EXPLAINED: Quadraphonic Vinyl Records! 

🔽 Great Quadraphonic Sites 🔽 bit.ly/QuadraphonicQuad bit.ly/4ChannelSound

I can only imagine how amazing Floyd and Sabbath sound in quad.

Song of the day: When we was Fab - George Harrison

I think the real reason why quadrophonic didn't make it was because they were six competing formats. That overcrowded the market. If qs would have survived somehow I think quadrophonic would have been a thing for much longer. And I think qs could make a comeback.

Song of the day I'm only sleeping - The beatles

Side note: not every record groove goes from outside to inside. In fact, right behind you, hanging on the wall is "Lazaretto" which actually have a-side going from inside to outside (BTW this record got some pretty interesting trivia on technical side).

I specifically collect Quadraphonic gear and software. I have well over 650 Quad 8-tracks, many Quad Reels and roughly 100 Quad LP's. I only collect the good stuff: pop, rock, soul, country, big band.... no classical longhair stuff for me! I've roughly 80 Quadradiscs, maybe a dozen or so that came only from Japan. It took me a few years of on again, off again experimenting with CD-4 to get it working correctly, but thankfully now I can just put a record on and enjoy it. CD-4 is by far the best Quad LP format. UD-4 (sometimes referred to as UHJ) hardly had any albums released in that format. I think there's less than 12 and were mostly or only sold in Japan. QS is probably my next favorite format. It gives a good presentation and, when compared to it's discrete tape counterpart; you can pretty much say that the QS system does a half-decent job of trying to replicate what the discrete tape sounds like. QS can definitely separate the four channels, but one thing it has issue with is panning effects. The way the matrix is written, it will cancel itself if it tries to move a sound from one speaker to another. It's great at ping-pong Quad, where a sound will POP out of one speaker, but a smooth transition will cancel out at a certain point. SQ is my least favorite - - and I have a Tate 101a! I used to question whether or not an album that was available in SQ and discrete tape had the same mixdown session because they do not sound alike at all. And I was right!! Some SQ discs have completely different mixes because the SQ system is so limited on what it can do, they made more discrete mixes on tape to compensate. SQ was designed to even be MONO compatible (don't ask me why!) which I think hurt the matrix even more. Because of this, for most of SQ's life, the mixing handbook explicitly stated DO NOT MIX ANY SOUND SOURCE IN THE CENTER BACK POSITION. If played in mono, that position is 180 degrees out of phase to the front channels and will cancel itself out entirely. SQ can only do four-corner Quad if something is panning or ping-ponging around the room. Generally, when a song is playing and there's a lot going on, the matrix collapses and you get more of a "Super Stereo" than anything. The only way I can describe it is like You get a Front Left and Front Right, but instead of Back channels, you get more of a Side Left and Side Right. Suffice to say, SQ was never able to impress me and I have the fewest SQ discs in my collection. Some folks have managed to write computer programs that get the most out of SQ, but every one I've heard has weird artifacts and distortions that annoy me. Sure, they get the separation they were after, but almost at the cost of ruining the music.

Song of the day: Bridge over troubled water by Simon and Garfunkel.

Song of the day : Isn't it a pity - George Harrison

I’m so happy you were able to use the “Company” quad LP I sent you last year!!

song of the day ob-la-di, ob-la-da - the beatles

Here's a little known fact: Dolby Pro Logic II is actually accidentally backwards compatible with the Electro-Voice EV-4 (Or Stereo-4) and the Sansui QS Regular Matrix (RM) standard (EV-4 is based on RM). One of the best examples you can try out is Enoch Light's Spaced Out album, or any record from Project 3 records. vwestlife pointed this out on one of this videos years ago.

