Sidney Cadot wrote:
Hi all,

I am trying to gain an in-depth understanding of the digital encoding
used in compact discs, out of hobby interests. I think I got a grasp
of all the algorithms involved (CIRC encoding, EFM, and so on) but I
would like to verify my understanding by looking at the actual raw
(analog) signal as seen by the laser sensor in the CD's optical
system.

For this purpose, it would be quite ideal to have access to a couple
of seconds worth of audio data as seen by the laser reflection pickup
sensor; something like 20 Msamples/sec at 8 bits/sample would be
perfect for me.

Would anybody know how I could get hold of this kind of data? I assume
that it is routinely produced by producers of CD hardware, but they
will probably not be keen to share :-)

The raw data stream has historically been a readily-probable test point in
each CD player. You just need to attach some kind of high speed data
recorder to it.