The Rapid Start (& End) of the CD

[@nicestmanintheworld]

Genuine question dude, how are you not burnt out? You release awesome vids every day, doesn't it get tiring? Love your content either way, take care of yourself please

[@nicestmanintheworld]

​@@النفس_المطمئنة fair, didn't realise they aren't daily as they get recommended all the time lol. Either way work life balance is important and doing in-depth research takes a ton of time so still not many days off

[@justingrey6008]

He could do it as a job, some KZbinrs do. With research staff and writers.

[@Broken_robot1986]

He's a beast

[@atotalidiot]

Asian work ethic

[@ihmpall]

Addy

[@n.miller907]

I don't understand why everyone thinks the CD is dead. It isn't. Any music shop I visit is full of CDs, records and definitely no pre-recorded tapes. CD sales aren't that pathetic. They still are decent enough to allow the format to exist. Streaming audio might be partly to blame for lagging enthusiasm for CD audio, but I'd still put my money on the best audio quality experience from CDs and DVDs (especially in the niche market of surround sound audio). Having started my record collection going back to the late 60's, I gave up vinyl collecting after buying my first (expensive) Technics MASH CD player in the 80's. My vinyl discs took a back seat for over a decade or more. Only lately have I started playing my record collection and even buying replacement styluses for my "classic" vintage phono cartridges. It ain't cheap! I've also covered myself with buying multiple CD burners, players and Blu-ray players. I know some day these items will vanish and I want my adult children the opportunity to still listen to my vast collection when I'm dead and gone, no matter what format my music is in.

[@StubbyPhillips]

I have a small collection of DTS 5.1 Surround CDs and they're FANTASTIC!

[@lundsweden]

Ah, Technics MASH, but no Hawkeye, Hot Lips, Frank, Colonel Blake or Radar.

[@YolandaPlayne]

Ok but that's why I prefer FLAC.

[@lundsweden]

@@YolandaPlayne FLAC is a great format, agreed.

[@yensteel]

@@YolandaPlayne We need more FLAC stores. iTunes made a nice jump to DRM free 256kbps in 2009. The major flac stores are incredibly selective.

[@BilTheGalacticHero]

My brother and I bought a TDK CD player in the early '80s. Our first disc was Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. The sound quality blew our minds. The cool thing is that we still have that same disc and it still works fine.

[@Wizardess]

In 1982 my ears still worked. A friend ran an AV rental business. He invited me over with a couple other people to hear his new toy. I was utterly gob smacked. It was wonderful even with quiet passages that were wrecked by tape or vinyl record base noise levels. As soon as I could afford one, I got it. {^_^}

[@kd5you1]

I was just blown away the first time I heard a CD, and there was no indication that "something" was about to play. It was just music.

[@quanbrooklynkid7776]

damn ​@@kd5you1

[@CaesarNeptuneStudios]

CDs are still awesome and better quality than most streaming services. Also fun to collect

[@StubbyPhillips]

Indeed.

[@PongoXBongo]

Especially if you're into k-pop music. They release elaborate CD cases with 3d textures, photobooks, and more. Often in a series/set as well, encouraging you buy all the different versions and line them up on your shelves. Ideal for collecting.

[@lazymass]

​@@PongoXBongoclassical capitalistic move, I hate it.

[@Ray_of_Light62]

Many of the CDs I had simply got corroded with the time passing. A total lottery. It is unbelievable, but my FeCr and Chrome tape cassettes are still playing fine, just like all LPs, while many CDs (and DVDs) just rusted away...

[@oggilein1]

@lazymass your first response to "they release physical media with neat twists to it to make it special" is "muh bad capitalism", really? grow up.

[@LatitudeSky]

Worked for a contractor who helped TDK convert a VHS tape factory into one that also made recordable CDs. It was an incredibly expensive project that required adding a huge clean room and massive robot machines to make the blank CDs. It was very odd to see ultra high tech on one side but through the little windows, we could also see the VHS line running. Anyway, TDK threw a ton of money at this plant expecting blank CDs to be in high demand, and TDK was determined to cash in. The plant went online almost the same time similar plants went online in Taiwan and China. The price went from a couple dollars a disc for TDK's premium product, to 10 cents a disc for something from CMC or Taiyo Yuden. TDK made great blanks. But nobody wanted to pay a premium. They ended up scrapping the whole plant, VHS and all, and taking a massive write-off that drove them out of making media at all. It was an unmitigated disaster. Apparently nobody expected the cheaper manufacturers to ramp up so quickly or so cheaply. I have no idea how they didn't see it coming.

[@jimbotron70]

TDK CDs were indeed good.

[@abdulrahmanalsheikhali3162]

your story deserve a whole video or series of videos not a comment. come on man!!!!

[@krsp420]

TDK made great stuff. Some of the best of every format ever was TDK. Why is the story always "this company made the best of the product, so it went out of business." lol

[@loganmacgyver2625]

If TDK went into flash R&D it would be still around probably

[@Haplo-san]

I was usually buying TDK CDs and DVDs, and before that I was buying TDK casettes to record music on them. I don't know about VHS, should ask my father. But in my experience, TDK was really good. I must still have some TDK disks lying around; in fact, I just opened the first drawer where all my old CDs and DVDs still stored and there it is; a "TDK CD-R74" on top.

[@chengong388]

The dynamic range for audio is not the range of frequencies it can play but the range of amplitude it can play. More specifically it’s the ratio of the amplitude of noise, and the loudest possible amplitude.

[@andytwgss]

It is when we also consider how sampling rate limits the rise time of transient. You actually see low amplitude when bandlimited.

[@michaelmoorrees3585]

Yes, this kid, clearly has a digital background. As opposed to an old boomer, like me. Though most of my career has been spent in the digital realm, I now dabble mostly in analog, in my retirement.

[@ScottGrammer]

@@andytwgss The rise time of an audio signal is at its smallest (or fastest, depending on how you want to look at it) when the highest recordable frequency (on a CD, this would be a theoretical 22.05kHz) is played or recorded. Since there is nothing in an ADC or DAC to keep such a signal from being recorded or played back, there is no rise time issue. There is a different function, called "slew rate." Slew rate is how fast a system can change voltages in response to a change in input state, and it is typically stated in volts per microsecond. There is no "good" or "bad" slew rate specification, only "good enough" and "not good enough." A high slew rate is only important when the highest frequency is being recorded or reproduced at the maximum level (0dBFS). It is analog circuitry that can suffer issues with limiting high-level transients. Early digital recorders and players (including CD players) used analog filters to avoid aliasing (the anti-aliasing filter) when recording and to reassemble the signal into a noise-free analog signal on playback (the reconstruction filter). These analog filters had a knee frequency of just a hair above 20kHz, and had to be very steep in their rolloffs to do their jobs, and this caused audible issues with the top octave of early systems. The advent of oversampling eliminated the problem during both recording and playback, and in fact CD players as well as other digital playback systems moved to digital reconstruction filters in the late 1980's. Those analog filters were where the slew rate limiting came from. The digital part of digital recording and playback has no such issue.

