Check out this ad for a CD player from the 80s (click for a bigger view). It seems pretty hilarious from our current perspective, where CDs are becoming obsolete, but if you want to you can get a CD player for $10.00 and one is built into pretty much every other electronic device.
I guess we shouldn’t complain that the next big optical technologies, HD DVD & Blu-Ray, will cost over $500 at first. This early CD player cost $590, which would be worth even more in 1983.
I remember when my parents first brought home a CD player. I was unimpressed. I guess they grew on me though, since I don’t have many tapes lying around.
Phronk.com 
Comments
24 responses to “Digital Audio is Awesome”
My dad had the first CD player I ever saw…back when there was a store on Queen Street that only sold CD’s – they were really hard to find. Too bad you are too young to remember Video Disc’s. What a joke that was.
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My dad had the first CD player I ever saw…back when there was a store on Queen Street that only sold CD’s – they were really hard to find. Too bad you are too young to remember Video Disc’s. What a joke that was.
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OMG they were the size of hubcaps
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OMG they were the size of hubcaps
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You mean laser discs? I remember those. …they were pretty good, except for being huge and having to flip them halfway through the movie. They paved the way for having cool special features on DVDs today, though.
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You mean laser discs? I remember those. …they were pretty good, except for being huge and having to flip them halfway through the movie. They paved the way for having cool special features on DVDs today, though.
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Digital audio is awesome!What do you think of the new formats of super cds vs the audio dvds? I have some geeky/techie friends who debate this all the time but then I tune them out. Also, I hope HD goes away… i think it’s overkill and another scheme to make money.
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Digital audio is awesome!What do you think of the new formats of super cds vs the audio dvds? I have some geeky/techie friends who debate this all the time but then I tune them out. Also, I hope HD goes away… i think it’s overkill and another scheme to make money.
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I haven’t read much about new audio formats. I think CDs and MP3s are good enough, though…surround sound is barely necessary in movies, and even less so with music. And I can’t see sound quality getting much better than CD quality.I totally disagree about HD. Once you see something in HD, everything else looks blurry and bland. It won’t go away until something even better comes along…I believe that all TV will be required to be in HD in a few years. And HD discs will slowly replace DVD as more and more people buy them and they become cheaper. It’s not quite the leap from VHS, but it’s certainly worth a few bucks in my humble opinion.
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I haven’t read much about new audio formats. I think CDs and MP3s are good enough, though…surround sound is barely necessary in movies, and even less so with music. And I can’t see sound quality getting much better than CD quality.I totally disagree about HD. Once you see something in HD, everything else looks blurry and bland. It won’t go away until something even better comes along…I believe that all TV will be required to be in HD in a few years. And HD discs will slowly replace DVD as more and more people buy them and they become cheaper. It’s not quite the leap from VHS, but it’s certainly worth a few bucks in my humble opinion.
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I remember Led Zeplin came out with a box-set. Now every band that dosn’t tour anymore has one. Nobody cares about box-sets anymore.
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I remember Led Zeplin came out with a box-set. Now every band that dosn’t tour anymore has one. Nobody cares about box-sets anymore.
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i remember the tv ads showed how you could scratch the disk with a nail and it would still work. My cousin was showing off his fancy new cd player and did the TV ad scratch with his new INXS CD…needless to say it stopped working and he looked like a fucktard.
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i remember the tv ads showed how you could scratch the disk with a nail and it would still work. My cousin was showing off his fancy new cd player and did the TV ad scratch with his new INXS CD…needless to say it stopped working and he looked like a fucktard.
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I was a very late adopter of the cd. I just waited till I got a computer with one in the mid 90s, and then realized how awesome it was, and then bought a modern stero.
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I was a very late adopter of the cd. I just waited till I got a computer with one in the mid 90s, and then realized how awesome it was, and then bought a modern stero.
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I had a comment but blogger’s comment feature totally sucks and it took six and half days before this box appeared (with content).So, I forgot it but I’m leaving a comment so that you know I read it, damnit.
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I had a comment but blogger’s comment feature totally sucks and it took six and half days before this box appeared (with content).So, I forgot it but I’m leaving a comment so that you know I read it, damnit.
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My parents’ first CD player was, no joke, like 5 feet tall. Ghetto fucking fabulous.
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My parents’ first CD player was, no joke, like 5 feet tall. Ghetto fucking fabulous.
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Haha yeah I like how it says CDs are “practically indestructable”. Not even close to true…a tiny scratch can destroy a CD if it’s in the right place.Thanks for the comment George. I hope we didn’t miss anything awesome when the first comment was lost. I’ve never had a problem with Blogger’s comments, so I conclude that the problem is you. It’s probably God punishing you for touching yourself in public washrooms. P.S. George Bush doesn’t care about box sets.
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Haha yeah I like how it says CDs are “practically indestructable”. Not even close to true…a tiny scratch can destroy a CD if it’s in the right place.Thanks for the comment George. I hope we didn’t miss anything awesome when the first comment was lost. I’ve never had a problem with Blogger’s comments, so I conclude that the problem is you. It’s probably God punishing you for touching yourself in public washrooms. P.S. George Bush doesn’t care about box sets.
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