Electric Light Orchestra - Eldorado - Mobile Fidelity

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hedkandi

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Oct 1, 2014
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Mastered from the original analog master tapes, Mobile Fidelity's numbered-edition hybrid SACD of Eldorado allows the longtime audiophile staple to resonate with previously unheard dynamics, tones, and colors. Conjuring the feeling of journeying to different horizons, the record's songs teem with layer upon layer of details, which can now be heard as the producers intended.

Presenting the album with breathtaking clarity yet retaining the warmth, texture, and emotion that differentiate live music from reproduced sounds, this collectible reissue features reference-quality levels of in-the-moment presence, grand-scale soundstaging, and instrumental balance. Bursting with a veritable cornucopia of stimuli, MoFi's Eldorado SACD also benefits from superb separation and immersive atmospherics that stem from the meticulous remastering process.

Electric Light Orchestra - Eldorado
 
I never owned the LP way back when. But I did see them on this tour. I don't remember the songs by title. So, it blew my mind when I heard the opening track, the overture, on this MoFi SACD (#141). The memories came flashing back of the live show. Wow, what an album, what a show! And the orchestra :oops: The MoFi sound is stunning - clear and full - Turn it up!
 
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I owned this on vinyl and I have it on CD. I have never been happy with the sound of the drums. The drums have always been very compressed and hidden under the strings and keyboards on ELO albums. Hopefully they will remix the catalogue in the future.
 
I owned this on vinyl and I have it on CD. I have never been happy with the sound of the drums. The drums have always been very compressed and hidden under the strings and keyboards on ELO albums. Hopefully they will remix the catalogue in the future.

Though I like ELO, none of their albums that I’ve heard (about half of them) sound all that great.
You can spot Jeff Lynne’s production style a mile away, kind of like Todd Rundgren.
Sounds like he mixes everything for AM radio
 
And if you order directly from MoFi, they impose an additional $10 s/h fee + sales tax for what amounts to an SACD enclosed in a Japanese style mini~LP cardboard enclosure. NO THANKS!
 
So, no one who has posted here has heard the MoFi SACD it seems. Just Whack A Mole.
I received my copy Friday & listened to it last night. Yes it comes in cardboard sleeve but the material & print quality is good. It has a nice booklet of the lyrics.
To @4-earredwonder It's easy to transfer to an audiophile quality jewel box case if you think it will sound better.

I haven't listened to this album since my purchase of the LP, back in '74. But it was played a lot well into the 80's when I became CD centric & some how I never bought it in that format. Despite that it really is one on my fave ELO's and like @Tribby2001 I also was at the Eldorado tour. Oh man... first concert I ever walked in to with a mix board so wide it had two sound techs on it! It was the first rock concert I went to that had an excellent blend of pre-recorded tracks & live stage.

Last night I did a most unusual thing of auditioning the SACD in true 2 ch... whad'ya call it? Oh yeah, stereo. I love the more orchestral ELO & each song was a thrill.

Sonic wise the thing that kept bothering me was the vocals seemed quite recessed. Overall dynamics was good, clean distortion free from such an old source. The drums sounded fine to me just the vocals were not as prominent as I remember.

Then I played it again through the SM v2 in the involve/QS 4.1 mode. The soundstage opened up and it seemed the vocals were now allowed to breathe, to take their place up front un-masked by the other instruments. I loved it the presentation and totally enjoyed my encore performance in surround.

I won't say much more until another listening. I don't think I've delved deep into the nuances yet as it was in the wee hours of the morning I got around to playing this. Certainly the music, the quality SACD has me looking forward to it very much. Truly Eldorado is the Cadillac of ELO albums for me.
 
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I received my copy Friday & listened to it last night. Yes it comes in cardboard sleeve but the material & print quality is good. It has a nice booklet of the lyrics.
To @4-earredwonder It's easy to transfer to an audiophile quality jewel box case if you think it will sound better.

I haven't listened to this album since my purchase of the LP, back in '74. But it was played a lot well into the 80's when I became CD centric & some how I never bought it in that format. Despite that it really is one on my fave ELO's and like @Tribby2001 I also was at the Eldorado tour. Oh man... first concert I ever walked in to with a mix board so wide it had two sound techs on it! It was the first rock concert I went to that had an excellent blend of pre-recorded tracks & live stage.

Last night I did a most unusual thing of auditioning the SACD in true 2 ch... whad'ya call it? Oh yeah, stereo. I love the more orchestral ELO & each song was a thrill.

Sonic wise the thing that kept bothering me was the vocals seemed quite recessed. Overall dynamics was good, clean distortion free from such an old source. The drums sounded fine to me just the vocals were not as prominent as I remember.

Then I played it again through the SM v2 in the involve/QS 4.1 mode. The soundstage opened up and it seemed the vocals were now allowed to breathe, to take their place up front un-masked by the other instruments. I loved it the presentation and totally enjoyed my encore performance in surround.

I won't say much more until another listening. I don't think I've delved deep into the nuances yet as it was in the wee hours of the morning I got around to playing this. Certainly the music, the quality SACD has me looking forward to it very much. Truly Eldorado is the Cadillac of ELO albums for me.

Don't be smug, SW, of course it won't sound better in a Super Audio jewel casing. I was just alluding to the fact $10 s/h is a bit exorbinant for such an eco light package. Just received the two Judee Sill Stereo SACDs from Intervention Records [via AmazonUS] for $60 and they both arrived in genuine Super Audio Jewel cases...and sound MAGNIFICENT!

