First ever CD purchase

[László]

CDs?

My first records were probably on wax cylinders.

 

[rugerpc]

My first vinyl record was Beatles 65... bought in... 1965.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

CDs?

My first records were probably on wax cylinders.

Yeah yeah, you're old, most of us are. The point was what was the first CD you bought and what a revelation in sound quality it was.

 

[rugerpc]

I answered that one. Then Les challenged me to a 'old dude competition.'

 

[veinbuster]

Yeah yeah, you're old, most of us are. The point was what was the first CD you bought and what a revelation in sound quality it was.

When I caved to modern technology it was nice to hear much more in a song and not have to listen to that scratchy-scratch stuff or worry about someone skidding the needle over my record and ruining it.

 

[dmatthews]

But legal in Canada?

Lemme check......... ... ..... ......
Yup.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

I answered that one. Then Les challenged me to a 'old dude competition.'

Noted and edited. I revoke and apologize for the shame I unjustly sent your way.

 

[alantig]

Noted and edited. I revoke and apologize for the shame I unjustly sent your way.

Aw, just consider it an advance on the next batch of shame he deserves!

 

[Goldfixer]

My first CD was Def Leppard "Pyromania"

 

[bodia]

After spending some time going through my library, I've been able to determine my first CD was Temple of the Dog.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Don't remember. But I do remember wanting to make it memorable, so it was either Tubular Bells or Dark Side of the Moon.

 

[Headset]

The Offspring - Americana

 

[Herr Squid]

My first CD? Jane's Addiction's "Nothing's Shocking." I held out against CDs for a long time because they seemed so expensive and I was just earning my first real paychecks. I bought it after an unreal weekend with some college buddies in Tacoma WA (the album figured prominently, along with "Appetite for Destruction". BTW, the early CD pressings of "Appetite" sounded like ass...).

Anyway, I bought the disc before I even owned a player. When I finally took it over to my parents' place for the first listen, I was thinking "man, I wasted 20 bucks if this disc isn't as good as I remembered!" I loaded it up, hit the play button, couldn't hear anything, turned it up, couldn't hear anything, turned it up, and then the hammer fell! I was so used to phonographs that I'd forgotten there would be dead silence until the music started. I just about jumped out of my skin. Yeah, it was good!

 

[flux]

After spending some time going through my library, I've been able to determine my first CD was Temple of the Dog.

Awesome. I freaking love that record. Stings to listen to after the loss of CC, but still just a phenomenal album.


My first album (vinyl) was, in proper 80s fashion, a K-Tel compilation: The Beat - Sound Wave of the 80's . Got it as a gift and spun the hell out of it (and not because it was great or anything, haha).

My first CD came from my first paycheck, working at Musicland in Chicago when I was 15. I thought I'd won the lottery being able to get hired at that age in a record shop and enjoy an employee discount on music:

And it was DDD, in 1986! I still listen to it regularly.

Correction: that was 1985, mea culpa.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

Yeah yeah, you're old, most of us are. The point was what was the first CD you bought and what a revelation in sound quality it was.

I was into higher end audio at the time... Can't remember what my first CD was, but it was definitely a giant step backwards in sound quality at that time, from my turntable and vinyl. I remember the "Perfect sound forever" ads.... then I heard a CD in a high end store and it sounded HORRIBLE! Sterile, lifeless, harsh... a year later I still didn't own a CD or a CD player.

To answer the OP though, I'll try to go back and figure out what my first CD was when I finally jumped in.

 

[JohnPRS]

Phil Collins, Serious Hits Live, around 1991 I think, not many CD's to choose from back then, I still have it,

 

[Michael_DK]

First CD/album was by the Danish rock band Disneyland After Dark (later changed to "D:A" due to legal disputes) - the album called "no fuel left for the pilgrims". Listened a lot to that band for many years.

Funny story, the drummer later quit the band (which was big and successful in Denmark at that time - and still is fairly big) to become a mechanical engineer. We are now working in the same department

 

[László]

Yeah yeah, you're old, most of us are. The point was what was the first CD you bought and what a revelation in sound quality it was.

The revelation to me was how harsh early CDs sounded! There are a lot of reasons that was the case, but they added up to pretty mediocre audio.

My first CDs were a sound effects library called The Works, because SFX libraries could be indexed on CDs, making it easy to jump to the take you needed. Hard to do that with vinyl.

The oldest music CD I've got is Tchokola by Jean Luc Ponty, that I bought when outboard converters for CD players became a thing in the early 90s.

These days I buy high def audio 24/192 files and play them through Amarna software using the D/A converters on my recording interface. In 2017 we finally have digital sound almost as good as how vinyl sounded back in 1971 on a good turntable.

Progress (!).

When analog became truly mature and a high fidelity medium, yes there was a little surface noise, but it was a by-product that was separate from the audio waveforms. Digital encoding builds a different kind of noise into the waveform by approximating and interpolating it. It's my belief that's what differentiates high quality analog from digital, and still makes analog inherently more involving to listen to.

I'll admit at this point it's splitting hairs, because the best digital is very good.

 

[Whitecat]

Toto IV

 

[alantig]

Awesome. I freaking love that record. Stings to listen to after the loss of CC, but still just a phenomenal album.


My first album (vinyl) was, in proper 80s fashion, a K-Tel compilation: The Beat - Sound Wave of the 80's . Got it as a gift and spun the hell out of it (and not because it was great or anything, haha).

My first CD came from my first paycheck, working at Musicland in Chicago when I was 15. I thought I'd won the lottery being able to get hired at that age in a record shop and enjoy an employee discount on music:

And it was DDD, in 1986! I still listen to it regularly.

Correction: that was 1985, mea culpa.

What a great player. That album is still fantastic to listen to. I remember the first time I saw him - opened for Wynton Marsalis. A friend and I had gone to see Marsalis, and about halfway through SJ's first song, I turned to her and said, "I quit. I'm done." And then, of course, I went home and sat up trying to figure out how he did that. I'll never forget seeing him play "Stairway To Heaven" up close at a small club - two guitars, and he ended it standing on two volume pedals rocking between the two.