Quad/stereo

[The Bushmaster]

This has bothered me for years, more than I wish to admit. First we had mono. Then came stereophonic. And along came quadraphonic. Why do manufactures and others continually call it "four channel stereo"? To me stereophonic has nothing to do with quadraphonic at all. Two totally different formats.

Just one of my many (mental rambling) pet peeves.

 

[Simon A]

This has bothered me for years, more than I wish to admit. First we had mono. Then came stereophonic. And along came quadraphonic. Why do manufactures and others continually call it "four channel stereo"? To me stereophonic has nothing to do with quadraphonic at all. Two totally different formats.

Just one of my many (mental rambling) pet peeves.

What are you suggesting these people call it? Four Channel Mono?

 

[The Bushmaster]

Well it sure as hell is not stereo by no means! How 'bout quad, four channel or just plain quadraphonic.

In case you didn't know stereo is two, not four.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Quadraphonic works for me.
Wasn’t at least the Sansui Quad matrix Hall mode front channels stereo?
But, sure, all very confusing; and now we have multiple speaker configurations for Atmos and I don’t even know about Auro-3D.

 

[par4ken]

This has bothered me for years, more than I wish to admit. First we had mono. Then came stereophonic. And along came quadraphonic. Why do manufactures and others continually call it "four channel stereo"? To me stereophonic has nothing to do with quadraphonic at all. Two totally different formats.

Just one of my many (mental rambling) pet peeves.

noun
1.
sound that is directed through two or more speakers so that it seems to surround the listener and to come from more than one source; stereophonic sound.

By that definition Stereo would refer to more than one sound source, not necessarily limited to two. Vanguard called Quad "Surround Stereo". There once was much debate about the term "Quadraphonic", that it wasn't correct English. We had alternate terms such as Quadrophonic, Quadrasonic and all are fine with me.
My peeve is that modern systems use the term rear speakers or channels when they should and always will be (to me) the back speakers or channels!

 

[kap'n krunch]

ahhh, semantics, always a fun subject...
Yes, "Stereo" in modern times refers to 2 different images or sources for the same thing (View Masters and 3D pics/viewers were called "Stereo"),
BUT,
the origin from Greek , "Stereos" means "SOLID", which for audio it could even apply to MONO cause it´s the most solid of all signals, the more it is divided the less solid it becomes...unless is it´s an ES or SW mix

 

[Arconada]

Yes, the Greek word stereos means solid, but in geometry e.o. it means spatial. And in sound it means spatial as well. Stereo sound means spatial sound in 1 dimension (left - right) which is achieved by two loudspeakers. Stereo does not mean two. Though. SQ, stereo-quadraphony, is a way of saying spatial sound with the use of four channels, therefore achieving an extra dimension in sound. left - right and front - back). I must admit the meaning of words reels.

 

[Scott65]

I like the term 'multichannel'

 

[John Svensson]

Multichannel, like stereo? Just leg pulling.... Semantics again.

 

[amontass]

I like some CD4 recordings, like the 3 CD4 BTOs that seems to put the listener in the center of the band. I have experienced this with some QS recordings like the Grass Roots Greatest Hits, but never with an SQ recording. However I enjoy the fullness of each because I do get the surround feeling thrill.

 

[par4ken]

I like some CD4 recordings, like the 3 CD4 BTOs that seems to put the listener in the center of the band. I have experienced this with some QS recordings like the Grass Roots Greatest Hits, but never with an SQ recording. However I enjoy the fullness of each because I do get the surround feeling thrill.

Many SQ recordings put you in the middle of the band, too many to name but "Super Session" by Bloomfield, Kooper, Stills is one that to me stands out, I just listened to it again last night through the S&IC. Areosmith, Edgar and Johnny Winter SQ LP's are among other standouts.
The BTO Quads are excellent mixes, I think there are four of them on Q8 anyway. They all have things going on in each speaker simultaneously that matrix systems can't do as well. I would love to see DV releases of those! I don't share your enthusiasm for the Grass Roots though. I love the band but thought the QS to be just so-so.

 

[furui_suterioo]

"#>2 Channel Stereo" sounds cool and futuristic to me, quadraphonic/sonic sounds more like an interior feature of a late fifties Chrysler

 

[furui_suterioo]

Which are my favorite cars btw

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Multichannel, like stereo? Just leg pulling.... Semantics again.

No. Count with me.....one..........two..............multi.

 

[par4ken]

A thing to bear in mind is that typical quad uses stereo panning to place virtual sources around the listener. It’s 4 sided stereo, in a sense, which cannot reconstruct the horizontal soundfield particularly well.

It's more like 6-sided if you count the diagonals.

 

[stevendive]

It's more like 6-sided if you count the diagonals.

That’s assuming pairwise stereo panning is used, but the result is no better unless a diffuse in-the-head effect or lack of focus is wanted. Quad, in its various forms, has its uses, just not for soundfield reconstruction of what happened in the performance space. Adjusting the relative phases of the channel signals can give interesting, though not realistic, effects.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

I personally don't have a problem with the off kilter terminologies.

I know what is truly meant and what is quad , primarily when listening to discreet.



Note : if you check through the years 72-76 within Billboard you will notice their quad terminology preference was with the term, "Quadrasonic ".
It's all still quad , no matter what the term.