I worked for Philips CE in the US from late 80s until 2000. Philips always had a true slant towards technical development and the CD was one product that lit a fire and sold for an amazing number of years. I was US service manager for non-display PC peripherals for awhile and the volume of PC based CD/DVD or more appropriately, optical disc read/write decks was substantial. Love to hear this little piece of history where technical minded entrepreneurs were able to latch onto a new trend very early and make significant improvements to the base product. What a story that includes the aha moment, thought, connecting the dots, innovating a new product with existing and proven designs and what an incredible sense of timing on your part. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you Paul for sharing all your hard earned and vast knowledge. I start most of my days with your fun and engaging video's. I often thought as a young lad listening to all the beautiful music from the 50's thru the 80's, how fantastic it would be to hear all these wonderful recordings without the clicks, pops, and skips. "It changed the world" indeed Paul!
Added degree of difficulty: the earliest CDs were pressed from compressed masters EQ'd for vinyl and several generations down the line, and with no RIAA re-equalization the limited dynamic range of those early CDs was even more conspicuous.
IBM was behind the 8 ball. The personal computer was a bit splintered in the beginning. You had early home computers from likes of companies like Tandy/Radio Shack and then you had the evolution of computer terminals that were used for time sharing access to mainframe computers. One fact that often goes under the radar is that the Atari 2600 was released in 1977. This really opened up the minds of the general public to having a "computer" - even if single use in the home. The real introduction of PC's came in 1976 with the release of the Apple II, Commodore PET 2001 and Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 1. At about the same time you had NEC, Sharp and Hitachi releasing PC's in the Japanese market. One of the very first "real - use" applications was VisiCalc's spreadsheet available in 1979. It sold very well at almost a million copies. In 1980 over 1.5 million PC's were sold by Apple, Tandy and Commodore. The Atari 400 and 800 was in the market by 1980 and sold over 600,000 machines. in 1980, Sinclair in the UK release a line of inexpensive computers that sold over 5 million units. By 1981 Texas Instruments sold almost 3 million units of it's TI-99/4A. Then in 1982 came the Commodore 64, selling almost 20 million units during its lifecycle. While in 1980, IBM was still trying to find an operating system for it's PC. In talks with Digital Research for a version of CP/M but ultimately rebranded the Microsoft DOS as IBM's PC-DOS. One of the largest blunders - IBM did not prevent Microsoft from reselling the DOS product to other vendors. Then came the "Clone Wars'.
When we bought our first CD player, I wanted Dark Side to be our first digital album, but the store was sold out. So it was The Best of the Guess Who that was the first CD iwe ever played. Next week, PF was back in stock, so it was #2. What days they were!
You are quite right about the sound of many of the earliest CD players. I heard it at the a hifi shop that I was working at part time. But, it didn’t take long for things to massively improve.
Oh Paul, did you forget that by 1982 there were over 5 million Apple II series computers in homes and schools? IBM may have standardized the "P.C.? format but was far behind others to market.
I waited a bit for my 1st CD player (just being a Luddite!) I loved vinyl. In '86 I bought a Technics mid-size player and my first disc was Dire Straits...Love Over Gold. That 1st player had an "index" function that broke songs into smaller sections. I found it very useful when recording some music to cassette tapes. For example; long passages could be edited to better fit on a tape side.
Just a suggestion. Instead of waving the product around for two seconds and filming from a distance of ten feet, perhaps remove the item from the shelf and position it somewhere that it can be properly filmed. Or perhaps insert a photo of the item into the video.
@@digggerrjones7345 I think somebody making videos as part of their job would like to know that people would like to see the more video of what he’s describing. It is their choice if they want to act on the suggestions.
@edd2771 A touch of B-roll inserted into the descriptive talking spot would be nice, but would entail editing. From all Paul has let on over the life of this channel, these vidoes are pretty much a one-and-done process. Paul, in these cases, perhaps a pause after you say "bye" and a short B-roll of, say, 15-30 seconds to show off the item would help, plus spread an interest in learning more about PSAUDIO 's history from the crowd. It would at least give an extra appreciation for the aesthetic past.
Great story Paul! I was a college freshman at Illinois in August of 1985 and had a little money saved up from my summer job (as a cook at Brown’s Chicken in suburban Chicago). I wandered into Glenn Poor’s Audio Video in Champaign IL (where I would later work while in school) and ended up with a Kyocera CD player, a Yamaha receiver and a pair of B&W DM110’s. I had almost no money left over so I went to Record Service on Green Street on campus and bought a single CD - REO Speedwagen’s Hi Infidelity. It was just about the least versatile music system I could buy but I loved it. Then I had to wait about two agonizing weeks for my order from the BMI record club to come in. That trip to Glenn Poor’s was my introduction to high end audio (mind you, I just about bought the lowest end stuff in the store) and I have followed it ever since. Thanks for all your videos. I really enjoy them with my morning coffee.