[@ScottGrammer]

@@andytwgss The rise time of an audio signal is at its smallest (or fastest, depending on how you want to look at it) when the highest recordable frequency (on a CD, this would be a theoretical 22.05kHz) is played or recorded. Since there is nothing in an ADC or DAC to keep such a signal from being recorded or played back, there is no rise time issue. There is a different function, called "slew rate." Slew rate is how fast a system can change voltages in response to a change in input state, and it is typically stated in volts per microsecond. There is no "good" or "bad" slew rate specification, only "good enough" and "not good enough." A high slew rate is only important when the highest frequency is being recorded or reproduced at the maximum level (0dBFS). It is analog circuitry that can suffer issues with limiting high-level transients. Early digital recorders and players (including CD players) used analog filters to avoid aliasing (the anti-aliasing filter) when recording and to reassemble the signal into a noise-free analog signal on playback (the reconstruction filter). These analog filters had a knee frequency of just a hair above 20kHz, and had to be very steep in their rolloffs to do their jobs, and this caused audible issues with the top octave of early systems. The advent of oversampling eliminated the problem during both recording and playback, and in fact CD players as well as other digital playback systems moved to digital reconstruction filters in the late 1980's. Those analog filters were where the slew rate limiting came from. The digital part of digital recording and playback has no such issue.

[@VEC7ORlt]

And what of that sample rate limit?

[@Francisco1.9.8.8.]

Nice documentary! Thank you. 2024 and I'm still buying CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays proudly.

[@GeoffSeeley]

Me too but unfortunately the trend seems to be moving away from physical mediums where you own it into a virtual licensing model where you DON"T own it.

[@NathanDudani]

​@@GeoffSeeley "you will own nothing and be happy"

[@GeoffSeeley]

@@NathanDudani exactly. Luckily I bought enough physical media (and spare players) that I'm good decades of enjoyment without a monthly fee.

[@EbonySaints]

I think I took my current job with the hope of getting enough money to build a ghetto mass ripper and rip the hundreds of CDs and thousands of DVDs (and a hundred or so BDs) we have in the back. I personally like CDs more than Vinyl solely for the convenience factor. Ripping a CD is painless and drives are dirt cheap. You can probably rip one out of an old Dell and it would still be functional. Vinyl (which we have about four cases of) takes a much larger set-up and unlike CDs, if they're derped up, they're derped up completely. Finally, that budget Arc card would do what it was supposed to do instead of playing games in a mediocre fashion and being "okay" at AI for the power and price.

[@yensteel]

And keeping them on digital copies is so great too. Get a NAS people!

[@windhymn479]

Thank you so much for taking the time to make this brilliant video. Without a doubt, this is the best video I’ve watched on the history of the CD - it’s so clear that you have thoroughly researched the topic. It’s incredible to stop and think how advanced the CD format actually is - we’ve really taken it for granted, sadly. I still collect CDs and Vinyl, even though I use a streaming service too - I much prefer to listen to the music that I actually own. The CD is still an amazing format for listening to music, even if streaming and downloads are more convenient- you can’t beat having physical media 😊 I am so grateful to have found your channel because of this video 😊❤

[@Markimark151]

I still use CDs, because they’re easy to play for a physical media format. Even I kind of prefer CDs over vinyl records nowadays, because vinyl prices have skyrocketed, while CD prices have dropped significantly.

[@zendonreyland1298]

Everyone else laughed at me when I collected New Age CDs in the 1990s and early 2000s. Nobody's laughing at me anymore, since many of the CDs in my collection have long since gone out of production and have become worth hundreds of dollars. But I wouldn't part with any of my CDs for a treasure chest full of gold.

[@Markimark151]

@ there’s a lot of hidden gems with CDs, and genres like new age and indie rock music albums!

[@otbricki]

I bought my first cds in the 80s. Still have them, and rip them to use in my home music servers. Still sound teriffic. They are widely available inexpensively, many used and sound perfect. Very stable long term. For me they are very alive still.

[@hattmarvey1989]

Exactly. If your music is just a "file", there is nothing you can "hold in your hand" and appreciate. I liked vinyl (LPs), you could spend time appreciating the artwork and reading the blurb on the cover. With a CD, it's smaller, but they still have pretty pictures and sometimes a booklet insert. With a file, you need a computer to see the tiny blurry thumbnail of the original album or CD cover. And to hear the difference between a FLAC and a 16-bit CD (assuming you are not over 50 with thickening ear drums), you need to spend (i.e. to lose) at least 20,000 quid on a "high end HiFi".

[@cdl0]

In common with many other people at the time, the first experience of hearing a CD was something so impressive that I will always remember. It was a huge improvement in quality, convenience, and durability. I still have all the CDs I have ever bought for myself or been given since the late 1980s, and still play them on my original Sony CD player bought back in the day. They all still work as good as new. That's why I still buy new CDs. If it ain't broke, then don't fix it.

[@hugovanderzee4944]

Excellent and informative video. For me this could be the standard for making video documentaries. A complete and well explained story, relevant images, pleasant to watch, no background music and no sound or video effects. Well done👋

[@InviktusRex]

AOL alone created 2 billion CDs

[@vandorb12]

And they all became coasters, wall decorations, or bird scares.

[@MegaFonebone]

It was a sad day when they stopped sending me free reusable 3.5" floppy disks and converted over to CD.

[@belstar1128]

i always thought that was very wasteful

[@autohmae]

@@belstar1128 By 1995 they had 3 million active users and had displaced the previous largest Internet access companies, becoming the largest. I don't know what the reason was... but it could have something to do with it.

[@SithLord2066]

@@MegaFonebone I came by into the world slightly later than you. I loved the AOL CDs blanketing the planet because it gave me free plastic (and sometimes metal!) CD cases. I would buy a large spindle of 50 blank CD-ROMs (and later) DVD-ROMs and burn my discs, but did not have to buy individual cases for each disc, because AOL gave them to me for free. By this time no one used floppies anyways.

[@natecaine7473]

If ever there was a "Nobel Prize in Engineering" it should be awarded to Philips and Sony for the Compact Disc. Incorporating clever physics for tracking and focus, lens design and laser diodes. The use of multiple servos (focus, tracking, etc.). Linear rack-and-pinon track-to-track tracking vs. Philips D'Arsonval-style angular meter-movement-style tracking. 3-beam tracking with diffraction gratings and additional track side sensors. Rod-lens vs. knife-edge focusing. Expensive 16-bit ECL D/A soon replaced by 1-bit bit-stream DACs...with oversampling as well. All allowed the disc to be cheap to manufacture. BLDC motors in spindle design. The incorporation of advanced error detection and correction, further meant cheap and easy to produce discs (because more defects could be tolerated). There was a perfect intersection between these needs and the semiconductor manufacturing processes at the time. Sony's CDP-101 initially had four VLSI chips to handle the process. The EFM decoder and data recovery. An address sequencer to place the recovered data into a small static RAM, while simultaneously reading data out to be sent to the audio D/A convertors. Meanwhile an Error Detection and Correction accessed the RAMs data and scrubbed it for errors, or possibly interpolating or masking errors. The architecture was cleverly partitioned that should the Error Correction chip not initially work, the remaining system could get by with interpolating and masking. Further, Philips and Sony made several strategic decisions towards a complicated design, but cheap to manufacture. The CD disc MASTERING is very expensive, but allows the CD disk themselves to be easily stamped out for (at the time) about 75-cents each. So many wonderful technologies, clever physics, robust manufacturing along with the information technology that made the error detection and correction possible. As well as Philips and Sony's correct marketing decisions made it all possible. Seldom have the stars been so fortuitously aligned!

[@chrisschaeffer9661]

No Durability at all. Scratch way too easy compared to cassette. Step backwards when they go a month then are scratches too shit. Nope

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

​@@chrisschaeffer9661>>> That's CD-ist...🤭

[@mrshhjj8899]

@@chrisschaeffer9661 cassette.. demagnetizes.