*never burned a pizza* "Right. And I have a girlfriend..." Song of the day: Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft - Klaatu

I'm a big fan of quadraphonic records / sound. I've collected quite a few quadraphonic records over the years and I have a 70s receiver made by Trio (Kenwood) that has a SQ, QS and CD-4 decoders / demodulators built in. Unfortunately the SQ and QS decoders of the era just weren't fit for purpose and lacked good channel separation, however I have a modern SQ and QS decoder made by Involve Audio that gives extremely good channel separation that gives near discrete levels of channel separation. The biggest achievement you can obtain when collecting quadraphonic records is getting a CD-4 demodulator to actually work due to needing a compatible cartridge and stylus that is perfectly aligned to track the high frequency subcarrier signal in the grooves. I think its really cool that major albums of the early 70s like Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon and Mike Oldfeild's Tubular Bells were intended for quadraphonic reproduction but its the Stereo mixes that inevitably became the ones that people came to know and love. Thankfully some quadraphonic recordings of the time are available to listen to digitally via downloads or physical media such as SACD, DVD-A, DVD and Blu Ray Audio

Song of the day: When the levee breaks - Led Zeppelin

I remember hearing Chicago's wishing you were here in quadraphonic in the 70's ,the song begins with ocean waves and in quad it sounded as if you were standing in the water about say 10 feet from the shore line, you could hear the waves coming at you on the front speakers then pass you and then breaking on the shoreline on the rear speakers behind you. Also each instrument came out of it's own speaker ,cool stuff.

There is an anecdote about 5.1 "surround sound" that I love to tell. 5.1 for all intents and purposes was "invented" by Brad Miller. Brad Miller was a major proponent of Quad sound back in the 1970's and was the man behind The Mystic Moods orchestra, Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs and a number of Railroad and Rainstorm sound effect records. In the 80's when he was the main man at Digital Theatre Systems (DTS) he figured that was a good opportunity to bring back Quadraphonic sound, since now it could be done digitally, on CD without much fuss. When he approached several Record Companies with the idea, they all squirmed and balked at the idea claiming to not want a repeat of the "failure" of Quad in the 70's. Brad, being the shrewd negotiator that he was, instead devised a 6-channel system recalling the early 60's 3-channel stereo ideology and summing bass to a subwoofer since, some claim, that low frequency bass sounds are omni-directional. Thus, he begat 5.1 which the record companies completely ate up as the newest, next big thing to come in the audio world. The joke was on them however, since the first releases to come from DTS were digital versions of older, Quadraphonic albums merely with a faked center and subwoofer channel. Also, the compact disc was originally imagined with a 4-channel mode, however it was never explored beyond it's original idea and no CD-player was ever equipped thusly. It's also unknown how the CD would have allowed for more than 2 channels of audio. Some speculate that the disc would either rotate slower, thus, halving it's play time OR the sampling would be downgraded to 22khz and the number of channels doubled.

I just happened to accidentally buy one of these that is called “An introduction to the world of SQ Quadraphonic sound” that’s one big mix of artists that seems to be in pretty good condition. It’s got this whole intro sequence

One thing that is noteworthy in discussing quadraphonic sound is that a number of FM stations were experimenting with quadraphonic radio broadcasting. The Independent Broadcasting Authority Britain’s regulatory body that oversaw private sector broadcasting at the time was working on a standardized system for these radio broadcasts.

Song of the Day: "Teenage Riot" - Sonic Youth

Very cool vid, dude. I never owned a quad but my friends' older brother had a Pioneer set up. He had a copy of one of my fav Aerosmith lps. Rocks. We had the blacklight on and the strobe going and when Back In The Saddle came on I could hear the horse galloping in the background. With the quad it sound like it was galloping around the room. That memory is etched in my mind.

Song of the day: 21st Century Man - Electric Light Orchestra

This was a great video. Been waiting for this brother. Thank you. Wow, I never knew how technical and details vinyl records were prior to your channel. :)

Actually with matrixed records you *do* hear the back channels when listening to it in stereo. Matrixing just mixes the four channels down to two in an algebraic fashion (using signal inversion and phase shifting). This is entirely done in the audio spectrum. With SQ the rear information sits in the center when played in stereo. In QS the rear information sits 'outside' of the front information making the whole thing sound wider when played back in stereo.

Super wild concept, love your videos on vinyl man

Song of the day Moving in stereo - the cars

Hi there! Yes, I have a lot of quad albums on vinyl (mostly SQ and QS) in genres from pop to classical. I enjoy them in full quad sound via the Involve Surround Master, which also makes regular stereo recordings sound great as well. Favorite albums include the movie soundtrack of Funny Girl, Barbra Streisand’s Stoney End, Antiphonal Music for Four Brass Choirs, Bernstein’s Mass, and the Cast Album of Company.

