The Quad Sound Format Wars

Quadraphonic sound! Many of us dreamed of owning a bona-fide "quad" stereo setup - with four speakers place around the room with which to really get into Pink Floyd or one of the other headier bands whom we thought would be cool in surround sound. But those of us who did want to get such rigs were faced with guessing which of the incompatible quad formats would eventually prevail. In the long run, none did. Still, quad was a great experiment.

The idea of quad was simple: surround sound, like you get at the movies, but for music recordings. A typical setup included two front speakers as well as two in the rear, either to the side of the listeners or behind them. Originally the purpose was to simulate the ambiance of a concert hall, but soon producers realized that there were many possibilities for placing and moving the sound of individual instruments and singers around the room. But there was a problem: how do you record and play back four channels of sound using technology only designed for two channels, and at the same time allow the quad recording to be used on conventional equipment? Of course there was reel-to-reel tape, which could handle the job very well, but never caught on except amongst serious audiophiles. There were few albums produced on reel tape, which frequently became tangled or snapped. Eight-track cartridges were sometimes used for quad as well, but they didn't have very good sound quality, and a 4-channel cart could only hold half as much material as a stereo one. Cassettes were out of the picture, due to patent restrictions.

For LP records, CBS developed a system called SQ, in which the four channels could be "encoded" into a standard recording which sounded fine on a conventional stereo, but which could be converted to quad via a special decoder. The Mahavishnu album above was one of two SQ albums I owned. SQ was probably the most popular format, and for a while we even had a radio station - WQIV - which broadcast using it. The problem was that the system was not too good at separating the material destined for the rear speakers from that intended for the front. Still, SQ was the most popular quad format. For years the King Biscuit Flour Hour concert program was broadcast in SQ.

JVC developed a more effective system known as CD-4, but this required a special turntable with a stylus, cartridge and cables capable of handling it. CD-4 was also very hard on vinyl, and discs wore out quickly. My friend Russell had a CD-4 setup, but only had a handful of albums in the format, including Jefferson Airplane's "Volunteers," which was re-mixed rather poorly.

There were a few more quad formats out there, including Sansui's QS system, which was similar to SQ, but these seldom caught on. Many quad setups had provisions for playing more than one format, which was a good idea. However, record companies never really agreed on which format to use, and as a result none won out.

Next time: a look at some quad equipment.