[@regisdumoulin]

@@chrisschaeffer9661 Scratched CD's can be easily fixed so long as the scratches are not too deep: Get some cheap toothpaste and squirt a little bit on the CD surface then use it to polish the scratches away in circular motion. It works because most toothpaste contain tiny abrasive granules. You can also use altupol polishing agent but toothpaste is easily available, cheap and works pretty well

[@Watcher4111]

Cds are not dead. In 2009 there were ads saying its the end of cds. 15 years passed, cds are still released

[@la7dfa]

I have ripped all my CDs and have it all on a harddisk. Makes it much easier to access. Plex server and Plexamp makes it available anywhere. But I understand why people prefer the magic of a physical media, and then listen to the whole album.

[@zendonreyland1298]

Anything has a shot at becoming valuable once it's no longer made. This happened to many of the CDs I collected back in the 1990s, as well as technical books.

[@donaZor]

Why do I love Asianometry, besides quality of subjects and writing, he doesn’t show his face every 5 frames!! It feels so much better and fair when it’s about knowledge. 👍

[@TerryClarkAccordioncrazy]

Yes and no annoying thumbnail with a faked expression of shock

[@n.miller907]

I think this video on CD technology was not thought through properly. His conclusions don't hold up to facts. And the responses here show that many people still love and use and buy CDs.

[@daverich3352]

and no overly expressive voice to really get the point across.

[@bill8985]

@3:00... the steps to create “stampers” for molding a CD is: a glass plate is coated with photoresist, exposed appropriately in an exposure tool, post exposure baked and developed similar to a wafer in a chip fab. Then that device is (spray) coated with a silver solution (to make it conductive) then placed into a nickel electroplating bath (the process is called electroforming.) Once the plating is done, the metal part is separated from the glass master and called the "father." Then many of the next generation (called mothers) can be electroformed from that father. And from the many mothers can be produced many "stampers" - which is the actual part placed into the injection molding machine. Each stamper can produce thousands of CDs. So the succession of “tone” is: glass master is "positive", the father negative, the mother positive, the stamper negative - and thus the molded CD is positive - so you have pits where you want pits…

[@gus473]

That's fairly close to the master/submaster etc. process of replicating ruled diffraction gratings for research-grade optical emission spectrometers.

[@JoeAdler-tr7dc]

I always thought CDs would last for over 100 years I have over 800 CDs and I've noticed a lot of them are deteriorating they the shiny metal metallic part of the disc are deteriorating splitting not all of them but quite a few

[@bill8985]

@@JoeAdler-tr7dc Me too. the metal is a thin coating of aluminum that is "sputtered" onto the polycarbonate molded disc. Then that is coated with a spun-on polymer protectant layer. Seems the spun on material must be the culprit... I'm merely guessing - but as that layer ages (oxidizes?), perhaps it changes shape and causes micro-stresses that adulterate the extremely thin metallic layer (??)

[@trevorbartram5473]

Philips, where are they now, so sad. CDs were an easy sell after suffering poor vinyl during the oil crisis of the 70s. I waited for the first Philips front loader in 85 before adopting. I now have >2000 CDs. I worked at Plessey Electronic System Research (Roke Manor, UK) in the 70s & 80s. In the early 80s Philips demoed their HDTV system to our technical society. The video was impressive & so were the half dozen 19" racks of equipment needed to produce it. Philips had a long run producing lasting success from initial failures, their story is worth a YT vid.

[@bernardjharmsen304]

Philips morphed into ASML. Look it up.

[@rmyikzelf5604]

Philips spun off many very successful companies which still thrive today. Light, TV, ASML, and a few more. Philips themselves chose to continue in the high-tech health business and subsequently made a big mistake in buying an American company that turned out to deliver substandard equipment. They will survive.

[@FlintIronstag23]

The way I got around the high price of CDs in the 1990s was by having multiple accounts with BMG and Columbia House. You could get something like 7 "free"(still had to pay shipping and handling) CDs if you bought 1 at full price. I would cancel my membership after buying the required amount and then wait a bit before starting again. I used my parent's, grandmother's, and my own PO box to make it look like different people. At one point I had 5 memberships going at once. It took them awhile to figure out what I was doing, and I accumulated a pretty big collection of CDs for average price of around $3-$4 per disc.

[@xraymind]

I remember my uncle had good vinyl record collection of classical music with a high end vacuum tube amp audio system. He was so shock about CD audio quality that he switch to buying classical music CD instead.

[@tambourine_man]

12:24 If you are sampling above Nyquist, you’re not “approximating” a continuous signal, you’re are *perfectly* representing it. There’s no information loss. You only need two discreet points to perfectly describe a line, no matter how continuous it is. Check out the Nyquist-Shannon theorem.

[@ScottGrammer]

Well-said, concise, and correct.

[@sra_junk]

For anyone wanting to dive deeper, they should check out Akash Murthy's Digital Audio Fundamentals playlist!

[@MegaFonebone]

Thanks for making this point, I was thinking "Nyquist-Shannon" at that time stamp as well.

[@bonwick]

True, but only if the sound you're sampling has *zero* content above 22.05 kHz -- otherwise you get false undertones, like an audio Moire effect. Getting 100% of the advertised 20kHz upper limit but 0% of 22kHz requires an extremely steep low-pass filter, which distorts the lower frequencies by changing their phase.

[@RobertR3750]

@@bonwick Not a problem for a good design. Also, oversampling helps.

[@RappaTui2]

One reason the initial forecasts for CD were so far off is that Sony and Phillips did NOT expect people to replace their entire LP collection. They figured early adopters would be audiophiles with extensive collections who would be older and only buying a few CDs per year (I think the forecast was two per year). Instead, both the players and CDs were much more popular than expected and people did indeed buy CDs of all their favorite recordings.

[@pr0ntab]

What did it were early CD changers that fit into hifi systems where the LP player would go. I remember my family getting one and then you'd stick the latest 5 things you bought in it and you kept it on random and didn't have to get up to futz with it during a get-together except maybe to fiddle with the volume. I think this really cemented it as a done thing.

[@schitlipz]

_Everybody_ knew it would be a game changer and everybody was gonna get fresh tunes on an "indestructible" digital information thingy. Whoever forecast low sales, if they did indeed do so, did not have the ear of the people. I remember it clearly: People so stoked to hear their favourite songs in the best quality... Cash was flowing hand over fist. CDs are still the best resource for music and can be found in stores and, even better, _public libraries_ ,

[@nyccollin]

Always been “Philips” now. Mandela Effect. I also remember Phillips.

[@1697djh]

Funny how I still have a Record deck and LP’s, my CD player left me in the early 2000’s. Two sources now, my Record deck, and a digital source via Roon with a Topping D90LE DAC.

[@pr0ntab]

@@1697djh Jesus that DAC is expensive for that price you could get a 12 channel USB bus mixer with XLR and mic preamps. Why do people spend so much more money on playback equipment than the studios that record the stuff?

[@TheJuggtron]

As someone born into the loudness wars - I can attest to the quality of Vinyl mixes - because of the dynamic range on CD's you can just tell the computer what you want it to do - leading to the compression nightmare that was 2000's era metal music - culminating in "Death Magnetic". When you mix for Vinyl you have to be respectful of the limitations of the format - reduce crosstalk and generally make sure that low frequencies can't overwhelm the groves. Making a mix "heavy" while doing this is an art to itself - and why many prefer vinyl mixes as "warm".

[@ComeJesusChrist]

After not buying a single CD for over fifteen years or so, I started buying them again. Used CDs are cheap, good quality and the music ownership is unparalleled, considering that in addition to keeping the physical media, one could create digital copies for various devices at various bitrate and quality for own use.

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

Physical media is the way to go for audio AND video.

[@johnz4860]

I never stopped buying CDs . I started buying CDs in 1986, SACDs in 1999 and Blu Ray Audio discs in 2013. This week I have bought Seven CDs . Listening to CDs is the best fun I can have without taking off my trousers!