J-RAD !!! Wassup brother !!! My Dad always talks about the time him and his buddies got high and listened to Emerson , Lake and Palmer on a quad set up back in the 70's . He said it was so awesome .

As always.....informative! Thanks!

Yes . My dad collected a lot of them as well as CD-4 7” real & some Q8 tape. I collected a lot of the 5.1 DTS CDs & DVD A so I enjoy listening to them in the center of the room. I think it deserves more attention for music lovers , not just home movies. Play on vintage McIntosh W/ Marantz CD4 turntable

Thanks for your channel. I'm from Chile. We speak spanish here and I can understand every single word you say! Thanks for that too! Great channel!

Just started to collect quad tapes and ordered Elvis live from Hawaii on Quadra disc . To me they sound great!

Wow, thanks for the rundown on quad technology, Way back when I was in elementary school, My dad and I walked down the street to go visit one of our neighbors, And our neighbor was sitting in his garage with the garage door open, and the neighbor was a long haired hippie looking guy, And he invited us to come inside his garage to us to listen to his quadraphonic disc; It definitely blew my mind with the four speakers, and the music moving around between the four speakers in his garage; Of importance to his setup, he had a joystick that he could use in order to center the particular piece of music; That stuffs was way over my little head at the time; However, I wished very badly that they would eventually come out with stereo television; And they eventually did; Yay 👍

I have a quadraphonic pressing of Dark Side of the Moon, it’s awesome

Another advantage of playing Quad records on stereo equipement : They are a (kind of) remix of the original album . So you can hear details or parts of instruments that you never heard on the stereo mix (especially with SQ (Columbia/CBS) ) . The best examples i can mention are Santana ''Abraxas'' and Simon & Garfunkel ''Bridge over troubled water'' . And they sound way better with a good pair of headphones !

I had a stereo that was a changer with 8-Track and AM/FM in the 80's that I bought for $10 from a resale shop, which had the Quad ability built in. And happened to come across a Joni Mitchell album in Quad, "The Hissing Of Summer Lawns", if I'm remembering the title correctly. (Not sure which system Asylum Records used for it, but sounded frigging awesome!)

Wow great detailed video!

All Things Must Pass by George Harrison was a quad and when they remastered it to CD they also had it in quad but in these days playback is solved with a surround receiver in the Dolby Pro Logic II music setting. You can ‘force’ anything into surround but it won’t have the experience it’s meant to provide if it wasn’t recorded that way.

I've got one quadraphonic album by Milton Nascimento. It's a very famous singer in Brazil (and many people outside Brazil know him). It uses SQ technology, but I've never heard it with quad equipment. I've only listened to it on stereo record player and it sounds great!

1973's Aloha from Hawaii. The first quadraphonic number one album on the U.S. Billboard chart. Just thought it rated a mention for its historic place in the story

I saw her standing there live at the starclub - the beatles

"I won't bore you with the technical details..." That's why I clicked on the video, man. Give the deets!

Wa-hey! I just got mentioned in this video! Thanks a lot, Jarrett (aka Vinyl Eyezz)!

Very informative video! I have a 70s Sq-setup myself... But sadly... The SQ standard is not as spectacular, as it seems... The difference bitween the front and the rear speakers is very minimalistic. But I still think the idea and the physics behind the system is amazing!

When I was around 14 In 1973, our Teacher was a big Pink Floyd Fan. He arranged a day out for the whole class to go to London for a Demo Of the New Quadraphonic sound, as It featured a first play of the Pink Floyd's Brand New album called, Dark Side Of The Moon. I was really taken aback as to How Clear the sound was and Immersive It was. As soon as the Weekend came I raced Into the record shop and Ordered one (the Straight Stereo One) with the solid Blue Triangle, and I still have It today and It still looks the same as when I bought It. I never could Afford to buy the Equipment, and when You did find one It was the Wrong Format one to play the Records I now Own (Not bought from New). They where going to put the Universal Quadraphonic Tech Into Receivers when they started to sell heavily. But they never got around to doing this. I would have preferred If they had taken out the Radio side (Never used It) and replaced It with this Tech. Even If they did that for just one Model. Nearly every Home Theater has a Turntable attached to It. Thanks for Sharing.

