Tokyo Electro Acoustic Company had some interesting plans with NXT when digital recordings came along

The inexpensive set shown in the illustration above can reproduce music well if the signal to it is not distorted and the electro-acoustic transducer in the subwoofer is aimed directly at the listener at the height of the speakers. This is largely due to the NXT speakers used in this set. Wikipedia mentions the disadvantages of these speakers: Low directivity and slow fading may lessen stereophonic sound impression. Still, listening from an off-center position gives some imaging of phantom sources as the other speaker can be heard with its full spectrum, but with extra delay due to the listeners local position.This opinion can be caused by many factors, and the source is very important here, i.e. what was recorded and finally saved, most likely while listening to other loudspeakers. It is also unknown under what conditions this description was born and what it was like in the original before it was adopted in the Wikipedia entry.

In the 1970s, many musicians worked at home with a TEAC A-3440 tape recorder. One of them, out of sentimental impulse, bought two such NXT systems to listen to quadraphonic tapes. He has four-channel tapes that were sold decades ago and may still be available at a high price today. He also has his own four-channel copies, which he once copied from quadraphonic records. Playing records was irritating for him because of the booming bass. This was most likely due to acoustic feedback, which didn't occur with tapes. With the new equipment, the bass again irritated him, even though he was playing back recordings from tapes.

A simple Yamaha A 320 amplifier provided a better solution. Two flat-panel NTX speakers were connected to it. Installation was child's play. The front channels of the A-3340 tape recorder were connected to the TD-X300i set, and the rear channels to the A-320 amplifier. The subwoofer and front NTX speakers were at the same level, and the rear speakers were more or less the same. The musician was pleasantly surprised. Another interesting connection was to use a second X300i in the front, but only its subwoofer. The signal from the headphone output of one set was fed to the input of the other. Both subwoofers were placed vertically, with the drivers at the same level as the NTX. The musician summarized this acrobatic feat: the bass was exaggerated, but not muddled. Turning on a soldering iron and opening the sets' enclosures could have produced even more interesting results. The A-320 might even have been superfluous. Low-cost resistors can make the bass even more reliably reproduced and the music more satisfying.

 

The configuration with 4 NXTs and one subwoofer worked very well when playing music from a 4-channel tape which was copied from the SQ record "The Dark Side Of The Moon". Not everyone might think so, because the Pink Floyd album is so well-known that many people remember how it sounded with their playback equipment, so they may have their own opinion.

On well-calibrated equipment, playing a 5.1 remix of a quadraphonic recording released on SACD is undoubtedly an experience. The remix's quality is undeniably guaranteed by James K.A. Guthrie (born 14 November 1953 in London) is a British sound engineer and record producer, best known for his work with the band Pink Floyd, having served as a producer and engineer for the band since 1978. Equally important is, of course, Alan Presons, about whom it is mentioned: his real ongoing claim to fame was his engineering work on Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon (1973) which earned him his first Grammy nomination. The remix was certainly not a simple commission for them, but a personal testament to the possibilities of newer technologies. 

 

text in edition