[@quanbrooklynkid7776]

I didn't even know they had cds in the 1980s.

[@johnz4860]

@@quanbrooklynkid7776 the first CDs came out in 1982, the first release was The Visitor by Abba.

[@ronald3836]

@@quanbrooklynkid7776 CDs outsold vinyl from 1987 until 2022.

[@Alpinerbergen]

The 74 minutes duration limit comes from the U-Matic videotape cassettes we mastered on back then before DAT and DASH were introduced. On a 60min U-Matic cassette recorded in PAL-mode fit 74 minutes stereo audio.

[@lundsweden]

The CD is simply the next hipster trend waiting to happen! Not to mention that 16 bit, uncompressed audio is really more than good enough for extremely high fidelity music playback, even in the 2020s. Perfect - Sound - Forever!

[@douglasscott464]

There's one last spool of blank CD's in our supply closet, after having burned thousands from 2001-2015. Those last few will never be used!

[@helmut666kohl]

Yeah I tossed all of them years ago. Only one I kept: A DVD-R with a €34,- price tag on it. It was a wild time…

[@anwarxv9279]

In my country they are still used in health and academia , something like burning your mri scans and docx for your 60 years old doctor/professor.

[@marcotesti6393]

@@anwarxv9279 Same in Italy. Where do you live?

[@stevengill1736]

Here too - plus a bunch of compressed movie DVDs....dunno if my disc player even works anymore.... what's next after streaming? Telepathic music? 😊

[@EbonySaints]

​@@stevengill1736That's just streaming with less separation and considerably more horrifying implications about privacy and ownership.

[@andrewfurst5711]

One thing about stamped CDs for music is that they don't become as easily corrupted as digital downloads. Also there are a lot more choices among CD titles than digital downloads. Further, music purists need a better home storage system for digital downloads and/or ripped CDs than is currently available. Most of what you can assemble today (NAS units) have a home-built "hobbyist" quality rather than a ready-to-go downloader/player. Personal computers have too much electrical noise to be used as high-end audio servers, so there need to be some dedicated, easy-to-use servers at reasonable prices. Until then, CDs will still be quite popular.

[@coloradoing9172]

"One thing about stamped CDs for music is that they don't become as easily corrupted as digital downloads." It's practically impossible to corrupt a digital download. CDs on the other hand are very easy to scratch and damage. "Also there are a lot more choices among CD titles than digital downloads." Sail the high seas and you can get every CD in existence in digital format. "Further, music purists need a better home storage system for digital downloads and/or ripped CDs than is currently available." Nope. Hardrives, especially external ones are super cheap nowadays. "Personal computers have too much electrical noise to be used as high-end audio servers" No, modern audio chips and cable outputs are pretty much noise free. Dedicated USB DAC/Amps are super cheap nowadays too if noise is such a concern. And don't even get me started on the limitless things you can do with digital audio. EQing, convolution, numerous effects, resampling, loudness equalization, custom playlists, crossfeed, HRTF, etc.

[@Noone-of-your-Business]

21:30 - The _"analog is always better"_ whining did not start at the beginning of the digital age. I was around and I have *never* heard anyone do that. Whoever was able to _afford_ digital went for it because the sound quality is an absolute no brainer. Whoever pines for "organic, natural sound" has never heard a scratched vinyl on a cheap record player. The die-hard vinyl defenders who don't even realize that the recordings they champion are recorded and mixed on all-digital studio technology popped up *much* later, and they never were a majority or even a significant amount of music consumers. Buying $5,000 turntables was never mainstream.

[@monmixer]

I'm 66 and still have all of my albums, most of my cassette tapes and all of my CD's along with many burns of course.

[@lionheartroar3104]

CDs are still the best overall format. I have 40 year old cds that play and sound great. I've kept them dust free, heat free and humidity free. ..and NEVER loaned them out. Period.

[@stevenkirk1844]

I was just listening to CDs from the 80s this afternoon. Great. The Yamaha player is from 2002. The player has been repaired once. Another NAD player is from 1991. Has never failed. Buy a quality hi-fi unit. I buy new CDs now and secondhand from eBay. I hold them by the edges not the playing surface. I clean lightly with a lint free cloth. I have NEVER experienced skipping or any faulty play EVER. I can't remember having a bad disc. Some early CDs had pin-holes. A good player still plays them. Just my experiences since 1991.

[@gus473]

Nice coverage Jon! IIRC the first popular group to release an all-digital album on CD was ABBA, followed closely in America by Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA."

[@Woloszow]

I love taking CD drives apart, so I can admire the engineering to make something working so accurately and quickly just for few bucks

[@aspensulphate]

I get that. I never throw out any piece of technology without first taking it apart to see how it's made. I may even salvage a few parts.

[@DavidMander-rs4uk]

CD is STILL the world standard in my eyes 👍

[@bshingledecker]

Excellent synopsis and history. Well researched. One phase overlooked, was the "Music CD" which paid a tariff, and was coded in a secret way that copying from other music CD's was allowed. The player/recorder then was a viable product and was brought to market. I own a Pioneer PDR-W739 which requires a music CD to record. I still use it on occasion for copies to play in multiple vehicles.

[@dennman6]

I bought my Pioneer PDR-W739 on November 17th 2000 at Best Buy when it was on sale for about $450. It came with a 10-pack of Memorex music CDRs, which still play today. All of this talk of CDRs failing and becoming unreadable are the ones that were written at high speed on computer drives. The CDRs I have made with the Pioneer and Sony CD audio recorders from 2001 and 2005 still play perfectly, because they were in drives writing from 1X, 2X and 4X. The higher the CDR writing speed the more incidents of writing errors, and unreadabilty settles in. I still use my Pioneer and Sony CD audio recorders. The problem now of course is buying well made blank discs to use in them. I originally intended to make archival quality CDRs of all of my audio formats. But there are far too many LPs, cassettes, Etc. The main purpose I have now for my CD audio recorders is making transfers of family home recordings done on cassette tapes in the 70s and 80s when I was running around as a teen with my Panasonic portable recording family lore. So glad I was an AV nerd back in the day, because now the Dead live on in medium to high fidelity audio (in the early 80s I was using a Realistic SCT-20 cassette deck with electret microphones, which was pretty high fidelity for that purpose). And the other major purpose is making transfers of 78 RPM records, especially classical albums where there is a side break every 4 minutes. I love listening to a vintage classical recording and the often single mike recording technology, but listening to a symphony with getting up every 4 minutes to flip to the other side gets rather tedious. Amazing to me that people would listen to classical music like this 80 years to over a century ago, but that's what the technology was at the time.

[@app0the]

Wait a second, so that is what all this "CDR for Music" fluff was about! I always thought it was just some audiophile marketing nonsense.

[@dennman6]

@@app0the audio music CDRs made specifically for audio CD recorders had a surcharge fee built into the price that was supposed to pay a sort of royalty into the RIAA or some other recording industry conglomerate. The idea being that these companies presumed that the users of audio CD recorders were going to use them to make copies of albums that they had bought on CDs or cassettes at that time. No thought was ever given to the fact that many musicians use the audio CD recorders to dub sessions that they have done and there are no copyright issues on their own music. So now you can still buy a good Tascam audio CD recorder but it is a pro level machine and uses the normal type of CDRs you can still buy at any Best Buy or CVS or Walgreens or Walmart Etc. Those type of CDR blanks are not usable in the audio recorders because they don't have the logo for that on them. But they ARE used in computer drives and external burners and these professional-grade audio CD recorders, not consumer grade units

[@stevemarshall3986]

Cd is the best format for music

[@harri211]

The amount of research you did to make this video astounds me even more than the advent of CD's.

