Surround Master - What's Next? EV? DY? UHJ?

[rustyandi]

You do realise that I was doing a A/B switch
with TATE to Surround Master and QSD1 to Surround Master
I can do it with one switch and have levels the same
and you can see the sound levels with the Vectorscope
It gives the same sound levels as you can see
You can see if you are getting a front centre or if it drifting to one side or the other
and if there is a even front back and L/R to R/R separation
with a good blend between
The Vectorscope was developed for servicing Quad equipment

 

[watsontr]

I'm not doubting what you are saying Ron. What would be nice in terms of file comparison is what I mentioned before. A random song in QS, another in SQ with decodes of both by the best legacy decoder and the SM. It would also be nice to have a discrete source of the matrixed tunes for comparison. Probably a bit of work and time consuming but that would give a good start for someone trying to evaluate.

 

[JonUrban]

Hi All

......For this to work we will need to pre issue the correct answer to a person trusted by this forum, of high character and apparent super powers (maybe JonUrban hopefully) to ensure we do not cheat and put our fingers on the scales. The correct answer could be issued after everyone has had time to trial the samples.......

I'd prefer to stay out of it, but thanks for thinking of me.

Maybe Bob Romano or ArmyOfQuad should do it, or some other member who volunteers. I will support whoever does it with whatever is needed from the forum. This whole situation has take a lot out of me, and I'm not even involved!

Thanks

 

[chucky3042]

Hi All

perhaps the best person to hand the information of which is discrete would be some one who does not own a surround master yet thus ensuring no contamination.

Any volunteers?

Regards

Chucky

I'd prefer to stay out of it, but thanks for thinking of me.

Maybe Bob Romano or ArmyOfQuad should do it, or some other member who volunteers. I will support whoever does it with whatever is needed from the forum. This whole situation has take a lot out of me, and I'm not even involved!

Thanks

 

[ArmyOfQuad]

How about an encrypted file to which you hold the encryption key until after everyone has put in their votes? Kind of like a sealed envelope with the results inside.

 

[TimK]

As far as decoding accuracy is concerned, I used to follow a certain blog. I stopped after I found 4 “SQ” releases that were from regular stereo, non-SQ matrixed sources. So be careful what releases are used for comparisons.

 

[Owen Smith]

It's not always easy to tell if some releases are matrix encoded, documentation is incomplete. Dropping out of an entire blog due to 4 alleged incorrect releases seems overkill. The presence of these 4 releases surely does not affect the others which are matrix encoded? But I digress.

 

[Owen Smith]

I'd like to suggest Tubular Bells as the SQ test. It has a number of advantages:

* Discrete release available on SACD.

* SQ encoded available on CD from Mike Oldfiled Boxed, so no issues about turntables or RIAA preamps used.

* Available as a software decode (from Boxed) from a certain blog which dare not speak its name.

Note however that the CD-4 release QV2001 is a stereo upmix and should not be used as part of this.

 

[watsontr]

I'd like to suggest Tubular Bells as the SQ test. It has a number of advantages:

* Discrete release available on SACD.

* SQ encoded available on CD from Mike Oldfiled Boxed, so no issues about turntables or RIAA preamps used.

* Available as a software decode (from Boxed) from a certain blog which dare not speak its name.

Note however that the CD-4 release QV2001 is a stereo upmix and should not be used as part of this.

Good suggestion for SQ Owen. A CD sourced track may remove a lot of the variations in quality that may occur using vinyl and I imagine a lot of people have the CD as well. So the SACD is of the quad mix? I didn't know. Is it a subtle mix? It would be best IMO if there were elements within it to show where the quad mix shines in placement of instruments etc

 

[Owen Smith]

Good suggestion for SQ Owen. A CD sourced track may remove a lot of the variations in quality that may occur using vinyl and I imagine a lot of people have the CD as well. So the SACD is of the quad mix? I didn't know. Is it a subtle mix? It would be best IMO if there were elements within it to show where the quad mix shines in placement of instruments etc

The Tubular Bells quad mix is quite active, plenty of intruments placed in one speaker. It's not bonkers driving you mad with an insane soundfile, but there is plenty of action with sounds from all four speakers at various times.

I was quite disappointed with the quad Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn in comparison (also SQ in Boxed), they're much less active mixes.

The Tubular Bells SACD inlay book has a lot of information about how the quad mix was done, far more than I've seen for any other release. There's a centre channel in the DSD stream my Oppo reports 5.0, but there's no audio in it so don't worry about that.

Note the CD must be from the box set Mike Oldfield Boxed which is SQ encoded and says its in quad. The individual CD is not the same mix and is not in quad.

 

[Owen Smith]

Duplicate post deleted.