Jeff Beck Group & Birds of Fire - Audio Fidelity 4.0 Multichannel SACDs (August 2015)

Been a pretty healthy balance so far.. for every obscure one there's been a bigger hitter I reckon.. so far this AF Surround SACD program has given us Quad and 5.1 from The Doors, Billy Joel, Earth Wind & Fire, Blood Sweat & Tears, Bread, America.. and it's not like Jeff Beck's a no-name either (no disrespect to the New York Voices but they were earlier on in this deal and it didn't affect things one bit..)..so right now I'm not unduly worried this thing they've got going is gonna go belly up anytime soon, the guys at AF have got more reissues of quality Classic Quad mixes out than pretty much anyone else pretty much the last 15 years.

fredblue said:

Been a pretty healthy balance so far.. for every obscure one there's been a bigger hitter I reckon.. so far this AF Surround SACD program has given us Quad and 5.1 from The Doors, Billy Joel, Earth Wind & Fire, Blood Sweat & Tears, Bread, America.. and it's not like Jeff Beck's a no-name either (no disrespect to the New York Voices but they were earlier on in this deal and it didn't affect things one bit..)..so right now I'm not unduly worried this thing they've got going is gonna go belly up anytime soon, the guys at AF have got more reissues of quality Classic Quad mixes out than pretty much anyone else pretty much the last 15 years.

Click to expand...

Absolutely. I've also discovered some good new albums with the bonus of being in 4.0 e.g. Earth, Wind & Fire, BS&T, Labelle, which I probably wouldn't have bought had they just been in stereo, so a bit of a musical education for me. I'm really looking forward to the Jeff Beck and Mahavishnu Orchestra both albums are favourites in stereo.

Cover mock-up courtesy of Acoustic Sounds.

I'm definitely IN for this one. I'm imagining all those wild solo tradeoffs swirling around me.

Listening to this album for the first time ever on Youtube right now... Fantastic!!! I can't wait to purchase this disc!

Why would it say Quad 4.0 twice on the slipcase?

cupboy said:

Why would it say Quad 4.0 twice on the slipcase?

Click to expand...

These mock ups are never exactly how they actually end up appearing.
I bet it will just say it once in the top left corner like all of the others.

Quad 4.0, Quad 4.0, so good they named it twice..

Here are the official blurbs:



Mahavishnu Orchestra
"Birds Of Fire"
Hybrid SACD 4.0 Multichannel
AFZ5 212 - SRP $29.99

"Birds Of Fire" is Mahavishnu Orchestra's second album. It was released in 1973 and is the last studio album released by the original Mahavishnu Orchestra lineup before the group dissolved. The album became a major crossover hit worldwide. "Birds of Fire" is a remarkable example of precisely choreographed hi speed solo trading with John McLaughlin, Jerry Goodman and Jan Hammer all of one mind supported by Billy Cobham's machine gun drumming and Rick Laird's dancing bass. "Birds Of Fire" consists solely of compositions by John McLaughlin. This includes the track Miles Beyond (Miles Davis) which McLaughlin dedicated to his friend and former band leader.




Jeff Beck
"Jeff Beck Group"
Hybrid SACD 4.0 Multichannel
AFZ5 219 - SRP $29.99

First released in 1972, this hybrid SACD features the original 4.0 multichannel which gives you the Jeff Beck Group in surround sound. A dynamic musical experience for the ears. This is the fourth and final studio album for the legendary group. The band fully exploits the wildly unique instrumentation of Beck and classical/jazz pianist Max Middleton, the soul/groove of Clive Chaman on bass, Cozy Powell on drums and the expressive vocals of Bobby Tench. The Jeff Beck Group performs some of the finest pieces of blues/rock in the history of the genre. The record was produced by Steve Cropper of Booker T and the M.G.'s.

skherbeck said:

Listening to this album for the first time ever on Youtube right now... Fantastic!!! I can't wait to purchase this disc!

Click to expand...

Like that? Try Electric Band! Top! TOP musicians-I have several and a video. It's sad that really good music gets overlooked for more 'easy" stuff!

