[TheBoingoBandit]

Yes, that silver disc is 25 years old today. To commemorate this anniversary, I thought we could use this thread for your comments, memories and predictions of this format's past and it's future possibilities.





I bought my first CD in aroud 94/95 before I bought my first player. It was "Right before my eyes" by Patti Day (great song!). There was a pile of this unsold single in a charity shop for ten pee each, so I thought why not.

Soon afterwards I bought Commordore's ill fated CDTV system for fifty quid in Dixons and of course finally got to play my disc.

Having skipped vinyl and gone straight to cassette, I was blown away by the ability to skip track at the touch of a button.

From there on, all the music I bought was on CD. Now I have about 400 discs (including 100 free with magazines and newspapers). A large number of these I've never got around to playing.

To make up for this, I now plan to buy a media player hard disc soon and copy all my CDs uncompressed onto it. Until uncompressed audio free of security restrictions becomes available to buy online, then I'll be sticking with CD for the time being.

[Steve N]

My first one was Fergal Sharkey.

[mjn]

CD's? Are they still around

[danmc_82]

Originally Posted by mjn

CD's? Are they still around

What you been using, computer chips?

[DVD-Man]

My first memory of CD was my big bro getting Now 20 and shifting from cassettes to CD to be played on his new Sony hifi after landing a highly paid job. This was 1990 IIRC.

Erm future is most definatley wind chimes, coasters, frisbees, building materials etc

Liam

[alphaomega16]

CDRWIN

[Miniholic]

My first CD was the Back to the Future OST that I got for Christmas (85 or 86) when my Dad got his first CD player (He got Queen's Greatest Hits). Got my first CD player about two years later by which time I had maybe 10 CD's.

Originally Posted by DVD-Man

My first memory of CD was my big bro getting Now 20

I've got Now 8 on CD.

[RMCF]

1st memory has to be Dire Straits 'Brothers in Arms'.

Mum used to work in an electrical store and kept telling me about these new CDs.

Also said that they only had a handful of discs for sale, but that they tended to listen to BiA all day as the others were crap.

I think it was the next year I got my own CD player - and yes BiA was my 1st CD.

[krish]

as an avid vinyl collector I managed to avoid CD until just after the Freddie Mercury Tribute concert of April '92 ... it was then that Metallica released a live CD single (Enter Sandman, Sad But True, Nothing Else Matters) of their Wembley performance that kicked off the concert ... then I bought my first CD player (a Marantz CD52SE) a day or two later

[TeenSpirit]

Originally Posted by RMCF

1st memory has to be Dire Straits 'Brothers in Arms'.

Mum used to work in an electrical store and kept telling me about these new CDs.

Also said that they only had a handful of discs for sale, but that they tended to listen to BiA all day as the others were crap...

SNAP !! Same story here - I was doing weekend work at Halfords, aged 16 and they had in a new personal cd player with demo disc 'Brothers in Arms' - I was blown away by the sound quality and begged my Dad for a Cd player for Xmas. My Dad being a 'vinyl' man wasn't convinced (Dad's deck cost him over £4,000 so he wasn't about to be outdone by CD's ), but he ended up getting me a Marantz system with Celestion speakers for Christmas

My Dad still thinks that CD quality is nothing on vinyl, the way he plays it - he has demonstrated this to me in his 'music room' and he is right - his system is amazing and you can really hear every sound separately whereas with CD the sounds do seem to link together. I think technology is more towards compactness these days and most people are listening to music via MP3 files IMO.

[Setenza]

CD=Rubbish unreadable sleeve notes.

Dead Kennedys had very creative Album and inner sleeve art with all the relevant lyrics etc.

On the CD versions you can only read these using an electron microscope.

CD made the music industry in less personal and more corporate driven.

[WibXL]

I think that the first CD that I bought was either Iron Maidens seventh son of a seventh son or number of the beast, the first player that I had was a personal compact disc player which I got for Christmas along with both of Iron Maidens "the story so far" box sets.

Like XoD though I miss the artwork and sleeve notes that you used to get with vinyl.

EDIT: I also had a CD32 which broke and couldn't be repaired because of all of Comadores (sp?) problems at the time even though they had a warehouse full of the chips needed somewhere in Asia.

[PoochJD]

Hi,

My first CD was a German import of the anime soundtrack to "AKIRA" by the Japanese group Geinoh Yamashirogumi! Owned the CD for about 8 months, before I could actually play it, because I was that desperate to have the music! Cost me the best part of £23 from what I remember.

However, I still have the disc, and it's in the same immaculate condition that it was when I bought it, despite numerous playings. Great music too!


Pooch

[Steve N]

Originally Posted by RMCF

1st memory has to be Dire Straits 'Brothers in Arms'.

