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Theoretical question about how CD's work

Theoretically, can the contents of a CD be printed out onto sheets of paper in 1’s & 0’s, re-entered digit by digit (say, by a generous helper monkey with an infinite lifespan) into some sort of program, and the same sound will be replicated? Just trying to understand how CD’s work (though I’ve been trying for 25 years and it still seems like magic to me).
sealrock

Showing 2 responses by cleeds

cleeds
6,156 posts
 
kosst_amojan
That's the stupidest thing I ever heard. Cheap, flimsy optical drives jammed into laptops have no problem tracking a CD spinning it more than 50 times normal play back speed.
Don't be silly. There's a big difference between playing CD audio  in real time and pulling data off a CD on a computer. I'm pretty sure you knew that.
cleeds
6,156 posts
 
marklings
I for one do not believe any error correction is needed. You copy a file you get a perfect copy unless someone can show me why a copy of a Data file from a CD should be different from a copy of an audio file ...
You need error correction because there are often errors when playing a CD in real time, which is quite different than simply making copies of a data file.
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