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.
Cambridge Audio
The CD1 soon became a three-box player with the arrival of a Quality Assurance Module, which monitored all the errors on the disc and quantified those that could not be corrected. This proved popular with many audiophile enthusiasts and also with specialist record companies around the world. The player used Philips' digitally filtered 14-bit 4x DACs, but with a difference: three DACs were used per channel, two in parallel and one for ranging, rounding the result up to 16 bits overall. While the CD1 remained an audiophile player, there was also demand from both customers and distributors for a more affordable model, which arrived in 1986 with the launch of the CD2. At the time many of the best CD players still used a 14-bit, 4 times oversampling conversion technique, so the Cambridge Audio team set out to achieve a step change in performance by offering for the first time a model with 16-bit 16 times oversampling: a massive improvement in the resolution of the fine detail on the disc. Magazine reviews were outstanding and the company found itself in the enviable position of being back-ordered by six months even before the first unit was delivered.