HiRez Poll Yes - FRAGILE (2002 Mix) [DVD-A]/[SACD-JAPAN]

finally got a copy of this yesterday, never having been that big a yes fan i was surprised how good this sounded on first listen. The surround mix sounds good and agressive at times.
bit over the top at times but then isnt the music over the top anyway ?

ill vote later but its definitly in the top quarter of the table.

Thanks for the tip Felix and glad to see it available again (I just ordered it also!)......glad I lost the last two Ebay auctions on it at $30+. John

Having listened to this a couple of times since I received it (2 days mail from CD Universe..great!) I'd give it a solid 8+. Like Jon Urban, I think it starts off with a nicely aggressive mix on Roundabout, the sonics are the best I've heard this song. It seems a little tamer after that for the most part, I must admit. Roundabout was worth the price of the disk though for surround (a demo song for me) and America is a great rocking outro.

No prob. Glad to see some more copies floating around.

The bonus track cover of Simon and Garfunkel's "America," is mind-blowing at reference level. I love how Chris Squire throws in a couple of bars of "America" from West Side Story at one point. And then there's Steve Howe's solo. Right when you think the break is over, it shifts gears and continues. Truly inspired.

Gave it a 7.

The biggest drawback for me were the mixes, @half of which are nearly stereo.

What saved it from a lower score was the excellent sound quality of the 5.1 mix. Compared to the tired stereo master tape,* going back to those fresh (relatively speaking) multitrack tapes to produce the surround mix really lets the original sonic bits & pieces reveal themselves.

I liked the Yes history timeline bonus feature, which has lots of interesting info. And the animated menus are a nice touch, active enough but without being intrusive (Crystal Method's Legion Of Boom gets my vote for most irritating/time consuming animated menu ).

* I didn't think the 96kHz/24bit stereo track sounded particularly special vs. my CD version.

When I showed this to my friend, who's intimate with the songs of Yes, he says there's more reverb on the voices than he remembers and the bass is drier than he remembers.

Is this the fiddling that seems to irritate people?

I'll give this an 8... it's good enough but not mind blowing.

I've already voiced my complaints about the 5.1 mix. The stereo DVD-A version, which sounded great on first listen, didn't hold up to repeated listens and A/B comparisons to the Joe Gastwirt remaster... perhaps this is why

Roundabout (stereo) from the DVD-A





Roundabout from the 1990 CD:

JonUrban said:

MFSL must have lost their mind. Why release this album on STEREO SACD when it's already out in HiRez Multichannel?

http://www.musicdirect.com/products/detail.asp?sku=CMF766&j=6836719&e

You would think that they would find another classic album to do for SACD, even if it were stereo only.

It's no wonder the HiRez market is floundering (except in China, of course)

Click to expand...

Speaking of the MFSL edition, has anyone compared this to the CD version? For me, the CD sounds fantastic (the best sounding Yes album in that respect), and it's hard to imagine a big improval.

Almen said:

Speaking of the MFSL edition, has anyone compared this to the CD version? For me, the CD sounds fantastic (the best sounding Yes album in that respect), and it's hard to imagine a big improval.

Click to expand...

There is no SACD of Fragile, by MoFi or otherwise.

ssully said:

There is no SACD of Fragile, by MoFi or otherwise.

Click to expand...

I know, I was referring to the MFSL CD.

Almen said:

I know, I was referring to the MFSL CD.

Click to expand...

Speaking of the MFSL edition, has anyone compared this to the CD version? For me, the CD sounds fantastic (the best sounding Yes album in that respect), and it's hard to imagine a big improval.

Click to expand...

So, you seem to be asking if anyone has compared the MFSL Edition -- which is a CD -- to the CD.

ssully said:

So, you seem to be asking if anyone has compared the MFSL Edition -- which is a CD -- to the CD.

Click to expand...

Yep, that is correctly understood.

Since it is two different editions of an album (otherwise the MFSL would be totally pointless), I thought it would be interesting with a comparison.

That is: is there any reason whatsoever to buy the MFSL CD when you have the remaster from 1990?

Almen said:

Yep, that is correctly understood.

Since it is two different editions of an album (otherwise the MFSL would be totally pointless), I thought it would be interesting with a comparison.

Click to expand...

Actually, there are at least three CD masterings of Fragile in addition to the MFSL CD. You didn't specify until now that you were referring the 1990 version (mastered by Joe Gastwirt).

Yeah, I kept talking about the 1990 version since it was compared to the DVD-A earlier in the thread.

You didn't specify until now that you were referring the 1990 version (mastered by Joe Gastwirt).

Click to expand...

And you didn't specify until now that you wanted to know which CD edition I was referring to.

One word

BORIIIIINNNGGGG!!!!!...MIX that is...not the music...

(BTW, I AM a Yes fan)

I concur with many a quadheads when they state that-

IT'S AN "EXTENDED STEREO MIX"- and not very extended either...
there are exceptions, like "Cans and Brahms" and "5% for nothing" and "America"(GREAT mix)

Which leads me to believe that there were 2 mixing engineers, one for the 3 tracks mentioned and the boring guy for the rest of the album....

Many missed opportunities...(footsteps in SSOTSky, Intro for Roundabout, We Have Heaven)

This suffers from the "hey, let's only use the surround channels for the sporadic keyboard/gtr element" syndrome :flame:flame:flame:flame

Great sound "restoration" though...nice hear this stuff from '71 so crystal clear (I think the other Qheads that have said it's mush do not have their equipment set up properly)...

I give it a 5 because of the great "America" mix, which is a totally different beast- if not I'd have given it a 1...

This is a classic! If- IF you are of the 70's era, like me, I had this on vinyl, and could never get my cheapee stereo to sound good, so it's a real 1st class treat now with dvd- audio that I get to enjoy this disc after mis-treating my ears for so many playings while enjoying the fine colombian/the quarvo gold

I like it. I listen to it pretty often. I just enjoy other bands more, so it takes a (slight) back shelf position, but absolutely nothing wrong with it for enjoyability factor. I'll abstain from a vote on this one.

There are two sitting on the rack at Best Buy Markham.

Originally had this as an LP and got rid of it because the only thing I liked was "Roundabout". But now in MCH, it's much more involving and interesting. So,
music:8
mix:8 (could have been more action in the rears in several places)
master quality:5 (the highs are terrible on this recording in many places, like cymbols)

sq10 said:

O

Great sound "restoration" though...nice hear this stuff from '71 so crystal clear (I think the other Qheads that have said it's mush do not have their equipment set up properly)...

Click to expand...

Not sure I agree with that. I suspect the 'crystal clarity' comes from compression and boosting the treble EQ, at least for the stereo version.

Here's the stereo 'Roundabout' from the DVD-A