I have a Sansui QR-4500 4z-channel receiver that my Grandpa gave me, and later on he gave me a few Quadraphonic records which were: Bridge Over Troubled Waters, Abaraxas, and that compilation you mentioned

The two channels on a record groove are achieved on the two sides of the groove that have a different shape and sit at a 45 degrees angle to the horizontal. An "up and down" modulation would wear out very quickly and it would be much harder to track. 🙂

One more thing. Many artists made a seperate quad mix so in essence, it's another version of the songs. Santana and Steely Dan just to name a few,as well as Dark Side Of The Moon

Jared, I have about a dozen or so Quadraphonic Records...most are from the band Chicago...and Loggins and Messina...Columbia Records in the early 70's had this option in addition to buying the standard stereo versions of those albums..

I grew up with quadraphonic in my house as my father was a collector of all this gear and all other formats of quadraphonic music. And still to this day I use the same equipment and blow people's minds and ears when I demonstrate it to them. Now my kids can enjoy hearing what I grew up with. Don't get me wrong, 2 channel sound is fine but when you hear sound all around you for so many years and you hear a 2 channel system,🤔 there's just something missing... 2 channel music worked well into the Sansui Qsd-1 in the synthesizer mode and Tate 101 for the SQ records 👌 Great topic that seams to get no mention anymore and yes is very important to the development of the systems used today.👍😎

Techmoan is a great RU-vidr. He always finds very interesting and unique tech that is very fascinating. One of my favorite RU-vidrs.

Thank you so much for this info. I recently bought a quadraphonic record by mistake, I don’t have the decoder & speakers obviously but I wasn’t sure if I needed a special stylus for it. It’s a SQ record & it plays fine.

Hey, Vynil Eyezz, if you haven't already, have you ever thought about uploading a compilation of bloopers? e.g., instances where you got tongue-tied, misspoke, dropped a record (heaven forbid!), etc. That would make for a great video!

Our nextdoor neighbour in California in the early '70s had a quad set-up - he invited my Mum and me in to show it off a few times.

Yes, I have "Elivs Aloha From Hawaii" in quad. I don't play it since I don't have quad equipment. So I bought the regular stereo version. I'm good with that.

*Song of the day:* "Otso Otso" by Bayani Agbayani

I've got many quad discs. You can connect your turntable to a modern surround system and play back the SQ, and QS discs with DTS NEO:6 to get a pretty good decode. QS discs work the best and sound nearly as good with NEO:6 as they do with a proper decoder. SQ discs work pretty well but its a little less discreet.

Excellent video!

Thanks for this video. I just bought quadraphonic LP. Luckily it was SQ-version. I mention your video in my Vinyl Finds episode. Cheers & Keep up good work.

Have yet to hear quad. Finally broke down and ordered what I need for SQ as well as Darkside of the Moon pressed in SQ. I know I do have a few others. Growing up I had a receiver that had CD-4.. and being a child of the 1980s I had always figured that was some early Compact Disk thing as I didn't know about Quadraphonic until just a few years ago.

I have a Ten Years After vinyl in quadrophinc, it has a unique sound I'll give it that. On a regular 2 channel stereo from the 70's it's like they tried to fill up the sound space with as many instruments as possible to create the effect.

Great video,thanks for this,I got one,Santana - Abraxas in SQ format:)

Nice video. I started to built up my gear for quad, it includes: CD-4 demodulator (JVC) including the Shibata nude stylus, SQ decoder (Sony) and a QS decoder which includes the option for SQ decodification (Sansui). I also have the Susane Ciani vinyl box. The problem I am facing is to have a good quad amplifier (vintage) I purchased a JVC 4VN-990 which unfortunately have two channels weakened, it is in the technical service now and I hope it will do a good repair. I am very enthusiastic about quad sound I do hope I will have my whole system fully working soon. If anybody has a good suggestion for a quad amp it would be very appreciated. CHEERS!

I have the same Iron Butterfly record, it's old as dirt and sounds awesome!

Excellent explanation!

