The Origins
First unveiled at the 1981 Berlin Radio Exhibition, it replaced the vinyl record as the standard medium for storing and playing music for the mass market in the 1980s. Legend has it that it was tailored to a recording of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony – 74 minutes in the longest version available at the time – and it gave the music industry a renewed boost after saturated markets and an overall weaker economic climate caused global physical media sales to plummet in the late 1970s. Although its star has begun to fade in the era of iTunes, Spotify, and similar services, and its demise has been proclaimed many times in recent years, CD sales still accounted for nearly 70 percent of total German music recording revenue in 2013.
Revenue Development of the German Music Industry 1984 to 2013
The Tactile Experience
No download in the world can offer this: the tactile element of the physical media disc along with its packaging. Not least because of declining sales figures in recent years, artists and labels have been trying to highlight this added value with elaborately designed digipaks, multi-disc boxes, and fan editions. The music is practically tangible, not just background noise, but brought to the center of attention. What’s more, the CD is a popular collectible item and can be showcased – just as our CD-Wall® storage system article proves – can be showcased accordingly.
Another notable advantage is the familiarity and simplicity of the system. Open the case, insert the CD, press the "Play" button, and off you go. No format chaos, no poorly encoded MP3 files that suddenly sound terrible on your stereo system, no complicated displays or menus. Simply clear sound on a comparatively durable disc that is far less prone to wear, damage, or dirt than a vinyl record.
The Technology
Beyond that, the CD also has a lot to offer technically. The so-called Red Book Standard was established in 1980 by Philips and Sony and defines the specifications for the Audio CD. As previously in the last installment of our seriesmentioned, music is stored digitally on the CD with a word length of 16 bits and a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz. The bitrate is 1411.2 kbit/s. This guarantees a very high-quality listening experience. If you want even more, there are several options for anyone who doesn’t want to give up the tactile aspect and easy handling:
First up is the Super Audio Compact Disc (SACD or SA-CD). Also co-developed by Philips and Sony, it is a specialized form of the DVD (Digital Versatile Disc). The audio material here is encoded in the DSD format (Direct-Stream Digital), while standard Audio CDs use the PCM method (Pulse-Code Modulation). DSD encoding uses 1-bit technology, meaning only a single bit of word length, but with a sampling rate of 2.8224 MHz (64 x 44.1 kHz). The two methods can only be compared to a limited extent, and the discussion of the pros and cons of each has occupied scientists, the industry, and users alike. However, one fact is clear: the resolution of SACDs is significantly higher than that of standard Audio CDs. Additionally, they cannot be played on every standard CD player. In addition to dedicated SACD players, there are now a wide range of compatible Blu-ray players on the market.
Blu-ray mention: As an alternative to SACD, there are various Blu-ray Audio formats that, due to the lack of a unified standard, come with different marketing names and technical capabilities. These include, for example, "High Fidelity Pure Audio" (HFPA), "Blu-ray Pure Audio" (BDPA), and "Pure Audio Blu-ray" (PABD). Here, though, it only seems complicated at first glance: all of these can be played on standard Blu-ray devices and offer "Hi-Res" music listening based on PCM technology with a 24-bit word length and a sampling rate of up to 192 kHz. And even if direct comparability isn’t possible: such high-resolution PCM encoding is every bit as good as the DSD method in terms of overall sound quality.
Plays Them All: Cambridge Audio Azur 752BD
Final Thoughts
Whether CD, SACD, or Blu-ray Disc, they all still have their place, not least because of their tactile and sonic qualities. Handling these silver discs has become second nature to us over the past few decades, and you don’t need to be a computer expert to satisfy your audiophile needs. Here, you sit down and pop in a CD, instead of wondering how this or that song ended up on your smartphone’s playlist while juggling two other tasks. Despite all the doomsday rumors, the old adage "what's been declared dead lives longer" holds true, and it's safe to assume that the CD will be with us for quite some time to come.
One final note: According to media reports, Sony, previously the biggest proponent of SACD, is increasingly shifting focus to audio Blu-rays in the future. Elsewhere, there has been recent speculation about the end of SACD. With a suitably well-equipped Blu-ray player such as the Oppo 105D or the previously mentioned Cambridge Audio 752BD you will be fully prepared for the future no matter what.
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