[@goldenboi7685]

I'm 37 and grew up with vinyl, cassettes, 8-track, and CDs. My dad still spins vinyl pretty regularly. We have this giant old component stereo that I used to make mixtapes of music from both records and CDs. It was the perfect time to grow up. I have long since gone digital. I have a couple of SD cards with my good music saved on to it but I have thrown absolutely none of the old formats away. I'm not a fan of MP3s. The best sound you can get is from a CD or a brand new vinyl record played on a very high quality phonograph.

[@mrshts]

It really was the best time to grow up. And with the early internet and Napster and kazaa on the tail end of that timeframe, oh what a time!

[@Ahnii]

You know you don't have to use MP3?^^ Lossless high res audio formats like FLAC and WAV do exist!

[@mduckernz]

@@AhniiYep, I encoded all of my music CDs to FLAC and then threw them out (didn’t have space for them in a move 😥). Can’t do better than lossless!

[@goldenboi7685]

@@Ahnii yes I know all my Pink Floyd is saved as a wave file but everything else is an MP3 to save space

[@aspensulphate]

As you age, you care less about fidelity, and more about the content. MP3's serve that function.

[@equesfuscus]

Extremely informative. Time well-spent.

[@ccshello1]

I remembered vividly replaying the same video segment over and over for several hundred times for my hybrid video design. That was forty years ago when digital video didn't exist and Silicon memory was expensive. The Pioneer Laser Disc player can repeatly play back uncompressed composite video with 100% identical video signal repeatably thru Time Code. No wearing whatsoever. On the CD side, I'd like to mention some interesting technical details: 1. The entire CD just have one spiral track, just like LP. However, it was inside out as opposed to LP's outside in. That is, if not the entire 74 minutes of recording space is occupied, the outer area is blank and you don't need to worry about holding the CD would optically spear the read-back surface. 2. In addition to the EFM channel coding (more on this later), there are extensive error correction arrangement. The goal is to spread the recorded information apart spatially. That is, if one make a scratch on the CD (tends to be one continuous almost straight line), the spread then reassemble operation will most likely make data recovery possible, and human ear definitely will not hear repeated disturbing pattern in a fixed interval. 3. Worthwhile to mention that unlike LP which uses constant rotation speed (33 1/3, 45, or 78) which is CAV (Constant Angular Velocity), CD uses CLV (Constant Linear Velocity), which means the readout digital stream's data rate is almost constant. E.g., the outer track reading, it spins slower. 4. EFM is both a channel coding and a modulation scheme (similar to ancient time hard disk MFM and RLL encoding.) It has some rules to follow (no less than 3T, no more than 11T: thus only 267 patterns fit such rules.) Goals are to achieve DC balance, Sync code insertion, clock regeneration, etc. etc. There are other framing bits inserted to be used as information carrier. 5. Rewrite CD is even more complicated. It needs to have lead-in, lead-out, temporary catalog, finalized disc catalog, etc. 6. Servo tracking such a densely packed spiral track is a great achievement (extremely narrow inter-track distance and there is no way the spiral track's center can be so close to a physical CD's center) Can you imagine few cents of storage media have so many technologies behind its success?

[@Ray_of_Light62]

The track DC balance played a role with classical music reproduction, something the LP had been incapable for years. I refer to the reproduction of pipe organ lowest frequencies, around 20 Hz. While it become commonplace with CDs, an LP system capable of reproducing 20 Hz had to be DC-coupled from the stylus cartridge to the woofer speaker (which is inherently dangerous), the record player had to be belt driven (direct-drive motors had a feedback noise in the 10 Hz range), and the vinyl record had to have a vacuum chamber under it - because the physical undulation of the record media itself overwhelmed the output otherwise. When we realized that it was possible to play low organ notes without that unbelievable setup, we were very happy at the time; at least untill we realized the 44.1 khz sampling killed the cymbals and butchered the violins and high notes chiaro-scuro on the piano...

[@ph11p3540]

After 50 years, I still maintain a carefully packaged up selection of music CDs and CD players. They are my 3rd music backup and files that are exclusively all mine for personal use. The CDs have not degraded in the slightest. I just built a new PC and one of the things I like to do is deddicate one entire SSD just for two formats of music files. I am currently ripping my old cds to my new PC. ATC, and FLAC conversions are my main music formats

[@KokkiePiet]

I bought the first front loading CD player by Philips when it came out somewhere early or middle of the 80's. Still using it (now and then) today. Most of my Audio CD are however in cardboard boxes in the basement. All my music I have as lossless files on HDD. Fun Fact:, a legend is that the size of the hole in the middle was discussed for a long time. Then a Philips executive put a coin on the table, a 10 cent piece (dubbeltje) and said: This size. It exactly is this size.

[@tonners.pettitt9938]

I'm an avid CD collector to this day, the fact that I can get 3 for £1 and have a physical format of my music without it being as expensive as vinyl has been for a good few years now, I still buy brand new too I love the feeling of supporting my favourite works That and the audio quality of CDs is exceptional

[@jakegarvin7634]

"Ask your parents, kids" "Ask your grandparents, or hipster kids" Genius 🤣 you should rap

[@monohedron9633]

That's not genius, that's wishful thinking. I don't know how old Asianometry is, but in 2024 CDs are just as hipster as wax cylinders, or vinyls. For the kids there's stream or not stream (i.e. physical media). Which media, matters much less.

[@Nelo390]

@@monohedron9633 honestly, as a zoomer, CD's aren't really a cool thing, because no generation wants to be like their parents, they want to be like their grandparents. maybe the youngest Gen Alpha think it's cool, but it isn't 'rustic' to most of us, it's just- old. so why bother.

[@monohedron9633]

@@Nelo390 you should be into cassette (or reel) tapes then. Myself, I'm late GenX, and while I sure have some LPs, I much prefer tapes not because I give a sh** about my parents or grandparents, but because I can *record* tapes at home, make my mixes, etc.

[@jjadragna]

This joke made my evening too

[@brantisonfire]

If you're interested in the CD, watch the documentary "Cassette: A Mixtape Documentary" which extensively features Lou Ottens, father of the Compact Cassette. He is very humble and seems confused as to why there are still so many people that still collect and record/play cassettes when there are better, more high-fidelity options.

[@GeoffSeeley]

Thanks for this! I was one of the young people back then that bought into the CD in both audio/computer formats as I didn't have an existing LP collection or disposable income until the time of the CD. It was fun (and expensive at first) to make a weekly run to the music stores which had small CD sections to start, but they quickly took over! (that exponential graph was spot on IMHO)

[@mog068]

Dynamic range = range of amplitudes, not frequencies. Otherwise your statement is true. The frequency response range of vinyl records is also somewhat limited: At the low end, to get sufficient bass response there is a risk of adjacent tracks interfering so low frequencies are necessarily limited in amplitude (but it's still quite good.). At the high end the precision needed to make the stylus move at very high frequencies is also limited. Various tricks were employed to help overcome this. (Look into RIAA equalization.)

[@alexjenner1108]

There are a lot of tricks needed in vinyl mastering. For example, the bass frequencies also need to be recorded in mono. Since the human ear has difficulty perceiving the direction of low frequency sound, this isn't usually a big problem.

[@bill8985]

I've always admired the skill of an old-fashioned audio engineer running a lathe to make a vinyl master. What a skill.

[@henrybrandt1057]

As a result, studio mastering engineers had to re-learn the best way to master for the CD medium. All those old tricks and EQ techniques for vinyl went out the window and a lot of very early CDs sounded a little off until the engineers subsequently figured out how to shape the sound for digital media.

