What are your thoughts on the "Edsels" of the audio history?


It is a human normal to seek the best, and the world of the high end audio fan is full of that history.  But what about some of the dead-ends/failures?

How about Quadraphonic, Perfect Sound Forever, 8-track tapes, SQ and others in your thoughts/memory? 





whatjd
mahlher:

The first Quad LP's I listened to were by Jeff Beck and Santana.

I was in Hawaii @ the time and they had LP's from the Japanese market (in stores) which were yet to be available on the mainland.

One that I recall was an LP by "The Climax Blues Band" that a friend who owned a record store could not get until almost a year later.

The best "not true Quadrophic" setup I heard was maybe 4 years later (75/76) using a B&O black box (tiny little thing) and a pair of cheap single driver speakers which were once "winged" to a vintage R2R deck.

The B&O setup was much subtler/less distractive than the true Quad systems I'd heard (just added a sense of increased space to the sound).

DeKay
The Edsel was very much part of why people in this country started to buy cars from other countries.  Edsel, Mercury of the sixties...et. al. were Fords with different sheet metal and bumpers.  Olds, Pontiac and others are gone because taking a Chevy frame and chassis because different "looks" do not a different car make.  Anti trust laws not being enforced created.,..the "big" three....too bad, Packard and others were great for their time...Packard was referred to as "The Car of Kings". 
 Watch the film Tucker, and name the best cars in the world...yup, most are not made in this country.  It is not because of bad workers or bad designers...it is corporations considering you to be an idiot, and yes, many companies base much of what they do because they think you're and idiot. 
Simple product, the bread you eat.  The grain from wheat has bran and germ...and they can take those parts out and sell most Americans "white" bread with very little nutritional value.....kind of the Homer Simpson version of bread.  Kind of like the person at the sandwich shop that says "would you like that on white or Wheat"?...well they are both made from Wheat...just one has had the best parts removed....dah...
But P.T. Barnum realized you could get people to part with their money to see a woman with a beard or one under 2 foot tall.....boy, money well spent.  Perhaps "white" bread was his idea?
 
The early Pontiac and Olds I had as a youth had their own engine, by the time those brands were dead they all had Chevy frames and drive trains.....not very much a Pontiac or an Olds.  

The Edsel was a piece of crap .  I grew up I’m the motor city and have stories galore of “ quality control” back in the day from friends who actually worked on the assembly line. One example: Chrysler thought hammers were screw drivers....
the edsel was prolly a fine-driving car in its day. my "edsel" was/is my bose cinemate sr-1 soundbar, the only remotely affordable speaker system that would let you get your head out of the stereophonic "vise."

What are your thoughts on the "Edsels" of the audio history?

McIntosh speakers and their solid state amps with output transformers.

Oh!! and add that French ELP laser reading LP turntable also.

Cheers George