While shopping for my first CD player, I was able to decipher most of the technicalese on the promotional signs. One designation had me puzzled, though, so I called over a salesperson¹ and asked, What does 'hybrid² pulse D/A converter' mean?

That means, she said, that this machine will read the digital information that is encoded on CDs and convert it into an audio signal - that is, into music.

In other words this CD player plays CDs.

Exactly.

在购买我的第一部CD唱机时，我能够解读推销标记上面的大多数技术语言。但是有一个标示却让我颇为迷惑，于是我叫过销售商，问道：‘混合脉冲D/A变换器’是什么意思？

它的意思是，她说，这个机器能够读CD碟上加码的数字信息，将它转换成声音信息－也就是说，转换成音乐。

换句话说，这个CD唱机能够播放CD碟。

正是如此。