What's the Latest MATRIX LP/CD Added to Your Pile? SQ, QS, RM, EV

[fizzywiggs41]

Stills - Stephen Stills (SQ LP).

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Say F.B.


You don't have the DTS CD??

 

[fizzywiggs41]

Paul Horn Concert Ensemble

Ovation's EV-4 and the later QS editions

 

[fredblue]

Careful Phillip! You may turn FredBlue into a tracker! Then we won't have any hope of finding any quad online. At least not til he finds it first. I admit to being fascinated by the differences in LP decoding and 8-track discrete quad. They are not always the same mix and the tape sometimes holds up better than a matrix or CD4 disc.

Haha.. I'm already a tracker! Stereo only though.. Q8's hard to come by here in the UK, if Quad was a flop in this country then Q8 was a non-starter.. I have thought about Q8 over the years and have recently toyed with the idea all over again.. once I'm done with SQ and QS it'll be a toss up probably, do I go Q8 or throw myself feet first into CD-4.. either way it'll be a total nightmare but.. you only live once!

Vis a vis matrix and discrete mix differences, I haven't done any comparisons yet but I do have discrete versions of pretty much every SQ album I've bought this year so I'll be right onto that in the fulness of time.. so much surround so little time..!! :banana:

 

[fredblue]

Paul Horn Concert Ensemble

Ovation's EV-4 and the later QS editions


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Horny!! :banana:

 

[fredblue]

Say F.B.


You don't have the DTS CD??

Umm.. Yes!

 

[fredblue]

That is a good one. I have the SQ and Q8 but never was able to decode the SQ properly. Diamond eyes and Chainsaw are also two of my favorite songs but my favorite is Modern Love. It's too short though. Fades out much too quick, just when they really start to get into it. The Q8 really knocks my socks off on that song.

Oh yes! Most of the album is great, it seems a shame that it got rather overlooked back in the day. Once i've got the multichannel audio interface installed I will post up pics of the four individual stems and somehow put up short clips (or links to little snippety clips!) of these SQ LPs decoded by the Surround Master so that QQers who haven't gone for the Involve SQ unit yet can see & hear what the wonderful little machine can do with these old records!

 

[Circular Vibes]

Haha.. I'm already a tracker! Stereo only though.. Q8's hard to come by here in the UK, if Quad was a flop in this country then Q8 was a non-starter.. I have thought about Q8 over the years and have recently toyed with the idea all over again.. once I'm done with SQ and QS it'll be a toss up probably, do I go Q8 or throw myself feet first into CD-4.. either way it'll be a total nightmare but.. you only live once!

Vis a vis matrix and discrete mix differences, I haven't done any comparisons yet but I do have discrete versions of pretty much every SQ album I've bought this year so I'll be right onto that in the fulness of time.. so much surround so little time..!! :banana:

Hey Fred, there were Q8's in the UK and some of the most desirable, like Pink Floyd. I also got a few of my best deals from the UK on ePay from a store that didn't know what to do with the tapes. I had to buy a sacrificial stereo cart for a rubber wheel and make a few new foil splices, but nothing dramatic. Deals can be had, but overseas shipping for carts can be cost prohibitive. I would be more worried about finding a machine over there than finding tapes. Only a couple North American models had a voltage selector, and a few more from Japan could be easily modified as they were compatible with 50 cycle mains frequency.

 

[fredblue]

Hey Fred, there were Q8's in the UK and some of the most desirable, like Pink Floyd. I also got a few of my best deals from the UK on ePay from a store that didn't know what to do with the tapes. I had to buy a sacrificial stereo cart for a rubber wheel and make a few new foil splices, but nothing dramatic. Deals can be had, but overseas shipping for carts can be cost prohibitive. I would be more worried about finding a machine over there than finding tapes. Only a couple North American models had a voltage selector, and a few more from Japan could be easily modified as they were compatible with 50 cycle mains frequency.

Ideally I'd get an Akai Q8 machine to match my stereo 8-track player (it's a well used but still going strong CR-81-D that works no problem in 50hz) the Q8 equivalent Akai players do come up here on eBay every so often.. the carts not so much.. and when they do you're generally talking £20 + a cart, sellers tend to know what they have got when its a Quad cartridge and for that kind of money I could get a couple of SQ LPs, sometimes 3 or 4 LPs for £20 (so long as they're not from the States where shipping has cost me almost £20 for one LP..!!!) the Q8 thing is like the CD-4 thing for me right now a bit of extra mindmeld and financial drain I could do without at the moment but "next year".. who knows..!!

 

[bigbillquad]

Hi. All
More of the good surround stuff.
( CBS. SQ Johnny Hathis Song Sung Blue )-
( CBS. SQ Johnny Hathis You Got aFriend )-
( CBS. SQ Johnny Hathis Love Story )-
( CBS. Ray Steven`s Greatest Hits )-
( CBS. SQ Switched-On Bach )-
( CBS. SQ Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1 )-
( EMI. SQ The Orchestral Music of Debussy Album 3 )-
( Sanyo. QS OTTO 4 Channrl 45`)-
(CBS. SQ Simon & Garfunkel 45`s )-
( Diatone. QS 4 Channel Sound 45`s )-
( EMI. SQ Heart-Dream Boat Annie ).
Bill...

 

[fredblue]

Thrust - Herbie Hancock (SQ LP).

 

[The Bushmaster]

Johnny Hathis? (??)

 

[fredblue]

Johnny Hathis? (??)

I prefer Sandy Billiams myself...

