '85 and went banannas with this new technology. One of my first purchases was the Dire Straits Brothers In Arms. A brilliant recording which I still listen to to this day.
Maybe a point of clarification, the first cds were packaged in a cardboard long box and about the late '80's early '90's were set in a plastic long box that the cashier had to remove at the counter when purchased. Two versions of the same setup.
Fire up the Wayback Machine!
You more seasoned Polk Folks know what I mean.
Polkin' in NC.
Lightman

snow

Here is a link to a long box gold cd that is for the true collector

http://cgi.ebay.com/THE-WALL-PINK-FLOYD-MFSL-GOLD-CD-NEW-LONG-BOX-2CD_W0QQitemZ140140727754QQihZ004QQcategoryZ307QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


REGARDS SNOW

zingo

Speaking of CDs, the first CDROM I had was a stand-alone unit that I bought for my Apple computer. It had the cartridge that you put the CD into and then loaded that in the reader. I no longer had to install Oregon Trail on 6 floppy disks, I could use just one CDROM. It was good times to say the least.

(This was the computer that I also "upgraded" to 32 megs of memory)

George Grand

In 1986 I started buying cd's without having a cd player. First was a Zappa for $16.99, that was Apostrophe and Overnight Sensation. There were other double cd's from his catalog that were priced as singles as well. I have a couple Captain Beefhearts that were also two albums on one disc, like The Spotlight Kid and Clear Spot. The record companies broke the code on that **** pretty fast, and those babies disappeared. I finally bought an ADC 16/1 machine from Crazy Eddie in Cherry Hill. I met an "enterprising" young man at that location. This resulted in the purchase of literally hundreds of cd's, for about $20 per 100. All cd's that I hand picked.

That ADC 16/1 always sounded pretty good to me, despite the analog brick-wall filtering. I also have a Sanyo vertical, front-loader that was from the first generation. Picked it up at a rummage sale at our local synagogue last year or the year before. There isn't a scratch on it and it still works flawlessly (at least it did when I wrapped her up and put it into storage). It retailed for a cool grand when new. I would not want to drop that machine on my foot, it's built like a Tiger tank. And that's a fact Jack.

George Grand

As an aside, the first cd I ever heard was John Fogerty's "Centerfield" being played on a friends rig. The rig was a pair of Klipsch "Heresy" driven by a Yamaha integrated. It piqued my interest a bit, to where I wanted to hear this new technology on a real pair of speakers. Original cd's? Heresy? Ice-pick in the ears.

G-2

First CD, Crack the Sky Live, it was the only CD that Record and Tape Traders was carrying at the time, the year 1983 maybe? Looooooooong time ago, living in Balto (Catonsville) hun. Some of you Balto folks may remember Crack the Sky!

zombie boy 2000

I'm reminded of that scene in the Wedding Singer when Drew Barrymore's fiance presents her with a brand, new 1984 CD player. She immediately asks him if you can play records on it....

Danny Tse

A listing of the world's first 50 Compact Disc titles

Danny Tse

Just purchased....

Abba: The Visitors (1981)
West German Polydor 800 011-2

The first pop CD ever produced!!

Tred

I recall that I had no shortage of rich friends who had upgraded CD players every year or two at that time, and those who lined up to buy new releases. Quite a few had only bought DDD CDs, and viewed AAD and ADD as junks. Little they knew that marketing was in full swing when the small prints on the back of AAD and ADD jewel boxes warned that digitized analog sources revealed so-called "analog artifacts" due to CD's high resolution.

Danny Tse

This past Monday, October 1st, marked the 25th anniversary of CD's availability to the general consumer. On October 1, 1982, CBS/Sony of Japan released the first 50 CD titles (see link above). Here are some in my collection that you may recognize....

fireshoes

And in other news, Sony BMG wins $220,000 from a single mom for file sharing, in which they didn't show that she had a file sharing program on her computer or that she was the one that used it.

treitz3

This thread deserves a blast from the past bump.

Like, more toward an almost 2 decade old "bump".

I just reread this thread and it was good to "speak" with members that are no longer here, and in some cases, no longer with us on this big, blue marble.

I still remember what CD's sounded like when they first came out. I was NOT impressed. I liked some aspects but the pros -vs- cons? I preferred vinyl.

So, now that all this time has gone by. (Close to a half a Century later)....

To the new folks here at CP. Do you remember your first CD?

Tom

skipshot12

Still can’t remember the long box thing.

skipshot12

I do remember the reviews of the AAD, ADD & DDD in the mags.

Toolfan66

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longbox

nooshinjohn

My first, and still the best digital version….

jbreezy5

I was just a kid (probably 5 or 6 years old) when my mom got her first CDP, and I did not like the sound compared to vinyl. The brightness/harshness/glare is what I remember the most, and thinking, “I wish she would turn this off.”

We did not have a good stereo, which didn’t help things. I think it was a GPX rack system with same brand floor speakers. Dreadful system all around. 😂

SCompRacer

I still have a boxed one George Grand (RIP) gave me at one of the Polk Fests.