Digital audio is compact and rugged: High-density pitted disks in conjunction with sharply focused, precision-tracking laser pickup provide quality sound reproduction

From the blare of brass and the thunder of percussion to the whispering pianissimo of a solo violin, a whole range of sound is now captured and reproduced with new clarity and precision by what has come to be known as the compact-disk digital audio system. In that system a plastic disk only 12 centimeters in diameter digitally stores more than 1 hour of music in micrometer-size pits arranged in a spiral track on one side of the disk. A laser beam in the player reads the information optically off the rotating disk without touching its surface [Fig. 1].