Behind The Scenes (Sept. 1973)

THIS YEAR'S Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago began in typical fashion . . . milling throngs, cocktail parties, press and PR pooh bah, and weather hot enough to fry your brains. However, once everything had settled down, it was apparent that quadraphonic sound was once again the dominant theme of the show .. . but this year there was an important variation.

As predicted in this column some months ago, most manufacturers of receivers and related equipment decided to furnish the full spectrum of quadraphonic decoding facilities. Call it what you will . . . a quadraphonic rapprochement, truce, compromise, coexistence ... the fact is that in addition to decoders for SQ and Regular Matrix (QS), some 29-odd manufacturers incorporated CD-4 demodulators into their receivers. Some companies had just a single unit with CD-4, while others had as many as three or four models in this category. Among companies which opted for this approach were Pioneer, Fisher, Kenwood, Harman-Kardon, Onkyo, Technics by Panasonic, JVC (naturally), Akai, Braun, Nikko, Marantz, Pilot, Sanyo, Sharp, and Claricon.

The audio community being as tight-knit as it is, with very few secrets surviving the rumor mills, it was not too unexpected that the phono cartridge manufacturers would keep pace, and thus there were CD-4 cartridges exhibited by Audio-technica, Pickering/ Stanton, Ortofon, Empire, Shure, Elac, Microstatic, and Grace.

Quite obviously, this move to across-the-board quadraphonic facilities was prompted by the decision of the Warner record group to back the CD-4 discrete disc. I think it would be also safe to say that there has been a general hard-nosed reassessment of the quadraphonic market, with a blunt realization that customers and dealers alike have been resisting the purchase of equipment highly susceptible to obsolescence. Now with most receivers able to handle SQ, QS, and CD-4 software, those dealers who have been soft-pedaling quadraphonic sound, no longer have valid grounds for their indifference. Of course, from a strictly consumer viewpoint all these new receivers constitute a "safe" buy ... but they are at substantially higher prices.

Nonetheless, I personally feel that the extra costs will not be a significant factor. Far more important is that for some time to come, we can expect relative stability in the field of quadraphonic sound, which will enable us to get on with the major task of producing high quality four-channel stereo recordings, whatever the format.

Confronted with the vastness of McCormick Place, you arm yourself with an exhibit directory and wearily wend your way towards your particular target. At the risk of offending some people, it must be said that to an audio man, there is a great deal in McCormick place that is entirely irrelevant. I wish the powers-that-be of the CES would adopt the layout I saw at the Firato Electronic Show in Amsterdam a few years ago where all the audio exhibits were concentrated in one area. Not only was it very easy to cover everything of interest, but the Firato management had provided some quite acceptable sound rooms for demonstrations.

Needless to say, I visited many exhibits and saw most of the handsome new quadraphonic receivers. There were far too many to individually detail in these pages, but it was interesting to note various trends in control facilities on these units. Four channel "joystick" balance controls were much in evidence, including some of the remote control variety. In addition to the traditional bass and treble controls, mid-range equalization controls are a frequent item. Four VU type meters are used in some units, while others use a visual indication of a four-channel stereo field. These are not to be confused with the real four channel oscilloscope display units, which are offered as accessory units by several manufacturers. I have the Panasonic 'scope unit and it is not only fascinating to watch, but also is extremely helpful in studying both discrete and matrix quadraphonic fields.

One of the highlights of the show was the new Wollensak 8-track cartridge player with built-in Dolby B noise reduction. As you may know, I have been bugging my friends at Ampex Stereo Tapes to produce some experimental Dolby B cartridges. Some weeks before the show I was sent a Dolbyized cartridge featuring the 5th and 6th Symphonies of Beethoven. At the show, Ampex made available a demonstration cartridge containing Also Sprach Zarathustra, plus some pop items from Frank Chacksfield, Mantovani and Ronnie Aldrich, and a ballad sung by Melissa Manchester.

Programs one and two were Dolbyized, while programs three and four repeated the music without Dolby. By using the program selector switch on the 8-track unit, a fair "A/B" comparison can be made. The results are what we have come to expect from the Dolby B system. The particularly intrusive hiss of the 8-track cartridge format is dramatically attenuated, so much so that at average domestic listening levels, hiss is virtually inaudible! To playback my Dolbyized cartridges, I used a Wollensak deck with an external Dolby B box. The Dolby reference level is the same as open reel . . . 185 n W6/m. In production, the Wollensak unit will use the Dolby B IC chip. I understand other manufacturers are contemplating production of similar units. It follows that with the availability of the Dolby chip quadraphonic cartridge units will be forthcoming and will furnish one of the least expensive, good quality sources of four-channel discrete stereo.

One of the most significant developments at the show also involved integrated circuits. Lou Dorren of Quadri cast Systems, the pioneer in the discrete four-channel stereo FM broadcasts, announced that his company had a prototype CD-4 IC chip, Model 5022. Said to be the largest linear integrated circuit ever developed, the chip includes phase-lock loop circuitry.