[@krisstopher8259]

It was probably 1993 when my dad bought a CD player and i was amazed how crisp the sound was compared to tapes and LP's, i used big old headphones from the 70's to listen to the few CD's that my dad had bought. It was pretty late to get a CD player, yes, but ironically we had our first real computer, an ambra sprinta 486 (i love that name) with a CD-ROM the same year, lol. My dad subscribed to 2-3 PC magazines so i had tons of demo games and programs on CD-ROM and it was fun

[@rchltmedia]

CD, DVDs is my childhood good times. i've used to watch (pirated) movies & listening music that my family got from fast food restaurants. you'll be missed.

[@kevinbarry71]

I was a child when the compact disk arrived; and let me tell you it was such an amazing improvement over what came before. Of course the record companies cashed in and a CD cost about as much, or more, at the end as it did at the beginning.

[@StubbyPhillips]

Yep. One of the great features they talked about just before CDs hit the market was how much less they would cost compared to vinyl. Funny how they ended up costing MORE and stayed that way despite costing WAY less to produce.

[@lundsweden]

@@kevinbarry71 It's even an improvement over what we have now!

[@kevinbarry71]

@@lundsweden yes it is

[@aspensulphate]

The real bargain now is movies on DVD.

[@JamesHalfHorse]

Optical media has an interesting history all around. My apologies if you have already covered it and I have not seen it yet but have you looked into what seems to be an interesting history and long life of the MiniDisc format? It was very popular in Japan due to their music copyright laws but didn't take off in the US for similar reasons though saw some adoption in the professional world. They were supposed to be the portable recordable media to replace tape but well it is an interesting rabbit hole to go down. I am still a fan of them for when I want to go offline.

[@SH3V3K_14]

As a Gen-Xer, I've used and loved : - vyniles - Cassettes - VHS tapes - CDs - DVDs - Napster - MP3 players - eMule - Torrents and so on, so kids don't have to ask my parents about vyniles, I can explain them that, too. Except they just don't care... 😒

[@muziklvr7776]

As a fellow Gen-Xer, add 8-track and reel to reel but take away Emule (not sure what the hell that is). Also have 2 Victrola's and a bunch of Quadraphonic gear.

[@rmyikzelf5604]

eMule was great

[@SH3V3K_14]

@rmyikzelf5604 Still is if you ask me 🙂

[@fsfs555]

One of the disagreements between Philips and Sony concerned the transport. Philips had developed a swing-arm system for the optical block, similar to a record's tonearm, and wanted to charge a premium for the design. Sony didn't want to pay for it, so they developed the linear sled system. Ultimately, only a handful of manufacturers used the swing arm (Philips was the OEM for the transports and they were used in Philips, Marantz, and other high-end brands) and the system went away entirely when it was found that the swing arm couldn't move as quickly as the sled which basically precluded its use in CDROM drives. The Philips CDF-100/Apple PowerCD from 1993 uses the swing-arm design and is limited to only 1x speeds at a time when 4x was common.

[@ComeJesusChrist]

“Your average CD sounded far better than your average vinyl.” This is so true. Most people use poor or mediocre stereo units and the CD brought consistently excellent quality on a durable format.

[@bertroost1675]

and most people didn't take care of their vinyl, so after a while the pops and scratches were very evident.

[@Theonixco]

@@bertroost1675 and not only that a poorly taken care of CD could be serviceable to a point, whereas the same amount of damage to an LP made it virtually unplayable.

[@bikdav]

No, the fidelity wasn’t “perfect.” But, CDs were much less frustrating to use compared to the vinyl at that time. I don’t think that the 💿 CD is going away anytime soon on the audio side.

[@hughaskew6550]

Dynamic range is not about frequencies, it's a relative comparison between the quietest sounds and the loudest sounds. You are talking about frequency response or bandwidth.

[@Derpy1969]

The CD was awesome compared to vinyl. Portable, great sounding. Random access. It took years for the players and mastering to truly take advantage of it. Remasters of music still occurred well into the 2000s making old albums sound better than ever. Now digital streaming and compression has ruined it.

[@xxlvulkann6743]

I appreciate these videos. They're the best history of computing videos on KZbin.

[@MrROTD]

I had the same CD player in the thumbnail, I bought my first CD Def Leppard Hysteria and was blown away it sounded so good.

[@coolcat23]

21:18 Those "audiophiles" who think that LPs sound better than CDs, have either listened to botched CDs (using a mix that was intended to compensate for the shortcomings of LPs or CDs having received data meant with the "emphasis" bit turned on but with the bit not being turned on, or the player failing to implement the deemphasis) or are hopelessly romantic "audiofools". The process of cutting an LP with all the pre-emphasis and the vagaries of compensating that correctly during playback all mean that LP sound is anything but faithful. The complete process with all its flaws may create warm and fuzzy feelings (similar to unbridled tube amplifiers) but this has nothing to do with "fidelity", on the contrary. CDs do not only have the capacity to adequately capture what young adults are capable of hearing, they vastly outperform anything that would be need for the aging generation of old analogue-obsessed HiFi guards (whose hearing isn't anywhere near as good anymore as they think it is). Sadly, mainstream listening no longer uses high fidelity formats like the CD but lossy compression standards like MP3. A real shame.

[@An0nymousMessages]

I have no doubt that the convenience of playing a track made the biggest difference in the market. I remember as a teen when the tech came out that I loved being able to instantly reply a song.

[@ronald3836]

I was once told that Philips had made a huge amount of money by patenting the shuffle key.

[@gblargg]

12:24 Actually, a sampled signal does not merely approximate the analog waveform. Given a filtered analog waveform, it will reproduce it fully. A sine wave sampled at just over two points per cycle will be reproduced exactly, even though two points don't seem like enough to capture its smooth up and down.

[@stevebabiak6997]

For those wondering why the term “compact cassette” was used, there is another format that was called “elcassette” or “elcaset” or “L-cassette” - the media for this alternative format was quite large.

[@filipbarski6990]

I think sony developed the elcassette a bit later as an upgrade of the CC. The compact cassette was oruginally developed for dictation machines so the ergonomics were of highier priority than quality.

[@belstar1128]

i thought it was called that because it was compact compared to reel to reel players that were not just big but everything was all spread out and you could accidentally entangle the tape

[@stevebabiak6997]

@@belstar1128 - there were other tape cartridges types that were all larger.

[@johnkaplun9619]

Important note that laser disc is an analog medium, its a continuously variable optical channel, not 1s and 0s

[@Meower68]

Some record players could replay songs without being fiddly. I had a Realistic (Radio Shack) LAB-1500 which was linear tracking. You could hit the repeat button at the start of the desired track, and again at the end. The servo-controlled arm would lift and, very precisely, move back to the starting point, drop the needle and replay. I wanna say it would play 16 times before it stopped (unless you stopped it first). If you hit the repeat button at the beginning of the side, but never hit it again, it would play the entire side (16x). My sisters got really tired of listening to some of my albums, 'cuz I'd play the whole side until it quit, then flip it over and do it again. It also had LEDs and photocells, above and below the turntable, such that it could determine what size record you put on it (LP or 45) and would auto-select the speed appropriately. You could change it if you felt the need; I never needed to. Certainly not high-end hardware (I bought a display model for, I wanna say, $75), but really easy to use and decent audio quality.

