first stereo developed by Magnachord?

[Daddy Dee]

Heard this interesting story on talk radio this morning:

First instance of "stereo" was developed by Magnachord for GM to help with analysis of engine noise.

Anyone heard this before? Is it so?

[boom3]

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On 1/14/2005 10:03:45 AM Daddy Dee wrote:

Heard this interesting story on talk radio this morning:

First instance of "stereo" was developed by Magnachord for GM to help with analysis of engine noise.

Anyone heard this before? Is it so?

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Squawk radio rarely knows what its squawking about, and this is no exception. If you mean the 'concept' of two (or more) channels of electrically transmitted sound, that goes back to the 1890s-1900 timeframe when telephone transmitters were installed in the footlights of the Paris opera, and persons some miles away could hold one or two receivers to their ears to listen.

If you mean stereo as in electrically transmitted and reproduced high fidelity music, that is yet another Bell Labs project from the 1930s, which made a profound impact on PWKs three-channel wide-stage stereo concept. In parallel, Blumlein in Britain was researching two channel recording, and in cooperation with London records, made a few stereo recordings in the 1930s. I think it was he who devised the two channel record groove system.

This is not to say that GM didn't have multichannel audio for research, but if they did it was for a dedicated need and was not in the main stream of two-channel sound, which can be traced through Bell labs, Blumlein, CBS and other major players.

Magnecord was an early maker of magnetic tape machines and used the technology brought back from captured German recorders from WW II. I think PWK had a Magnecord at one time.