Timeline of Audio Format Developments
| Year | Media formats | Recording formats |
|---|---|---|
| 1877 | Phonograph cylinder | Mechanical analog; "hill-and-dale" grooves, vertical stylus motion |
| 1883 | Music roll | Mechanical digital (automated musical instruments) |
| 1895 | Gramophone record | Mechanical analog; lateral grooves, horizontal stylus motion |
| 1898 | Wire recording | Analog; magnetization; DC "bias" |
| 1925 | Electrical cut record | Mechanical analog; electrically cut from amplified microphone signal, lateral grooves, horizontal stylus motion, discs at 7", 10", 12", most at 78 rpm |
| 1930s | Reel-to-Reel, Magnetic Tape | Analog; magnetization; AC "bias" dramatically increases linearity/fidelity, tape speed at 30 ips, later 15 ips and other refined speeds: 7½ ips, 3¾ ips, 1⅞ ips |
| Electrical transcriptions | Mechanical analog; electrically cut from amplified microphone signal, high fidelity sound, lateral or vertical grooves, horizontal or vertical stylus motion, most discs 16" at 33⅓ rpm | |
| 1948 | Vinyl Record | Analog, with preemphasis and other equalization techniques (LP, RIAA); lateral grooves, horizontal stylus motion; discs at 7" (most 45 rpm), 10" and 12" (most 33⅓ rpm) |
| 1957 | Stereophonic Vinyl Record | Analog, with preemphasis and other equalization techniques. Combination lateral/vertical stylus motion with each channel encoded 45 degrees to the vertical. |
| 1962 | 4-Track (Stereo-Pak) | Analog, 1⁄4-inch-wide (6.4 mm) tape, 3¾ in/s, endless loop cartridge. |
| 1963 | Compact Cassette | Analog, with bias. 0.15-inch-wide (3.8 mm) tape, 1⅞ in/s. 1970: introduced Dolby noise reduction. |
| 1965 | 8-Track (Stereo-8) | Analog, ¼ inch wide tape, 3¾ in/s, endless loop cartridge. |
| 1969 | Microcassette | Analog, ⅛ inch wide tape, used generally for notetaking, mostly mono, some stereo (developed in the early 80's). 2.4 cm/s or 1.2 cm/s. |
| Minicassette | Analog, ⅛ inch wide tape, used generally for notetaking, 1.2 cm/s | |
| 1970 | Quadraphonic 8-Track (Quad-8) (Q8) | Analog, ¼ inch wide tape, 3¾ in/s, 4 Channel Stereo, endless loop cartridge. |
| 1971 | Quadraphonic Vinyl Record (CD-4) (SQ Matrix) | Analog. |
| 1975 | Betamax Digital Audio | Digital. |
| Analog. Dolby Stereo cinema surround sound. | ||
| 1976 | Elcaset | Analog. |
| 1978 | Laserdisc | Digital/Analog. |
| 1982 | Compact Disc (CD-DA) | Digital. Linear PCM (LPCM) |
| 1985 | Digital. Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) | |
| 1985 | Digital. Sound Designer (by Digidesign) (SD and DIG formats). | |
| 1986 | High Definition Compatible Digital (HDCD) | Digital. Redbook compatible physical CD containing 20–24 bit information (uses Linear Pulse Code Modulation (LPCM). |
| 1987 | Digital Audio Tape (DAT) | Digital. |
| 1991 | MiniDisc (MD) | Digital. Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding (ATRAC) |
| 1992 | Digital Compact Cassette (DCC) | Digital. |
| Digital. WAVEform (WAV) | ||
| Digital. Dolby Digital surround cinema sound. Also known as Dolby Stereo Digital until 1994. | ||
| 1993 | Digital. Digital Theatre System (DTS), Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (SDDS), MPEG-1 Audio Layer III (MP3). | |
| 1994 | Digital. TwinVQ. | |
| 1997 | DVD | Digital. Dolby Digital, Digital Theatre System (DTS) |
| DTS-CD | Digital. DTS Audio | |
| 1999 | DVD-Audio | Digital. Including Meridian Lossless Packing (MLP), Linear PCM (LPCM), Dolby Digital (AC-3) and Digital Theatre System (DTS). |
| Super Audio CD (SACD) | Digital. Direct Stream Digital | |
| Digital. Windows Media Audio (WMA) | ||
| Digital. The True Audio Lossless Codec (TTA) | ||
| 2000 | Digital. Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) | |
| 2001 | Digital. Advanced audio coding (AAC) | |
| 2002 | Digital. Ogg Vorbis | |
| 2003 | DualDisc | Digital. Multiple formats encoded onto the same disc. |
| 2004 | Digital. Apple Lossless (ALE or ALAC) | |
| 2005 | HD DVD | Digital. Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio |
| Digital. OggPCM | ||
| 2006 | Blu-ray Disc | Digital. Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio |
| 2008 | slotMusic | Digital. Usually at 320kbit/s MP3 on microSD or microSDHC |
| Blu-spec CD | Digital. PCM |
Read more about this topic: Timeline Of Audio Formats
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