[@gus473]

Don't you miss the days of Radio Shack stores!? My Realistic Minimus-7 speakers (in white textured metal, no less), still sound awesome, going on 50 years! 😎✌️

[@Justin_Montana]

​@gus473 I remember the TRaSh 80s. 😄 I had a Commodore 64... only $595! ...but that didn't include a screen, storage, or operating system. I had to spend $60 for a cassette tape storage device... talk about slow, it must have read at speeds around 300 BAUD. 🤓

[@SeanPowell-p4v]

I had one of those Radio Shack linear drive turntables as well. I found out years later that a cheap linear tracking arm will damage vinyl because of the way it tracks across the vinyl. I guess only the super expensive one’s don’t damage the vinyl when they track across the record. That’s why even the high-end turntables aren’t linear tracking types. I liked mine when I had it in 1986 and used it until the mid nineties.

[@unatco6554]

Its great to rediscover this channel after taking a break. This channel made me realize my love for semiconductors and has influenced me to get into the semiconductor industry. Thanks!

[@dominic.h.3363]

Shame they declined in material quality as well. My first TDK CD-R from 1998 doesn't have holes in it, and I could put it in my ASUS USB external drive to play Moorhuhn if I wanted to. My Philips ones from 2008 flake like nobody's business.

[@MsSocrates86]

Superb video, i adore your comprehensive, systematic and detailed breakdown with technical terms etc. Love your channel! One small mistake only - the plural of vinyl is vinyl. Also, it would be perhaps a nice idea to have some chill, low volume music in the background? Something simple and perhaps electronic, since your topics are generally very electronics focused. You have a great voice for narration and it would compliment it!

[@tambourine_man]

21:25 this is either due to the loudness wars or they are simply high on their own supply. You can prefer LPs for a number of reasons, but fidelity is unquestionable. It’s science.

[@Kennephone]

In my view the only genuine advantage to records, especially shellac 78s, besides personal preference, is that if you have no machine to play them and you can't get one for some reason, it's dead simple to make one out of household parts, even if you have to continually wind it by hand and use a sewing needle and a plastic jug horn.

[@peterlv68]

@2:11, and then the loudness war happened and threw CD's great dynamic range out the window! Huge bummer

[@JacGoudsmit]

"Pinkeltje" was a prototype CD player from the time that CD's were still going to be 115mm diameter and double sided (and 40056 Hz and 14 bits). The first CD player that was actually sold by Philips was the CD100.

[@davepounds8924]

The CD is not dead Vinyl has made a comeback but the CD is far from dead Millions of people still buy CDS for the price and convenience over records

[@dlarge6502]

I only buy CD. Don't bother with streaming (helps that my tastes are smaller than most) and basically if it's not getting released in CD well I won't know it even exists!

[@Frazman72]

Still got my first cd from 1986. Aha's Stay on these Roads and still sounds amazing. And as for vinyl, still the best format to listening to music.

[@weedmanwestvancouverbc9266]

I'm old. When they announced the compact disc, my friend made a joke that if they tried backing up hard drives in a building onto CD the torque would rip the foundations apart but this is back when hard drives were around 20 megabytes

[@shaider1982]

I myself remember when 1 gig was a good hardrive size. Now, it will be a very bad RAM size.

[@StefanReich]

@@shaider1982 I remember when owning a 1 gigabyte HD was something we DREAMT of

[@Ray_of_Light62]

In those years, I paid 1000 $ for 1 GB SCSI hard drive with four platters. I recall the strong emotion from the fact I had the possibility to back-up a whole 600 MB audio-CD on it. CD burners were still eight years into the future, tho...

[@weedmanwestvancouverbc9266]

@@Ray_of_Light62 I still have about a hundred compact disc DVD ROMs Rams to back shit up on. Problem is, nobody has computer players to use them anymore. I suppose I could just burn porn and send it out to people who still have Blu-ray players but that's about it

[@shaider1982]

@@StefanReich yeah, and it seemed to be impossible to fill-up back then.

[@42krikkit]

In the video you make it sound like VLP entered the fray at the same time as VHS but VLP predates VHS by about four years. Also, your description of how VLP/LaserDisc works technically seems to more describe how CD works - groove/no groove = 0/1 = binary, but VLP/LD is an analog format. The signal is not encoded as groove/no groove but instead grooves with a length varying with the frequency of the analog signal.

[@gemedetvideo]

One note is data CDROM drives and data disks were around well before 1990. By 1988 NEC had started selling video games on data CDs for their PC Engine game console in Japan and released an external CD drive for their PC-8801 line of home computers. By 1989 they were selling the PC-8801MC computer which had a built-in CD-ROM drive.

[@paul_boddie]

And then there's the curiosity that is LV-ROM which was a data storage technology for laserdisc, distinct from CD-ROM, and seen in products in the mid-1980s.

[@belstar1128]

i think the first one came out in 1985 it was really big and expensive i guess they had laser disc based systems and other optical discs before that time

[@stevendobbins2826]

The TurboGrafx-CD used a proprietary standard wholly separate from Yellow Book.

[@LiamDennehy]

One reason I liked the 120mm format: It fit directly into the inside pocket of a suit jacket, and with some fenagling also into most formal shirt pockets.

[@Akutabai5]

There's an above average level of sass in this episode

[@Kylefassbinderful]

Imo, the coolest feature of the CD (specifically CD-Audio) was it's error correction. I also find the encoding/decoding to be interesting. Watch Technology Connection's video on the subject. He also has a video on early VHS/PCM recording that is great as well.

[@mju135]

The deeper reason for 44.1k samples per second is that by Nyquist, that gives perfect reproduction of all frequencies in the human audible spectrum.

[@filipbarski6990]

18:16 the AHD actually used a disc the same as the VHD format with the pick up head measuring changes in electrical capacitance across concentric rings. Great video as always!

[@paul_boddie]

Techmoan did a few videos on VHD that are worth watching. Indeed, the whole capacitive disc concept, also involving RCA's CED, is fascinating in the way it was realised, but VHD ended up in something of a niche, at least outside Japan.

[@filipbarski6990]

@@paul_boddie there are examples of AHD on YT an interesting feature is that there were slideshows alongside the music stored on the disc

[@3800S1]

I recall the day that I discoved what seemed like a bacteria or fungi that was eating all my CDs reflective layer, a year later on the Australian Catalyst show or it might have been called Quantum at the time, did a piece about a biologist who discovered a bacteria that ate the CDs reflective layer, I was like "hey! I discovered that first!" but being 13-14 years old, no one would have taken me serious either way. But that discovery made me realized that CDs are not at all immortal apart from scratches or cracks after all. And many of my PC files and programs were being lost due to this. On a side story, I had a TEAC 40x CD rom drive in my PC at the time that could read even the worst scratched CDs, even with deliberate scraping of the read side on the floor or concrete it still read them fine, no other drive I ever had prior or after could do that. The bacteria damaged ones were the first time the CD rom could not read them or in the best case read the files but mixed with other files or outright corrupted.