Lou's booth, against a wall of McCormick Place, featured a lofty cruciform antenna, since he was demonstrating closed-circuit discrete quadraphonic FM broadcasting. Two of the 5022 chips will be needed in the CD-4 systems, one each for left and right.

It is a sure bet that all those manufacturers who had incorporated CD-4 into their receivers were wishing they could have utilized these cheaper and better components in their units. Marketing of the 5022 chip will be handled here and in Japan by Matsushita Electric (Panasonic). While still roaming around the main floor of McCormick Place, I noted such items as Marantz receivers with not only CD-4 but built-in Dolby B circuitry as well. And they even went as far as having a switch in the rear to convert to 25 microsecond de-emphasis, in anticipation of a favorable FCC decision on this matter.

At Panasonic's booth, as I had surmised from my trip to Japan, their high quality, high end Technics line of equipment was placed on the American market. It includes receivers, integrated amplifiers, tuners, and the brushless direct-drive turntables and turntable/arm combinations. I understand the SP-10 turntable, their top of the line model, is being used in increasing numbers in the broadcast industry.

Another choice item at Panasonic was an elaborate Dolby cassette deck featuring a special third head to permit monitoring while recording.

At the Teac booth there were a number of upgradings of existing open reel recorders, as well as a new four channel stereo unit. In addition to the Model 450 Dolby cassette deck, for which Teac claims a wow and flutter figure of 0.06%, there was a high end Dolby deck with true three-head monitoring facilities.

The lower floor of McCormick Place, known as the "Ghetto," lived, at least in part, up to its name. There was the damndest collection of knick-knackery you can imagine, radios in every kind of disguise from dolls to cuckoo clocks, record racks, grille cloth in the wildest patterns, etc. But interspersed among all this were some interesting items.

For example, one nervy guy, taking a cue from what is increasingly a practice in magazines and in radio commercials, was actually demonstrating his speaker, a columnar affair known as "Equasound," against the ESS Heil speaker and the JBL Century. As is usual in this place, live demos are really a lost cause because of the high noise levels. Nonetheless, he A/B flipped between the units. Under these circumstances, no really valid conclusions could be drawn, but on this superficial level he didn't fare too badly.

In another booth, the very sophisticated Ohm speakers were being demonstrated. This is radically different from conventional speakers, with a very steeply-angled titanium/aluminum cone facing down into an enclosure. A heavy magnet is at the apex of the speaker.

The company takes the position that loudspeakers cannot be made to act like a piston and instead espouses a wave transmission line, the principle of the Ohm speaker. This is said to have low impulse distortion and near zero time delay distortion. Again, it was nearly impossible under the circumstances to have any meaningful audition. Things were not helped by monotonous percussion recording that revealed very little of the basic sound of the unit. These folks really should have used a suite in a nearby hotel to demonstrate this unusual speaker. One would have to live with it a while and A/B it against others in familiar surroundings. Perhaps we can arrange something in the future.

Speaking of nearby hotels, this is where much of the real audio action was taking place. Crown was showing a number of new items, hardly the least of which was their blockbuster M600 amplifier. How about 600 watts at 8 ohms continuous power? How about 1200 watts at 2.5 ohms, or a mere 2000 watts when specially strapped? This is a mono brute that uses two cooling fans. Then there is a companion unit to their IC-150 pre-amp, an output control center. This reads, via two big meters, the peak and average output levels, has a peak holding device which operates from I second to indefinite, has switching facilities to operate three pairs of speakers simultaneously, and other assorted goodies.

At the Phase Linear room, a most interesting pre-amp, the Model 4000, was being demonstrated. It has an updated version of the "compandor" circuit which is quite effective . . . they call it a "peak unlimiter" ... and a "downward expander," rather awkward terminology. There is also an "autocorrelator," an "after the fact" noise reduction circuit, which in essence uses a level-sensitive, voltage-controlled dynamic filter. Add an active equalizer for boost below 50 Hz and above 7 kHz, plus unusually flexible tone controls and this is quite a package, yours for $599.

The ESS Heil speaker added another dimension to its present configuration. The original speaker was the Heil unit operating from about 700 Hz upwards with a conventional dynamic woofer from that point downwards. In their hotel demonstration room, there was added to the top Heil unit, a virtually hand-built bass section prototype, using the same Heil principle. The bass Heil unit was mounted in a fairly large open-backed baffle. In the little I heard, under less than ideal conditions, the overall sound was impressive in its clean delineation, but I would have liked a bit more weight and solidity to the bass end.

There were other audio goodies spotted here and there around the show, and I wish I could cover them too, but I have had to concentrate on what in my opinion are the most newsworthy items.

(Audio magazine, Sept. 1973; Bert Whyte)

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