One of the first CD player reviews
January 18th, 2010 Posted in technology
Audiophile wank has spewed from the mouths of reviewers for many years (I’d love to see just how far back this goes — did the press ever talk about the luscious high-end on the first wax cylinders?). For my first exhibit I present this review of the first Sony CD player, from 1983. IN DIGITAL!
Featuring all of your favorite vague adjectives:
… 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’d love a history of these reviews for each new audio technology as it came out.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
I purchased one of these first CD players sold in the US, the Sony CDP101, in 1983. It’s built like a tank and I’m still using it.