[@simonmason8582]

"BACTERIUM"

[@JIm-w1b]

I use CDs in my 1990's era home recording studio, for final production, first because I like them, and second because I don't know how to record on a computer, and I have yet to find anyone who will show me how. I offered to pay $1000 to anyone who would bring me up to date, and teach me how to work with music on a computer and still, nobody would do it. I use a hard drive main recorder, an analog board and DAT mixdown, then I burn a CD. I also use a CD duplicator. I'm a one man band and I do rock, country, jazz and blues

[@dlarge6502]

I work in IT, have a degree in IT, have been building and using computers since 1990 and I easily understand the basics of Nyquist and digital sampling and have happily recorded stuff direct to my PC, video and audio, since the late 90's. But when I capture audio I prefer one of three solutions: 1. A mini disc recorder. I love optical media in general and this is the best compact system. Sure, it uses audio compression but I simply can't care as I don't hear anything wrong. I like these when out recording birdsong etc with microphones. 2. A Zoom H1 SD card audio recorder. I use that in similar ways to the mini disc, advantages include WAV recording and easy fast transfers to a computer. 3. A CD recorder. Like I said I love and prefer optical. If I want to digitise something like a cassette or a vynil I use a standalone CD recorder. Like with minidsc I can do some editing directly on the device. I record to a CD-RW and then rip that on the PC for further work or burning to CD-R if wanted. I can used a USB audio capture device on my PC but all the above, which are all standalone methods, are easier and less messy as they have less cables etc snaking around the PC. I'll happily use the PC for capturing audio but the first two methods are way more portable and well, get up and going way quicker. Working in IT I stare at computer screens all week. Standalone devices that use small LCD screens and optical discs is almost a form or respite for my eyes and my brain. I live and breathe computers, I designed an 8 bit ones when I was 13, to be built from scratch, but all my energy for them is spent at work. When the weekend comes around I "revert" back to my 90's kid self who had no computer and just used standalone, designed for the task appliances.

[@integer0verload948]

Us normal scums could not afford CD players until the early 90s. We were stuck on cassette tapes in the '80s. CDs were for rich people.

[@MrROTD]

I bought the CD player shown in the thumbnail used and bought some CDs around 1988 , I dont remember being rich.

[@timf-tinkering]

This is how I remember it too. My recollection is that CDs remained much more expensive than the same releases on vinyl records for many years, and players were expensive too. Vinyl remained the main way normal people bought music for quite a while after CDs came out. It wasn't until the 90s that CDs took over as the dominant format. DVDs, on the other hand, seemed to catch on straight away, and almost immediately completely replaced VHS as the main format for pre-recorded videos (although people still kept VCRs for recordng).

[@megalonoobiacinc4863]

playing cassettes on double or 1/4th speed was very fun though. We used to make many strange recordings from all kinds of cassettes in our two-cassette player

[@cjc363636]

Or people who spent their money on CDs.... and little else. I'm 58 now. In 1985 I put the discontinued first Realistic CD player on layaway. It was about half off, IIRC. It looked sort of TRS-80-esque with it's dark blue/grey and silver trim, and was slow as can be. Had tiny blue 0-9 buttons. I loved it. Finally went to a GF at the time. For me, it felt like science fiction props were becoming real.

[@MrKingkz]

​@@cjc363636That's pretty cool I often wonder what tech was like for people who first experienced it I was born in 87 so CDs where almost the norm when I was young but I remember when games consoles went from 2d to 3d that was amazing they looked so real for the time now they look like shit lol😂😂😂

[@Justin_Montana]

One advantage of the CD/DVD format over USB/disk is the ability to distribute blank media for WORM (Write Once, Read Many) archiving, which can be useful, as data can't be deleted or written over.

[@dlarge6502]

Early flash drives had read only switches. But that was eventually dropped, making everyone think read only features are a bug or a fault.

[@cadkoger]

That Bolivia dig.... *chef's kiss*

[@EduardoEscarez]

That was a joke of their political stability until the 90s I think, the "South American Long Play"

[@quedtion_marks_kirby_modding]

​​@@EduardoEscarez"until the 90s" They have had 2 coups in the last 4 years.

[@stephenwhite506]

The fascinating technology of the laser head riding on a magnetic field created by tiny coils to keep it in focus was not mentioned. I believe this technology, its miniaturization, cost reduction etc was pivotal in enabling the success of the CD.

[@SuperDave_BR549]

I used to use AOL CDs as drink coasters

[@GeoffSeeley]

LOL, same here! First it was the AOL 3.5" floppies but the CD's made a better coaster!

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

​@@GeoffSeeleyYou people where lucky, you got free storage media in the mail! Sure, ~1.5MB aint much, but it was free!

[@jordanb.4514]

2000's chad energy

[@aspensulphate]

Cognitive dissonance. Why would anyone who would use a CD as a drink coaster, care about the surface on which the drink was placed? Possible explanation: whimsy

[@glennso47]

Or frisbee discs

[@neuro.weaver]

My first music album on CD was DEPECHE MODE's Music for the Masses. An amazing experience. Since then, and several rounds of Columbia House later, I have ammassed a decent and eclectic collection I still enjoy today.

[@luckyboy4766]

Remember when car and truck drivers used to stick CDs on their windscreens and dashboards facing out in the belief they would deflect signals from speed guns/cameras?

[@markwagner1997]

Great, informative video as usual. I was hoping you would discuss HDCD and SACD formats, and how they were developed. HDCD was shortlived, but required no special hardware. SACD is actually still in production but requires a Sony licensing/decoding chip. Maybe these formats and possibly Blu-ray on a future video...pleeeeese?

[@OrenTirosh]

Home entertainment electronics went straight from the analog era to digital audio, advanced error correction codes and effing lasers. I always found that amazing. Nothing else in the history of consumer electronics ever came close - except the way it disappeared.

[@TheTakamas]

This guy is amazing, easily in the Top 10 list of creators on KZbin.

[@greyhoundude6112]

The CD is still the superior format. The sound quality of a CD without a doubt outperforms vinyl with few exceptions. I'm picking up used CDs for anywhere from $2 to $5 these days, including newer, remastered editions. The vinyl hipsters can't dump their CDs fast enough, and I'm more than happy to pick them up on the cheap. Sell your used CD copy of Abbey Road to a record store for $2 only to turn around and buy a new vinyl copy for $33? Uhh...nah. especially when the CD you sold probably sounds better.

[@coloradoing9172]

Do me a favor and check out the DR database and tell me CDs are better.

[@dlarge6502]

​@@coloradoing9172for which genres? I can almost guarantee that database is totally useless for classical, ambient, spoken word and more. Plus anything pre-2000 and post 2010

[@eddievhfan1984]

One note about the uptake of CD as an audio format-one of the ways manufacturers cut costs to get more players into people's hands was by using lower-bit-depth digital-to-analog-converters and throwing away some of the bits, compromising sound quality. So while the average CD user was better off than a vinyl user in the 80s, there was still sizeable variation in player quality all the same.

[@privacyvalued4134]

Napster is not why CDs went the way of the dodo. The reason is that CDs, for a short while, could hold much more data than a hard drive. Then CDs could hold half of a hard drive. Then CDs stopped being able to keep up with hard drive sizes. DVDs for an even shorter while could hold more than a hard drive, then half a hard drive, and finally even DVDs couldn't keep up. Spinning platter drives seem to still have a niche area of bulk storage capacity as SSDs (SATA/NVMe) appear to be hitting a cost/TB wall of sorts. The cost/TB of storage for SSD is still 5.4 times as much as spinning platter disks. It used to be about 10 times as much just a few years ago, so the gap is slowly closing.

[@yensteel]

And, iTunes and compression codecs further restricted the industry. Most people can't tell the difference between 192kbps AAC and flac. Let alone 128kbps aac. (128kbps mp3 is horrible and "common"). Spotify and KZbin are major threats at the moment.

[@LatitudeSky]

Not even Blu-Ray disc burners can keep up, even at 25 to 50GB a disc. It's nothing compared to a 10TB disc. The only practical way to back up that much is another drive. Or maybe tape.

[@haliaeetus8221]

The insane prices of CD's in north europe didn't do any favors for the format and the industry. Much higher prices with a product much cheaper to produce. 🤪

[@BradThePitts]

I've resorted to an external CD player in my new car. While I enjoy the convenience of instant-access to most every song ever published via Apple Car play, CDs simply sound much better and it's my first choice.