Carole King's "Tapestry" - Sony Japan Multichannel SACD

[sjcorne]

Tapestry was actually a QUAD title remixed into 5.1, though.

Incorrect. The quad mix of Tapestry is not the same as the 2000s 5.1 SACD.

 

[4-earredwonder]

Incorrect. The quad mix of Tapestry is not the same as the 2000s 5.1 SACD.

Was the original 70's QUAD of Tapestry more discrete ..... because the 5.1 'remix' certainly isn't? But I do believe the SONY Japan 5.1 remaster does sound incrementally better than the 00 version ..... if only due to DSD 256 remastering!

 

[sjcorne]

Was the original 70's QUAD of Tapestry more discrete ..... because the 5.1 'remix' certainly isn't?

I haven’t done a close A/B, but from what I recall the 5.1 is actually better. The quad sounds totally faked- the rears are nothing more than an echoey reflection of the fronts.

However, I’ve heard the Music and Fantasy quads are real surround. Still looking for a Music Q8. The QS LP shows a diagram of how the instruments are placed, yet through both my QSD-2 and Surround Master it isn’t very discrete-sounding.

 

[Q-Eight]

I haven’t done a close A/B, but from what I recall the 5.1 is actually better. The quad sounds totally faked- the rears are nothing more than an echoey reflection of the fronts.

However, I’ve heard the Music and Fantasy quads are real surround. Still looking for a Music Q8. The QS LP shows a diagram of how the instruments are placed, yet through both my QSD-2 and Surround Master it isn’t very discrete-sounding.

The Quad "Tapestry".... *IF* it comes from a multitrack source (which I kind of doubt), is a weird duck. The rear channels are nothing more than the fronts put through an echo chamber. There MAY be some kind of compression or delay going on, but it's milliseconds. Or, the rears are inverted somehow because the Q8 produces a nice cross-hair display on my oscilloscope.

The 5.1 is more of the same, just less echo. If anything, where the Quad has an obvious left/right deal going on in the rears, the 5.1 uses the rears more for ambience. Everything that appears in the fronts appears in the back but at much less strength than the front. Carole's vocal is in the rear, but at 50% strength.

To be honest, I kind of like the Quad a little better as it feels more of it's time, and it does give a nice super-stereo kind of feel where the instrumental bed is in the phantom left/right, but Carole's vocal is dry and loud to the front, echoey and distant to the rear. It's totally phoney, but it feels authentically 70's.

Carole Kings' "Music" isn't a whole lot better. It's reminiscent of a Capitol mix where the rears is everything the front has, minus drums. So, you kind of end up with Super-Stereo.