Glen Poors still exists today! Alas, record services is no more. I was in Champaign (and still am) at that time and only dreamed of some of those products at Glenn Poors. Thanks for the trip back in time.
@@SGBolt1934 - Yes indeed. Even though I now live in NC, I have two daughters in school at U of I. Last time I was there I stopped in and spoke with Geoff Poor for a bit. No more Record Service, no more Record Swap. No more O’Malleys or CO Daniel’s or Cochran’s or R&R’s or Mabel’s. But I go to Papa Del’s every chance I get. Nice connecting with you on life in C-U.
This is a very beautiful and honest story about what was done 30 years ago to keep up with the changes that could not be stopped. But let the viewer see a little more of the inside. The technology of that time is not up-to-date now, but it is interesting to see.
IBM was an also ran for quite a while, there were even Z80 boards (CPM) for them so you could use them for something. As for digital audio, the best you could do was use a PC to control a CD player.
I mostly agree but with a few caveats. Apple, Commodore and Tandy (RadioShack) while they release the first home computers they weren't x86 based (what we use today except for Macs even then it was till recently) and none had the expandability of the IBM. It was far better built as well and it could do much more complex stuff. The initial market for the first five years for the PC was basically businesses, education / academia and if you were wealthy. It took the clones for the platform to be mass adopted. Most people in the States bought something other than an IBM PC during the initial years. Heck the UK didn't really use x86 PCs for home use til the mid 90s thanks to DOOM and the Internet.
DIGITAL’S CONVENIENCE totally remains in the present, and will indeed define its place in the future. Especially in archiving, and preservation. Thank you, Paul.
My first CD was Oingo Bingo, Dead Man's Party. My best friend gave me a Sony CD player for a wedding present in 1989. It sounded pretty good thru my NAD 3020 and Boston 60's. Oh, the days
Yep, I bought an IBM PC Junior in 1984. Paul is correct, there was much of anything I could do with it. I was envisioning doing with it, what Quickbook could do years later. I asked the salesman about software, floppy disc, and he said that stuff was coming, but not available yet. There really wasn’t anything I could do with it.
In 82’ I was beginning my career as a High School band director..and our Band Hall received an Apple 2 computer and a monitor..an we said, “ what are we going to do with this”..? Same thing there was no software yet..but over time we used it for tracking our inventory( instruments). Library ( music). And marching band drill charts ..no more doing it by hand..and the computer would show you what it looked like in real time….then the ultimate music notation ( Finale) software came along and recording software..as well so DID find something to do with the apple…
This was a common theme with early cd players boutiques companies using an existing product from the major mfr and then modding . some , even used tubes in the output stage .
The original Philips Magnavox branded in the U.S. was a top loader 14 bit chip, 16 bit chip not yet in production, I had it from the employee store, big discount from list. CD was$18- $25 !! We where getting them for $5 all the Polygram labels, Philips owned Polygram at the time world's largest record music publisher, since sold to Universal in the 90s.
My intuition tells me it's 100 percent true. I love hearing this kind of story from tech history. So many companies did it exactly this way. Even companies the size of Teac with their Tascam moniker, (think Acura/Lexus) bought Sony multi-track digital 8mm tape recorders, modded the look and as far as I can tell, just pushed them out the door to great success. The DA88 went a long way toward updating and rounding out their existing analog tape prowess. Just don't ask where are they now.
Magnavox - the brand I grew up with in HiFi mono and stereo in the '50's and '60's. I guess I didn't know Phillips owned them in the '80's. I wonder how you might have influenced their manufacturing when hundreds of their CD players started selling! That was a great story in how the first CD players were designed and built. No wonder they sounded so weak.
Wow, that was an interesting story. I cam vividly remember my first cd experience, at a school. it was a girl showing off her Discman. We all knew things were going to change forever, but it took a few years still to integrate. It was too expensive for most parents at the time. Tape and walkmans were still a thing. But, recording a CD to tape , man that was the dreamsound on your walkman or tapedeck, but you had to know people haha. I think my audiophile tendencies started with CD. We had an 'uncle' that did recordings to tape, and his system was high end at the time. Wow his recordings were beautiful, crisp on tape. Somehow it sounded better on tape to my 12 year old ears. That was also the same year, I experienced the difference in using a much more powerful amplifier on the same (crappy) speakers! Oh my god, you should have seen our eyes pop out from that sound! Like having way much better speakers, suddenly the bass kicked ASS!. We went from say a 2x20W crap-amp to something like 2x100W on 30W speakers. Like I said woooow. Also I learned to not be afraid of the 'too much power is bad for your speakers'-myth. I always laughed at people after that, repeating that myth and said; 'I'll take the bigger amp ANYday!' People always wanted the big speakers and underpowered, and never understood why their amp would almost burn up after a while. It took me time to understand as well, but I always followed my gut.
kind of like how car companies take the best selling car design and put different headlights on it and a slight change of engine parts and call it their own brand!! brilliant !!