 

[fredblue]

Ok.. so I've no idea exactly where to ask this question.. but it seems this thread is as good as any to get the attentions of QQ's matrix Quad aficionados.. so here goes..

Has anyone here ever encountered a lack of phantom centre imaging across the front pair when decoding SQ and QS records?

I only ask as now I'm really dissecting these matrix encoded discs and comparing them to their discrete counterparts I'm noticing a distinct lack of cohesion in this regard (i.e. the DTS CDs, Q8s, Surround SACDs etc have rock solid locked in phantom centre imaging on things like lead vocals but on these matrix discs its not always the case).

Its odd because corner placement, ping-ponging, round the room pans and so on are all executed brilliantly thru the Surround Master but lead vocals that image in the centre in the discrete mixes often lop off to one side, almost always skewed to the left front channel in the SQ matrixed versions.

Thanks in advance(s) :upthumb

 

[fredblue]

Thrust - Herbie Hancock (SQ LP).

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Ohhh... This is soooooooo nice...

Is Herbie Hancock beyond the realms of Audio Fidelity's Surround SACD remit at this point?
This one would soar on the format, I imagine..

 

[TimK]

Since it was a single inventory release, I figured the half-speed master of ANNIE was SQ, like the original. It's not stated anywhere on the disk or the sleeve. It is SQ and the clarity is amazing.

 

[Philip Spinner]

Ok.. so I've no idea exactly where to ask this question.. but it seems this thread is as good as any to get the attentions of QQ's matrix Quad aficionados.. so here goes..

Has anyone here ever encountered a lack of phantom centre imaging across the front pair when decoding SQ and QS records?

I only ask as now I'm really dissecting these matrix encoded discs and comparing them to their discrete counterparts I'm noticing a distinct lack of cohesion in this regard (i.e. the DTS CDs, Q8s, Surround SACDs etc have rock solid locked in phantom centre imaging on things like lead vocals but on these matrix discs its not always the case).

Its odd because corner placement, ping-ponging, round the room pans and so on are all executed brilliantly thru the Surround Master but lead vocals that image in the centre in the discrete mixes often lop off to one side, almost always skewed to the left front channel in the SQ matrixed versions.

Thanks in advance(s) :upthumb

I still don't have the new Surround Master with the new SQ vinyl option so I have nothing to add there but I run the front channels of all my quad tapes through the original Surround Master for the center and sub and it does a great job. Vocals on many titles clearly in center. So I'm hearing the 4 discrete corner channels plus center from SM as well as sub. Sounds great and really fills up the front sound stage.

 

[inquadwetrust]

Ok.. so I've no idea exactly where to ask this question.. but it seems this thread is as good as any to get the attentions of QQ's matrix Quad aficionados.. so here goes..

Has anyone here ever encountered a lack of phantom centre imaging across the front pair when decoding SQ and QS records?

I only ask as now I'm really dissecting these matrix encoded discs and comparing them to their discrete counterparts I'm noticing a distinct lack of cohesion in this regard (i.e. the DTS CDs, Q8s, Surround SACDs etc have rock solid locked in phantom centre imaging on things like lead vocals but on these matrix discs its not always the case).

Its odd because corner placement, ping-ponging, round the room pans and so on are all executed brilliantly thru the Surround Master but lead vocals that image in the centre in the discrete mixes often lop off to one side, almost always skewed to the left front channel in the SQ matrixed versions.

Thanks in advance(s) :upthumb

You could experiment with your toe-ing in of the L/R - I recently upgraded to Martin Logan speakers and I had to set up almost all over again. I found that the center imaging for SQ/QS material is better defined and more cohesive in front with some adjustment to the angles used. Are you bi-wired up front? I also changed my previous set up as the Martin Logan speakers have active capabilities for bi-wiring so in the first set up it was less defined as the active part of the speaker was futzing with the signals they were getting after the amp had provided bi-amped outs. One other thing that also, at least for my ears, has an impact on the sound field is using room correction. I have everything turned off , wherever i can turn it off. The amplifier has a pure mode and I find that the best, to my ears at least it provides a more stable, detailed and cohesive image. I just turn it up more with that mode!

 

[inquadwetrust]

Hi. All
More of the good surround stuff.
( CBS. SQ Johnny Hathis Song Sung Blue )-
( CBS. SQ Johnny Hathis You Got aFriend )-
( CBS. SQ Johnny Hathis Love Story )-
( CBS. Ray Steven`s Greatest Hits )-
( CBS. SQ Switched-On Bach )-
( CBS. SQ Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1 )-
( EMI. SQ The Orchestral Music of Debussy Album 3 )-
( Sanyo. QS OTTO 4 Channrl 45`)-
(CBS. SQ Simon & Garfunkel 45`s )-
( Diatone. QS 4 Channel Sound 45`s )-
( EMI. SQ Heart-Dream Boat Annie ).
Bill...

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What? Heart was released in SQ? I need this in my life! Is this really true?

 

[inquadwetrust]

I just checked - the record label number starts with SQ - but I think this is not SQ. My Nautilus half speed version sounds amazing in QS mode on the Surround Master though.

 

[DuncanS]

I just checked - the record label number starts with SQ - but I think this is not SQ. My Nautilus half speed version sounds amazing in QS mode on the Surround Master though.

Heart's "Dreamboat Annie" was one listed but never released on DVD-A, its not down as a Quad release on http://www.surrounddiscography.com/quaddisc/quadpall.htm#H

It would be nice to have in surround, a great album.