Mondo Knows Facts
The compact disc reached shops in 1982
Sony and Philips developed the optical format together A laser reads pits pressed into a polycarbonate disc, so nothing wears out through contact. The format promised perfect copies and no surface noise. It also made skipping to a track instant. It sits in Mondo's music collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
Where this comes from
Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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More facts like this
MP3 throws away sound you would not noticeIt drops detail masked by louder sounds nearby in frequency and timeThe compact disc launched in 1982Billy Joel's 52nd Street was one of the first albums releasedThe loudness war flattened CD masters for two decadesEngineers squeezed peaks with compressors so their records would sound louderCD audio samples 44,100 times a secondThe rate came from fitting film and television equipment rather than hearingYou must sample at least twice as fast as the highest noteBelow that rate, frequencies fold back and appear as false tonesEach extra bit adds about six decibels of rangeSixteen bit gives roughly 96 decibels between the quietest and loudest sound
🎵 Musicfact 154 of 200
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Tags: cd, formats, digital
The compact disc reached shops in 1982: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Sony and Philips developed the optical format together. The figure is taken from Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a music fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Music shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.