No scratches, no hiss, no pops, select any track at your finger tips..... I remember the sales pitch from the radio to go to a local hi-fi store to get one of these things. I was one of the early suckers. lol
I couldn't get one quick enough, I was SO OVER the clicks and pops from vinyl I had all the stupid cleaning cloths, micro fibre brushes, and cleaning arms, all a pile of doggy doings, non worked.
One thing that I did not like about CD is that it got stuck in a 16 bit architecture and never evolved from that when it came to selling music at stores. Very rare a 24bit CD was available.
Visicalc, a spreadsheet program, existed for the Apple II in 1979. There was nothing really revolutionary about the IBM PC compared with the other personal computers that were on the market at the time (and there were quite a few); the fact that it was made by IBM, the largest computer company in the world, was the big deal.
I don't think so. Many companies took Philips, and many other OEM's products, to be rebadged as their own, e.g. Tandy/Radio Shack with their Realistic branded products.
Pretty sure there was all sorts of problems with this legally. For one thing to sell a CD product you needed to pay Philips/Sony quite a large sum of money in the early days. Good news is that this was all a long time ago and the 'Statute of Limitations' means there is nothing that can be done about it. It is a great story but I feel it tarnishes the reputation of PS Audio.
@@phrtao You realize patents run out Philips and Sony owned the patents for CD DSD SACD and many others Philips CD-i,CD-R,CD-RW Philips made money on every CD made, blank or pre recorded, and every player from every brand. Now that patents are out, odd, now PS thinks DSD is the thing, because now they don't have to pay royaltys. Hmmm.
I started with a Marantz CD-54, I believe the main trouble with the first players is they could not easily make 16bit D to A converters, well not at a price point any consumer could handle, so they used 14 bit converters. Unfortunately mine died, and knowing of it's limitations, just disposed of it, pity. Back then computers were of no use, audio wise. The IBM PC was nothing special, basically an 'also ran', but ended up doing well only because of the word 'IBM', something big business had no problem with. The first 'real audio' came from PC's when Microsoft started playing with the 'Multi-media' PC concept, where the PC was just a controller and didn't actually produce any sound/video etc., that came a few years later.
The first time I touched a CD and played one was at a friend's house. I was less than thrilled at the cheap plastic appearance of the CD, and disappointed when I heard it. I don't remember the title of the album - it may have been "Tusk" by Fleetwood Mac (I owned the LPs), but I expected to hear sounds and a richness that I (supposedly) wasn't getting from the LPs. Wrong! It was flat and lifeless. There were no clicks and pops - but then again, neither my LPs as I always kept them clean. Other CDs I heard - and he had a great equipment setup - didn't impress me at all. This was in 1986. I continued to buy LPs until CD prices dropped considerably and LPs were being phased out of production.
What’s funny is I was just a small child when CDs came out. I acquired a 1988 California labs tube cd player off eBay last year and was shocked how good it sounds, even better than a lot of my modern DACs, but it also cost $10k back in the day which adjusting for inflation is more like $20k today! For that price it better sound good.
@@mikeg2491 Tubes seem to, `round ~ off,' smooth out the harsh, digital sound. Steve Hoffman discovered this, when he used multiple tube sections when he converted master audio tapes to digital, CD format, at MCA.
Watching this video makes me wish I understood electronics enough to tinker with our current CD player (a 17 year old Denon) because I'm certain there's some goodness in it that is somewhat hidden. Actually, I'll correct that to "more goodness" because it does sound pretty good. Or maybe I'm just being fussy? I kind of am. Because most days I just enjoy the music!
That’s a beltin story Paul and I totally respect your philosophies wish I could visit you but your a long way from Wigan and the traffic is bad and getting worse just like our government
You're correct, there have also been advances in: `A to D,' converters. Some, to many, early CD issues, have been: re ~ issued, Remastered. You can read about this in Paul's book, "99% True." Advances.
Hey Paul I have a demon s660h and it has 2 sub preouts and I’m just wondering what affordable sub options that would be compatible. I am new to audio and don’t want to buy something that won’t work. Thanks!
I had bought one of those shortly after it was introduced. Good concept but those Magnavox transports were so chintzy that you could never be sure that the disc was going to start when you pressed "play". Often you had to try a few times before it would start.
I actually still own the first CD player that I bought, must have been the mid 90's. I tried that old entry level NAD a while back, and dear god it sounded bad. 😂
The First CD Pressed was From ABBA and BILLY JOEL Whom Where International Stars You Would Think Led Zeppelin or Rolling Stones and Beatles Yet At This Point In Time ABBA was The Big International Musical 🎶 Band after The CD The Mini Disc Was Announced and You Could Purchase Prerecorded Mini Disc This Didn’t Catch On Yet Prerecorded Mini Disc are Now Collectors Items
The NE5532 opamps aren't that bad as claimed. I cannot subscribe this, sorry. Even in the early Revox CD players - with Philips stuff inside - they are used and they sound great ...
