Jesus Christ Superstar Original BWay Cast

i do have both LPs from DECCA and MCA.
MCA re-issued MCA2-10000 (1980) and still in mint condition since unwraped LPs saw needle only several times.
DECCA (DXSA 7206) has hard box and there is no year of manufacture.
i assume that this set was pressed back in 1970.

comparing to CDs reissued, well both hands for sound of original vinyl.
sound of CDs is more loud but artificial and isn't enjoyable as much as soft with lots of harmonic sound of LPs

I have the German yellow cover, the original brown cover Decca 2 LP set, the 2-reel 7-1/2 IPS reel, the one-reel 3-3/4 IPS reel, the Mobile Fidelity CD and two-disc Ortofon-half-speed-cut LP.

The Ortofon blows EVERYBODY away through the QSD-1, followed closely by the 7-1/2, the German LP, the white cover OMR CD and the rest of the pack.

Anybody ever know what became of what was supposed to be the quad mix of at least the opening number of that album?

I seem to remember as a little kid listening in a stereo store to something where the guitar part kept switching speakers around in a circle with the rest of the mix intact. Was it ever published anywhere, or just on some quad dealer-demo reel nobody ever seen?

Whatever it was, probably wasn't from the actual Decca Lp. My mind's blank at the moment, but I think some tracks from this album were recorded by others, and eventually saw quad release, just can't think of 'em at the moment.

ED

ndiamone said:

...and two-disc Ortofon-half-speed-cut LP.

The Ortofon blows EVERYBODY away through the QSD-1,

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WANT!

I have never seen this, nor can I find anything about it on the 'net. In which country was this version released?

J. D.

After seeing this thread, I looked around -- on the web, EBay and other places -- to see if there ever was a quad issue (of any version) of JCSS. Does not seem to be the case.

Did I miss something? May be the discussion here is about running the stereo version through a decoder and getting good results?

I have the reel to reel tape which is certainly stereo.

(I do have the quad reel to reel of "Hair" -- which is a pleasure.)

TopTip said:

After seeing this thread, I looked around -- on the web, EBay and other places -- to see if there ever was a quad issue (of any version) of JCSS. Does not seem to be the case.

Did I miss something? May be the discussion here is about running the stereo version through a decoder and getting good results?

I have the reel to reel tape which is certainly stereo.

(I do have the quad reel to reel of "Hair" -- which is a pleasure.)

Click to expand...

I wondered the same thing, TopTip, when I first stumbled onto this thread months ago. Someone did suggest--speculate?--that the original album (and/or one or more of the CD reissues) was encoded using the QS matrix, meaning that if the stereo album is played back through, say, a Sansui QSD-1 decoder, the quad mix emerges. I don't know if that's really the case.

I have an upmix from stereo that was done using tools at surroundbyus.com and output as 7.1 AVHCD/DTS-HD Master Audio. I can only play it back in 5.1, but it sounds truly brilliant; I've never heard an upmix with such clarity and such discrete separation. The upmixer claimed to have used the "1996 remaster," but I don't think there is such a thing. (There was a 1996 recording with the cast of the London revival show, however.) He either means the 1993 remaster, which was "bright," or the 2012 remaster, which like the original LP was "muddy," according to the more sensitive ears over on the Steve Hoffman forums. (I prefer a brighter sound, myself, and the original never struck me as mid- & bass-heavy....)

jdmack said:

I have never seen the Ortofon half speed.
In which country was this version released?

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Scandinavia. Pressed on Polar.
Deeper grooves than the German pressing.

As far as the discrete quad version - the only place I ever seen it is on a two-cassette JVC discrete quad with ANRS noise reduction.

The guy I knew that had the only copy I'd ever seen passed away and instead of calling people or going online to tell guys to come get his things - his mother threw out all his ``crap'' that she was forever tripping over in``her'' house - and presumably that was among them.

Both tapes had a ``button'' over the reel hubs so that a user could only install the cassette in the player face up.

Don't remember though if this was

A) 4-track portastudio track configuration (equidistant tracks),

B) 4-track musicassette track configuration (inequal distance with the large guardband down the middle so that if you played it on a normal cassette player the azimuth would like up with the front channels forwards and the rear channels backwards) or

One thing I DO know is that it was NOT the JVC 8-channel format that used musicassette track configuration that split the 4 tracks into 8 to where the left front and left rear would combine for left and the same for right and have 2 sides like a normal cassette.

Otherwise why would they need 2 cassettes for?

Although from asking various long in the tooth quadraphiles - I get the impression this was like the 5th of Beethoven Q8 - made as a test or demo product to show off the player in the field - maybe to get funding to bring it to production.

But since AFAIK that JVC player never MADE it to production or if it did there can't have been more than a couple hundred made - it leaves one to wonder.....