Please welcome Bob Vosgien to QQ, the mastering engineer of the CTA Quad DTS Disc!!

[Quad Linda]

I never ventured into digital tape formats, although I got into recordable a/v discs early on. I still have lots of tape gear, though I favor digital formats and LP's. Also embraced hard drives. my main system has three, and I own six total, nine inclucing PC's.

For awhile, we sold large quantities of DAT's to data shops when I was in the computer industry. At that time, there were data cartridges with far higher capacity, which we sold in mega quantities to large data shops. Optical media obsoleted all the computer tape formats. Sorry, if I'm now reminiscing about a whole 'nother business.

For photos & more info on Triad/That's cassettes: http://vintagecassettes.com/triad_thats/triad_thats.htm

[jaybird100]

One of my prized pieces of gear is a Sansui QSE-5B quad encoder. I've made some great QS-encoded recordings with it from discrete sources so I could play them where a discrete source couldn't go. When I had the DAT player in my car, I also had a Fosgate Audionics "Gavotte II" car surround processor, which did a great job decoding the QS matrix. It also did a great job synthesizing surround from stereo sources. Alas, it drowned when my car sprung a leak.

[Quad Linda]

Now THAT's way cool!

One of my prized pieces of gear is a Sansui QSE-5B quad encoder. I've made some great QS-encoded recordings with it from discrete sources so I could play them where a discrete source couldn't go. When I had the DAT player in my car, I also had a Fosgate Audionics "Gavotte II" car surround processor, which did a great job decoding the QS matrix. It also did a great job synthesizing surround from stereo sources. Alas, it drowned when my car sprung a leak.

[elmer]

Ditto, Jaybird. We sold Triad, which was That's alter ego. I still have several. I thought they were great tapes. I rarely play a cassette anymore. I have over 1000, nearly all are mix tapes, my Oz series. Figure it out! The later projects were dbx encoded, which made them more unforgiving on dropouts. 1/3 of them are dbx, which can blow CD out of the water, especially LP transfers from my Ortofon MC cartridge. dbx LP's transferred to dbx reel or cassette are spectacular. I also had a Concord car fi w/dbx module.

How long has it been since this thread discussed Bob or Quadio? Perhaps I just did.


Yes, Elmer, they were the good ol' days.

Triad was actually Taiyo Yuden's first attempt in the US - it was sold and distributed by Harmon Kardon. With That's it was a redesign and a foolish attempt to go direct - head to head with TDK, Maxell, Sony & Denon. All of the type II tapes were pretty comparable, give or take. They were trying to hang their hat on the Metal Bias Sonos tape -which was quite good if I say so myself - but they didn't have the marketing guns to go up against the big boys - it was a fun trip but a short one.

And yes, we have driven this thread completely off it's original course - and I will share equal blame for that - perhaps it should be renamed. " Say farewell to Bob Vosqien - we hardly knew ye!'

[DKA]

I don't mean to be obtuse, but I'm not sure what you mean.

I mean, if the argument for not buying a BR player is "well there's just not enough stuff to play on it," that argument changes rather quickly if we're including movies as well.

[Quad Linda]

What's a BR player? Ah, you must mean Big Records. SQ or CD-4? lol!! When my kids were little, that's what they called 12" vinyl, my Big Records.

I mean, if the argument for not buying a BR player is "well there's just not enough stuff to play on it," that argument changes rather quickly if we're including movies as well.

[elmer]

I mean, if the argument for not buying a BR player is "well there's just not enough stuff to play on it," that argument changes rather quickly if we're including movies as well.

Well, I'm including movies, yeah. Why wouldn't I? I was responding to the comments "Not got into blu-ray as there is not enough good quality product Audio or Video" or "I don't buy into the image "quality" so I'll only get it if there is more BD Audio. I take these comments to mean that Blu Ray doesn't offer a superior visual experience nor is there enough content available to justify the purchase of a player - when to my ears and eyes that is simply not the case. The surround experience on a Blu Ray movie can be spectacular - even if you hate James Cameron and the concept of Avatar the movie, even in 2D it is a spectacular visual accomplishment. It also presents an unparalleled surround experience that I can have in my home using a player that costs less the $100. There are many more great BR experiences both movie and concert video (as I stated in my previous post). So, the argument that there isn't enough good quality audio or video quality BD content out there - just doesn't ring true to me.

[grill]

Avatar on 3D TV is still fanatastic (although not an IMAX 3D experience ofc). Wish the blu-ray technology would have already been discovered in the quad era!

[jaybird100]

Triad was actually Taiyo Yuden's first attempt in the US - it was sold and distributed by Harmon Kardon. With That's it was a redesign and a foolish attempt to go direct - head to head with TDK, Maxell, Sony & Denon. All of the type II tapes were pretty comparable, give or take. They were trying to hang their hat on the Metal Bias Sonos tape -which was quite good if I say so myself - but they didn't have the marketing guns to go up against the big boys - it was a fun trip but a short one.

And yes, we have driven this thread completely off it's original course - and I will share equal blame for that - perhaps it should be renamed. " Say farewell to Bob Vosqien - we hardly knew ye!'

We may have gone off-course, but it's a pretty lively discussion. And I agree, if he was still around, we probably chased Bob off.

