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.//

有史记载以来，人类一直痴迷于音乐，为音乐所陶醉。用作笛子的骨哨早已出现在公元前5，000年。从石器时代的画中我们可以见到早期乐器的模样。现代人进一步发展了对音乐的兴趣，十分钟情于用声音复制设备来录音的方式。//被誉为录音之父的美国发明家托马斯。爱迪生于1877年发明了留声机，这是世界上第一台录音设备。爱迪生最初的精力主要放在对说话声音的复制上，然而时隔不久，爱迪生这项发明的音乐应用价值便为世人所认识，并被推向了市场。//第二次世界大战之后，电的广泛使用使现代可提式点唱机面世。不过这种点唱机只能单声道放音。而真正的音乐发烧友想要的是一种给人以身临其境感觉的高保真音响设备。//到了80年代，声音复制设备的发展迈出了一系列更大的步伐。例如，推出了由索尼首创开发的被称之为“随身听”的袖珍便携式磁带放音机，以及采用电脑技术以数码储存与再现音乐信息的CD激光唱片音响。//