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Vocalion Dutton and the Third Coming of Quadrophonic Audio


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As quadrophonic audio enthusiasts are well aware, the first age of quad recordings was in the 1970's with the release of multiple recordings in quad LP or eight track tape formats. Various quad decoders were introduced into the marketplace and a decoder format war ensued. Unlike with the Betamax/VHS or HD DVD/Blu Ray wars, there was never a declared winner(survivor) and quad audio, at least then, went the way of the dinosaur. The second coming of quad audio came in large measure as a result of the rise of the 5.1 home theater. This gave many listeners a speaker setup for listening to multichannel, and a niche of multichannel listeners has since grown out of this. As it stands now, we are currently in the third coming of multichannel audio, albeit mixed with quad audio, 5.1 mixes and remixes, and even a smattering of recordings in Dolby Atmos(R.E.M.'s "Automatic For The People," plus a recent live release by Mumford and Sons) and Auro 3D(almost all on the 2L label, plus Live'N'Bernin by the Bernie Dresel Big Band on the Monster Audio label). The major player in all this, of course, has been SACD, with Blu Ray Audio coming in a distant second. Multichannel classical music SACD recordings exist in the hundreds(actually, over 1000) and many multichannel recordings can be purchased for download today through www.nativedsd.com  Add to this tally perhaps 20 or so SACD recordings of Pop/Rock recordings in mostly quad format on the Audio Fidelity label.

 

Now, over the past couple of years the Michael Dutton quad remasters on the Vocalion Dutton label have emerged out of the U.K. The remasters span multiple genres of music(classical, rock, soul/R&B, country, jazz fusion, easy listening, etc.). There has been a fair amount of favorable discussion of the Dutton remasters over on the quadrophonic forum. For more direct info regarding Vocalion Dutton I recommend taking a look at the following links:

 

https://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/

https://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/blog/

The entry at the bottom of the blog also gives a brief history of quadrophonic audio in the marketplace.

I have no financial interest in any of this and don't know any of the people involved. I just believe that it's all good news for you if you're part of this niche within a niche(within a niche?!). E. Power Biggs organ music, Pinchas Zuckerman does Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons," Art Garfunkel("Angel Clare"  with a Roy Halee 4 channel mix) and Rick Derringer(an "All American Boy"/"Spring Fever" twofer) in quadrophonic sound?  I'm there!

 

 

 

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I knew Dutton had some interesting new releases the last so many years but had no idea they were doing Quadrophonic digital remasters.  I'm guessing it follows the same equation of stereo + MCH as most other SACD so you can listen on any setup.

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