UD-4 Tubular Bells on eBay!! UD-4!!

[JonUrban]

cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI...=865171473

I have never seen a UD-4 LP on eBay (except Quadraphile). Too bad it's scratched. It's interesting that they used the same border graphic as the CD-4, only changed the C to a U.

:-jon

 

[bmoura]

I didn't realize Tubular Bells was also out in UD-4. Hmm, does anyone own a UD-4 decoder ?

 

[The Quadfather]

Nah, I think that system was sold only in Japan. It's a weird setup, combining the principles of CD-4 for the lower frequencies, and QS for the higher frequencies. The idea was to get the separation of CD-4 without the need for a special stylus and cart, and also to reduce the sensitivity of CD-4 to tracking error. It would probably work on a CD-4 demodulator, but you wiould only get separation at the lower frequencies. Or play it through a QS decoder, and only get quad at the higher frequencies. It was probably better than QS, but not as good as a well adjusted CD-4 setup. It never caught on.

The Quadfather

 

[JonUrban]

Wow! I never realized that. It's part discrete, part matrix! Very interesting. I never tried to "decode" the 4th side of Quadrafile. Maybe I will, if I ever get my QRX-999 back!

Thanks for the info, QF!

:-jon

 

[The Quadfather]

Yeah, it's an interesting system. It's discrete or matrix, depending on the frequency of the sound. From what I understood, QS was the matrix part. I wonder if they used Variomatrix circuitry in their decoders? The system was championed by one of the lesser known Japanese brands, though I don't recall which one. It is possible that such a decoder, having both types of circuitry, could have been built as a UD-4, CD-4, and QS multifunction decoder. Aw, what the heck, throw in SQ also. I don't know if anyone ever did this, but it would have been a good idea.

The Quadfather

 

[bmoura]

As I recall, UD-4 was developed by a guy named Dr. Duane Cooper in the midwest. Some discs were issued in the UD-4 format in Japan by Nippon Columbia (aka Denon).

The matrix used was similar to the "RM" or "Regular Matrix" system. So a QS matrix decoder might be helpful on the matrix portion of these discs.