Steve_Graham@ub.cc.umich.edu (11/30/90)
FFSS and FFRR stereo records are made to be played in the usual way. Very
few records were made in non-standard stereo, and none to my knowledge were
released by major labels. Cook Records did one that had two grooves and
required a forked arm with two cartridges. No one has ever made a record
that required a "split stylus" though. What was proposed initially by
a couple of companies, including Decca/London, was to have one channel
modulated laterally (side to side like a mono record) and the other vertically
("hill and dale"). But when the 45/45 system we have now was adopted
(referring to the fact that each channel is cut at 45 degrees, so the two
are 90 degrees with respect to each other, that is, one groove wall per channel)
Decca modified their system to comply by the simple expedient of matrixing
and feeding left plus right to the lateral channel and left minus right
to the vertical channel. This produces (in a theoretically perfect world)
a groove that is exactly the same as one cut in the conventional manner.
I suspect that part of the reason Deccas sounded so good was that because of
this manner of cutting they were less afraid than other companies of having
relatively large vertical groove excursions. This translates into greater
depth (at least sometimes) and possibly more bass, depending on mike
technique. This theory is seemingly borne out by the fact that the newly
Polygramized recuttings of some of the pre-80s era Decca/Londons lack the
depth and emotional impact that the older pressings (even through the late
70s) had.
Decca cartridges were also made on the vertical/lateral model, internally
matrixed to produce standard left/right signals, or so I've read.
[ You bet yer butt they were. The Decca Mk IV cartridges are my all-time
favorite and never cease to impress people. More accurate? Probably not.
More musical? Sure are. If you have a Decca C4E you're not using, let me
know. -tjk]
(Phillips, who now presses Deccas and Londons, has never approved of the
lateral/vertical matrixed cutting method, I note.)
The 45/45 cutting system was chosen over the lateral/vertical one for two
basic reasons: 1) so the fidelity would be equal in the two channels, and
2) to maintain some semblance of compatibility with existing mono equipment.
True, older stereo disks warned that they needed to be played with stereo
stylus and cartridge, but that was merely to assure decent tracing of the
groove (mono styli had larger diameters and would have trouble with the
treble, and mono cartridges were made not to move easily in the vertical
direction, and would therefor put more wear on the stereo groove, which always
does have some vertical components) However if you played the stereo LPs
with a mono stylus you would still hear a sum of the two channels, whereas
with a lateral/vertical system you would mostly hear the lateral channel
with the vertical being largely suppressed. It was considered good to suppress
vertical information to reduce tracing distortion and rumble, much of which
tends to be vertical (as well as certain types of pressing noise such as
the "orange peel" that old Deccas are infamous for.)
Sorry, got carried away. The answer is, yes, you can play your old early
stereo records on modern equipment with no worries. You might want to
deep clean them first though....By all means keep them, unless they are
trashed. (Or sell them and get rich!)