According to that Japanese link, the first 50 titles were released on 10/1/82. I won't translate the whole page, but here we have the popular titles. We are relying on this person's research, but I suspect that someone will be able to come up with a scan of an advertisement or promotional flyer from 1982 that will confirm this. This is pretty significant information, but I wonder how many people care . . . By the way, this shows that the idea of the Billy Joel 52nd Street being the "world's first CD" is based on what appears to be just allocation of numbers among the 1st 50 discs. Also, there is a -1 for the other categories as well. Next task -- Assuming that it is correct that Sony titles were the first released, when did the other labels release their first CD's? [TRANSLATION] On October 1, 1982, the world's first Compact Discs were released. Based on material from the period, it appears that their were 50 initial titles. 15 Classical Titles from CBS/Sony 38DC1 - 38DC15 17 Popular Titles by CBS/Sony 52nd Street - Billy Joel （35DP1） 3,500円 The Stranger - Billy Joel (35DP2） 3,500円 Middle Man - Boz Scaggs （35DP3） 3,500円 Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd （35DP4） 3,500円 Turn Back - TOTO（35DP5） 3,500円 Escape - Journey （35DP6） 3,500円 Guilty - Barbara Streisand （35DP7） 3,500円 Night Passage - Weather Report (35DP8） 3,500円 Friday Night in San Francisco (Super Guitar Trio Live) - Al DiMeola, Paco De Lucia, John Mclaughlin （35DP9） 3,500円 One on One - Bob James and Arm Crew （35DP10） 3,500円 Hits! - Boz Scaggs （35DP11） 3,500円 TOTO IV／TOTO（35DP12） 3,500円 Best (The Simon and Garfunkel Collection) - Simon and Garfunkel （35DP13） 3,500円 Bridge Over Troubled Waters - Simon and Garfunkel (35DP14） 3,500円 Raise／Earth Wind & Fire（35DP15） 3,500円 The Man with the Horn - Miles Davis （35DP16） 3,500円 Herbie Hancock Trio with Ron Carter and Tony Williams （35DP17） 3,500円 10 Domestic Titles from Epic/Sony 35DH1 - 35DH9 38DG1 5 Popular Titles from Epic/Sony de nina a mujer - Julio Inglesias （35･8P-1） 3,500円 Off the Wall - Michael Jackson （35･8P-2） 3,500円 Don't Love Me Too Hard - The Nolans （35･8P-3） 3,500円 Hi Infidelity - REO Speedwagon （35･8P-4） 3,500円 There and Back - Jeff Beck （35･8P-5） 3,500円 3 Domestic Titles from Epic/Sony 35 8H-1 - 35 8H-3
According to this article, ABBA's "The Visitors" was the first CD pressed..... while this article claimed "The Visitors" was the first CD released.
There were two CD pressing plants in the beginning, Sony's plant in Japan and the Polygram plant in West Germany. I would guess that the Abba disc would have been pressed by the Polygram plant. How ironic, if this is indeed the first CD manufactured. I still have "The Visitors" on vinyl, never got it on CD... Then, as demand rose, there was a big push by Sony to get the Terre Haute plant online. Don't know if this means anything but I've got a copy of "The Police - Synchronicity" labeled DIDX 1. A couple other low DIDX numbers I've got are "Aja" and "Gaucho", DIDX 55 and DIDX 56. A group of musicians I used to mix live sound for (Stone Soup) had Terre Haute press a run of 1000 discs for them in the mid 1980's. I'm assuming the DIDX numbers must have been assigned sequentially. We got a DIDX up in the 2000's at the time the pressed our disc (I'll have to pull out the disc to see exactly what it is).
Very nice thread! Philips CD100 is sometimes available for sale on german ebay,this model and its brothers (cd101-104) extremely reliable & many of this players is still life,up and running!
Yes, it is. I am thinking of buying one of these, or any vintage CD player, to play those 1st pressing CDs I've been collecting.
Yes,it is interesting idea to "reconstruct" original sound. As I know,the best-sounding player from 1st cd players generation is Revox B225 .Try to find this,you will be not disappointed.But this is European model,I don't know if it was available for sale in USA.
I've seen this Revox before....mmmmm Just closed deal on a Sony CDP-70 single-disc player. It's nothing special except being the same model as my first CD player, circa 1987. The purchase was more for nostalgia.
Great thread!! The Sony CE595 SACD Player won't scan my Sony DualDiscs, but my 1985 Sony CDP-30 will.
I have thought about buying the first Sony player. They are available from time to time. The problem for me is that there is no digital out, meaning that you would be stuck with the on board d/a conversion, to which significant improvements have been made over the years.
