1983: Stereophile’s jubilant review of the first CD player
1983: Stereophile’s jubilant review of the first CD player - You see, when the compact disc came into the consumer space, it was a pretty big deal. An entire host of problems were completely eliminated:
… the sound was so opulently gorgeous it almost defied belief! It was a total incarnation of the perfectionist’s wildest dreams: rich, velvety, airy, awesome, liquid, yet incredibly detailed. There were none of the analog disc’s problems. No marginal mistracking, no subtle VTA-error distortions, no disc-resonance smearing, no feedback-induced low-end boom or mud, no ticks or pops or pressing grumbles even at the highest listening levels. And there was no analog-tape flutter or modulation noise or transient-rounding or print-through or hiss.
I don’t know what much of that means, but I do know that the Sony CDP-101 was a big deal when it arrived. I think it’s hard now to understand what a massive jump in sound quality it was.