Wise Words - Audio Fidelity Moves to Selective Multichannel SACD Releases

[ar surround]

I would NEVER discourage anyone to boycott Audio Fidelity's upcoming Stereo SACDs and thus imperil any future AF Multichannel QUADs which may [or may NOT] materialize.

IMO, AF has given us what NO other reissue company has since the 00 DVD~A/SACD launch and they should be thusly applauded for their efforts by ALL of us at QQ.

That's not to say if one does not want their SACD offerings they are in any way obliged to buy them but I can certainly attest that I, personally, have been pleased with their Stereo SACDs, which certainly eclipse their former 24K Gold RBCDs.

Let's not prematurely sound the alarm that AF will NO longer produce the occasional Quad or mch SACD. That's just not the case. Having been involved in multichannel for more years than I can remember, we still have a LOT to look forward to [in surround] in the next few months and for that I'm grateful......Alan Parsons, YES, Tears for Fears, Pink Floyd etc. are on the horizon and I'm sure we have tons of mch disks in our existing collection to keep us busy for quite a while so perhaps it's time to revisit them instead of lamenting what we think we're 'entitled' to.

The AF stereo SACD's and RBCD are great sounding recordings. They have a lot more detail and ambience when compared to the standard issue RBCDs, and really shine when enhanced to 7.1. I have CS&N, PP&M, James Taylor, Heart, The Searchers and The Zombies. That Zombies Greatest Hits SACD sounds amazingly good for 1965 or so vintage material. Now I've been eyeing L&M's Sittin' In and Poco's Picking Up The Pieces.

 

[fredblue]

The AF stereo SACD's and RBCD are great sounding recordings. They have a lot more detail and ambience when compared to the standard issue RBCDs, and really shine when enhanced to 7.1. I have CS&N, PP&M, James Taylor, Heart, The Searchers and The Zombies. That Zombies Greatest Hits SACD sounds amazingly good for 1965 or so vintage material. Now I've been eyeing L&M's Sittin' In and Poco's Picking Up The Pieces.

All very true and a most balanced standpoint (imho.. ) I should take a leaf out of your book next time I feel my blood pressure rising to dangerous extremessss.....!

Meantime, I can attest to that AF Sittin' In SACD (Stereo only! wowzers) = it sounds AMAZING.. to quote the lovely Linda "you need it"..! :upthumb

Oh and the EJ Rock Of The Westies AF CD, just as an example = Ditto, it has fabulous sound (I'd go so far as to say the best I've ever heard the album.. and I've heard it a fair few ways as you can imagine! funnily enough had a mate over earlier in the year and he's heard the album a fair few times more recently as he got the iTunes a year or two ago to play while he's on the go... and he was just aghast when I put the AF CD on, he literally stopped and turned to me and said "god this sounds amazing, sweedee!" How's that for a "golden" AF CD endorsement? :banana:

 

[fredblue]

I was pretty disappointed at the news about these also, but I've always tried to temper my feelings about any of these releases by remembering how I started with Audio Fidelity (and Mobile Fidelity), I was a customer for their gold discs with the plain old redbook presentations of some really good masterings by Hoffman/Gray/Marsh, and combinations thereof. When I got into buying these quad discs, I had to keep reminding myself that there would probably be more personal disappointment than anything else, because I wanted to see everything on my huge wishlist come out. As of this point, I've seen more of what wasn't on my list and also a lot of what I didn't even know about, getting released. And that's been fine with me, so far, because I know that it's all good, even if I may not like every release. I've only turned down about four of them so far.

I'm thinking that Marshall must have a group of people of some size, that he has delegated to make decisions about candidates for release, and I wouldn't pretend to know squat about all the intricacies of how that works, but similar to something you wrote earlier, Adam, I think maybe one problem is in the prioritization of titles that they're pursuing, and perhaps they could've gone with titles that are historically proven bigger sellers. But then, they might have seen this as the one opportunity to do something with these titles but they didn't want to put the extra money into them. The alternative was to let them go, I guess, so they decided to at least do the stereo treatment with them. Or I could be totally fucking wrong, who knows? Like it or not, we have to remember everyone else who has always bought these discs since they were just RBCDs, and couldn't care less about the SACD layer, and also the people who only want redbook stereo and SACD stereo but don't care about surround.

