4 channel stereo receiver

[danger boy]

was slumming the local 2nd hand stores and ran across a low brand name 4 channel receiver.

can anyone shed some light on what a 4 channel receiver is? does it mean you hook up 4 speakers to it? two fronts and two rear?

was this some kind of pre surround sound type gimmick?

[Shizelbs]

Is that the old quadraphonic deal?

[Toxis]

could be a stereo receiver with 4 speaker capabilities or could even be Dolby Surround seeing those only used 4 speakers as well.

[danger boy]

the only info i could find on it was it was made from 1973 to 1975. it could be Quadraphonic stereo. it was old(er). the wanted like $15 for it. i passed.

[Danny Tse]

You may want to post the question here, probably in the "Legacy MultiChannel Systems" (scroll towards the bottom of the page).

[George Grand]

Freakin' kids. A 4 channel receiver is indicating to me that it is in fact an old surround sound receiver. You think surround sound happened with Dolby Surround? Some of the earliest surround receivers go back to the late 60's.

Quadrophonic - Kind of a catch-all name started way back to indicate a system that was more than just two channel. The 4 channel systems could be comprised of Discrete 4 channel sound. Yes girls, 4 DISTINCTLY different channels of sound. It required a 4 channel receiver with discrete capability, a turntable with special cartridge, or a reel to reel machine with 4 discrete channels. There were pre-recorded discrete 4 channel tapes, and the turntables required specially pressed discrete 4 channel vinyl.

Some different systems were called SQ, QS, Matrix, and then my all time favorite, Hafler DynaQuad. 73-75 is too early for Dolby Surround.

More later, I'm at work. By now they don't actually expect me to work if I'm not flying, but I try not to rub it in their faces.

If that is an old KLH 4 channel receiver, and it is affordable, buy it. Those mid-powered KLH's have some of the SWEETEST 2 channel sound you're likely to come across in a receiver. The most powerful KLH was about 30wpc if I remember correctly.

George Grand (of the Jersey Grands)

[George Grand]

Discrete 4 channel sound back then was a jungle. They really screwed it up.

The best analogy I could give is, they would put a Beatle in each speaker. Well, how realistic is that? That is putting you onstage in the middle of the performers, rather than out in the orchestra Row 15 dead center. It was truly stupid sounding.

George Grand (of the Jersey Grands)

[Toxis]

I know surround sound didn't start with DS but he also didn't state how old it was at the time so I wasn't sure HOW old to guess. Figured I'd throw out another option other than the quadraphonic option already listed.

[madmax]

Originally posted by George Grand
Discrete 4 channel sound back then was a jungle. They really screwed it up.

The best analogy I could give is, they would put a Beatle in each speaker. Well, how realistic is that? That is putting you onstage in the middle of the performers, rather than out in the orchestra Row 15 dead center. It was truly stupid sounding.

George Grand (of the Jersey Grands)

I can't say much more for what I've heard of DVD-A and SACD multichannel. Most of them still put you in the middle of the stage. They have not learned. It is still about the WOW factor, not the music.

madmax

[danger boy]

Thanks George!

I knew someone on here would know exactly what a 4 channel receiver was. You do a good job of explaining it as well.

I had vaugely heard about it when i was in my early teens. I didn't know squat back then.. and didn't care. Now i'm just trying to catch up on stereo history.. so that's why i was curious about 4 channel sound.

Sounds like it was a gimmick that didn't quite work. It's interesting to know that "surround" sound dates back to the 60's though. I had no idea. I know it didn't begin with Dolby Surround. But wasn't sure when or why.

Unfortunately the receiver I found wasn't a KLH.. it was some other non worth brand.. who's name escapes me now. Maybe Sansui? not sure.

[stereo55]

Originally posted by danger boy
Maybe Sansui? not sure.

Some of the older Sansui's had great matrix decoders in them and considered "classics" .

Can't remeber the model #'s at the moment but they had a yellow/purple (some green and purple) lighted dial with a four channel adjuster to left front of the receiver . The back consisted of up to EIGHT channel mixing adjusters . They got a classic write up in StereoPhile mag years back saying they had some of the best decoders ever incorporated into a reciever .
I owned a pair of these recievers years ago when I was selling classic stuff and I could never keep enough of these Sansui's around . Iam sorry I ever sold mine as they had some heavy power (for their day) and the decoders were xint and alot of fun to play with .

