Sheeesh..... do I have to start all the inanity? Leaving myself open for ridicule? What if one or all of you are absolutelty enamored with any quad item sold by Electrophonic? I have seen various compact systems by this firm in thrift stores over the years. I used to plug 'em in, hook up some speakers, and commence a listening test. Every unit I listened to was crappy. Not surprising since even their stereo stuff is high distorion, low power, composed of the cheapest components possible.
I recall a component system by these folks that had an AM/FM radio, a 2/4 channel 8-track player and a selector switch that supposedly evoked the SQ gods to come to life and work their magic. Bah!!!!! The quad output with the SQ decoder was no better than stereo coming out 4 channels, as occurs when A/B speaker selection allows F/R stereo. Fortunately, there was a Q8 in the bin so I tests the tape player. Accckkkkk!!!! It functioned smoothly and was crisp in changing tracks. But, the sound!!!!! Distortion fanatics would have quivered in delight. Normal humans ran in disgust.
Other Electrophonic items I met were equally crappy. Kinda' like politicians; never met one I liked.
Then there's the Fischer receiver I bought for 10 bux at the garage sale years ago. It was in very nice condition and everything worked fine...... except the decoding. I forget the model number but it was a very basic unit. When I selected the surround mode sound came out the rear but it was exactly the same sound as what came out the rear!!!! Until I came across another very similar unit and listened to it I thought that perhaps the my Fischer's decoder was malfunctioning. Nope, apparently not..... the other unit sounded exactly the same.
Then there's the Pioneer receivers I've listened to. Bah!!!!! Almost all had distortion in the read channels. Those units do not age well. And, as for decoding...... Bah!!!!!!!!!!!
