Young quadraphiles?

[TopTip]

Not knowing ages of members, I cannot tell if younger people know about 1970s quadraphonic systems...

This weekend I set up some powered speakers for my 20-year old son’s computer station. He then said, dad how can I have music all around?

That gave me an idea. We plugged in a Sansui QSD-2 decoder I was not using, ran line level cables and set up a powered modern-day “stereo boombox” as back channels.

He was blown away. He spent an entire Sunday — and since — revisiting his fave albums (from Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eric Johnson, Handel, Bach, Pink Floyd, Men I Trust, Muse...) and trying out the Sansui’s “Hall, QS and SQ” settings.

I have to say, realistic or not, the sound is gorgeous.

I gave him articles on how matrix systems work (he is a math major) and he seems very intrigued by the whole concept.

 

[furui_suterioo]

Cool parent!

 

[LuvMyQuad]

My son is 25. I gifted him a surround system a couple of years ago. He listens to it all the time.

 

[Sonik Wiz]

Not knowing ages of members, I cannot tell if younger people know about 1970s quadraphonic systems...

This weekend I set up some powered speakers for my 20-year old son’s computer station. He then said, dad how can I have music all around?

That gave me an idea. We plugged in a Sansui QSD-2 decoder I was not using, ran line level cables and set up a powered modern-day “stereo boombox” as back channels.

He was blown away. He spent an entire Sunday — and since — revisiting his fave albums (from Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eric Johnson, Handel, Bach, Pink Floyd, Men I Trust, Muse...) and trying out the Sansui’s “Hall, QS and SQ” settings.

I have to say, realistic or not, the sound is gorgeous.

I gave him articles on how matrix systems work (he is a math major) and he seems very intrigued by the whole concept.

I am of the opinion that a true surround sound fan can not be nurtured, only discovered. That's what you've done and so close to home!

It's easy to tell the younger newbies around here because of the questions they ask. For us oldies it was much easier to learn about audio, quad, & surround over the years as it developed. With the vast amount of archival information now available think how over whelming it must be for a new comer!

I expect your son will want something better than PC work station & boom box rears. Quite interested to hear about his audio evolution to come. Perhaps he should look into QQ!

 

[Doug G.]

Excellent! I agree with Sonik Wiz that a surround sound fanatic is merely undiscovered and once exposed, needs NO encouragement.

When I first heard of the original quad and first heard it, nobody needed to drag me into it with promises of "you can still play your two channel records" or that the systems were fully compatible or any of that nonsense. I was THERE!

Doug

 

[mkt]

As a older person, recent surround sounder,

 

[TopTip]

I am of the opinion that a true surround sound fan can not be nurtured, only discovered. That's what you've done and so close to home!

I expect your son will want something better than PC work station & boom box rears. Quite interested to hear about his audio evolution to come. Perhaps he should look into QQ!

This is very true. In fact child psychology is such that them seeing and wanting something of yours is infinitely easier than trying to get them interested in it, which, I have concluded, is a losing battle.

This all started as I was listening to a pair of 70s tri-amplified speakers with electronic crossovers which I repaired over the last year. (European mass market giants Grundig and Philips actually produced a plethora of such speakers, some superb, before the Far Eastern sledgehammer wiped them out.)

He heard them and it was an instant love affair.

 

[winopener]

This all started as I was listening to a pair of 70s tri-amplified speakers with electronic crossovers which I repaired over the last year. (European mass market giants Grundig and Philips actually produced a plethora of such speakers, some superb, before the Far Eastern sledgehammer wiped them out.)

I'm well aware of the Philips ones but Grundig amplified speakers are new to me. Any pointer to know more about these?

 

[humprof]

As a older person, recent surround sounder,

Love Lindberg's work. Thanks for posting the link. What a studio! The pictures are audiophile-porn, and the video is amazing (and also available on YouTube):

 

[DuncanS]

As a older person, recent surround sounder,

I wonder how much the acoustically treated room cost to have designed and built, it probably exceeded the cost of the kit! I'll buy a lottery ticket

 

[doity]

I am glad to learn that this is some kind of mixing studio and not a listening room. I got visions of a lonely audiophile sitting in the center of a giant room and controlling everything by computer like some kind of wizard. I want his job!

 

[c60]

I was born in February 1996. I think it was an older neighbor who first told me of quad, but I remember grabbing 2 pairs of crummy PC speakers, placing them as best I could due to their short cables, setting up the PC to play 4.0, and putting on Money by Pink Floyd. I was immediately blown away. Not knowing much, I soon went out and bought a used all in one 5.1 system by LG (mainly because it was also a DVD-A player), and the rest is history. That was a little over 6 years ago

 

[Sonik Wiz]

I was born in February 1996. I think it was an older neighbor who first told me of quad, but I remember grabbing 2 pairs of crummy PC speakers, placing them as best I could due to their short cables, setting up the PC to play 4.0, and putting on Money by Pink Floyd. I was immediately blown away. Not knowing much, I soon went out and bought a used all in one 5.1 system by LG (mainly because it was also a DVD-A player), and the rest is history. That was a little over 6 years ago

Welcome aboard & pleased to meet you c60!
Well you got started in a great way with PF for your virgin voyage into surround sound! Mine was Switched On Bach, stereo, with nothing more than a third speaker in the rear, hooked up to play the difference signal.

