Stereotape Catalog #673

QuadraphonicQuad

Help Support QuadraphonicQuad:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

JonUrban

Forum Curmudgeon
Staff member
Admin
Moderator
Since 2002/2003
Joined
Mar 2, 2002
Messages
17,681
Location
Connecticut
I snagged this off eBay and am going to include scans in the QQ Reel Gallery, but for now I thought some of you may like to take a peek at it. There's really not much in this one, but the ad on the last page is cool. Anyway, here it is:
 

Attachments

  • front-w.jpg
    front-w.jpg
    107.2 KB · Views: 299
  • 2-w.jpg
    2-w.jpg
    119.4 KB · Views: 278
  • 3-w.jpg
    3-w.jpg
    107.9 KB · Views: 277
more
 

Attachments

  • 4-w.jpg
    4-w.jpg
    107.9 KB · Views: 275
  • 5-w.jpg
    5-w.jpg
    125.9 KB · Views: 283
  • back-w.jpg
    back-w.jpg
    176.2 KB · Views: 342

Attachments

  • text-w.jpg
    text-w.jpg
    148 KB · Views: 246
  • rx.jpg
    rx.jpg
    94.7 KB · Views: 239
Intresting: it does speak of "4 channel cassettes (when available)", so sme talk about this format was in place.
IIRC some demo has been done but everything stopped at that stage.
 
I remember seeing a coming to market ad in Stereo Review for a quadraphonic casette deck made by Astrocom Marlux. It was a prototype but never went to marker because of Philips.
 
Interesting that Lafayette mentions the full logic as being the "same as CBS" - in reality, Lafayette's full logic was far, far better! Lafayette utilized a much faster method of waveform comparison and VCA time-constants (3-5 millisecond attack times for the Lafayette logic VS 100 - 200 ms attack times with CBS logic) and the Lafayette full-logic had correlation detection in the logic so that two directions could be enhanced simultaneously, if they were front-only or back-only - as an example, say Left Front and Right Front were independent, but both dominant over the backs, the Lafayette logic could detect this and keep the rear speakers turned down, preserving the front-only left and right separation from the rear channels. In the CBS full logic design, the logic would turn up the rears if multiple channels were dominant, causing the independent Left and Right Fronts to lose all separation to the back, ruining the front-only effect. When combined with the Front/Back Vari-Blend logic, as implemented in the Lafayette SQ-W, it created a decoded result that was only surpassed by true parametric decoding of the Tate DES (or Shadow-Vector and CBS Paramatrix). Sadly, it was CBS that patented the correlation detection logic, but they never had it implemented in the Motorola/Fairchild chip sets, nor did CBS use it in their studio decoders! Even the CBS Paramatrix prototypes didn't have the ability to enhance two directions at once in the front or back. (the Tate DES in the Fosgate 101A can enhance 3 directions at once and the Shadow-Vector could too.)

I had always wondered which receiver was the first to have full logic SQ decoding, and now we know.

Whatever happened to Lafayette? Did Radio Shack buy the stores or just the name? And when did they disappear? I don't recall ever seeing a stand-along Lafayette store when I was growing up in Albuquerque, NM - and I know "Lafayette" only as a name on some of the higher-end Radio Shack gear.
 
....Whatever happened to Lafayette? Did Radio Shack buy the stores or just the name? And when did they disappear? I don't recall ever seeing a stand-along Lafayette store when I was growing up in Albuquerque, NM - and I know "Lafayette" only as a name on some of the higher-end Radio Shack gear.

You're thinking of Allied.
 
At the risk of TMI, I'd like to set the record straight on Lafayette (store list below), Radio Shack, Allied Radio, Allied Electronics and Schaak Electronics ( :mad:@: how'd Dick Schaak get in here?):

Allied Radio was a separate company from Radio Shack until 1970. Allied was primarily a mail-order full-line electronics company, but had several stores, as well. In 1970, Radio Shack acquired Allied. Allied sold name brand hi-fi, along with Allied (mfg by Pioneer) and Knight kit proprietary brands. Allied Radio Shack was a competitor of Lafayette and never sold Lafayette equipment, except perhaps a trade-in piece.