Very wise words in the wise words thread!

Meantime, I sincerely doubt Marshall Blonstein took the decision to not include the Surround on these two albums lightly.. look at what he has no doubt gone above and beyond to release in Surround so far.. I just think really they were the wrong titles to omit the Surround from.. chiefly because they are not huge hitters.. I do feel sales will be dismal actually and there'll be no more SACDS Stereo or otherwise in that kinda genre or at least vein.. hopefully not.. but also these two should have featured the Surround because the Quads on both are just so superb they might actually help boost sales when word spread around about how good they are in Surround.. ah well, its a done deal, finito. I'm taking my friend quicksrt's lead and focussing now on the Blue Oyster Cult Surround SACD that's imminent from AF..! WOOOOOOOO...!!!!! arty

 

[JonUrban]

Some people must be looking for Peter, Paul & Mary. 5 SACD reissues to date along with 2 DSD Download reissues:

• Audio Fidelity released their self-titled album and In The Wind on SACD
• Analogue Productions released Album 1700 and In Concert on SACD and now on Stereo DSD Downloads
• Top Music released Peter, Paul and Mary on SACD

You know what I mean Brian. Heck I bought them, but I'm an old fuck who remembers these tunes and still buys discs. Walk down any major street and ask 250 people if they would buy a Peter Paul and Mary CD and of the 5 people who would know what you were talking about, would there be one that would say yes on any given day?

Hmmmm

 

[leahypc]

. I'm taking my friend quicksrt's lead and focussing now on the Blue Oyster Cult Surround SACD that's imminent from AF..! WOOOOOOOO...!!!!! arty

That's the one I'm waiting on most, apart from Tales From Topographic Oceans in October. It'll be straight from the mailbox to the player when that comes in...

 

[fredblue]

That's the one I'm waiting on most, apart from Tales From Topographic Oceans in October. It'll be straight from the mailbox to the player when that comes in...

Imagine if/when they cut out "the middle men" and do Surround downloads of all this stuff we want (no disrespect but I mean as opposed to some of that esoteric business that's downloadable now in Surround.. fair play to AF, I've yet to find a Surround download to rival anything they've released the last 12 months!).... oh the luxury of no more waiting by the mailbox.. there are further implications (of which I can see NO downside for us here at QQ!) in that labels licensing these Quads and 5.1's won't be at the mercy of the worlds (what is it? two? @ remaining SACD production plants, distributors and getting their margins cut even further by fat cat retailers like Spamazon, etc..

W-w-wait a minute Mr. Postman! Haha.. oh happy day. In addition, I'm sure my postie is sick of the bloody sight of my building.. I half expect them to deliver a letter one day with a bill from their doctor demanding I cough up for their back operation from all the parcels and shit they have to lug here..

Goodnight, you beautiful Quadraphoniaphiliacs :upthumb
(You see ar surround, even fredblues get the midnight blues and go to sleepy bye land once in a while.. I'm also absolutely too plastered to carry on, I'm surprised I can still speak, I mean type, anything vaguely cogent.. in the words of Al Pacino; "hoo-hah!"and say goodbye to my little pony! )

 

[quicksrt]

That's a reasonable way to look at it, I think. What's blowing my mind right now on this thread is all the rushing to judgement about Audio Fidelity and it's quad program, in that some people are encouraging others to not buy these titles as a statement against "quadblocking", and someone else wants these titles to fail miserably. That is absolutely bat-shit crazy. Why would you actively want to influence people to not buy from Audio Fidelity, or want them to have titles that fail miserably? Is Audio Fidelity only great until they upset you, at which point they should fail with their efforts? How about just deciding that you're not going to buy, and leave it at that? Why not hope that Audio Fidelity continues to sell, and improves on their overall sales so that we can get some great titles down the line?

AF could have placed the two fusion titles on the back burner, and did two titles that never had a quad release. I think that would have been the better public relations move. You know, do T Rex The Slider from original EMI tapes, and then David Gilmour first album both on SACD. These two would be surprises for the rock fans, and nobody would bat an eye that there is no surround layers.

Then the WR and RTF, spread them out over the next year, one quad SACD every other month. Two full months after BOC drop one of them.

Perhaps they have no other licensing approvals currently, and they needed to get moving on something. But I would've paced the quad ones out, spread them out over a longer period of time rather then ditch the quad mixes.

