Art Garfunkel & Lynn Anderson in SACD Surround (Jan 2018)

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That album cover on Breakaway always sort of freaked me out. You know....Art always looked so wholesome. lmao

There he is, sitting at a table with butts everywhere...couple of chicks on each arm...and a glass of whisky. :banana:

OK, might not be whisky....but my story sounds better that way. :chill


Art was at the same joint as Leonard. Columbia recording artists were secretly taken there and given access to all kinds of substances and fast women. This was solely so that they could all release albums with questionable covers. At least Art's album didn't feature a song titled Don't Go Home With Your Hard-On... :0


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I’m not a big Art solo fan, but I ordered the Lynn Anderson and finally got around to getting Musicmagic. My first DV order.
 
I was able to listen to Angel Clare tonight in its entirety, and wow, it was great to hear some real quadraphonic sound, back when the major artists and labels were invested in it. I have to admit, I've not heard much quad music before, but I was really impressed with how discrete this album is--much more than simple ambiance or a drum beat here and a guitar chord there. Even though Art Garfunkel is a bit soft for my hard rock tastes, the music was actually much more enjoyable in the quad format, as it was often all around me, and there was a lot coming from the rears, too. In fact, I enjoyed the quad mix so much that I don't know if I really want to hear the album in stereo again. :) Otherwise, the sound quality was excellent, and I can't recommend the disc highly enough.

I'm going to be bold here and say that if you listen to Garfunkel's music and half-like it, as in you don't mind it, but feel like it is missing something for you, you should get this disc if you can play the quad layer. In fact, I would say if you only find Garfunkel tolerable, but aren't fortunate enough to have experienced much quad music before, you should get the disc regardless. It really is a fun way to experience the music, and it's certainly worth the price that Dutton Vocalion are asking.

Let me just add that I've seen a lot of people post similar thoughts to the above, here, and usually I would meet them with just a dash of skepticism. So if that's you, now, reading this, realize that I know where you're coming from--if you can play multi-channel SACDs, this is worth getting, unless the music is completely intolerable to you.

I also "taste-tested" the Anderson album, as well as a smattering of the Conniff. I don't really want to talk about them until I've had a chance to listen to them fully, but I'm cautiously optimistic, although, as regards Conniff, I still don't think Easy Listening music is ever going to be my cup of tea.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to listen to Breakaway yet, so that will also have to wait for tomorrow.

I really hope Dutton Vocalion can continue moving in this direction with more popular music (as well as classical), because based on this (really, first) experience, I could see myself buying a lot more Quad SACDs in those genres if they are even half as good as Angel Clare.
 
I was able to listen to Angel Clare tonight in its entirety, and wow, it was great to hear some real quadraphonic sound, back when the major artists and labels were invested in it. I have to admit, I've not heard much quad music before, but I was really impressed with how discrete this album is--much more than simple ambiance or a drum beat here and a guitar chord there.

Welcome to the club :)

Columbia quad mixes are just the best- Mostly static (some do have 360 pans sprinkled throughout though), lots of separation, but they honor the balance of the album in stereo. I hope they all make it to SACD someday.

If you'd like to hear more of these type of mixes, I can recommend the Chicago Quadio box set and the various SACDs sourced from Columbia quads. There are quite a few out there, released by labels such as D-V, Audio Fidelity, Sony US, and Sony Japan.

Some DTS discs are from Columbia quads as well- Santana's "Abraxas" and Poco's "Crazy Eyes" to name two.

As for the ones that haven't made it to Hi-Res (yet)- Lots of good Q8 conversions around
 
I listened to Breakaway, as well as the Lynn Anderson two-fer tonight.

I'm delighted to report that Breakaway is just as good as Angel Clare, and again, the quad mix is now my preferred way to listen to the album. There really isn't much more that I can say, as I'm no expert on Garfunkel, or anything like that, but again, if you even half-like the music, I can't see how you'd be disappointed with the SACD. The sound quality is just as terrific, as well.

I'm sorry to report that country is not my style, so listening to the Lynn Anderson was unfortunately a bit of a chore. However, I do like "Rose Garden", and it's great to have two different quad mixes of it, from the two different album masterings. I also thought the cover of "I Don't Wanna Play House" and her song "I Wish I Was a Little Boy Again" were pretty amusing, too. The quad mixes are a bit more restrained at times, here, I assume because Anderson often has less going on in her songs than someone like Garfunkel. Still, at times it can get surprisingly active and discrete, and the quad mixes are definitely worth listening to if you appreciate country more than I do.

I'm really excited to see what Dutton Vocalion have in store next. In a perfect world, there would be releases for February, but we've had such a bountiful December and January--times when many companies wind down releases--that I suppose I couldn't fault them if they took the month off...

but I would prefer if they didn't. ;)

Welcome to the club :)

Columbia quad mixes are just the best- Mostly static (some do have 360 pans sprinkled throughout though), lots of separation, but they honor the balance of the album in stereo. I hope they all make it to SACD someday.

If you'd like to hear more of these type of mixes, I can recommend the Chicago Quadio box set and the various SACDs sourced from Columbia quads. There are quite a few out there, released by labels such as D-V, Audio Fidelity, Sony US, and Sony Japan.

Some DTS discs are from Columbia quads as well- Santana's "Abraxas" and Poco's "Crazy Eyes" to name two.

