Your first experience that made you a surround music lover

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In 1975, my father bought all new Hi Fi equipment. I read all of the manuals and hooked up the system for him. I can still remember lying on the living room floor listening to “I Am the Walrus” in matrixed quad thru the 4 speakers around me…what a trip!

In 2003 my best friend and I found out that Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon was going to be released in 5.1 on SACD. We both built our first 5.1 systems so we could hear that disk....
 
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I was late to the party - probably 2006. Gave all my vinyl to my nephew and he rewarded me with the Love album. I was blown away by that album and that got me researching all I could about surround. Alan Parsons Quad of DSOTM was the next surround that I fell in love with Then I realized that I needed to get a Universal player (Oppo) and went to all the music stores to find the DVD-A music that was still available. So the first batch included Tommy and Gaucho, two all-time favorites. Early on, I also bought the Doors box set with surround mixes and my little collection has been growing ever since ...
 
1970 in my bedroom! 2 Chicago FM stations simulcast Quad. One broadcast the fronts. The other station broadcast the rears. Source was Vanguard Q4 reels. Perrey & Kingsley, Country Joe and more!

I set up my Dad's system in my room, where mine was.

I was hooked!!
Whaaat?? Was that some kind of stunt or was that how they broadcast everything?? That's amazing.
 
Setting up first home theater in 1996 for 109 inch of video. Audio was an afterthought. I put on that infamous DTS version of DSOTM for a hoot. Well that heartbeat came on and it was like the first time I ever heard my sub. After that video took a big backseat to audio. I was a goner. I had to wait till 2001 for the first DVD-Audio disc -which was ELPs BSS still one best discs ever to grace our ears. BEST mix of BSS great content lyrics videos pictures this release is shamefully low on our hires poll = shame fellow posters. But I digress...
I took my new DVD-Audio to the local TWEETER and said "play this first loud -Toccata " we went to the demo room and there was the first Universal Player Denon- well that was the Demo to end all Demos - it blew them away. I walked out with that Denon and the rest is history. My collection is now my most valuable asset.
 
The music is brilliant. The story is poorly thought out. If ETs have the capabilities of inter steller travel, why even come into earths atmosphere? Why would they want Earth, when there are BILLIONS of planets out there? Why would they send themselves in pods to risk injury? Always annoyed me. That technology can be weaponized and everything on Earth could be killed in literally 1 second. There would be no war. It bugs me to this day!!


It is called suspension of belief, capice? Earth is a RARITY in the great expanse. Billions of Planets like earth? Hardly- wither signals from deep space? Wither planets with the right orbit with the right size (gravity matters) rocky surface with a magnetosphere with a hot core with Oxygen and Nitrogen in proper amounts? With a balanced ecology like the carbon cycle? Sands from deserts in Africa that supply soil for the Amazon basin that feeds the vegetation that supplies the O2 you breath. What billions has a thin veil of an atmosphere that has NOT been blown away by their sun(S)? Ever hear of the Van Allen belt or Magnetosphere that protects us? Earth is a rare diamond and we nees to take care of it for there is no othe place with in LIGHT YEARS like this place. I am incredulous we have not heard or seen a signal from civilizations Billion of years aheadbof us presumably? We are lucky to be left alone IMHO. HG Wellls was an amazing prophet WOTW was a an allegory for a feared German invasion (read about it). This what HG Wells sid in 1914 prior to Einstein.
I am paraphrasing " and these Atomic Bombs which the scientists unleashed upon the world were strange even unto them"
 
I've mentioned this before but...I was in high school (without a job) when quadraphonic stuff was available. One day, I ventured into the "Sound Shop" and was looking at "recently arrived" cassette's behind the counter. I saw Billy Joels "Piano Man" in a black slip case and really wanted to buy it but it seems they allways wanted above retail in these shops. I passed and moved into the music room of the shop and they had David Essex's "Rock On" playing on an all Marantz quadraphonic system through 4 12" 3- way Imperial 7 speakers. This totally blew me away! I remember wanting to hear quad in other stereo shops but they were not interested in quad. There sales pitch was "for the same amount of money, would you rather have 2 great channels or 4 mediocre channels". This was a totally false narative because there were great sounding integrated amps, speakers, adapters and decoders that were affordable at the time (Advents anyone)? Its even easier today with hdmi (but I'm still an rca out guy).
Fast forward to the mid 90's or so and I've been going to ARC shops and seeing incredible stereo gear and software that I began picking up. For nostalgia reasons, I had been looking for 8 track tapes that were in mint condition with their sleeves because I just loved music on tape and still do. One day I found some Q8's and later came upon an Akai Cr80dss quad 8 track recorder partially hidden in the housewares section with stuff piled all over it, presumably by someone waiting to get it on "half price" day. I grabbed it, took it home and hooked it up in my stereo system (tip-If you ever see a bunch of quad tapes in a shop all of a sudden, always be on the lookout for a quad player).
The deck actually worked and while playing the orange colored "Bread" greatest hits cartridge, I realized that part of the music was missing. I was able to scrounge up another integrated amp and speakers, then hooked up the back channels. I couldn't believe how good it sounded.... Quad Heaven! From that time on, I was on a quad search and have since collected quad decoders, hundreds of SQ and CD-4 vinyl, over 200 Q8's and Q4's and all of the disc surround formats. I'm so into quad as a result of my 1st quad experience that all of my surround players are set to 4.0 so my 4 JBL 12" 3 ways can spit out that classic quadraphonic sound. A real benefit for we surround sound "hounds" is how valuable our sofware has become (Tidbit- I got a PT stupid dream DVDA really cheap on ebay the other day). Love that quadraphonic sound and Audio Fidelity and Dutton Vocalion and Chicago Quadio and this forum and the guys and gals on this forum that have had a LARGE part in making this hobby great!
 