The pathetic condition of technological innovation today are AI (which everyone is trying to figure out how to strike it rich from), re-releases of the same movies you've seen in the theaters, TV, VHS and DVD, but now in 4K Blu Ray, and a bigger lens for the iphone's camera.
I’m a video enthusiast and honestly I think 4k, particularly HDR, is a bigger leap than dvd or bluray ever was (laserdisc deserves more credit than DVD), it’s just a shame that it came out as physical is dying that catalog titles are dwindling and expensive. I’ve also invested so much in Blu-ray’s it will have to be a film I really, really love to rebuy it.
Technically you voided the UL listing on the Magnavox unit, by moditying it. Yet you sold it as PS with a UL listing,m hmm, that's fraud technically. Because people think the UL listing was PS. Shame. You should have had it retested to UL standards, why are no PS units UL tested ETL, or CSA.
For the first 10 years after the CD player was introduced the sound sucked. I can’t tell you how many times I ran out of audio salons with my hands over my ears after ‘trying’ to listen to a new brand or model CD player. Several years ago, I saw videos of both Paul and Nelson sitting in front of their office rigs and both had Wadia CD players as well. Hmmmm.
Sony Since They Purchased The Rights To The CD Technology From EMI Sony Was Controlling How Much of The Technology Was Going To Be Licensed Out So In The 1980’s Sony in Japan Had The Best of The Best CD Players and These Sony CD Players Also Recorded Yet The Record Artist Around The World 🌎 Where Up in Arms Protesting The Sony CD 💿 Recording Decks and There Was a Ban On Sony CD 💿 Recorders In The United States 🇺🇸 So Every Big Major Recording Studio Would Send There Guy To Japan To Buy a Few Sony CD 💿 RECORDERS and Bring Them Back To The United States Well These CD RECORDERS Sounded Great Because Sony Was Making Sure That Nobody Had What They Had and Through Licensing Of The CD 💿 Technology Sony Made Sure They Controlled The Technology Then Sony Owns Columbia Records And Sony Records And All The Subsidiary Record Companies Under The Sony Records Label And What Where They Doing Sony Made Sure You Couldn’t Copy a Sony Artist CD 💿 To a Blank CD-R Now Back When You Had The Sony CD 💿 Recorder Only in Japan Yet The Recording Studios That Didn’t Have The Money To Send a Guy To Buy a SONY CD Recording Deck The Next Best Thing Was a Bata Digital Recording Machine Studios That Could Not Get a Sony CD 💿 Recording Machine Would Use a Bata Machine Because That Machine was Digital
No, Paul improved the electronics. I have the, current, CD transport, sounds very good! Please read about the technology, Paul & his engineers' approaches. They don't just make computatons, on paper, & say, "This looks great!" & then manufacture. They build prototypes, & carefully listen, make changes, tweeks!
Physical mediums are obsolete. You are not going to get better than .wav files. Cd's are worthless. Tape. Worthless. Vinyl. Worth having for the nostalgia.
I worked for Philips CE in the US from late 80s until 2000. Philips always had a true slant towards technical development and the CD was one product that lit a fire and sold for an amazing number of years. I was US service manager for non-display PC peripherals for awhile and the volume of PC based CD/DVD or more appropriately, optical disc read/write decks was substantial. Love to hear this little piece of history where technical minded entrepreneurs were able to latch onto a new trend very early and make significant improvements to the base product. What a story that includes the aha moment, thought, connecting the dots, innovating a new product with existing and proven designs and what an incredible sense of timing on your part. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you Paul for sharing all your hard earned and vast knowledge. I start most of my days with your fun and engaging video's. I often thought as a young lad listening to all the beautiful music from the 50's thru the 80's, how fantastic it would be to hear all these wonderful recordings without the clicks, pops, and skips. "It changed the world" indeed Paul!
Added degree of difficulty: the earliest CDs were pressed from compressed masters EQ'd for vinyl and several generations down the line, and with no RIAA re-equalization the limited dynamic range of those early CDs was even more conspicuous.
Paul, I didn’t realize PS Audio had even offered a CD player that long ago. I learn something new everyday. Thanks for sharing.
IBM was behind the 8 ball. The personal computer was a bit splintered in the beginning. You had early home computers from likes of companies like Tandy/Radio Shack and then you had the evolution of computer terminals that were used for time sharing access to mainframe computers.
One fact that often goes under the radar is that the Atari 2600 was released in 1977. This really opened up the minds of the general public to having a "computer" - even if single use in the home. The real introduction of PC's came in 1976 with the release of the Apple II, Commodore PET 2001 and Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 1. At about the same time you had NEC, Sharp and Hitachi releasing PC's in the Japanese market.
