Compact disc
Compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony and released in 1982. The format was originally developed to store and play only sound recordings (CD-DA) but was later adapted for storage of data (CD-ROM). Several other formats were further derived from these, including write-once audio and data storage (CD-R), rewritable media (CD-RW), Video Compact Disc (VCD), Super Video Compact Disc (SVCD), Photo CD, PictureCD, CD-i, and Enhanced Music CD. The first commercially available audio CD player, the Sony CDP-101, was released October 1982 in Japan.
PS Audio
In the early 1980s and with the advent of the Compact Disc, PS was one of the first American high-end audio manufacturers to modify one of the few CD players of the day by replacing its internal audio amplification stage following the internal D to A player. The first and only modified CD player introduced by the company was the CD-1 based on the Philips Magnavox line of CD players. The company engineers chose the Magnavox unit because the belief at the time was it sounded better to its only rival in the marketplace, the Sony. Inside the CD 1 PS engineers added a discrete high voltage line stage and power supply, replacing the NE 5532 op amps used as the output amplification stage of the Magnavox. This unit was a stopgap product designed to get the company "in the game" of this new format that would someday challenge vinyl, the company's core products addressed. In the background, PS engineers were working to figure out a way to utilize the CD player's digital output and create a standalone D to A converter. In late 1982, the company succeeded in releasing the first high-end standalone D to A converter known as the Digital Link. Other manufacturers such as Arcam and Theta were also on the same path and both companies released competing D to A processors within several months of the Digital Link's introduction. From this point onwards, the company has produced a succession of DACs with the same goal in mind - that of supplanting the built in DAC and line stage of CD players. Later advances in CD technology led the high-end audio industry to release a new category of product called a CD Transport that contained no DAC and meant to use as a pair which became known as a DAC and Transport combination.