The real reality could be that disc sales took a down turn recently, and nothing is going to fix that.

 

[ar surround]

You know what I mean Brian. Heck I bought them, but I'm an old fuck who remembers these tunes and still buys discs. Walk down any major street and ask 250 people if they would buy a Peter Paul and Mary CD and of the 5 people who would know what you were talking about, would there be one that would say yes on any given day?

Hmmmm

Old fucks, we RULE........


and so do QQ members of all ages!

 

[rtbluray]

Another question that constantly keeps coming up is what does AF consider to be a standard for commercial viability when it comes to releasing Multichannel SACDs?

Besides the artists that Audio Fidelity have already released Multichannel SACDs for and the artists who are off-limits because of one thing or another, what is there really left?

I brought up a few titles by previously released artists that would probably do very well ("Spirit" by Earth Wind & Fire and "Holiday" by America) and maybe if "Full Sail" does well, we could see "Native Sons" released at some point, but I really am struggling trying to find high-profile artists and Quad albums from the Sony or Warner Music catalogues that have not already been exploited or are not already off-limits.

Maybe the struggle really is more real than we thought…

 

[Philip Spinner]

If the upcoming AF SACDs of Musicmagic & Tale Spinnin' don't sell well at least Quad/Surround cannot be blamed for those poor sales. I don't think that's an unreasonable thing to say, is it? Still, it'll be cold comfort to people, like me, who greatly enjoy those two albums in Quad and would dearly love to be able to consign the SQ LPs and Q8 versions of these excellent surround mixes to history and hear them in the best sound quality direct from the Quad masters.

Also, it would not be great news for AF if these two were to sell badly, in all sorts of ways but not least of course because this is part of their new modus operandi of being more selective with what they choose to release in Surround in future.. in a weird kinda way I hope these do well for their sake, even though it'll perversely be shafting Quaddies in the long run.. why would AF think about resuming surround releases if sales of titles with Quad/5.1 mixes available to them remain the same (or even increase) without the inclusion of surround?

Also, there are quite a few titles with Quad mixes I'm not too fussed about being reissued in Surround anytime, I could name 20 such Quads off the top of my head no sweat.. but those same 20 might just be the most sought after Quad titles of others here, so I accept you can't please all of the people all of the time and respect the opinions and feelings of others, I'm sure many could care less about RTF & WR in Surround and that's fine by me!

in my considered opinion (busy day but in the last couple of hours kicking back @home I've really thought about how I feel about AF remasters in Surround of these Musicmagic & Tale Spinnin' Quads not happening) ..and after the initially great personal disappointment, am slowly coming round to just accepting the reality of the situation, they're not happening and whether I like it or not that is that... I just hope this isn't the beginning of the end of AF's superb surround programme, as they have managed to get more old Quads and unreleased Surround out of the vaults than anyone else (as far as I can see ).. I acknowledge that and am thankful for so many of their prior efforts, I just wish things could have worked out differently and these two albums just mean a lot to me in Quad ultimately I guess.. but it is what is.

Maybe one day some enterprising folks will seek to reissue some of these Quads and 5.1's in download form as has been suggested (not my preferred delivery format but if that's all there is down the line, of course I wouldn't cut my nose off to spite my face and would buy those titles too.) I hope by just being frank that's not offensive to anyone, as anything I've said in response to this news here has been benign and out of heartfelt passion for the future of the surround music I love, the surround music that we all love.. if I didn't care I wouldn't say anything about it.. ahh.. this delicious grog is helping soothe my soul..

"back again, returning to the vodka... the vodka...
ahhhh-ahhhhh-ahhhhh-ahhhh-ahhhh.."

:friday:
(falls off the bar stool with a thud )

Sounds like you are shaken, not stirred by this news Fred. Sorry could not resist. Was watching Bond last night.

 

[Philip Spinner]

If the upcoming AF SACDs of Musicmagic & Tale Spinnin' don't sell well at least Quad/Surround cannot be blamed for those poor sales. I don't think that's an unreasonable thing to say, is it? Still, it'll be cold comfort to people, like me, who greatly enjoy those two albums in Quad and would dearly love to be able to consign the SQ LPs and Q8 versions of these excellent surround mixes to history and hear them in the best sound quality direct from the Quad masters.

