Some years ago – 1975 to be precise, I used to hang out with my friend Tony.  We shared a similar taste in music – we still do, if the truth is told, and the best things about hanging out at his house was his Dad’s hi-fi.  Picture the scene if you will,  a be-flared and platformed Richard whose records are played on a dubious BSR deck with a decidedly odd stereo setup (one channel wired through the record player, the other through the amp of an ‘Elizabethan’ reel to reel over the other side of the room – stereo yes, but woefully unbalanced) experiencing his first exposure to ‘proper’ hi-fi.

Tony’s Dad’s hi-fi was something that I had never seen before – separates.  Not a ‘Fidelity’ or ‘Steepletone’ hi-fi, this was separates.  A Goldring Lenco deck, a Goodmans Module 80 amp and (I think) Celestion Ditton speakers, it was a symphony of teak and chrome and was, I still believe, a piece of installation art.

It was on this hi-fi marvel that I heard  – properly, mind – Led Zeppelin 4, and was struck by the fact that there seemed to be patches of, well, nothing.  There was no noise between tracks, only what I can describe as a blackness, a void. No sound.  The detail of Jimmy Page’s fingers scraping on the strings on first part of ‘Stairway To Heaven’ was completely new to me.   I wouldn’t call it a religious experience, but it still stays with me as the first time I properly appreciated recorded music.   I’d almost call it a St Paul-type revelation, but you tend not to get too many of those in your teens….

Over the years, I’ve I have been dabbling with hi-fi – I prefer vinyl to CD, but I’m not that bothered about it. Frankly, the prices of vinyl have escalated now to the point where I won’t buy it unless the offending article is in really good condition.  To my ear, CDs have always sounded a bit tinny and jar like a dentist’s waiting room.  I have a reasonable setup – Linn LP12, NAD amp and a pair of speakers whose name eludes me for the minute. They are referred to, lovingly, by the family as the pillars of hercules. This setup makes me happy enough, but I have this nagging doubt that I’ve not yet achieved the same level as Tony’s Dad’s setup did.  That, and the fact that I believe that my ears are on their way out has led me to try and put together a taste-test.

This test should put that nagging doubt to rest once and for all;  I have set about recreating that setup that first moved me, and to that end, I’ve acquired a Goodmans Module 80, a pair of Celestion Dittons and these will hooked up to my trusty old Thorens TD150 turntable. I figure that is as close as it gets without absolutely replicating the setup, and I like to think that my old Thorens deck is a match for the Goldring Lenco.  The fun should begin soon, after all there is no rush to do this, and I suspect I’ll need a day to set it all up properly.  Interestingly, I’m having to make up some cables to connect the amp to the turntable and speakers – DIN plugs are no longer easily acquired.

The two pieces of music will be Led Zeppelin 4, and Shine on you crazy diamond parts 1 to whatever.  I shall report back on my aural adventures in another posting.  As David Gray (he of the incredibly mobile head) says, ‘see you on the other side’….

Just when I thought that my ears were going the way of my eyesight, heart and feet, along came a new musical experience that has one foot in the past and one foot in the future.  I refer to quad, and to the army of brilliant chaps who have transformed the quadraphonic output of artists from the 70’s into media playable on a modern home cinema system.

I’ve listened to Dark Side Of the Moon more times than I care to recall – I suspect ‘Us and Them’ will be played at my humanist death celebration – and I am probably note-perfect on every aspect of it. Except the drums, but they aren’t really music, are they? But, let’s not get me diverted into my rants about drummers, there is time a-plenty for that.  Playing DSotM  is a bit like having an old friend over for lunch; comfortable and easy to get along with but with no real surprises.

I’ve got a copy of DSotM converted to DTS that I can play on my living room cinema system.   It is the original 4 channel recording, encoded onto DTS and thence to the four speakers as originally intended. I am impressed, and that happens all too rarely these days.

A bit of background – most living rooms now boast a cinema sound system now, but when quad was around in the early to mid 70’s, I had absolutely no exposure to it.  I was lucky to even get a sniff of a stereo, let alone – quadraphonic – or four speaker  sound.  In many ways I am glad of that, because now I can discover it through the quad mixes of albums I knew, loved and literally played to death [1].    Being so intimate with each piece of work means that you can spot the subtle nuances of a quad mix almost straight away.  The Alan Parsons quad mix of Dark Side of the Moon is no exception.  You know the voices? Well, they are different.  I believe they are clearer – you can make out what the announcer is saying in ‘On the run’.    There are guitar parts I didn’t know existed, and it is just more involving.

It isn’t just old hippy prog rock bands that made the most of quad – Simon and Garfuunkel’s Bridge over Troubled Water (I much prefer Half-man Half-Biscuit’s Trouble Over Bridgewater as a title, if I am honest) is quite glorious and…oh..that word again. Involving. I’ll shut up lest I sound like a beardie hi-fi journalist who is convinced that he can hear the difference between types of mains cables.  It always strikes me as the only qualification to write for the Hi-fi press is a ownership of a dictionary, sandals, a catweazle-like demeanour  and a diploma in peddling snake oil. [2]

So, how do you get this new loveliness?  Simple – enter ‘quad’ into the search engine of any well known torrent site – I find the green demon quite useful, and pull down the file that you require.  Once downloaded, you’ll need to burn the file onto a DVD (important this…) and then play it in your DTS surround sound system.  That is all.  Oh, a fast internet connection helps….

Try a few of them, and see what you think.  Excuse me while I nod sagely to Joni Mitchell’s Hissing of Summer Lawns.  I’m expecting to smile….the summer of 1976 is still with me, I suspect.

[1]  I did actually destroy side 4 of Quadrophenia by wearing it out.  Ironic, really, that there is no Quad mix of Quadrophenia.  And my copy of ‘Who’s Next’  is utterly devastated too….

[2] There is another blog about the perils of venturing into Sevenoaks HiFi unaccompanied (yes, let out on my own, and without idiot mittens), which has the moral – believe and trust nothing but your ears.

I know, I know. I am a boring old f*rt, but I’ve long been convinced that the early 70’s were the creative hotbed that gave rise to everything we listen to and enjoy now, and yet so much is overlooked these days. Here are a few of my favourite oft-overlooked tracks fron the early 70’s – so thoughtfully upped onto youtube by people with more time than I have. Enjoy.