Most audio CD players use an uncompressed data format capable of producing high-quality sound. The majority of music CDs come in a format called WAV, which is also used for some sound files in personal computers. In addition, many CD players can handle other formats that allow extended playback time. Digital Recording. The audio on a CD is represented by a long stream of numbers. The CD player retrieves these numbers from the disc and reconstructs the original sound waves from the data. The numbers are recorded digitally.