WALTER CARLOS will undoubtedly be criticized from many quarters for his opposition to matrix quadraphonic systems. In a long letter to Billboard recently, he said his SQ Switched-On Bach record is inferior to the original tape. Now, I like this recording myself but if Walter says it should have more movement or better localizing, I can hardly disagree. One inherent fault of the SQ system is its inability to localize a signal appearing at the rear center and this may be the cause of Walter's dissatisfaction. Electronic music might be the music of the future, but it only represents one section of the art today. I am not greatly concerned with center-rear positioning or 40 dB separation from four different sources when I listen to symphony orchestras, jazz groups, or chamber music but I do find the extra spaciousness of the SQ or Sansui recordings most satisfying. Even with opera or, in particular, a large scale work like the Bernstein Mass, I find the localization perfectly adequate-indeed in the Mass, it conforms closely to the actual score.
Many ordinary stereo records gain a new dimension when played via four speakers and a decoder-especially choral works and older recordings made by the M-S method. Another thing, matrix records do not sacrifice playing time, dynamic range, signal-to-noise or frequency range-all of which are important.
Cecil Watts
Many years ago, I gave a record demonstration to the prestigious British National Federation of Gramophone Societies and when I got home, I found a note from Cecil Watts saying how much he enjoyed the program, which he said was "music as well as hi fi." Cecil was a perfectionist and praise from him was praise indeed. But it was typical of Cecil that he would take the trouble to write. I suppose he is best known on this side of the Atlantic as the inventor of the ingenious record cleaning device, the Dust Bug, but he has far greater claims to fame. He was one of the early pioneers of direct-disc recording and he formed a company for this purpose more than 40 years ago. This was MSS and they supplied acetate discs to the BBC and customers all over the world. Cecil was handicapped (but not deterred) by ill-health due to war wounds and he died in 1967. His widow, Agnes Watts, has now written a book called Dust Bug Cecil, A Biography, which tells of the trials, tribulations and financial difficulties of their early years and how they finally won through.
Chapters are contributed by Gilbert Briggs and our sometimes--correspondent, Donald Aldous, and the book includes some of Cecil's famous photomicrographs of record grooves. A fascinating book, highly recommended. It can be obtained from Elpa Marketing, New Hyde Park, N.Y. 11040 at $5.50.
Looking East
"There is a market for American loudspeakers in Japan," said H. Tanaka of the Japanese Electronic Industries Association recently. He went on to say that the salary of Japanese workers has been increasing at a rate of 17% a year. Other news from Japan is that the EIA has standardized quadraphonic record systems by adopting the Sansui QS method.
New IHF President
Herb Horowitz, of the Empire Scientific Co., has been elected President of the Institute of High Fidelity. Herb has been in the industry since 1942 when he was a junior engineer with Pilot. For the past two years he has been the IHF's Vice President which job now goes to Bernie Mitchell of Pioneer.
I normally do not indulge in politics in this column but as this is election year, I suppose I could be excused. I had just read that the Association of Eunuchs was meeting to determine their election policy. "Phew!" I thought, "this will cause some alarm in George McG's camp, and will the Militant Eunuchs form a United Front with the Gay Liberation boys, or. . . . " But on reading further, I discovered that the news referred to India and their election. I breathed a sigh of relief and put on my Walter Carlos record again.
-G.W.T.
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(Source: Audio magazine.)
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