A short history of audio technology

Early years: from phonograph to stereo recording

The evolution of recording and reproduction of audio signals started in 1877, with the invention of the phonograph by T. A. Edison. Since then, research and efforts to improve techniques have been determined by the ultimate aim of recording and reproducing an audio signal faithfully, i.e., without introducing distortion or noise of any form.

With the introduction of the gramophone, a disc phonograph, in 1893 by P. Berliner, the original form of our present record was born. This model could produce a much better sound and could also be reproduced easily.

Around 1925 electric recording was started, but an acoustic method was still mainly used in the sound reproduction ...

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