One of the very first "real - use" applications was VisiCalc's spreadsheet available in 1979. It sold very well at almost a million copies. In 1980 over 1.5 million PC's were sold by Apple, Tandy and Commodore. The Atari 400 and 800 was in the market by 1980 and sold over 600,000 machines. in 1980, Sinclair in the UK release a line of inexpensive computers that sold over 5 million units. By 1981 Texas Instruments sold almost 3 million units of it's TI-99/4A.
Then in 1982 came the Commodore 64, selling almost 20 million units during its lifecycle. While in 1980, IBM was still trying to find an operating system for it's PC. In talks with Digital Research for a version of CP/M but ultimately rebranded the Microsoft DOS as IBM's PC-DOS. One of the largest blunders - IBM did not prevent Microsoft from reselling the DOS product to other vendors. Then came the "Clone Wars'.
Good points.
When we bought our first CD player, I wanted Dark Side to be our first digital album, but the store was sold out. So it was The Best of the Guess Who that was the first CD iwe ever played. Next week, PF was back in stock, so it was #2. What days they were!
You are quite right about the sound of many of the earliest CD players. I heard it at the a hifi shop that I was working at part time. But, it didn’t take long for things to massively improve.
Oh Paul, did you forget that by 1982 there were over 5 million Apple II series computers in homes and schools? IBM may have standardized the "P.C.? format but was far behind others to market.
I waited a bit for my 1st CD player (just being a Luddite!) I loved vinyl. In '86 I bought a Technics mid-size player and my first disc was Dire Straits...Love Over Gold. That 1st player had an "index" function that broke songs into smaller sections. I found it very useful when recording some music to cassette tapes. For example; long passages could be edited to better fit on a tape side.
Just a suggestion. Instead of waving the product around for two seconds and filming from a distance of ten feet, perhaps remove the item from the shelf and position it somewhere that it can be properly filmed. Or perhaps insert a photo of the item into the video.
Seconded.
Yes
There is an old saying "spit in one hand and wish in the other, and see which one fills up first"...
@@digggerrjones7345 I think somebody making videos as part of their job would like to know that people would like to see the more video of what he’s describing. It is their choice if they want to act on the suggestions.
@edd2771 A touch of B-roll inserted into the descriptive talking spot would be nice, but would entail editing. From all Paul has let on over the life of this channel, these vidoes are pretty much a one-and-done process.
Paul, in these cases, perhaps a pause after you say "bye" and a short B-roll of, say, 15-30 seconds to show off the item would help, plus spread an interest in learning more about PSAUDIO 's history from the crowd. It would at least give an extra appreciation for the aesthetic past.
Great story Paul! I was a college freshman at Illinois in August of 1985 and had a little money saved up from my summer job (as a cook at Brown’s Chicken in suburban Chicago). I wandered into Glenn Poor’s Audio Video in Champaign IL (where I would later work while in school) and ended up with a Kyocera CD player, a Yamaha receiver and a pair of B&W DM110’s. I had almost no money left over so I went to Record Service on Green Street on campus and bought a single CD - REO Speedwagen’s Hi Infidelity. It was just about the least versatile music system I could buy but I loved it. Then I had to wait about two agonizing weeks for my order from the BMI record club to come in. That trip to Glenn Poor’s was my introduction to high end audio (mind you, I just about bought the lowest end stuff in the store) and I have followed it ever since. Thanks for all your videos. I really enjoy them with my morning coffee.
Glen Poors still exists today! Alas, record services is no more. I was in Champaign (and still am) at that time and only dreamed of some of those products at Glenn Poors. Thanks for the trip back in time.
@@SGBolt1934 - Yes indeed. Even though I now live in NC, I have two daughters in school at U of I. Last time I was there I stopped in and spoke with Geoff Poor for a bit. No more Record Service, no more Record Swap. No more O’Malleys or CO Daniel’s or Cochran’s or R&R’s or Mabel’s. But I go to Papa Del’s every chance I get. Nice connecting with you on life in C-U.
This is a very beautiful and honest story about what was done 30 years ago to keep up with the changes that could not be stopped.
But let the viewer see a little more of the inside. The technology of that time is not up-to-date now, but it is interesting to see.
It’s unbelievable that was over 40 years ago. Time fly!
IBM was playing catchup with the PC. I recomend you watch "Triumph of the Nerds"
IBM was an also ran for quite a while, there were even Z80 boards (CPM) for them so you could use them for something.
As for digital audio, the best you could do was use a PC to control a CD player.
I mostly agree but with a few caveats.
Apple, Commodore and Tandy (RadioShack) while they release the first home computers they weren't x86 based (what we use today except for Macs even then it was till recently) and none had the expandability of the IBM. It was far better built as well and it could do much more complex stuff.
The initial market for the first five years for the PC was basically businesses, education / academia and if you were wealthy. It took the clones for the platform to be mass adopted. Most people in the States bought something other than an IBM PC during the initial years. Heck the UK didn't really use x86 PCs for home use til the mid 90s thanks to DOOM and the Internet.
