Many fans still love CDs and buy and play CDs regularly.
Here’s everything you gotta know about audio CDs and other disc-based formats.
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The Audio CD Format
CD stands for compact disc.
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Compact disc refers to both the disc and the digital audio playback format developed by Philips and Sony.
PCM is a mathematical representation of audio and music in digital form.
The first CD recordings were manufactured in Germany on August 17, 1982.
The title of the first full CD test recording was Richard Strauss’Alpine Symphony.
Later that year, on October 1, 1982, CD players became available in the U.S. and Japan.
The first CD sold was in JapanBilly Joel’s52nd Street, previously released on vinyl in 1978.
The standard CD audio format is also referred to as Redbook CD.
The CD started the digital revolution in audio, PC gaming, and PC storage applications.
It also contributed to the development of the DVD.
Sony and Philips jointly hold the patents on the development of the CD and CD player technology.
These codes informed consumers about the recording, mixing, and mastering process used to make that specific CD.
You may still have this labeling on some of the CDs that you own.
HDCD was originally developed by Pacific Microsonics and later became the property of Microsoft.
The first HDCD disc was released in 1995.
Although it never overtook the Redbook CD format, over 5,000 titles were released.
Check out a partial list.
When buying music CDs, look for the HDCD initials on the back or internal packaging.
Many releases may not include the HDCD label but may still be HDCD discs.
While the standard CD format is tied to a 44.1kHz samplingrate, SACD samples at 2.8224 MHz.
Also, instead of a 16-bit depth, it uses a 1-bit depth.
The SACD format can also display photo and text information, such as liner notes.
Still, this feature isn’t incorporated into most discs.
Some SACD disks are dual-layer discs with PCM content that can be played on standard CD players.
In other words, the same disk can hold both a CD and an SACD version of recorded content.
Not all SACD discs have a standard CD layer.
There are some higher-end DVD,Blu-ray, and Ultra HD Disc playersthat also play SACDs.
SACDs come in either two-channel or multi-channel versions.
The DSD file format coding used in SACDs is also used as one of the available formats forHi-Res audiodownloads.
This offers music listeners enhanced quality in a non-physical audio disc format.
SACD is also referred to as Super Audio CD, Super Audio Compact Disc, and SA-CD.