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I really didn't have a first surround moment. I previously had bought a deluxe version of Porcupine Tree's Deadwing and Floyd's DSOTM hybrid SACD, both including 5.1 mixes even though I couldn't play them. Since my audio gear was 25 years old, I figured eventually I'd replace it with a modest surround setup since I have a small apartment. Well, eventually finally came. And then the dam burst.... So I guess that would have been the moment. I was fortunate to find some previously released stuff on e-bay, like the Gaucho SACD, which is still my go-to demo disc.
 
I collected quad magazines in the early 70's, but never got to hear it. In the 80's I used to reverse the phase of the rear speakers like the Dynamo unit did. Just a year ago got to hear the DSOTM in quad. I am finishing up my stereo room and everything will at least go through the SM v2 unit.
 
I was watching music concerts in surround for a long time and my love for this format must have developed gradually listening to concerts and studios albums. I think it's rare to find concerts with perfect 5.1 mix (Wilson may be an exception), so I am always more satisfied with studio albums in surround. When I think about it the mixes of the classic Genesis albums by Mr. Davies were probably when surround became a passion or "obsession".
 
So being a teenager in the early 80's, I had heard about quad. I was intrigued. When my brother went off to boot camp I snagged the speakers off of his system and added them to mine and set up a four speaker stereo configuration. I plopped myself down in the middle and listened to Dark Side of the Moon. I was aware of course that I wasn't listening to true quad, but I liked the effect. (The speakers were very mismatched so it did give a bit of a quad effect.) As intrigued as I was, I figured that trying to track down the necessary equipment not to mention the LPs and tapes would be a bit of a fool's errand so I did not investigate further.

As for when the real "eureka" moment happened, I can pinpoint the exact date. July 17, 1984. Roger Waters brought his Pros & Cons of Hitch Hiking tour to the Hartford Civic Center. (For those of you interested in such things, this was the first concert Roger Waters ever performed in America as a solo artist.) When I walked in I immediately noticed that there were speakers set up in the back of the hall as well as at the top on the left and right. This could be very interesting. The second song of the evening was "Money". Cash registers were going off all around me. Holy crap! This is cool! The moment that really sold me that I still remember very clearly thirty-five years later was during "The Gunner's Dream." Right before the last verse, Roger sang the line "his dream is driving me insaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaane." As he held that last word, his vocal drifted from the front speaker speaker stacks, over the crowd, and landed in the back of the building. My best friend was sitting next to me. We looked at each other in disbelief as he mouthed the word "awesome." This was just too cool. But I was about to go off to college and be a starving student for the next few years so the thought of even trying to set myself up for quad certainly wasn't a realistic one.

Fast forward to the late 90's. ICE Magazine ran an article about a new format, DTS CDs. I was now in the workforce and could afford such a luxury. I upgraded my system. Among the first titles I bought was Steely Dan's Gaucho. Yowza! I was hooked. And I'm still babbling on about it twenty years later, LOL. 🤪
 
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Reading through these post sparked another memory I had of surround music. I had discovered Brian Eno‘s albums around 1981. In ‘82 he released another album In is ambient music series, Ambient 4 : On Land. On the back of the album he had instructions of how to add a third speaker connected to the positive terminals of the left and right channels and to place the 3rd speaker across the room from the front stereo speakers. Since this was published on the back of the album cover, and I thought Eno was a genius, I felt sure this was a perfectly safe thing to do (YIKES!!! we were all young once...). I hooked up my stereo with the 3rd speaker and it worked! We had sound coming from the back wall while we listened to Eno’s ambient sounds... I don’t recall how long we kept the 3rd speaker hooked up or why we got rid of it, but we had surround music of sorts...from any stereo album!
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My first experience started with home theater back in 1990. I went and shopped at a local store called Laserland in Syosset, NY. They had a few rooms with all sorts of awesome tech (video projectors and high end speakers) and the picture and sound was amazing (even though it was Dolby Pro Logic and THX - not yet discrete at this point). The main room was Runco or Vidikron projectors, Fosgate and Meridian decoders/processors, M&K (original Miller & Kriesel) speakers, Pioneer Laserdisc players (the Elite versions had the gorgeous super high gloss cherrywood side panels), and they played Star Wars, Star Trek, Terminator, etc, the likes of which I had never seen on that scale except at the theaters. A few years later around 1995 Dolby AC-3 came out and you could only get it on Laserdiscs. This was the first true discrete 5.1 and it was spectacular. The first two AC-3 discs - Clear and Present Danger and True Lies - wow!! Then in 1997, the Millenium 2.4.6 came out with a gaggle of dts 5.1 cd's. I was hooked! I was so impressed with music that played discretely in more than just stereo. I miss Laserland!
 

