A Brief History of Multi-Channel Sound

Multi-channel sound is not a new technology. The first demonstrations of multi-channel playback where as far back as 1938. When I find the patent number I'll put it up. It was a large resistor network (or as I remember). Later in the 60's various matrix encoding and decoding methods came about. Unfortunately, the results were less than satisfying from both a performance and marketing standpoint. The early systems were plagued by poor technical performance, software of highly variable quality and public indifference.