Hop on over to the New Member Introductions thread if you want and tell us a little more about yourself.

 

[JonUrban]

It's hard to find people of any age these days that seem to care about music, or maybe I should say, fidelity. I know it's cliche to say "Everyone just listens to their phones", but that's what they do now.

I had a friend who's about 45 in the car. He was in the back seat with his wife, and my wife and I were in the front. We had to wait until we got a call to go into a restaurant because that's how it works when you have a reservation in the COVID Northeast. Anyway, the guy is a HUGE Who fan, been to tons of concerts, met Pete Townsend at a meet and greet, the whole deal.

I figured I would freak him out and play the last track off of Quadrophenia, which is on my USB Drive in the car. I told him that Pete himself did this surround mix.

If you know the track, it starts off really quiet and has a really spacious intro. So I turned it up, not "Jon loud", but a little loud, thinking he would freak out over it.

Nope. My wife said something to him and he said "I'm sorry. I can't hear you. It's too loud".

Oh well. Shot down in mid-demo. He didn't give a rats-ass about the mix or the sounds

 

[4-earredwonder]

It's hard to find people of any age these days that seem to care about music, or maybe I should say, fidelity. I know it's cliche to say "Everyone just listens to their phones", but that's what they do now.

I had a friend who's about 45 in the car. He was in the back seat with his wife, and my wife and I were in the front. We had to wait until we got a call to go into a restaurant because that's how it works when you have a reservation in the COVID Northeast. Anyway, the guy is a HUGE Who fan, been to tons of concerts, met Pete Townsend at a meet and greet, the whole deal.

I figured I would freak him out and play the last track off of Quadrophenia, which is on my USB Drive in the car. I told him that Pete himself did this surround mix.

If you know the track, it starts off really quiet and has a really spacious intro. So I turned it up, not "Jon loud", but a little loud, thinking he would freak out over it.

Nope. My wife said something to him and he said "I'm sorry. I can't hear you. It's too loud".

Oh well. Shot down in mid-demo. He didn't give a rats-ass about the mix or the sounds

Need I ask: WHO PICKED UP THE DINNER CHECK?

 

[Sonik Wiz]

Need I ask: WHO PICKED UP THE DINNER CHECK?

They split it four ways....

 

[TopTip]

I'm well aware of the Philips ones but Grundig amplified speakers are new to me. Any pointer to know more about these?

Philips’s MFB speakers were special — they used piezzo accelerometers in the woofers to provide actual feedback to amps, to correct bass distortion. I have two pairs of the smaller and one of the larger versions and I would not exchange them for anything. But they will never go very loud as the woofer does not benefit from a (Helmholtz) resonator, presumably for even more accuracy.

Grundig produced two series, I believe. The first ones were called ActivBoxen 20 through 50. These have three (20 & 30) or four (40 & 50) power amps with their independent crossovers. All amps are identical, modular and substitutable. Each crossover can be independently adjusted. So, unlike the innovative Philips, they were conventional but very flexible. (My first pair had blown mids and tweeters. Rather than getting original units, I installed similar size but modern Vifa drivers. The electronic crossovers make level matching very convenient.) They can also go extremely loud.

The latter series (with three digit model numbers) have thin wall plastic enclosures and electronics are on a single PCB, losing much flexibility. I have one pair and do not recommend them. Writing was on the wall.

 

[JonUrban]

Need I ask: WHO PICKED UP THE DINNER CHECK?

Need you ask? lol

 

[doity]

It's hard to find people of any age these days that seem to care about music, or maybe I should say, fidelity. I know it's cliche to say "Everyone just listens to their phones", but that's what they do now.

I had a friend who's about 45 in the car. He was in the back seat with his wife, and my wife and I were in the front. We had to wait until we got a call to go into a restaurant because that's how it works when you have a reservation in the COVID Northeast. Anyway, the guy is a HUGE Who fan, been to tons of concerts, met Pete Townsend at a meet and greet, the whole deal.

I figured I would freak him out and play the last track off of Quadrophenia, which is on my USB Drive in the car. I told him that Pete himself did this surround mix.

If you know the track, it starts off really quiet and has a really spacious intro. So I turned it up, not "Jon loud", but a little loud, thinking he would freak out over it.

Nope. My wife said something to him and he said "I'm sorry. I can't hear you. It's too loud".

Oh well. Shot down in mid-demo. He didn't give a rats-ass about the mix or the sounds

What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate. Some men you just can’t reach.

 

[doity]

Oops, I posted this in wrong thread.