Glad you're enjoying it. .... but sorry to hear about the 'recessed' vocals. Indeed, a wonderful album and I will get around to purchasing it.
 
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Don't be smug, SW, of course it won't sound better in a Super Audio jewel casing. I was just alluding to the fact $10 s/h is a bit exorbinant for such an eco light package. Just received the two Judee Sill Stereo SACDs from Intervention Records [via AmazonUS] for $60 and they both arrived in genuine Super Audio Jewel cases...and sound MAGNIFICENT!

Glad you're enjoying it. .... but sorry to hear about the 'recessed' vocals. Indeed, a wonderful album and I will get around to purchasing it.
I have never heard of Judee Sill before your post. Checking around a bit I should probably look closer and listen. I am glad the Super Audio Jewel cases sound MAGNIFIECENT!
What about the music?
 
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Sonic wise the thing that kept bothering me was the vocals seemed quite recessed. Overall dynamics was good, clean distortion free from such an old source. The drums sounded fine to me just the vocals were not as prominent as I remember.
I was so happy to read your thoughts on this new release. I also listened to this last night, and I couldn't hear but a few words of the vocals. I could hear all the vocals but I could not make out what the words where, sounded like mush.
I am pure stereo listener, if I purchase a stereo source it better be good as a stereo source. Very disappointed in this MOFI ELO release. Take away the vocals and it sounds great. I own hundreds of MOFI SACD's and this is the worst one I can ever remember.
 
I was so happy to read your thoughts on this new release. I also listened to this last night, and I couldn't hear but a few words of the vocals. I could hear all the vocals but I could not make out what the words where, sounded like mush.
I am pure stereo listener, if I purchase a stereo source it better be good as a stereo source. Very disappointed in this MOFI ELO release. Take away the vocals and it sounds great. I own hundreds of MOFI SACD's and this is the worst one I can ever remember.
I agree, it's very average at best. It doesn't sound any better than my original CD. Not at all.
 
I have never heard of Judee Sill before your post. Checking around a bit I should probably look closer and listen. I am glad the Super Audio Jewel cases sound MAGNIFIECENT!
What about the music?

Well sad to hear the new MoFi Eldorado/Desperado SACDs sound so ... well, MEH...

Glad I put MY gelt into those two Intervention Record's JUDEE SILL Stereo SACDs [in genuine SACD cases...heh]

So is MoFi slipping? ..... seems these SACDs were years in the making and to hear from multiple posters the results are lackluster is just plain SAD!

I've been spinning D~V two fers all day and to think you can get 4 QUAD SACD albums, superbly remastered, for the price of ONE MoFi STEREO SACD is astounding!
 
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I was so happy to read your thoughts on this new release. I also listened to this last night, and I couldn't hear but a few words of the vocals. I could hear all the vocals but I could not make out what the words where, sounded like mush.
I am pure stereo listener, if I purchase a stereo source it better be good as a stereo source. Very disappointed in this MOFI ELO release. Take away the vocals and it sounds great. I own hundreds of MOFI SACD's and this is the worst one I can ever remember.

I hate it when any one of us gets our hopes up for that magic combination of great music & audio quality. And then fails to deliver. But I guess I'm glad you can corroborate my impression that it's just not my ears, or a blown mid-range...

Unlike you my primary passion is stereo to high quality surround. Now I love all the digital discrete & other flavors of true surround too. But there is just an overwhelming amount of 2 ch stereo out there that can be decoded into quality surround.

So playing this disc on the Involve SM moved the left/right musical info the front left/right speakers & echoey reverb stuff to the rears & let the vocals be un-masked. I haven't tried this disc yet with Dolby PL II but the width control can give a very hard center output, more so than the SM, for even greater enhancement.

It can be argued that a top quality stereo source shouldn't need this. And that would be true. But I'm glad that since I would be most likely listening to this in surround anyway, it seems like a win to me.
 
I agree, it's very average at best. It doesn't sound any better than my original CD. Not at all.
Since I don't have the RBCD, just the LP, I will probably go to the SACD as 1st choice. No ticks, pops or hissss. But I might dig it out just compare the vocals.

Can you comment on Jeff Lynn's vocals comparing the SACD to original CD? And are you listening to this as stereo or what kind of surround.

RE:recessed vocals in general. I also have complaints about that on the SACD of KC 21st Cenetury Schizoid Man. Going by memory those vocals should just scream. And a similar impression of the Mott the Hoople surround releases. Ian Hunters vocal should punch through the music bits & to me they just don't as I remember.

Maybe my memory has too much mid-range....
 
man, Im on second listen of this hybrid SACD. I find it to be utterly fantastic ! I consider this an MFSL winner. The 'presence' and detail is incredible. It gets a 10 rating from me. Granted, Im listening to the redbook channel
 
man, Im on second listen of this hybrid SACD. I find it to be utterly fantastic ! I consider this an MFSL winner. The 'presence' and detail is incredible. It gets a 10 rating from me. Granted, Im listening to the redbook channel

Ricky, first and foremost, welcome back from your extended 'hiatus' from QQ Forum. So the MQA KING ❤ Eldorado's RBCD layer? How 'bout the SACD layer?

So now I'm totally confused regarding this release. Mirror Mirror on the Wall, who possesses THE most GOLDEN EARS of ALL?

The RED Challenger elite roofer from the Bay area [Marpow]
The fertility, er Fertilizer expert from Illinois [GOS]
The Ben Franklin quoting intellectual from Kansas City [Sonic Wiz] or,
The chain saw wielding MQA King from Michigan [cbmmm3]

Decisions, DECISIONS!
 
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