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We present a fast, displacement-measuring, single-pass, two-detector homodyne quadrature laser interferometer and compare its performance with an arm-compensated, proportional, integral-derivative-controlled Michelson interferometer. Special attention is given to the extension of the dynamic range. The wide dynamic range is achieved by an accurate fringe subdivision based on an enhanced ellipse-specific fitting of the scattered Lissajous curve and by increasing the total displacement using the quadrature-detection technique. The common periodic deviations, i.e., the unequal AC amplitudes, the DC offsets, and the lack of quadrature are determined and reduced by data processing based on an ellipse-specific, least-squares fitting to obtain nanometric accuracy. The performance of the described interferometer is demonstrated through the measurement of high-amplitude and high-frequency laser-induced ultrasound.