History

Developed by the joint efforts of Philips and Sony Corporation in the early 1980s, when the digital age was taking over the stereo industry, the Compact Disc was first and foremost a high-fidelity delivery medium. The CD was initially released in the United States in 1983 (in Japan the CD got a one-year head start, officially released in 1982 according to Sony), and within five years it had replaced the vinyl phonograph record as the premiere stereophonic medium because of its wide range, lack of noise, near invulnerability to damage, and long projected life.

The CD was designed chiefly for capacity and real-time playback of music. Engineers set many of the practical aspects of the CD around the requirements of music recording. For example, ...

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