[George Grand]

In my opinion, Hafler DynaQuad was the only halfway realistic surround sound from that era.

DynaQuad did not use the rear channels as discrete, separate channels. They were used as ambience channels, and could really come very close to imitating the original recording venue. The back channels were also dissimilar, and therefore, STEREO. Even Dolby Surround was mono to the back channels, using amplitude and phasing to try and move sounds from side to side in the rear.

Hafler DynaQuad was built into quite a few receivers. KLH and Sherwood immediately come to mind. There was also a stand alone outboard DynaQuad decoder available from Hafler (Dynaco), called The Dynaco Quadaptor. I still have one. It could be added to ANY stereo receiver, or power amp. I think it was recommended for only up to 100 watts, but that didn't stop me from using one with my Carver "150" Receiver (157wpc) to drive 4 Polk RTA 11T's from around 1989-1990. Sounded GREAT! Here's a picture.

George Grand (of the Jersey Grands)

[George Grand]

A technical error has occured. That is my "Gorilla Playing a Set of Drums" alarm clock. Here's the Quadaptor.........

[George Grand]

Ass-end......

[George Grand]

It was a passive device, detracting NOTHING from the front channels. Cool man item if there ever was one.

George Grand (of the Jersey Grands)

[dkg999]

At one time in my life, setting in my room with Deep Purple's Machine Head playing on a Dual turntable thru a Marantz 4400 receiver with full quadraphonic sound connected to AR3 speakers was just about the ultimate. Throw in a smuggled bottle of Southern Comfort and the girlfriend of the moment ..... wow ...... I think some residue from the 70's just kicked loose.

It was good though!

[Polkersince85]

I had bought a Pioneer SX-1000tw in high school (still got it playing) and didn't get into the Quad stuff. Had a set of Utah Speakers hooked to it.. kicking out Led Zep and other late 60/70 stuff, with the bass turned up.
Picture is not of mine but it's identical.

[uncyogi]

just an observation from a new member; it tickles me to see how a thread that started out with a technical question about an unknown product can lead to a 'residue' related 70's flashback ! As an aside, I recall reading somewhere that when Disney was putting "Fantasia" together, old Walt wanted the audience to hear the bee in "Flight of the Bumblebee" flying all around them, not just from the front of the theater, and surround was born.

[George Grand]

I'm not familiar with Fantasia. A theater filled with speakers could still get a "surround" type effect by directing a mono signal sequentially to each speaker until the circle had been completed.

Doesn't surprise me that Walt Disney "envisioned" a surround experience.

George Grand (of the Jersey Grands)

[uncyogi]

I'm not familiar with Fantasia. A theater filled with speakers could still get a "surround" type effect by directing a mono signal sequentially to each speaker until the circle had been completed.

your thought of a sequentially rotated mono signal made me curious, so I had to google. Front three channels-main sound track.Two rear channels-seperate spool of film... surround. As for being unfamiliar with Fantasia; if you're a lover of music, not just the gear that reproduces it, drop what you're doing and get ahold of a copy! It's a must see.

[unc2701]

Hey, I still use my stand alone quad decoder!!! You just run it to your multichannel input... Dark Side of the Moon in Quad w/ Wizard of Oz on the tube, anyone?

I've even heard of people recording old quad records onto their computer, then encoding them to a DTS/ Dolby digital stream. Yeah, too much free time.

BTW if you run across a fosgate quad processor, grab it- I've never heard one, but they go for $$$ on Ebay. Sansui is pretty good and some do both QS and SQ... my dad yardsaled his sansui before I could snatch it, so I'm stuck w/ a panasonic. Just make sure the quad flavor (SQ, QS, etc) is the same on it as the record you're wanting to play

[Exploseph]

I'm sorry, this is COMPLETELY off topic, but may I ask where you got that gorilla alarm clock from? I lost mine years ago and have been desperately trawling the web trying to find at least a picture of it, and this is the first and only one I have found. Would very much appreciate it if you got in contact with me. Thanks!

[dipiazza]

I'm sorry, this is COMPLETELY off topic, but may I ask where you got that gorilla alarm clock from? I lost mine years ago and have been desperately trawling the web trying to find at least a picture of it, and this is the first and only one I have found. Would very much appreciate it if you got in contact with me. Thanks!

"Club Polk: The place for sound audio adivice and rare drum smashing gorilla alarm clocks."

Welcome to the club!