Re: [ARSCLIST] Stereo records.

[steven c <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Richter" <mrichter@xxxxxxx>
> Don Cox wrote of AM/FM Stereo
> 
> > It might have worked better with the sum on one channel and the
> > difference on the other - then they don't have to be matched.
> > 
> > But that would need a decoder of some kind. Just a passive network, I
> > think.
> 
> I believe you're operating in another world of electronics, not the one 
> which existed in that era. In that period - the late 50s before the 
> multiplex standard was established - we were told to put the AM radio a 
> few feet from the FM radio to get stereo. No wiring needed at all except 
> to the power line (mains).
> 
> In practice, sum-and-difference would have been better only in that the 
> loss of highs would be balanced on the two sides. Presumably, AM would 
> be the difference signal, so it is easy to see that separation in the 
> midrange would be largely defeated by the absence of separation in the 
> highs.
> 
> At any rate, AM/FM stereo was an experiment that was clearly doomed from 
> the start. There was also an attempt using two FM stations which had 
> little chance from the beginning given the value of bandwidth even then. 
> Multiplex isn't a very good choice for fidelity, but it is practical and 
> that's what counts.
> 
Well, stereo records first appeared around 1957 (the handful of people
with tape recorders had heard stereo tapes a fair bit earlier), and
only the dedicated audiophiles had stereo sound systems by 1958-59.
"Stereo" sound using different sources for each channel (AM, FM, TV)
were the easiest way to bring stereo sound to "the masses"...who had
never heard any kind of multi-channel audio before, and thus had no
basis for comparisons.

I can recall the first time I heard stereo sound...it was being
demonstrated in a music store in Springfield, Illinois...and I
walked in looking for a particular pop 45, and was overwhelmed by
this new sound I heard that sounded much more "real" than anything
I had heard before! That was, IIRC, mid-1958.

Within a couple of years, one could buy stereo tabletop record
players for $50 or so...a lot of pop LP's were issued in stereo
(and many in "electronic stereo"...we didn't know the difference!).
You could also buy spring reverb units to add to your car radio
to create "stereo" sound from your AM car radio! I think it was in
the October, 1958 issue of Popular Electronics that there was an
article on how to build a spring reverb using a screen door spring...
I'd like to find that and see what they used for transducers!

It didn't sound a lot like "stereo," but one would make a nice
addition to my harmonica amplifier...

Steven C. Barr