[kap'n krunch]

We are DERAILING the thread, my fellow QQ mates!

BD image quality should have another thread....

Back on track...Mr. Vosgien; if you are there, would keep us up to date and at least tell us where you are ( Capitol??? Which dept,?) and what might be the future of Quad releases?

Cheers....

[winopener]

I remember That's tape; I worked in a store that sold it. I also tried it, and it really wasn't all that bad, but clearly there were better ones out there. I usually preferred Maxell or TDK.

I've recorded hundreds of That's tapes back in the days, and while in term of absolute performance the edge on Chrome was still on Basf CHD2, they performed quite well and could be pushed up in levels more than any other before going into saturation.
What made a big yes for me with That's tape was the quality/price ratio: for ferro tapes, normally used in cars etc, the That's FX was miles better than any other Ferro 120uS tape with a low price more.

[winopener]

Back in the day, I worked for a little company called Taiyo Yuden - they were introducing a new CD recording audio tape called That's (That's was a disaster - and my introduction to the CE business). To attract crowds to our booth at CES in Chicago, we did a live demonstration of Recordable CD technology complete with Japanese engineers in white lab coats - and a very talented buddy of mine playing a Midi Synth set-up live as proof. The CD-R set-up was a real Rube Goldberg contraption the size of a small refrigerator with a rather complex Sonic Solutions authoring set-up. This was the first demonstration of Recordable CD technology in the US- ah the good ol' days!

Year of that demo?

[Quad Linda]

El Capitan, ever the gentleman!

Bob, if you're still here, on the "Listening to in surround" thread, CTA is perhaps my most listened to surround album. The Quadio release was mastered well, albeit lossy. I've always marvelled that the mix on CTA is great, perhaps better than some of the other Chicago albums. I always loved it on SQ.

Yes, the BD, Triad/That's discusssions should be moved to it's own thread. Winopener, I should let Elmer answer, my guess is mid '90's, perhaps '95 on that CD-R demo at CES. Elmer, what's the REAL answer? In the mid 80's, I recall a demonstration at CES of a 5 1/4" floppy disc recording digital audio. The poor inventor sat at a keyboard DESPERATELY trying to get it to work. "Prediction and proof" is a key concept in selling a/v gear. "Now you'll notice that it does/sounds/looks like thus..." It had better do what you predicted, or you're sunk!

We had a promo on BASF ferri-chrome: 4 tapes and a padded carrying case. I bought several, with car stereo in mind. The tapes sounded great, but weren't durable. They developed dropouts pretty quickly. A couple years later, I returned to ferri-chrome, this time with Denon. Those tapes WERE durable and sounded great!

When this train runs off the track, it won't be back no more. - The (New Orleans) Radiators

We are DERAILING the thread, my fellow QQ mates!

BD image quality should have another thread....

Back on track...Mr. Vosgien; if you are there, would keep us up to date and at least tell us where you are ( Capitol??? Which dept,?) and what might be the future of Quad releases?

Cheers....

[vinylguy4]

We are DERAILING the thread, my fellow QQ mates!

Back on track...Mr. Vosgien; if you are there, would keep us up to date and at least tell us where you are ( Capitol??? Which dept,?) and what might be the future of Quad releases?

Cheers....

I don't have anything to add about BV's quad releases.
I did get the 2012 Grammy's CD, was mastered by Robert Vosgien at Capitol Mastering.
He's still around, but paying the bills with stereo.

vinylguy4

[elmer]

Year of that demo?

1988/89 - I have a demo CD-R somewhere with Carlos Alomar playing a short piece on the original That's CD-R promo piece. But the Chicago CES demo was definitely the first one done live.

[jaybird100]

I've recorded hundreds of That's tapes back in the days, and while in term of absolute performance the edge on Chrome was still on Basf CHD2, they performed quite well and could be pushed up in levels more than any other before going into saturation.
What made a big yes for me with That's tape was the quality/price ratio: for ferro tapes, normally used in cars etc, the That's FX was miles better than any other Ferro 120uS tape with a low price more.

The only problem I had with That's tapes was too many dropouts. I used a deck with variable bias adjustment and got great sound on the recordings, but they started developing severe dropouts after relatively few playings. Other tapes didn't have that problem.

[Quad Linda]

My experience with Triad/That's was quite the opposite. I used both bias adj. and test tones on two 3-head decks, first on a Kenwood KX-1030, later with a H/K CD-401, which I still own. Tapes were encoded through a dbx 224, which effectively renders a dropout twice as soft. Most playback was on my Concord car-fi w/dbx, the rest on various decks in our store. As I mentioned earlier, BASF ferrichrome was the most dropout prone, and that was without dbx!! Car CD was a comedown after this!

The only problem I had with That's tapes was too many dropouts. I used a deck with variable bias adjustment and got great sound on the recordings, but they started developing severe dropouts after relatively few playings. Other tapes didn't have that problem.

[jaybird100]

I had the best results with Maxell and TDK tapes. Once I had a recorder that was able to use metal tapes, I pretty much used them exclusively. I got great sound from them, and they sounded quite good in the car, too. It's a shame Philips wouldn't allow unidirectional quad cassettes. Discrete quad on a cassette may have kept things going a good bit longer. With good tape, discrete quad cassettes would have sounded terrific.