Quadraphonics - Sound Affects

SOUND AFFECTS

Matrixed analogue quadraphonic (i.e. SQ or QS) sounds surprisingly soft, warm and cohesive. Anyone reared on digital surround will be amazed! Quad albums do really offer a sense of surround, with instruments moving around between all four speakers, but there’s a quite strong centre image - in part due to SQ’s poor separation figures. This isn’t a bad thing, however, as it doesn’t detract from the overall musical experience and can actually sound quite cohesive. The absence of a front centre channel simply isn’t obvious. Ultimately, QS (RM) sounded more vibrant than SQ, but this could be down to the equipment used. Nonetheless, on well-recorded discs, the surround effect was obvious but not intrusive.

CD-4 was probably the most impressive in a ‘hi-fi’ sense – the back channel information was most explicit – although it didn’t gel and cohere as well as QS. Some CD-4 recordings showed crass use of multi channel mixing spreading musicians all over the place needlessly, although the occasional CD-4 cut, such as Harry Nilsson's Nilsson Schmilsson, worked superbly with oodles of detail and clarity. Ultimately, CD-4 gives real sound fields between any combination of channels, which matrix recordings cannot – and it shows.