I remember quad reel to reel tapes, quad 8- tracks ( I have player and a few tapes ) but I don't remember much about quad records. It seems weird to think of that kind of sound in a mechanical record and groove but I do know of a record phenomenon I discovered. I found with stereo tapes that if you ran the channels together without a ground then you would somehow hear strange tracks of the recording. I discovered it with the Beatles - White album and the song ' Birthday '. If you ran the channels together you would hear the vocals, particularly the background vocals extra loudly. The stereo recording of Van Halen - Beautiful Girls would give you only about 5% vocal volume with about 95% Eddie's guitar. Rolling Stones recordings mostly gave you background singing and rhythm tracks. I found this track separation would also occur using a RECORD and thought it amazing that so much separation could be achieved through a mechanical sound format.

There is a few Quadraphonic Facebook groups also,"Quadraphonic And Surround Sound Audio" and "Quad Traders". They have released a lot of the Quad albums on SACD, DVD and Blu Ray too you can play with modern surround set-ups there is also a lot of 5.1 music out there.

great info, love the album you recommended "The Long Run" especially the song "evergreen by bootstraps" and Vian Izak Dan Russo "As You heald/the guid"

Great video. Never knew there were so many different versions of Quad, not like the music industry to shoot themselves in the foot is it? 😂 Plus with surround sound you can have the rear speakers flat against the wall, with music you can't. Who sits in the middle of the room?

Song of the day: Holy Diver - Dio

I was a quad freak in high school. Firstly, I hated SQ mainly because the rear info was put at 10 and 2 o'clock barely audible. CD4 was the bomb, but not everyone could afford a CD4 turntable. 8 tracks were usually muddy and reel to reels lacked the high end. QS. worked pretty good and your present surround sound will decode it correctly, which segues to my finally subject. The first CD pressing of Carole King's "Music" (KE34949) was accidental mastered with the original ODE QS tape. So you can hear it in quad, minus the vinyl surface noise

Hey Vinyl Eyezz, are you planning to buy 2 more speakers and put them on each corner of your room to get a quadrophonic setup?

i have a question: how do sounds play from speaker to speaker on a record? it’s just grooves. what i mean is when a singer is switching the singing from the left earphone to right to make it sound like they’re in your head, but how would that work on vinyl

Well now. I've learned something today. I've heard of Quadraphonic before, but never the details. I'm good with two speakers and a great turntable and amp for now. :)

You have a great voice for being a radio or TV announcer!

Hey Jared, how do your Bohren records play? Are they quiet? Do they sound good? Thinking about picking them up.

Nice hairstyle! BTW, at 6:02, just before Jarrett said "or dogs", an ad with a dog barking literally came up, what a coincidence.

i still have my folks' old quadrophonic reciever with an internal decoder. they didn't have a compatible turntable though (shrugs) so i never got to enjoy it. I have all 4 speakers too. Still, it's nice to know what the little buttons like "SQ" or "discrete" meant. It covered multiple formats. I wonder why they didn't get the turntable. It was from SEARS so it was probably rebranded. i think it needs a recapping on at least a good recapping, or at least on one channel, but it worked well last time i had it hooked up. This vid gave me just what i wanted to know, thanks!

7:43 What stylus are you using there? I looked in the description and it said 2m red but thats definitely not a stylus that I've seen before!

Hi, A little help here. I'm considering a couple of turntable, the Fluance RT80, the Audio Technica LP3BK and the AT LP120XUSB? Which is better? Thanks!

Great video . I own three SQ records .. but never got the chance to listen them on four channel.

I have a few quad albums and a few of them you mentioned in this video. Most of the ones I have are QuadraDisc (Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, The Doors, etc) but I have a couple of SQ like Janis Joplin and Sly and the Family Stone. If I find any out in the wild I don't have, I'll snatch them up in a heartbeat bc they don't come often. But what I noticed about each of them is the fact that (at least with CD-4), playing them on my regular setup, the instrumentation sounds spaced out. You might hear a guitar on one channel, the voice in the center and a flute or piano on the other channel. I kinda like the way it sounds because it gives it a bit of extra reverb and the sounds have a little extra wiggle room I guess. It's kind of akin to hearing a concert in a theater of some type or maybe an amphitheater. I once hooked up my turntable to a receiver from the mid-90s with Dolby Pro-Logic and created a "pseudo" quad setup and connected four speakers to it. I was actually quite impressed how immersive the sound was and how it made LPs sound completely different to their stereo counterparts. On top of that, it allowed you to hear instruments and background vocals you may not have caught so easily on the stereo versions. It's a very fascinating concept but obviously the way it was executed, there's a reason why it failed. If there was one set way to create the quad sound rather than having six different variations, it probably would've taken off and carried on into the 80s and maybe even the 90s. But overall, it's fun to listen to, even on a regular stereo setup. I encourage anyone that if you find any quad albums at all when you're out record shopping or some of your favorite artists released any in their careers, get them if you can!