By 1973, due directly to federal court action, Radio Shack was ordered to divest itself of Allied Radio, but by that time with the purging of duplicate stock and closing of low volume stores, there was very little left to sell off, and the stores would once again bear the Radio Shack name. Radio Shack sold the remaning Allied stores to Schaak Electronics of Minnesota. With the opportunity to buy not only 8 Allied stores in Chicago, but 19 in other locations, he made the acquisition and Schaak Electronics was now double its original size.

But the expansion proved to be too much, especially in the context of economic recession in the US. Schaak Electronics lost money in 1974, in spite of significant sales increases. The pattern continued in 1975 with even more sales and even more money lost. In spite of efforts to control costs by closing several Schaak locations and all Allied locations, except the two in Milwaukee, Schaak Electronics filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the spring of 1975. A two year battle with creditors ensued, including American National Bank and Manufacturers Hanover. In 1985, Schaak again declared bankruptcy, and liquidated, closing all locations.

Radio Shack retained Allied Electronics, the industrial parts division, which was acquired in 1999 by Electrocomponents of the United Kingdom. www.alliedelec.com

Until I went to work for their competitors (Stereo City and Pacific Stereo), I was a regular Lafayette shopper. I still have an Akai CR80-DSS quad 8-track deck that I purchased from Lafayette in 1973 in Arlington Heights, IL. The ONLY 8-track deck that records in quad. They had a great selection of quad hardware and software, including Lafayette and name brand hi-fi. And Lafayette LR 4000 had a great SQ decoder. It won several awards. Several Lafayette stores were purchased by Circuit City of Richmond, VA. In order to keep the Lafayette name, which was popular in New York, Circuit City changed the store names to "Lafayette-Circuit City". All Lafayette stores were closed by the end of 1981.

Lafayette retail store locations according to catalog listing:

CT: W. Hartford, Stamford (later, Trim Fashions, now CVS), Hamden, Bridgeport, Enfield, Manchester, Torrington, Waterbury

CA: Hawthorne, Canoga Park, Carson, Cerritos, Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Inglewood, Long Beach, North Hollywood, Northridge, Orange, Panorama City, Santa Monica, Studio City, Torrance, West Covina, Whittier

DE: Wilmington

FL: Orlando, Tampa, Miami, Hollywood, Jacksonville

GA: Atlanta/Buckhead, Decatur, Dunwoody, Forest Park

IN: Indianapolis (4 Locations)

IL: Rockford (associate store), Chicago metro area (Downtown Chicago, Ford City, New Town), Arlington Heights, Evergreen Park, Morton Grove, Norridge, Schaumburg, Villa Park

MA: Boston metro area (584 Commonwealth Ave., Prudential Center, Brookline), Worcester, Burlington, Danvers, Saugus, Natick (1400 Worcester St.), West Roxbury/Dedham, Springfield

MD: Baltimore metro area, Prince Georges County-Mt. Rainier/Hyattsville (3191 Queens Chapel Rd.), Dundalk, Glen Burnie, Marlow Heights, Rockville, Towson

MI: Store #1 on Broadway Ave in Detroit (aka Barton Electronics), Store #2 on Maple in downtown Birmingham (store was lost due to fire), Store #3 on Plymouth Road in Livonia (aka Robbie), Store #4 on Van Dyke in Sterling Heights, Store #5 Ann Arbor, Store #6 Kalamazoo (aka Kaltronics), <<10721 West 10 Mile Oak Park - Main Office, Warehouse and Store #7 (aka Eric)>>, Store #8 Trenton, Store #9 Farmington (aka Nancy), Store #10 Grand Rapids, Store #11 on Gratiot in Roseville, Store #12 on M59 in Waterford, Store #14 in Lansing. Two other nicknames for stores are Neutronics and Pentronics just not sure which ones. All of these were part of Eric Electroncis dba Lafayette Radio

MN: Brooklyn Center, Edina, Roseville

MO: St. Louis (Bridgeton, Crestwood, Jenkins)

