From recorded time, man has been fascinated and delighted with music. Bone whistles, used as a type of flute, have been found dating back to 5,000 BC. Paintings from the Stone Age show early musical instruments. In modern times, man has further developed his interest in music and in recorded sound with the hardware of sound reproduction.// American inventor Thoms Edison, who was considered the father of sound recording, developed the phonograph in 1877, the first device to record music in the world. While Edison concentrated at first mainly on the reproduction of voice, it was not long before the musical uses of his invention were recognized and marketed.// The widespread use of electricity in the post-World War Two period led to the invention of the modern, portable record player. It was, however, “mono”. The real enthusiastic listener to music wanted a realistic reproduction of music with “hi-fidelity” or “hi-fi”.// The 1980s saw an even greater series of developments in sound reproduction hardware. The examples are the Sony Corporation’s invention and development of the tiny portable tape players known as the “Walkman”, and the compact disc, or CD, system based on the technology of computers with music information stored and reproduced digitally.//

有史記載以來，人類一直癡迷于音樂，為音樂所陶醉。用作笛子的骨哨早已出現(xiàn)在公元前5，000年。從石器時代的畫中我們可以見到早期樂器的模樣。現(xiàn)代人進(jìn)一步發(fā)展了對音樂的興趣，十分鐘情于用聲音復(fù)制設(shè)備來錄音的方式。//被譽(yù)為錄音之父的美國發(fā)明家托馬斯。愛迪生于1877年發(fā)明了留聲機(jī)，這是世界上第一臺錄音設(shè)備。愛迪生最初的精力主要放在對說話聲音的復(fù)制上，然而時隔不久，愛迪生這項發(fā)明的音樂應(yīng)用價值便為世人所認(rèn)識，并被推向了市場。//第二次世界大戰(zhàn)之后，電的廣泛使用使現(xiàn)代可提式點(diǎn)唱機(jī)面世。不過這種點(diǎn)唱機(jī)只能單聲道放音。而真正的音樂發(fā)燒友想要的是一種給人以身臨其境感覺的高保真音響設(shè)備。//到了80年代，聲音復(fù)制設(shè)備的發(fā)展邁出了一系列更大的步伐。例如，推出了由索尼首創(chuàng)開發(fā)的被稱之為“隨身聽”的袖珍便攜式磁帶放音機(jī)，以及采用電腦技術(shù)以數(shù)碼儲存與再現(xiàn)音樂信息的CD激光唱片音響。//