I remember that when Brothers in Arms came out is was seen as THE CD that gave the technology its first real boost.

In much the same way The Matrix was seen as THE movie that got people going out and buying their first DVD player.

Took me a long time to wean myself off cassettes but IIRC my first CD was Dreamtime by the Cult circa 1984/5.

Still have the CD but bought the remastered version late '90s. Might see what condition the original is in and whether it still plays.

[CFC1]

Memories of CD? Have I been asleep this last 25 years? ... I'm still using these! .....

[mjcairney]

Originally Posted by RMCF

1st memory has to be Dire Straits 'Brothers in Arms'.

That was my first CD as well - good taste, eh?

Cheers,

Martin.

[Miniholic]

Originally Posted by mjcairney

That was my first CD as well - good taste, eh?

Cheers,

Martin.

It was one of my first SACD's. Remember them?

[Londondecca]

I remember the slogan "perfect sound forever" and the demonstrations which showed you could smear jam over the CD and it would still work. Apparently CDs were also indestructible.

[Tuddy]

Saw Dire Straits in 85 and there were Phillips stands everywhere promoting CDs.Couldn't even afford a programme and T-shirt yet-alone a top-loading CD player that wouldn't play CDRWs and MP3 CDs.

[Kieron]

I think the first album I bought was "Hunting high and low" by A-ha.

It was around 1985.

I remember people at the time saying "this'll never catch on - you can't record on them" and "it's a smaller version of those big video discs"...

[Kevo]

My first impressions was being very underwhelmed with the sound quality, which still remains 16 years on ! (i get my first CD player in 1991).

[jont]

Being of the rock music persuasion my first cd was Bat Out of Hell which replaced the vinyl version that had practically worn out !! ... my dad worked in an electrical shop and got a cd player quite early on ...

Jon

[johntheexpat]

Originally Posted by jont

Being of the rock music persuasion my first cd was Bat Out of Hell which replaced the vinyl version that had practically worn out !! ... my dad worked in an electrical shop and got a cd player quite early on ...

Jon

You were not the only one to wear out the Bat Out of Hell LP. The CD was my third copy of the album.
My first memory of CD's was a Tomorrows World, where they lathered jam over one and then cleaned it up and played it so they could demonstrate how durable they are.
Except the first few I bought have gone the way of all things because they started to decay from the outside rim. Mostly last better these days.

[KoThreads]

Bought my first player, a Sansui PC V1000 in Jan 84 for £550 from Comet. I phoned everywhere to get one and ended up driving miles to get it. Two people I knew at the time had the Philips top loader and the Sony, but others were rare and I wanted something different. The following day bought two import CD's of Crime of the Century and Makin Movies, both still play fine today. The player is still at my parents on a shelf and hasn't been used since the mid 90's as it stopped playing discs. I used it for about ten years and the only annoyance was the very loud scraping noise as the laser transport returned after playing a CD, oh and it was heavy.

I'm now on CD player no. 8 after having 4 Sonys, a Kenwood 200 discer, an Arcam and now a NAD, but the Sansui was the most I've ever payed for one.

[Sonic67]

My first player was a Phillips CD160 which I attached to a Hitachi midi system. I think the Phillips is still working. I gave it away eventually. First CD was Def Leppards - Hysteria.

[Kebabhead]

Watching Tomorrows World demonstrate how CD's were supposedly indestructable by putting sticky honey and the disk then washing off with hot water and then playing said disc.

Those small 7cm picture discs. Back in early nineties bought an 6 disc changer cartridge for my Pioneer Hi-Fi system (cost £25) for these discs only for the record industry to phase them out. Never got to use it

[stuart1976]

My Mum bought my Dad a Sharp CD Hi-Fi unit for Christmas back in 1985 so I had to go and get myself a good CD to play on it.

My first ever CD was the Ghostbusters soundtrack I bought in 1987 (I was only 11 )

[Ed Selley]

I've had access to a Cd player since '87 when my Dad bought a Cambridge CD2. After a single one box Mini System, I've only owned seperate CD players and (I think) I've owned about 15 of them. I'm happiest with my current unit and I still that the format has more to give technically.
I grew up with CD and only moved into vinyl with the donation of a sizable chunk of music from a relative. On balance, I now prefer vinyl because of the ceremony involved, the better artwork and higher residual value of the discs. I believe that with a level playing field, CD can compete with vinyl and of coursr they are easier to listen to in the car.

First CD? not sure. Its either Boss Drum by the Shamen or Now 23.

[Neil.B]

I think my first one was Micheal Jackson..BAD
What a fantastic sound, at one point i thought someone was knocking on my door, then realised it was on the cd

Neil