Definitely. I've also wondered why they didn't do a better job with this. I can't tell which track all that hiss is coming from, but for some reason I'm inclined to think it's one of the vocal tracks. This, by the way, is not unique to the multichannel versions.
I have a funny feeling the lack of quality is due to the amount of overdubbing that went into making this track. To me, it sounds like a hissy, well-used tape to me. Even the Q8 has the same imperfections. The DTS CD suffers from hiss too, notably on the title track as the 'dubs come in. You can hear varying amounts of hiss come and go.
Having said that, I will add:
The Q8 is the grand-daddy of them all. While hardly discrete, it is fun to listen to. Extended version of Take the Money and Run.
The DTS CD, while hissy, and still containing the truncated version of Mercury Blues is the one I listen to the most. More discrete than the Q8, and the versions haven't been mucked with.
The Dolby Digital CD is ... a mixed blessing. The mini-documentary is a nice addition, though they really don't dive into much detail. The gist of it is thus:
"Lonnie, Gary and I recorded a bunch of basic tracks after The Joker came out. I took two years off at home overdubbing the crap out of the tapes in my 8 track home studio. That's how we got Eagle and Book of Dreams."
Wow. Enlightening stuff.
The most discrete of them all. I like the remixing and how the sonics on most songs are astonishing, but the revising of the songs is painful to listen to. The clumsy ending on 'Eagle', the butcher job of 'Mercury Blues' - my gawd, you can HEAR the scotch tape holding that one together!! They cut off the intro to 'Take the Money..' , alternate (or previously deleted) vocals on "Wild Mountain Honey".... it sounds like a totally different version, though I've not done an A/B compare. I seemed to notice other "alternate" pieces, such as the drums on 'Rock n' Me', the flub on acoustic guitar during the intro of 'The Window' (Front left after the moog part) I dunno. It's a very valiant effort, I just don't agree with the butchering of VERY classic Album. Oh, and is anybody experiencing phase issues on 'Dance, Dance, Dance'? I don't have a center channel, so the vocals sound really hollow when "downmixed" to the two fronts. However, when telling my decoder box there is a center channel, and no downmixing is done, the hollowness goes away. My last gripe is with the wandering levels on 'Dance' and 'Mercury'. Dunno if that's why some discs were recalled or not. Particularly bad on 'Mercury'.
How was this album created? Obviously, with the differences from the original album, what was their source for this one? Did they go back to a session tape? It obviously was NOT the album Master tape.The Q8 and DTS CD match exactly note for note but there are mixing differences. The DVD-A is .... wierd. Reminds me of the Meatloaf SACD a few years back.