JonUrban said:

Here are the official blurbs:

View attachment 19787

Click to expand...

See cupboy? Just one "Quad Multichannel 4.0" 'sticker', just like I figured.

If that's what the disc labels will actually look like, they're getting better all the time.
That was always one thing that let down the "look" in my opinion (of course it's the music & sound that matter most, but still).
The MoFi disc labels exude quality, AF is obviously trying in that dept. too

rtbluray said:

See cupboy? Just one "Quad Multichannel 4.0" 'sticker', just like I figured.

Click to expand...

What a relief!

rtbluray said:

See cupboy? Just one "Quad Multichannel 4.0" 'sticker', just like I figured.

Click to expand...

I hope they keep the 4.O QUAD indicator this time.

Absolutely, count me in for both of these. Happy days are here again, keep the titles coming!

So far, I've bought Each and Every title here of the AF Quad's and other MC. I know not everyone can buy everything all at once, but over time I recommend picking up these titles while they're still available. When I first bought a DVD-A/SACD player in 2006, it was a mad scramble to pick up the titles that were still there. Many artists I wasn't sure I wanted at first, but thanks to the honest enthusiastic reviews here, I've discovered many types of music I would not have normally bought at first glance. Now, I'm only interested in Multi-Channel regardless of it being Hard Rock, Jazz, Classical/Opera, Country and any other strange mix that's out there.

It's always been buy now or regret later. It's just the nature of these limited run titles. As many here at QQ have mentioned over the years as a warning, eventually every title goes OOP.

Old Quad Guy said:

Absolutely, count me in for both of these. Happy days are here again, keep the titles coming!

So far, I've bought Each and Every title here of the AF Quad's and other MC. I know not everyone can buy everything all at once, but over time I recommend picking up these titles while they're still available. When I first bought a DVD-A/SACD player in 2006, it was a mad scramble to pick up the titles that were still there. Many artists I wasn't sure I wanted at first, but thanks to the honest enthusiastic reviews here, I've discovered many types of music I would not have normally bought at first glance. Now, I'm only interested in Multi-Channel regardless of it being Hard Rock, Jazz, Classical/Opera, Country and any other strange mix that's out there.

It's always been buy now or regret later. It's just the nature of these limited run titles. As many here at QQ have mentioned over the years as a warning, eventually every title goes OOP.

Click to expand...

When I first started buying surround discs in 2001-2002 I did exactly the same, and regretted not buying a quite a few! Rarely have I regretted buying a disc, so now if it looks vaguely interesting I buy it :51banana:

A fan photo on the Super Audio CD (SACD) group on Facebook shows that the Jeff Beck Group and Birds of Fire by the Mahavishnu Orchestra Multichannel SACDs are now shipping to Audio Fidelity club members.
This fan apparently ordered 2 extra copies of each Multichannel SACD - as the photo shows!



https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=931490806909069&set=gm.759239907536617&type=1&permPage=1

The heartbreak of when Rhino's Quadio stopped after two quad titles has been nullified to a great extent by AF issuing these SACDs.

What a nice late development. It was not safe previously to be very optimistic about old quad coming out on new releases.

This site has been a great thing for help in giving the surround community a voice as a group, so they have a better clue we exist.
.

The Rang said:

Headed to Seattle tomorrow to pick up my stash ( way cheaper to have them mailed there than up here to Canada) hopefully these two are waiting for me

Click to expand...

Well were they waiting for you as hoped and expected?

I'm very interested to hear about these quad mixes and well they were preserved.

Are these credited as mastered and authored by Sony, or are they the usual technical outside team?

Bumpy-bump

quicksrt said:

Well were they waiting for you as hoped and expected?

I'm very interested to hear about these quad mixes and well they were preserved.

Are these credited as mastered and authored by Sony, or are they the usual technical outside team?

Bumpy-bump

Click to expand...

The original Quad mixes are from the Sony Music vaults from the '70s.

The Stereo SACD and CD mastering on both is by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio.
The transfers and mastering on both from 4.0 Quad Analog Master Tape to Multichannel DSD (and SACD) were done by Gus Skinas at the Super Audio Center in Longmont, Colorado.