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My first experience started with home theater back in 1990. I went and shopped at a local store called Laserland in Syosset, NY. They had a few rooms with all sorts of awesome tech (video projectors and high end speakers) and the picture and sound was amazing (even though it was Dolby Pro Logic and THX - not yet discrete at this point). The main room was Runco or Vidikron projectors, Fosgate and Meridian decoders/processors, M&K (original Miller & Kriesel) speakers, Pioneer Laserdisc players (the Elite versions had the gorgeous super high gloss cherrywood side panels), and they played Star Wars, Star Trek, Terminator, etc, the likes of which I had never seen on that scale except at the theaters. A few years later around 1995 Dolby AC-3 came out and you could only get it on Laserdiscs. This was the first true discrete 5.1 and it was spectacular. The first two AC-3 discs - Clear and Present Danger and True Lies - wow!! Then in 1997, the Millenium 2.4.6 came out with a gaggle of dts 5.1 cd's. I was hooked! I was so impressed with music that played discretely in more than just stereo. I miss Laserland!
LOL! True Lies on Laserdisc. I also bought that one when it came out and yeah. I remember how blown away I was on the audio at that time. Good memories....
 
LOL! True Lies on Laserdisc. I also bought that one when it came out and yeah. I remember how blown away I was on the audio at that time. Good memories....
Talking to myself now...haha.

Locally, we had a little shop called Laser's Edge. It was in Normal, IL and featured all the latest laser discs........I remember thinking I was so cool being able to go there and buy those. Seemed I was the only one with a player.......
 
I really didn't have a first surround moment. I previously had bought a deluxe version of Porcupine Tree's Deadwing and Floyd's DSOTM hybrid SACD, both including 5.1 mixes even though I couldn't play them. Since my audio gear was 25 years old, I figured eventually I'd replace it with a modest surround setup since I have a small apartment. Well, eventually finally came. And then the dam burst.... So I guess that would have been the moment. I was fortunate to find some previously released stuff on e-bay, like the Gaucho SACD, which is still my go-to demo disc.
Gaucho is Amazing but i like the DVD-A Maybe it is time to re examine all 3 releases SACD DTS and DVD-A on my latest gear.... By the way a friend and I revisited DVD-A of Machine Head by Deep Purple -what arevelation!
 
It was 1972. I had been listening to my parent's Magnavox stereo console, which had a switch for an external speaker that I put on the other side of the room. The console became the right channel and the external speaker the left. Shortly afterwards, I read about Dyanquad, found two old speakers sitting around, and hooked them up in series as per the Dyanquad diagram. Instant surround sound! Albeit it was from four completely unmatched speakers, but I was totally hooked. One standout track that I recall as I could hear actual separation (probably likely because of the unmatched speakers) was Listen from CTA.

Things quickly improved as I subsequently got a BSR turntable, built a Dynaco ST80-Q amp, and bought a pair of AR-5 speakers followed later with a pair of AR-7's for the rears.

As usual I am unfashionably late to the party. But that's given me a chance to do a lot of reading.
AR I replied to your note because your experience was closest to mine, I can certainly relate. But I did beat you by a couple of years. In the latest Popular Electronice Novemeber 1970, there was an article titled Hafler vs Scheiber: 4 channels on Disc. The description of how to hook up a rear speaker in the differencing mode really intruiged me. My stereo set was a Garrard TT with Kenwood integrated amp & 2 KLH 55 speakers (8" 2 ways). A friend had liberated 2, 12" "full range" ceiling speakers from Pizza Hut. No enclosure just basic drivers. So I hooked them as shown, put on stereo Switched on Bach & was blown away!

Had I chosen something more subtle maybe I woud have gone meh what's the big deal. But SOB was the perfect choice. Since then I have always, always had some sort of surround sound set up. 49 years a quaddie. My 1st real piece of quad gear was in 1973 I purchased a Sansui QS-1 decoder.

I see 2 interesting things repeating themselves in the previous notes. One is that there seems to be geezer quaddies that were there from the start & quite a few relative newbies who discovered it with, say, Dire Straights. Which to me is new surround music haha etc.

The other thing I see is that everyone here says pretty much they were hooked the first time they had a chance to listen to music in surround. As we are all surround sound ambassadors here we are always wanting to give someone a chance to discover good music in good surround. But of course surround sound is plentiful these days via Netflix, movies, etc. And people watching movies at home are also listening to the music OST in surround as well. And yet real passion for this remains niche despite plentiful exposure. This leads me to believe you can discover a surround sound fan but you can't really make one.
 
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