Since their introduction in 1983, compact discs have become the best recording medium for music.  Unlike record albums and tapes, compact discs cannot be damaged with normal use.

A standard-sized compact discs is less than five inches in diameter and is capable of storing up to 75 minutes of digitally encoded music.  Each discs contains billions of tiny pits that represent musical signals with mumeric codes.  Abeam of laser light reads these pits and converse the codes into musical signals.

Compact discs players have a wide variety of features. The following list will help you choose exactly what you would like in a compact disc player.
* Wireless remote control allows you to program, play, pause, skip, repeat, and perform a variety of other functions without being at the compact disc player.

* High-speed transport (or high-speed linear motor) allows you to access any track on the disc in less than a second.

* Programmable music scan allows you to automatically listen to the first few seconds of every, one right after the other.

* Direct access allows you to have immediate access to any particular strack without having a forward or reverse through other tracks.

* Auto cue allows you to place the laser pickup in a standby mode at the beginning of each track.

* Full-fuction LCD display provides a clear indication of disc playback information, such as the track number, elapsed playing, remaining disc time, etc.

* Shuffle (or random) play lets the compact disc player randomly play the tracks of the disc in a new order each time.

* Repeat mode allows you to replay your favorites over and over, from a single song to the entire disc.