- published: 18 Jun 2016
- views: 0
A Compact Disc player (often written as compact disc player), or CD player, is an electronic device that plays audio Compact Discs. CD players are often a part of home stereo systems, car audio systems, and personal computers. They are also manufactured as portable devices. Modern units can play other formats in addition to PCM audio coding used in CDs, such as MP3, AAC and WMA. DJs often use players with an adjustable playback speed to alter the pitch of the music programme. CD playback functionality is also available on CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive equipped computers as well as on DVD players and CD-ROM/DVD-ROM based game consoles.
Sony released its CD Player called the CDP-101 in 1982 utilising a slide-out tray design for the CD. As it was easy to use and manufacture, most CD player tray designs had followed this style of tray ever since. However there have been some notable exceptions.
During the launch of the first prototype CD player 'Goronta' by Sony at the Japanese Audio Fair in 1982, Sony showcased the vertical loading design of the CD player. Although the prototype's design was never really put into actual production, it was for a time adopted for production by a number of early Japanese CD player manufacturers including Alpine/Luxman, Matsushita under the Technics brand, Kenwood and Toshiba/Aurex. For the early vertical loading players, Alpine sourced their AD-7100 player designs for Luxman, Kenwood and Toshiba (using their Aurex brand). Kenwood added their 'Sigma Drive' outputs to this design as a modification. A picture of this early design can be seen on the Panasonic website.