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Only JVC-Nivico and National-Panasonic included CD-4 demodulators, for the rival discrete-4-channel system from RCA, in their product lines.

But engineer Lou Dorren, whose quadracast system of broadcasting discrete 4-channel is up for consideration by the FCC, helped the RCA cause along with sample quadraphonic transmissions from a ministation on the floor of the exhibition hall.

This induced receiver manufacturers to tune in for demonstration purposes, using borrowed demodulators plugged into the 4-channel jacks provided on latest tuners.

Dorren's broadcasts featured RCA quadradiscs, of course, since his multiplex system of quadracasting makes him the natural ally of all discrete 4-channel source material.

Matrixing is anathema to the Dorren method, for an encoded signal can be broadcast as conventional stereo and requires neither FCC sanction nor the purchase of any additional equipment by radio stations.

That's what gives CBS its natural advantage: simplicity. The station puts an SQ-encoded signal on the air without fussing. The listener plays it back through a matrix decoder which manufacturers can easily build into quad equipment in every price range.

In the face of this, do RCA and its discrete 4-channel allies really stand a chance?

Their opposing argument is quality. They are out to prove that discrete sound is better because a 4-4-4 system stays discrete on the way to the listener, while matrixing (a 4-2-4 system) gets scrambled along the way.

"Like unscrambling an egg," argues RCA - and some of the discussion at a CES symposium on the subject was heated enough to add the toast.

The CBS counter argument is that discrete discs can't make it in the marketplace because they are "audi-ophile items" that require costly equipment: a new cartridge with frequency response to 60,000 Hz and a special demodulator.

While RCA insists that these problems have been solved and mass-produced playback equipment for CD-4 will be available soon in every price range, CBS says that its SQ-encoded discs already have enough information in the groove to satisfy the fussiest audiophile. It's just a matter of improving the available decoders.

Anmerkung : Das ist nicht richtig, die SQ oder QS codierten Rillen produzieren ein Frequenzgemisch, welches sich mit Stereoabtastern merkwürdig anhört.
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Wes Ruggles Jr., an American engineer whose firm, Connaught Equipment Ltd., is European licensee for SQ and produces decoders for the CBS system, says that a properly designed SQ decoder with "full logic" circuitry delivers the left-right and front-rear separation required to satisfy the purist.

However, this complicated circuit is not yet available in a low-cost IC, so most manufacturers opt for simpler front-rear "half logic" or use even cheaper matrixes with no logic circuitry at all.

• Anmerkung : Laut der SQ-Spezifikation - im Pioneer QX-949 Technical Manual exakt abgedruckt - sind die Kanaltrennungen von Vorne nach Hinten im Bereich von 3dB und damit oft gar nicht wahrnehmbar.

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With neither side showing any sign of giving in, the two systems could well end up coexisting - just as the post-World War II "war of the speeds" left us with both 78 and 45 rpm.

The dealers' number one hangup, duplication of inventory, is already evident as CBS repertory appears in regular stereo at standard prices while SQ versions are released at a premium.

RCA's competitive ploy in promising a compatible quadradisc at no increase in price, is labeled "dirty pool" by Ruggles - because, he says, the new type disc costs more to make.

So I asked independent record producer Enoch Light, whose "Project 3" recorded repertory is encoded according to both Sansui/EV and SQ matrix systems, how he felt about CD-4.

"I offered to take my 4-channel master tapes down to RCA and cut them in CD-4, but they said they weren't set up for it yet. They'll let me know when they're ready."

And, sure enough, it turned out that all the discrete 4-channel product on demonstration at CES, even the two RCA quadradiscs with English-language jackets, were JVC discs imported from Japan. Looks like RCA, while arguing long and loud, has yet to unlimber its ordinance.
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By WALTER B. BIOS in August 1972
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