NJ: East Brunswick, Newark (24 Central Ave.), Paramus (182 Route 17), Parsippany, Pennsauken, Plainfield (139 West 2 St.) Totowa, Union, Watchung

NY: New York City - Manhattan (71 West 45th St., 17 Union Square West, 100 Sixth Ave.), Brooklyn (2265 Bedford Ave.), Bronx (542 E. Fordham Rd.) Jamaica Queens (165-08 Liberty Ave.); Buffalo (Main Street near Tupper St, Amherst, West Seneca, Eastern Hills), Rochester (Irondequoit, Greece, Pittsford), Scarsdale (691 Central Park Avenue), Schenectady, Syracuse (E.Syracuse) Hempstead, L.I. (Franklin Ave.), Syosset, L.I. (111 Jericho Tpke.), Flushing

OH: Cleveland (Parma Heights, North Olmstead, Mentor, Warrensville Heights), Toledo, Columbus, Cincinnati

PA: Pittsburgh (Bridgeville/Collier (Great Southern Shopping Center), Monroeville, North Hills, Pleasant Hills), Allentown, Lancaster, Philadelphia, King of Prussia, Oxford Valley/Langhorne, York, West Chester.

RI: Providence, Warwick

TN: Nashville

TX: Tyler (closed 1980)

UT: Salt Lake City (Store still exists as an electronic supply and surplus outlet, now known as Ra-Elco)

VA: Richmond (in 6600 block of Midlothian Turnpike), Falls Church, Harrisonburg (Rolling Hills Shopping Center, East Market St.). Hampton and Virginia Beach

WI: Milwaukee (Bay Shore, Greenfield, Wauwatosa)
 
Wow! Heckuva informative post there, Quad Linda! I remember the Lafayette in West Hartford at Bishops Corner. I'm not sure there was one in Manchester.

Welcome to the forum, by the way. It's great to find another well informed member with "Quad history"!
 
Thanks for the info on Lafayette! They seem to be one of the only companies that did their own R&D in SQ Logic - they didn't just copy CBS designs or use the Motorola chip sets - their Full-Logic decoders all used their own method of waveform comparison that was not only more simple in construction than CBS and Sony designs, but was faster too - that's why the SQ-W performs so well. The Vari-Blend on the rear channels is near-instantaneous, whereas CBS recommended a much slower attack and decay. The SQ-W is the only gain-riding/power-transfer type SQ decoder that actually sounds like a selective cancellation decoder, i.e. the Tate DES based decoders.
 
CA: Hawthorne, Canoga Park, Carson, Cerritos, Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Inglewood, Long Beach, North Hollywood, Northridge, Orange, Panorama City, Santa Monica, Studio City, Torrance, West Covina, Whittier

There was definitely one in Sacramento as well. If--big if--I remember correctly, it was "Lafayette", then "Lombard's Lafayette", then "Lombard's", then closed. I'm positive I was still able to get my LR-9090 receiver (purchased from Lafayette mail-order in 1978) serviced into at least 1980 or so. It was a fine receiver, but whatever they used for the combined power-speaker selector switch (Off - Speaker A - Speaker B - Speaker A+B) kept having to get replaced. The last time it went, there was no one around who could work on it. I've still got it up in my closet and have even used it within the last ten or so years (the frustrating switch problem is intermittent) when my main system was in the shop, but of course it's stereo only. I really, really wanted quad at the time, but couldn't afford it. I suppose it was a bit senseless by 1978 anyway.

My father had an older Lafayette receiver (can no longer remember the model) that lasted for years, but eventually began blowing fuses with, once again, no one local willing to work on it. Interestingly, that one had a non-powered output for a center channel to be used to avoid an alleged "hole in the middle" effect when the main speakers were very widely separated.

It's been 30 or so years since the local store closed and thinking about it now I can't even remember for sure if the original building is still standing or if it was torn down and replaced.

Ah, nostalgia. It's funny how I can go all soft over something like the LR-9090 despite the fact that what I've got now really sounds better, has more features and is more reliable.
 
Back
Top