1985....I got a Sony CDP 101...my first cd i got was Christopher Cross...I thought it sounded great
DIGITAL’S CONVENIENCE totally remains in the present, and will indeed define its place in the future. Especially in archiving, and preservation. Thank you, Paul.
Thanks for another great video I appreciate you taking the time to do this
My first CD was Oingo Bingo, Dead Man's Party. My best friend gave me a Sony CD player for a wedding present in 1989. It sounded pretty good thru my NAD 3020 and Boston 60's. Oh, the days
My first cd was Much Dance Mix ‘93 and I played it on my brand new Panasonic boom box.
You make me list after my first intro to a musical CD player - Arcam 7SE, again. Great video love the hustle.
Yep, I bought an IBM PC Junior in 1984. Paul is correct, there was much of anything I could do with it. I was envisioning doing with it, what Quickbook could do years later. I asked the salesman about software, floppy disc, and he said that stuff was coming, but not available yet. There really wasn’t anything I could do with it.
its the subtle things that make all the difference
really enjoyed this thank you
Quite a few HiFi companies called their first CD players "CD1", that were OEM'd by Philips.
There were home computers before the IBM PC. You are old enough to remember that.
In 82’ I was beginning my career as a High School band director..and our Band Hall received an Apple 2 computer and a monitor..an we said, “ what are we going to do with this”..? Same thing there was no software yet..but over time we used it for tracking our inventory( instruments). Library ( music). And marching band drill charts ..no more doing it by hand..and the computer would show you what it looked like in real time….then the ultimate music notation ( Finale) software came along and recording software..as well so DID find something to do with the apple…
This was a common theme with early cd players boutiques companies using an existing product from the major mfr and then modding . some , even used tubes in the output stage .
I am still using a Philips ak630 from 90's and I love it, it sounds better than Cambridge cd that I sold it lol
The TRS-80 predated the IBM PC by several years. I had an Apple IIe in 1980. I'm still a nerd.
same here, the IBM was an 'also ran' for ages.
Awesome story!! Smart
Paul: Thanks for sharing this interesting historical picture.
That was interesting, thanks Paul,
Amazing story, but even more valuable is the business lesson
The original Philips Magnavox branded in the U.S. was a top loader 14 bit chip, 16 bit chip not yet in production, I had it from the employee store, big discount from list. CD was$18- $25 !! We where getting them for $5 all the Polygram labels, Philips owned Polygram at the time world's largest record music publisher, since sold to Universal in the 90s.
All hail; CD! - I do like owning physical media, particularly as with classical you don't 'track hop'.
Same today with D/A-converter!
My first compact disc player, Pioneer PD-9010X, 1985.
My first compact disc, Thriller by Michael Jackson, 1984.
My intuition tells me it's 100 percent true. I love hearing this kind of story from tech history. So many companies did it exactly this way.
Even companies the size of Teac with their Tascam moniker, (think Acura/Lexus) bought Sony multi-track digital 8mm tape recorders, modded the look and as far as I can tell, just pushed them out the door to great success. The DA88 went a long way toward updating and rounding out their existing analog tape prowess.
Just don't ask where are they now.
Now streaming needs the best of audiophile passion.
Many companies did this same mod with Oppo CD players…. Never knew this Paul….great story…
Magnavox - the brand I grew up with in HiFi mono and stereo in the '50's and '60's. I guess I didn't know Phillips owned them in the '80's. I wonder how you might have influenced their manufacturing when hundreds of their CD players started selling! That was a great story in how the first CD players were designed and built. No wonder they sounded so weak.
Wow, that was an interesting story. I cam vividly remember my first cd experience, at a school. it was a girl showing off her Discman. We all knew things were going to change forever, but it took a few years still to integrate. It was too expensive for most parents at the time.
Tape and walkmans were still a thing. But, recording a CD to tape , man that was the dreamsound on your walkman or tapedeck, but you had to know people haha.
I think my audiophile tendencies started with CD. We had an 'uncle' that did recordings to tape, and his system was high end at the time. Wow his recordings were beautiful, crisp on tape. Somehow it sounded better on tape to my 12 year old ears.
That was also the same year, I experienced the difference in using a much more powerful amplifier on the same (crappy) speakers! Oh my god, you should have seen our eyes pop out from that sound!
Like having way much better speakers, suddenly the bass kicked ASS!. We went from say a 2x20W crap-amp to something like 2x100W on 30W speakers. Like I said woooow. Also I learned to not be afraid of the 'too much power is bad for your speakers'-myth. I always laughed at people after that, repeating that myth and said; 'I'll take the bigger amp ANYday!'
People always wanted the big speakers and underpowered, and never understood why their amp would almost burn up after a while. It took me time to understand as well, but I always followed my gut.
McGowanvox 🤔 kinda like the McDowell's Eddie Murphy worked at in Coming to America. "Brilliant"💯👍
kind of like how car companies take the best selling car design and put different headlights on it and a slight change of engine parts and call it their own brand!! brilliant !!
