Pioneer SP-101 Synthesized Surround Processor

[Fourplay]

Here is a brochure I have been meaning to scan and post:

The device comes with your own fake human!

 

[Soundfield]

Here is a brochure I have been meaning to scan and post:

The device comes with your own fake human!View attachment 75319View attachment 75320View attachment 75321View attachment 75322View attachment 75323

Is the rendering of the child an indication of how lifelike you can expect Pioneer's contraption to sound?

 

[kfbkfb]

Note the careful avoidance of the word - Dolby

IIRC, in the early 1980s, Sony (and a few other mfrs.) also made external surround sound decoders that didn't use the Dolby MP/DS decoding system.


Kirk Bayne

 

[gene_stl]

I remember being fascinated by various reverb processors and hall simulators. But like quad I never heard one neither in a store nor at some stereo friends set up and I wasn't quite fascinated enough to buy a second stereo amp and pair of speakers to try them out. Yamaha had some interesting ones too.

 

[Soundfield]

I remember being fascinated by various reverb processors and hall simulators. But like quad I never heard one neither in a store nor at some stereo friends set up and I wasn't quite fascinated enough to buy a second stereo amp and pair of speakers to try them out. Yamaha had some interesting ones too.

I fell for the advertising of one of Yamaha’s “Soundfield Processors” once. It promised to be able to recreate the environment of various theatres and concert venues around the world thanks to detailed on location analysis of the acoustics of those venues and embedding them in their processing algorithms. I don’t know why they bothered. It sounded spectacularly awful. In reality, despite all the fancy selections it offered, in practice it was only capable of producing two types of sound - constricted and muffled or phasey and echoey. It was far less realistic than a simple Hafler connection and hundreds of times more expensive! One of the worst things I ever bought (and that’s saying something)!

 

[Soundfield]

I fell for the advertising of one of Yamaha’s “Soundfield Processors” once.

I tried to erase all memory of it but I think this was the thing..

 

[gene_stl]

Thank you for sharing that. Now that you mention it, what you were interested in, is exactly what fascinated me about it.
There also were some bucket brigade devices, you could build for somewhat less money, that were also interesting. But having played with guitar amps I guess on some deep level I figured it was just modern reverb. I do remember the bit about characterizing various halls in algorithms, too. I suppose it's nice to know I didn't actually miss anything. Sometimes he who hesitates made the right decision. I am still tempted to play with them.