What is the difference between an LP and A CD

LP is a Long Playing analog record played on a phonograph.

CD is a Compact Disk digital record of analog sound.

The How Stuff Works website has a fantastic set of articles on this if you're interested. You'll find it here:

How analog and digital recording works

By the way, welcome to A2K. Feel free to ask any questions you wish. That's one of the things we're here for and thrive on.

It wasn't a stupid question. There are several well known museums that focus on that very question.

Looking forward to getting to know you and sharing your thirst for knowledge.

Those of us who have been alive a longish time have seen quite a few changes, in this field particularly. We in this house were talking yesterday about buying a DVD player, to keep up with the industry (okay, a few years too late!).

Recorded music: when I was at school, in the 1950s, I remember a science schoolmaster (yes a PHYSICS master even) who liked classical music, buying boxed sets of 78 rpm records because he thought these new-fangled 33.33 rpm vinyl discs would never catch on.

Boy how wrong was he. Around that time was the change from single-play records (78 rpm...revolutions per minute...discs made from shellac, and 45 rpm singles) and EPs..extended play records...made from vinyl, to LPs or long-playing records, also made from vinyl.

One notable innovation with the advent of the LP, was the opportunity given by the record sleeve to encourage a new art form, that of sleeve design. CDs, being smaller, are not so good for that.

McT

Oh boy, does this one make me feel old. It was incredible how fast the LPs were replaced by CDs. Overnight, or so it seemed.

Cover designs. I cherish my Olivia Newton cover, and sometimes play the album.

Difference
About 40 minutes.
About 7 dollars.

And no one ever came up with an acceptable way to play LP's in the car.

Phonograph? Butrflynet must be old...I used to call it a record player. Just kidding....actually, I seem to recall a brief interjection of 8-tracks and cassettes pre-CD. Interesting story: One reason for the change from shellac to vinyl was, aside from the fragility of shellac, alcoholics were melting them down for the wood alcohol, which is nasty, fatal stuff indeed.

I just got a mental image of a giant in-dash record player that looks like a giant CD slot, and someone about to slide a record inside. A piece of PhotoShop wizardry just waiting to be born.

An then, after the advent of 33 1/2 rpm records, there was a switch from monophonic to stereophonic. Stereophonic is still used today. For awhile, the record companies were playing with quadrophonic, but that was a flash in the pan. Anybody remember 12" 45 rpm records?

Supposedly John Lennon had a record player fitted on gimbals in his limousine so he could listen to records without them skipping.

On the back of a compact disk, you will see the letters AAD or DDD. AAD recordings are usually remastered Analog recordings that originally were put on an Analog master tape and then remastered in Digital. If you are looking at, let's say a compact disc that was originally recorded as an lp record decades ago, and then remastered, it will be AAD.

DDD CDs were recorded completely in the digital format.

Can't say that I remember 12" 45's, Phoenix, but I do remember 78's in both 10" & 12". The 12" were usually classical and in some cases cut on only one side. An even greater oddity was the "hit of the week" series which were made on some type of paper or pasteboard. They were actually a bit before my time, but my parents' collection contained some of them. As a youth I played them on our wind-up Victrola.

flyboy804- There are some 45 rpm 12" records that are usually audiophile records. Because of the higher speed, the fidelity is greater. In addition, the majority of these recordings were direct to disk, bypassing the recording to tape stage. Because of this, and to preserve the fidelity, only a small number of copies (no more than 50,000) were made of each recording. Most of those records were either classical or jazz. They were also more expensive than mass produced recordings.

I have a vague recollection of records made on some kind of cardboard. Also, do you remember translucent red records?

Phoenix, my mind draws a complete blank on the translucent red records.
Do you recall the label, the nature of the content and/or the approximate year(s)?

flyboy804 - I have now, in my hot little hand, a translucent red 33 1/3 recording. It is Audiophile AP-20, "Echoes of the Storm", and is a recording of a thunderstorm, a hammer driving nails,water dripping into bucket, drums, and a music box.There is no copyright date, but there is a mention that the storm actually happened in 1952.

If you recall, in the early days of hi-fi, there were many recordings of sound effects. We have a record of a calliope, and one of various kinds of trains. In those years it was a thrill to hear a sound that came across just like the real thing.

We have a blue plastic record. It is a direct to disc (1976) Sonic Arts Laboratory Series 10. It is called Russell Stepan, "Favorite Encores", The record contains classical piano encores.

My husband says that he has another blue one, but can't put his hands on it. (We have about 3,000 records. We used to have 6,000, but we culled them out when we moved to Florida!)

Check this out:

Link to red record

Anyone remember the 10" single?

Sure do. Those were in 78 r.p.m. The whole album contained 3-4 records, and took up a LOT of space! I had some of those when I was a kid, but I threw then out!

I remember an orange plastic 45...during the 70's. I used to play all of my parents 45's and some of their LP's....I think I still have some in the box containing all my vinyl from my youth although I havent looked in that box in quite a long time.
I have a case of these really thick records with like Bing Crosby's White Christmas and the like...wasnt sure what they went to so, never took them out and played them. Maybe someday.
I was actually a teen when everything was going cassette....have those still but, more and more being replaced on CD. And I got away from the 8 track only because when in the 70's my parents purchased the grand console TV cabinet with phono and radio they opted for that new cassette thingamabob instead of the usual 8 track...whew.
lots of interesting facts here folks! keep em coming

Heck, I still have a cassette player in my vehicle--and loads of tapes (mostly home-made) to listen to while I drive! Alas, the car may soon be replaced by something that will only play CDs at which time a rather fantastic collection of cassette tapes will be consigned to the scrap heap of history. Sniff...

Those were probably 78rpm shellac records. If you drop it, the record will shatter. Also, don't try to play it on a regular phonograph that plays
33 1/3. You need a different cartridge and stylus to play those records. I once picked up an old Edison record from the early part of the 20th century. It must have been 1/2 inch thick.