Also, it would not be great news for AF if these two were to sell badly, in all sorts of ways but not least of course because this is part of their new modus operandi of being more selective with what they choose to release in Surround in future.. in a weird kinda way I hope these do well for their sake, even though it'll perversely be shafting Quaddies in the long run.. why would AF think about resuming surround releases if sales of titles with Quad/5.1 mixes available to them remain the same (or even increase) without the inclusion of surround?

Also, there are quite a few titles with Quad mixes I'm not too fussed about being reissued in Surround anytime, I could name 20 such Quads off the top of my head no sweat.. but those same 20 might just be the most sought after Quad titles of others here, so I accept you can't please all of the people all of the time and respect the opinions and feelings of others, I'm sure many could care less about RTF & WR in Surround and that's fine by me!

in my considered opinion (busy day but in the last couple of hours kicking back @home I've really thought about how I feel about AF remasters in Surround of these Musicmagic & Tale Spinnin' Quads not happening) ..and after the initially great personal disappointment, am slowly coming round to just accepting the reality of the situation, they're not happening and whether I like it or not that is that... I just hope this isn't the beginning of the end of AF's superb surround programme, as they have managed to get more old Quads and unreleased Surround out of the vaults than anyone else (as far as I can see ).. I acknowledge that and am thankful for so many of their prior efforts, I just wish things could have worked out differently and these two albums just mean a lot to me in Quad ultimately I guess.. but it is what is.

Maybe one day some enterprising folks will seek to reissue some of these Quads and 5.1's in download form as has been suggested (not my preferred delivery format but if that's all there is down the line, of course I wouldn't cut my nose off to spite my face and would buy those titles too.) I hope by just being frank that's not offensive to anyone, as anything I've said in response to this news here has been benign and out of heartfelt passion for the future of the surround music I love, the surround music that we all love.. if I didn't care I wouldn't say anything about it.. ahh.. this delicious grog is helping soothe my soul..

"back again, returning to the vodka... the vodka...
ahhhh-ahhhhh-ahhhhh-ahhhh-ahhhh.."

:friday:
(falls off the bar stool with a thud )

Sounds like you are shaken, not stirred by this news Fred. Sorry could not resist. Was watching Bond last night.

 

[Philip Spinner]

I can't speak for Tail Spinnin right now because I don't have a clue where my Q8 is at the moment but regarding Musicmagic, perhaps this news is for the better because this mix has lots of low end in the rears and I'm sure there would be endless complaining about how it does not sound right on their system.

 

[rtbluray]

I can't speak for Tail Spinnin right now because I don't have a clue where my Q8 is at the moment but regarding Musicmagic, perhaps this news is for the better because this mix has lots of low end in the rears and I'm sure there would be endless complaining about how it does not sound right on their system.

Well because Audio Fidelity are not releasing "Musicmagic" as a Multichannel SACD, I'll never know if the Quad mix sounds right on my system!

 

[fredblue]

I can't speak for Tail Spinnin right now because I don't have a clue where my Q8 is at the moment but regarding Musicmagic, perhaps this news is for the better because this mix has lots of low end in the rears and I'm sure there would be endless complaining about how it does not sound right on their system.

Haha.. Good one!

Heaven forbid a stop was put to any surround title due to a handful of clueless fckwits who don't know how to setup their systems properly... actually, screw it, let's just cater to the lowest common denominator and be done with it! Outlaw all mixes with bass in the rear channels!

Seriously, we shouldn't let anyone in the industry off the hook and give them any further excuses not to reissue any old Quads etc.!

Case in point: I've just watched the hammer go down on a CD-4 demodulator (Technics SH-400).. and what did it fetch, I hear you ask?
...(wait for it..) £442.19..!! :yikes(YES! that's not a typo.. that's approx $576.51 in U.S. Dollars!!! )

..but then "nobody wants this old surround stuff", so we are told time and again..! :ugham:

Kiss my a$$ they don't..!!

 

[fredblue]

Well because Audio Fidelity are not releasing "Musicmagic" as a Multichannel SACD, I'll never know if the Quad mix sounds right on my system!

So true, Ryan What a monumental balls up..

You know, this is such a mad situation.. not least because the Musicmagic and Tale Spinnin' