Commercial Matrix Quadraphonic Cassettes?

[fizzywiggs41]

Thanks for sharing this letter. I have (somewhere) classical issued CBS Cassettes that had the double ring on them just as the Quad Album had. Also, the Reel to Reel issues of Quad Albums I have obviously was the same recording. On the "Introduction to Quadraphonic Sound" the narrator talks about Quadraphonic tapes.

You may be thinking about the Angel double circle .

I believe Columbia Records had no indication on their cassettes.

I did find six Masterworks SQ S.I. on an lp stuffer . One was "Three Penny Opera".

 

[fizzywiggs41]

The six Columbia Masterworks tapes in SQ quad Single Inventory. (Diamond/Club)



◆

 

[kfbkfb]

I have 1 Dolby Surround encoded prerecorded cassette:

TOP HAT Henry Mancini 1992
RCA Victor/BMG 09026 60795-4

DAAD and Dolby S NR HX PRO

and

"This program has been produced with the
DOLBY SURROUND encoding system and is
fully compatible with both stereo and
monaural equipment."


IIRC, Dolby S was designed to be partially compatible with Dolby B decoding, I haven't tried this cassette yet with my DPL system (my cassette deck only has Dolby B).

Interesting that they say that DS encoding is compatible with mono (the surround info is lost)


Kirk Bayne

 

[fizzywiggs41]

I have a few RCA Dolby surround , and one Telarc Shure HTS .


But............

I have a number of quad matrix cassettes.

A few Angel SQ and Vox QS .
One SQ on BASF , the Fosgate SQ demo tape , ..........................................................................and some I encoded from CD-4 in both SQ and RM. (Also from Q8)

Also one in EV-4 from Radio Shack.

 

[MidiMagic]

I have several cassettes and CDs that say they are encoded in quad (mostly QS or DS).

Note that a head azimuth error would affect SQ twice as much as it would affect RM systems because of the more complex phase requirements.

 

[BrentAudi]

You may be thinking about the Angel double circle .

I believe Columbia Records had no indication on their cassettes.

I did find six Masterworks SQ S.I. on an lp stuffer . One was "Three Penny Opera".

You are correct, they were the Angel Classical Cassettes and not Columbia.

 

[BrentAudi]

The six Columbia Masterworks tapes in SQ quad Single Inventory. (Diamond/Club)



◆

View attachment 65900View attachment 65901

Great Scans! Brings back a lot of memories. Thanks

 

[jaybird100]

Thanks for sharing this letter. I have (somewhere) classical issued CBS Cassettes that had the double ring on them just as the Quad Album had. Also, the Reel to Reel issues of Quad Albums I have obviously was the same recording. On the "Introduction to Quadraphonic Sound" the narrator talks about Quadraphonic tapes.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

What I find surprising is that even with azimuth / head alignment issues, quite a few Record Companies issued cassettes that were indicated as quad encoded.
Mind you , cassettes were a major music medium in the 70's and 80's and some were very high quality.


So we have Labels such as:

VOX (USA)-QS
BASF (Germany)-SQ
Radio Shack (USA)-EV-4
Sofrason(French Decca)-QS
Peters International (USA)-(Sofrason)-QS
Creative World(USA)-SQ
Connoisseur Society (USA)-SQ
Acanta (Germany)-SQ
PDU /EMI (Italy)-SQ
PYE (UK)-QS
Sanyo (Japan)-QS
Bellaphon Baccilus (Germany)-SQ
Eurodisc (Germany)-SQ
PYE (Canada)-QS
Angel (USA/Canada)-SQ

These I know of but there were probably many others.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

Great Scans! Brings back a lot of memories. Thanks

Your Welcome.

 

[kfbkfb]

Did record companies (other then CBS/Columbia) releasing Matrix Quad encoded compact cassettes have any advisories about proper alignment of the cassette player (azimuth, Dolby tracking etc.)?

I have the Angel XDR demo cassette, it may be Quad encoded, but, IIRC, Angel records was allegedly using severe limiting to get high levels on their prerecorded cassettes.

Does the limiting disrupt Matrix Quad decoding?


Kirk Bayne

 

[fizzywiggs41]

I'm no expert on those Angel SQ cassettes , but I would think the encode/decode should be somewhat better than most ......what, with them using expanded dynamic range. (XDR)


Also Pink Floyd's -Dark Side Of The Moon (SQ) on Mobile Fidelity is considered high end for a cassette. Not sure what process they used , but reduced speed Copying comes to mind.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

It should be noted that there were cassettes encoded but not marked as such.