I have 3 LP's in Quad; Black Sabbath Paranoid, Blue Oyster Cult Tyranny And Mutation and Deep Purple Stormbringer. I picked them up in a used record store and enjoy what seems to be a different mix of the albums. I still lean towards my stereo LP versions though.

The answer to the QS, SQ, CD-4 , etc. , question was four track-four channel reel-to-reel tape.Yes they were available, usually via special order.

I read in a 1974 consumer guide book on audio equipment that if you played one type of matrix disc with another type of matrix decoder, for example an SQ disk with a QS decoder,

Hey! I just stumbled on your channel and have been watching a ton of your stuff for beginners. I have an Audio technica lp60x player. Anytime I play a record the music plays from the vinyl itself. It sounds awful and kinda stops me from playing my vinyl :/ Am I doing something wrong or is the player defective? Love from Austin!

i've got a project 3/popular science one called "Test Record" (to set up/calibrate/check out your quadraphonic system) from 1974 (Australian pressing). By the looks of the catalogue number it is in the SQ format.

Company is actually the best broadway recording ever created. It's so good! There is even a documentary on how it got recorded. I can HIGHLY recommend it!

If only I could have a 5.1 program and a stereo program on different payers on the same CD. I thought quad was great in the early seventies... but alas it didn’t catch on and went away. I remember hearing FM broadcasts in quad. I never had any quad equipment but I imagined what it would have sounded like. Especially the many concerts that I recorded. Very early on HD video format went through the same war with Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. Oh well. I love your videos. Keep up the good work.

Thanks for explaining this. Glad they got rid of all that Quad mess

Very nice video. I don’t own any quad records but maybe down the line I’ll buy Elvis’ Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite simply for collecting purposes. My guess is that another reason why those quadraphonic records were not successful was because although the soundstage was a lot wider, poor quality vinyl was a big issue back in the 70’s and 80’s, and I would certainly be bothered by hearing crackles and pops coming from all four speakers.

I have 2 Miles Davis quad vinyls: Live-Evil and Bitches Brew. Live-Evil is a completely different mix. Don’t have a quad system, but they still sound great

Song of the day: Blitzkrieg Bop - Ramones

That vinyl moon release is probably my favorite I’ve gotten yet

Song of the day: Sugarcubes - Birthday (Sugarcubes were the band that first brought Bjork to the attention of the international public) OR Bjork - Play Dead (probably my favorite song of all time) OR Suede - Europe is our Playground (the version that is featured on their amazing B.Sides album Sci-fi Lullabies

I bought all of the Barbra Streisand quadraphonic LPs because I understand they were done in completely different recording sessions. So that will probably give some vocal and interpretive differences. Just to hear those differences will playing the quad albums on my stereo turntable be sufficient?

Hi I just surfed by researching whatever happened to Quadrophonic records? I was unaware there were six competing formats, I did know there were more than 2 discrete formats, however, but during my brief forays into the rarified atmospheres, I dismissed any entries because of (No particular order ) Too many competing standards, the cost of such equipment, the lack of cross-compatibility of the equipment manufacturers,, and lastly the lack of room in my room for two more. speakers. Now that there are Digital formats I shall keep a closer watch on the market.

If you have a surround sound system you can play quadraphonic records on the Dolby digital setting with very good surround sound results.

2 quad records in my collection ... Pink Floyd DSoTM and (the classic, and surprisingly not mentioned) Quadrophenia by The Who

Cool video, never new about these. Also, song of the day: Me and Virgil - Genesis