Wow super interesting
In 90 best part was sharing CDs, live torrenting was real 😅
No scratches, no hiss, no pops, select any track at your finger tips..... I remember the sales pitch from the radio to go to a local hi-fi store to get one of these things. I was one of the early suckers. lol
My first was a Sony D5. Oddly, as CD players of the time went it didn't sound terrible.
I couldn't get one quick enough, I was SO OVER the clicks and pops from vinyl
I had all the stupid cleaning cloths, micro fibre brushes, and cleaning arms, all a pile of doggy doings, non worked.
@@paulstubbs7678 You had a shrine to the big black discs. I just realized
people with astigmatism will read this...
What’s crazy is I saw a 80s news story of people starting a collection of CDs even before they got a player.
@@mikeg2491 I saw the same collecting laser discs. It was the best we had at the time and now they look like dog💩.
One thing that I did not like about CD is that it got stuck in a 16 bit architecture and never evolved from that when it came to selling music at stores. Very rare a 24bit CD was available.
Visicalc, a spreadsheet program, existed for the Apple II in 1979. There was nothing really revolutionary about the IBM PC compared with the other personal computers that were on the market at the time (and there were quite a few); the fact that it was made by IBM, the largest computer company in the world, was the big deal.
Isn't there some legal issue with buying a product, making changes to it, then branding as yours? Seems like lawsuit time. Just asking...
Why? Paul paid for the units, all he could buy, perhaps at a discount, `wholesale price.' Didn't, `bootleg, counterfeit' them.
I guess doing that isn’t a violation of Philip’s intellectual property?
I don't think so. Many companies took Philips, and many other OEM's products, to be rebadged as their own, e.g. Tandy/Radio Shack with their Realistic branded products.
Pretty sure there was all sorts of problems with this legally. For one thing to sell a CD product you needed to pay Philips/Sony quite a large sum of money in the early days. Good news is that this was all a long time ago and the 'Statute of Limitations' means there is nothing that can be done about it. It is a great story but I feel it tarnishes the reputation of PS Audio.
@@phrtao You realize patents run out Philips and Sony owned the patents for CD DSD SACD and many others Philips CD-i,CD-R,CD-RW Philips made money on every CD made, blank or pre recorded, and every player from every brand. Now that patents are out, odd, now PS thinks DSD is the thing, because now they don't have to pay royaltys. Hmmm.
ah,those thrilling daze of yesteryear!
I started with a Marantz CD-54, I believe the main trouble with the first players is they could not easily make 16bit D to A converters, well not at a price point any consumer could handle, so they used 14 bit converters.
Unfortunately mine died, and knowing of it's limitations, just disposed of it, pity.
Back then computers were of no use, audio wise. The IBM PC was nothing special, basically an 'also ran', but ended up doing well only because of the word 'IBM', something big business had no problem with.
The first 'real audio' came from PC's when Microsoft started playing with the 'Multi-media' PC concept, where the PC was just a controller and didn't actually produce any sound/video etc., that came a few years later.
The first time I touched a CD and played one was at a friend's house. I was less than thrilled at the cheap plastic appearance of the CD, and disappointed when I heard it. I don't remember the title of the album - it may have been "Tusk" by Fleetwood Mac (I owned the LPs), but I expected to hear sounds and a richness that I (supposedly) wasn't getting from the LPs. Wrong! It was flat and lifeless. There were no clicks and pops - but then again, neither my LPs as I always kept them clean. Other CDs I heard - and he had a great equipment setup - didn't impress me at all. This was in 1986. I continued to buy LPs until CD prices dropped considerably and LPs were being phased out of production.
What’s funny is I was just a small child when CDs came out. I acquired a 1988 California labs tube cd player off eBay last year and was shocked how good it sounds, even better than a lot of my modern DACs, but it also cost $10k back in the day which adjusting for inflation is more like $20k today! For that price it better sound good.
@@mikeg2491 Tubes seem to, `round ~ off,' smooth out the harsh, digital sound. Steve Hoffman discovered this, when he used multiple tube sections when he converted master audio tapes to digital, CD format, at MCA.
Watching this video makes me wish I understood electronics enough to tinker with our current CD player (a 17 year old Denon) because I'm certain there's some goodness in it that is somewhat hidden. Actually, I'll correct that to "more goodness" because it does sound pretty good. Or maybe I'm just being fussy? I kind of am. Because most days I just enjoy the music!
That’s a beltin story Paul and I totally respect your philosophies wish I could visit you but your a long way from Wigan and the traffic is bad and getting worse just like our government
I believe the other factor was that some of those first issues of CDs were poorly mastered.
You're correct, there have also been advances in: `A to D,' converters. Some, to many, early CD issues, have been: re ~ issued, Remastered. You can read about this in Paul's book, "99% True." Advances.
Hey Paul I have a demon s660h and it has 2 sub preouts and I’m just wondering what affordable sub options that would be compatible. I am new to audio and don’t want to buy something that won’t work. Thanks!