As for the ones that haven't made it to Hi-Res (yet)- Lots of good Q8 conversions around

Thanks for the recommedations, sjcorne.

I almost bought the Chicago Quadio box because it was on Blu-ray Audio, and I wanted to support that format, especially for older multichannel mixes, but in the end, I couldn't find enough Chicago material I enjoyed at the time to justify the price. I really only like hard rock and classical music,but I'm trying to branch out. :) Having said that, I think if Rhino had shown a commitment to putting more popular music Blu-ray Audio titles out around the same time, I may have bit the bullet regardless, but unfortunately, major music labels have been very flaky about their support for Blu-ray Audio, and they often make the mistake of only including them in lavish, expensive box sets (although obviously, I am not talking about the Chicago Quadio set, here) so in the end, I think I will have to do the awful thing and wait for a potential bargain price on that one.

However, I'm pretty excited for the How the West was Won Blu-ray Audio, even more so because Warner did it right and make it available as a single-format release.
 
I was able to listen to Angel Clare tonight in its entirety, and wow, it was great to hear some real quadraphonic sound, back when the major artists and labels were invested in it. I have to admit, I've not heard much quad music before, but I was really impressed with how discrete this album is--much more than simple ambiance or a drum beat here and a guitar chord there. Even though Art Garfunkel is a bit soft for my hard rock tastes, the music was actually much more enjoyable in the quad format, as it was often all around me, and there was a lot coming from the rears, too. In fact, I enjoyed the quad mix so much that I don't know if I really want to hear the album in stereo again. :) Otherwise, the sound quality was excellent, and I can't recommend the disc highly enough.

I'm going to be bold here and say that if you listen to Garfunkel's music and half-like it, as in you don't mind it, but feel like it is missing something for you, you should get this disc if you can play the quad layer. In fact, I would say if you only find Garfunkel tolerable, but aren't fortunate enough to have experienced much quad music before, you should get the disc regardless. It really is a fun way to experience the music, and it's certainly worth the price that Dutton Vocalion are asking.

Let me just add that I've seen a lot of people post similar thoughts to the above, here, and usually I would meet them with just a dash of skepticism. So if that's you, now, reading this, realize that I know where you're coming from--if you can play multi-channel SACDs, this is worth getting, unless the music is completely intolerable to you.

I think this really hits the nail on the head of why I fell in love with quad too. I never would have gone near an Art Garfunkel album on purpose in my teenage years, but that's exactly what happened, I happened to hear a DTS CD of the Q8 of Breakaway, and the thrill of having the music (even in its lo-fi glory) all around me opened my eyes to something that my preconceptions would have had me avoiding. I was going to use the word "novelty" to describe the quad experience, but I don't think it's correct because novelties wear off.

I think I've said this before here, but this is a perfect example of it in action - we all have our 'top 10' wish lists of things we'd like to have, but the weird meandering circuitous drip-drip of releases means that you end up trying out things that you may have skipped otherwise. In the days before digital quad that's how it was for me - I couldn't afford the Q8's of the 'heavy hitters' that I wanted, so I scooped up all these obscurities simply because I could afford them, and found loads of music in the process. I got in to quad because of Chicago, but as a result, I found quad stuff like Minnie Riperton, Larry Coryell & The 11th House, The Four Tops ABC albums, Joe Walsh, Dave Mason, and so many others.

I'm glad that this reissue program that Vocalion (and A-F before them) embarked upon is allowing people to have some of the same experience, and at a considerably more affordable price-point!
 
I should note I got my two Garfunkel discs from DV direct yesterday afternoon.

Unfortunately I'm away from my SACD player and cannot hear them until Mid-March :(

Looking forward to some more reviews in the poll thread. I have a Q8 rip of Angel Clare and a Tate SQ decode of Breakaway on my HDD, so I do know how good these mixes are. Happy to retire both for these new definitive versions!
 
Hello QQ community, After spending two grueling days at the NAMM convention :mad:@: my 4 Pack arrived today as well, the two Garfunkels, A Henry Mancini‘s Twofer and the Chet Atkins super pickers. A small crack in one of the cases no biggie swapped it out immediately as usual about three weeks delivery time. First up super pickers it’s another Fantastic remastering by Mr Dutton and as a fan of Arties and never heard the quads of these two recordings this should be fun and a real treat. Cheers and continued support to
MD and vocalion for there re-issuing of these quad gems in a high-resolution format. Also a big thanks again to David for his outstanding and informative liner notes keep up the good work and hopefully you’ll be at this for a long long time. :banana:
 
I ordered all three on 1/20. No idea why I ordered so late -- when were they first available?
People here seem to have received them around 1/7, which is when Imordered the previous 4 (Musicmagic, etc). Those came days sgo, so I guess it takes a fortnight for shipments to reach the US.

See what I did there?
We don't use that word here in the US like you Brits.

Don't want them to run out ...
 
I just received the 2 Art Garfunkel Quad SACD titles (Breakaway and Angel Claire) and the Lynn Anderson twofer quad SACD in the post.
Should be a good quadrophonic listen.
I passed on the other titles as I am not into MOR 70's big band compilations.
Check out the other titles available at....
https://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/
 
Breakaway is outstanding, a great quad mix with attention to detail and some pretty good songwriting choices. Love it!!
 
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