Hi-Fis at Work

A "hifi" (for "high fidelity") is a man who believes that sooner or later he can hook up enough amplifiers, tone arms and speakers in his living room to make his recordings sound just as good as a performance in a concert hall--maybe better. Half a dozen years ago, there was hardly a platoon of them in the whole U.S. Last week in Manhattan, 15,000 of them trooped to the fourth annual hi-fi roundup, known as the Audio Fair. Partsmakers and plain fans, they took over 116 rooms of the New Yorker Hotel, set up their wares and turned on the switches.

There was plenty to sample in the resulting hi-fi bedlam--speakers that looked like kettledrums or corner cupboards, tape recorders the size of a wallet or a washing machine, amplifiers that cost from $40 to $400, complete hookups from $150 (Spartan economy) to $3,500 (Sybaritic luxury). But as the fair went on, most of the excitement centered around something called "binaural" (or "stereophonic") sound. Aim of binaural sound: to give the ears the same effect of realistic "presence" that Cinerama films--or the old-fashioned stereoscope--give the eyes.

The possibility of such a sound system has fascinated sound engineers for years. Experiments by early radio engineers and, in the recording field, by Manhattan's Audak Co. a generation ago proved that it was technically possible to get extremely high fidelity of tone by the use of duplicate, spaced microphones, duplicate recordings and duplicate speakers. It has taken the popularity of hi-fi to bring the idea out of the labs. Last week two tape recorder manufacturers, one disk equipment firm and one record company were demonstrating working models.

Some models were designed for playing records, others tape. But each depended on a thoroughly binaural system, from pickup on through to home playback. This means two microphones to "hear" the performance, two systems of groovings on the same record (or double-track tape), a double-pronged tone arm, two amplifiers and two speakers. Each circuit carries the same music, but the music is caught in slightly different sonic "perspectives." In a recording of a symphony, for example, the violins will be slightly stronger in the left speaker, the brasses stronger in the right. A listener sitting between should hear approximately what he hears from the best seats at a concert.

Last week's exhibitions proved that binaural recordings work. But until the major record and phonograph companies find a way to bring the costs of the system down, it will likely remain just a novelty for the well-heeled hifi. Main drawbacks at present: 1) there is no repertory of double-grooved records--only a few specimen recordings, and 2) a home system for playback might cost twice as much as today's equipment.

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