of, noting, or pertaining to the recording and reproduction of sound over four separate transmission or direct reproduction channels instead of the customary two of the stereo system:
It begins with a chaotic soundscape of voices and percussion on quadraphonic tape.
First there was mono, then came stereo, and for awhile quadraphonic.
Word Origin and History for quadraphonic
adj.
1969, irregular formation from quadri- "four" + phonic, from Greek phone "sound, voice" (see fame (n.)). The goal was to reproduce front-to-back sound distribution in addition to side-to-side stereo. The later term for the same idea, surround sound, is preferable to this.