SurroundByUs.com

I am quite pleased to discover the existence of this group, it has been sorely needed for quite some time. Fan51_SBU has been most gracious in his posts to the SurroundSound Google Group and his enthusiasm has piqued my interest in this site.

I'm a long-time audio fan (as opposed to the geeky "audiophiles" whom I know and love) and I have been the proud owner of a high-quality surround sound system for 7-8 years now. I got started way back in the early 70's when I convinced my Dad to "invest" in a very nice Quadrophonic system for our home. We had a killer Sansui 9090 receiver, a Garrard Zero-100 turntable with Shure quad and stereo cartridges, and 4 Jensen 6 speakers - later replaced with 4 JBL L-100s. This system could flat-out rock, and I bought every quad album I could get my hands on. It's a pity that they've disappeared from my collection via many moves and thieving roommates, but I digress <g>.

Since those hazy daze <g>, I have been an ardent music fan and attended many, many concerts. In fact, the BEST show I have ever seen was ELP's quadrophonic concert (in 1973 I think it was) at the Baltimore Civic Center when they toured in support of their awesome album "Brain Salad Surgery". If you listen to that album in it's DVD-Audio surround form, you will be hearing pretty much what I experienced at that show, minus the bong hits and psychedelic drugs of the era <smile>.

I have since replaced my father's system with an updated one of my own and I hardly ever listen to 2-channel music any more. Surround sound, done well, simply KILLS stereo - it ain't even close.

In closing, I'd like to thank 51Fan_SBU for alerting me to the existence of this forum. I look forward to may interesting discussions in the days to come!!

-RW-

You're very welcome, RW. There has indeed been a lot of interest from SurroundSound members as a result of Vfalk's starting a thread about SBU. I can understand why because a love of upmixing starts with a love of great surround music. Then you realize that the retail surround catalog is much smaller than your appetite for 5.1 sounds and one day you see the light: why wouldn't I make my own? Which brings you here. So take your time, go one step at a time and soon enough you'll be listening to your own surround conversions of Timo Laine's "Symphonic Slam" and Aphrodite's Child "666"

Hello back at ya, RW!

That was an interesting history. It's nice to find someone lse with a prior experience of Quadraphonics. Alas all good things at least change, hopefully improve, & that's why my Fosgate Tate & Sansui QSD-1000 now live in my basement closet. I would lkie to know more about what set up you currently use.

Im jealous. I've seen ELP a few years go (with Jethro Tull) but it sure wasn't in surround. Of course I do have the DVD-A, thank goodness.

W00t! always a joy to read a post from my fine friend RLW! Great to see more people rocking by and joining!

The DVD-A of Brain Salad Surgery clinched my decision to spam a DVD-Audio player, no question about it. If there had been no further catalog discs I'd still have done it!

I did witness that tour on 2/21/74 in San Diego; it was indeed a quadraphonic configuration. This was my 2nd (but really 1st in my mind) concert. Back Door (bass drums sax produced by Carl Palmer) opened for ELP.

Even though I was only 14, I did muster up the courage to talk to Bill Hough the designer once I recognized him. He was standing on the arena floor near the desk and the rear channel bins. I think he was shocked to be recognized but did tell me this setup was being used in just about every venue and that a Scully/Metrotec 24 track was recording every show. Bill also mentioned this being the first application of digital delay lines in live sound.

I wonder about this last part, since the Welcome Back... triple live album should have sounded incredible instead of merely okay overall. Perhaps they did record many shows but the engineering was terrible? Compare the Welcome Back official release with the King Bisquit radio version and find that much of the official album contains reverb bordering on mayonaise.

Welcome Back My Friends did appear on upcoming DVD-A info from Rhino for about 10 minutes in 2003 then disappeared.

Would be nice to get hands on other ELP performances and see what could be coaxed from them.

Sonic Wiz wondered:

" would lkie to know more about what set up you currently use."

I currently have 5 Gallo Reference Series speakers (www.roundosund.com) being driven by a Butler TDB-5150 150 watts/channel (5-channel) spam amplifier. My current pre-processor is a Harman-Kardon Signature 2.0. My main source is an Oppo BDP-83 Universal player and I also have a Bang and Olufsen BG-9000 turntable with their top of the line MMC-1 cartridge. I also have a Yamaha KX-695 cassette deck and a WD-TV device to stream audio/video from my home netwirk to my surround system.

All in all it's a pretty good-sounding system and, by shopping carefully at Audiogon.com, I was able to assemble it for about 40 cents on the retail dollar - w00t!!

-RW-

Welcome to the forum RW!

I too saw ELP on that BSS Quad tour in Toronto - unfortunately for many the album hadn't come out nor gotten any air play yet - I ended up driving to Buffalo NY the week before and picked a copy so knew the music well for the show..

This particular concert still remains my all time favourite and I have been to many over the years - ELP was and still is my favourite group - I'm super thrilled they have finally gotten back together - my son (who has become a huge fan) and I are flying over to see ELP headline a weekend concert reunion in Victoria Park in London this coming July..

159 days to go!

RLW I am definitely jealous of your system!