Ovation (USA)-QS
Black Jazz (USA)-QS

and two I missed that were are;

Sure (USA)-SQ
Syntonic Research (USA)-DY


Also I have two that mention quad encoding in the liner notes ;

The Beach Boys -Surf's Up (DY) Epic/Brother (USA)
[ although indicated encoded , Stephen Desper, the engineer, states not Quad encoded]

Ned Lagin -Seastones (QS) RYKO (USA)
[it should be noted the original vinyl stated SQ quad]




pic Black Jazz

 

[doity]

I'm no expert on those Angel SQ cassettes , but I would think the encode/decode should be somewhat better than most ......what, with them using expanded dynamic range. (XDR)


Also Pink Floyd's -Dark Side Of The Moon (SQ) on Mobile Fidelity is considered high end for a cassette. Not sure what process they used , but reduced speed Copying comes to mind.

Being somewhat curious, and after finally getting around to using my newly serviced Tate Tetrasound, I have sought out some of the SQ cassettes to try out. The BASF ones seem harder to find so I looked at the offerings from Angel. I found a nice ‘Four Seasons’ by the London Philharmonic on XDR cassette with the double circle logo, which is supposed to denote that it is in SQ.

Not expecting too much as I have read that azimuth issues might get in the way of properly decoding, but I have a deck that automatically corrects for azimuth differences so that shouldn’t be an issue. Not the Dragon, but a Marantz deck. I ‘think’ that only two decks ever did this, but there are a couple with manual adjustment that seem to work well. Will give a report back on the results.

 

[doity]

The handwritten letter , fr/ Mr Joseph Dash.

Wow. Straight from the horses mouth if you will. This makes perfect sense because why would they make two separate master tapes, one for the LP and one for cassette, if the cassette end user wouldn’t notice the difference anyway?

That is cool that you have hung on to that letter for so long. It is now an historical document in a way.

 

[BrentAudi]

Being somewhat curious, and after finally getting around to using my newly serviced Tate Tetrasound, I have sought out some of the SQ cassettes to try out. The BASF ones seem harder to find so I looked at the offerings from Angel. I found a nice ‘Four Seasons’ by the London Philharmonic on XDR cassette with the double circle logo, which is supposed to denote that it is in SQ.

Not expecting too much as I have read that azimuth issues might get in the way of properly decoding, but I have a deck that automatically corrects for azimuth differences so that shouldn’t be an issue. Not the Dragon, but a Marantz deck. I ‘think’ that only two decks ever did this, but there are a couple with manual adjustment that seem to work well. Will give a report back on the results.

Look forward to your thoughts.

I need to start looking at Pre-Recorded Cassettes more closely at thrift stores.

 

[doity]

Look forward to your thoughts.

I need to start looking at Pre-Recorded Cassettes more closely at thrift stores.

I will try to do an A/B comparison between the deck with Azimuth correction and one without to see if it makes much of a difference. Maybe I could even try to record the back channels on each for a better determination, instead of just listening to them back to back which really is not a great method anyway.

 

[Mr. Afternoon]

But what about DPLII cassettes? I hope I'm not going to be the only person who would have released one by 2022.

 

[jaybird100]

Being somewhat curious, and after finally getting around to using my newly serviced Tate Tetrasound, I have sought out some of the SQ cassettes to try out. The BASF ones seem harder to find so I looked at the offerings from Angel. I found a nice ‘Four Seasons’ by the London Philharmonic on XDR cassette with the double circle logo, which is supposed to denote that it is in SQ.

Not expecting too much as I have read that azimuth issues might get in the way of properly decoding, but I have a deck that automatically corrects for azimuth differences so that shouldn’t be an issue. Not the Dragon, but a Marantz deck. I ‘think’ that only two decks ever did this, but there are a couple with manual adjustment that seem to work well. Will give a report back on the results.

There could also be phase problems that could mess up the matrix decoding. Some decks may be better able to address this issue, but not all can. The phase distortion would affect the decoder's ability to accurately process the encoded signal.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

FWIW

Sony had a cassette deck that promoted matrix recording and playback for matrix encoded cassettes.(Symphase)

And I believe IIRC , some Nakamichi decks may have been excellent for head azimuth alignment.