Yes, I don't know where the CDP-30 lists on the timeline of Sony CD Players, but it has Analog Out only. Only One Red and One White. The Tascam 900 CD-R does have Analog In.
DIDX numbers are the #s of the glass masters used by Sony DADC, independent of the catalog number for pressing. Sony DADC is the pressing arm of Sony, that includes the old CBS/Sony Japan plant. DIDX=non Sony music (i.e CBS, Columbia, Epic) labels' masters made by Sony DADC pressing plants. later pressings by other pressing plants sometimes have these IDs. DIDP=Sony's labeling for Sony Music labels for 'popular' music. i.e. Rock, Jazz, pop, etc. DIDC=Sony Music classical labels DIDY=Sony DADC USA pressed CDs pressed for Columbia House record club in USA. Sony owned part of Columbia House with WEA. DIDZ=WEA Japan labeled masters used for a short time in 1983-5.
Hi! Here, Sonopress was the first pressing plant and is still the only one available today, they started around 1990. Before, BMG used to import CDs from Germany and print the inserts here. Sony started manufacturing CDs around the same time, in the same plant I guess. The ones I own have the DIDP XXXX matrix, some of those have printed 'Made in Mexico' on the label side and some don't. From my experience, it looks like Universal and Warner only make first pressings here, and just Warner keeps back catalogue importing CDs from Europe. Don't know much about EMI. Hope this brings some info to the table
Yes,this players (Sony CDP-101,Phillips CD100-103) doesn't have digital out.Philips CD 103 MKII and 104 does.Because of it they are around 50 percent more expensive compare to "no out" brothers.But it is nice to listen "generic sound" of 80-s . If I will find Philips CD100 for acceptable price,I will buy it for fun. BTW another 1st generation player with excellent design is Marantz CD 73.One of the most beautifully build cd player overall.
Hi, The ReVox B 225 was sold here. Many NPR stations used these and still have them in use. Laser units unobtainium. I agree with the statement about the ReVox having the best sound of the early CD players. There was also a Studer labeled version of the B 225 which also had XLR Balanced output!
Yes, according to this article: http://lacieg2s.ca/w3terra/ols/magnavox.htm But I think the article is wrong about the name "CD101". The first Philips was the CD100 (I have one), which later was replaced by the CD101. Same for the CD300 --> CD303.
Yes,Studer is super,it cost two times more than Revox. Old Studer half-professional audio equipment is very popular by collectors.Studer units have sound very similar to Revox,but for them was more strength factory quality control and they have profi features like balance outputs (tape decks also have balance inputs)
Hi friends any clue to know what were the first plants on West Germany? And hence what were the first CD's pressed there? The West German catalog is on way.
I was not correct,first plant was Poylgram,here is what I found here on other thread: ffracer 02-11-2006, 03:19 PM Basic reason the printing changed from Made in West Germany by PolyGram to Made in West Germany is that PolyGram (record label owned by Philips and minority Siemens) sold the ownership of their CD plant in Hanover, Germany to a new joint venture called PDO: Philips and DuPont Optical (owned by you guessed it Philips and DuPont). PDO then opened new plants in North Carolina, USA; France, and the UK. In addition, they supplied technology to make CDs to SKC in Korea. PDO was dissolved in the early 90s and the plants reverted back to PolyGram, which by then was fully owned by Philips and the CDs were marked "PMDC" - Polygram Music Distribution Co. and the country of mfg. Universal eventually acquired Polygram. PMDC Germany and PMDC USA were sold off of Universal/PolyGram and are now called Entertainment Distribution Co. (EDC) PDO UK was acquired by Deluxe UK. PDO France is now Cinram France. PDO discs made in USA, Germany, Korea (SKC), and France were solid aluminum centers in the disc clamping area. A few Germany and most UK made discs from the late 80s have solid centers, but not all the way to the hole. Clear plastic near the hole. After that, all the PDO plants went to either a mix of solid centers or to clear centers like most other CD plants. The clear centers usually say: PMDC (country of mfg) or later ones say UNI or UML(country of mfg) until Universal sold off their plants. Generally, PDO Hanover marked discs are 1986 ~1991. The confusing part is that all the original discs made 1985 and before say they are made by Polygram. Subsequent reissues with PDO markings may also say Polygram for a few years afterwards. So no PDO markings on the inner hub implies the disc was made 1985 or before.
Thanks to bring this info to the thread, so Polygram is the way to go, lots of work compiling the catalog numbers is on waiting.