Very cool
Did Paul just say "heady"
I had bought one of those shortly after it was introduced. Good concept but those Magnavox transports were so chintzy that you could never be sure that the disc was going to start when you pressed "play". Often you had to try a few times before it would start.
I actually still own the first CD player that I bought, must have been the mid 90's. I tried that old entry level NAD a while back, and dear god it sounded bad. 😂
Oh boy. Wait til you hear about the Commodore 64.
I don’t get this the CD 1 was made by Cambridge Audio in 1984. Totally incorrect video title for this content.
👍
All you need to do was increase the supply rails..to +-18 volts to the opamp..duh
Should have called it the model 4A
The First
CD Pressed was From
ABBA and BILLY JOEL
Whom Where International Stars You Would Think
Led Zeppelin or Rolling Stones and Beatles
Yet At This Point In
Time ABBA was The Big
International Musical 🎶
Band after The CD
The Mini Disc Was Announced and You Could Purchase Prerecorded Mini Disc
This Didn’t Catch On
Yet Prerecorded Mini Disc are Now Collectors Items
Didn't you have to license the tech? Wasn't it patented?
The NE5532 opamps aren't that bad as claimed. I cannot subscribe this, sorry. Even in the early Revox CD players - with Philips stuff inside - they are used and they sound great ...
Thompson Margaret Davis Larry Miller Richard
So actually u stole this from Magnavox 😮
The pathetic condition of technological innovation today are AI (which everyone is trying to figure out how to strike it rich from), re-releases of the same movies you've seen in the theaters, TV, VHS and DVD, but now in 4K Blu Ray, and a bigger lens for the iphone's camera.
I’m a video enthusiast and honestly I think 4k, particularly HDR, is a bigger leap than dvd or bluray ever was (laserdisc deserves more credit than DVD), it’s just a shame that it came out as physical is dying that catalog titles are dwindling and expensive. I’ve also invested so much in Blu-ray’s it will have to be a film I really, really love to rebuy it.
Technically you voided the UL listing on the Magnavox unit, by moditying it. Yet you sold it as PS with a UL listing,m hmm, that's fraud technically. Because people think the UL listing was PS. Shame. You should have had it retested to UL standards, why are no PS units UL tested ETL, or CSA.
For the first 10 years after the CD player was introduced the sound sucked. I can’t tell you how many times I ran out of audio salons with my hands over my ears after ‘trying’ to listen to a new brand or model CD player. Several years ago, I saw videos of both Paul and Nelson sitting in front of their office rigs and both had Wadia CD players as well. Hmmmm.
Magnavox was a div of Philips not the way you said it, oy vey. 99% true, not that high
Sony Since They Purchased The Rights To The CD Technology From
EMI
Sony Was Controlling How Much of The Technology Was Going To Be Licensed Out
So In The 1980’s
Sony in Japan
Had The Best of The Best
CD Players and These
Sony CD Players Also
Recorded
Yet The Record Artist
Around The World 🌎 Where Up in Arms Protesting The Sony CD
💿 Recording Decks and There Was a Ban On
Sony CD 💿 Recorders In The United States 🇺🇸
So Every Big Major
Recording Studio Would Send There Guy To Japan To Buy a Few Sony
CD 💿 RECORDERS and Bring Them Back To The United States
Well These CD RECORDERS Sounded Great Because Sony
Was Making Sure That
Nobody Had What They Had and Through Licensing Of The CD 💿
Technology Sony
Made Sure They Controlled The Technology
Then Sony Owns Columbia Records And
Sony Records And All The Subsidiary Record Companies Under
The Sony Records Label
And What Where They Doing
Sony Made Sure You Couldn’t Copy a Sony
Artist CD 💿 To a
Blank CD-R
Now Back When
You Had The Sony
CD 💿 Recorder Only in Japan
Yet The Recording Studios That Didn’t Have The Money To Send a Guy To Buy a SONY CD Recording Deck
The Next Best Thing
Was a Bata Digital Recording Machine
Studios That Could Not Get a Sony CD 💿
Recording Machine
Would Use a Bata Machine Because That Machine was Digital
Philips controlled the patents, they brought Sony in after they developed the CD. Sony had better marketing in North America.
So you basically did nothing in CD stuff. You where like Chinese, just rebadge the original
So you basically did not watch the video and listen to what Paul had to say. You were like blue haired cancel culture transformers.
I did and he says he did nothing. Like taking a car and put a new muffler and claim its your product. @Frankonero12
No, Paul improved the electronics. I have the, current, CD transport, sounds very good! Please read about the technology, Paul & his engineers' approaches. They don't just make computatons, on paper, & say, "This looks great!" & then manufacture. They build prototypes, & carefully listen, make changes, tweeks!
Physical mediums are obsolete. You are not going to get better than .wav files. Cd's are worthless. Tape. Worthless. Vinyl. Worth having for the nostalgia.