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.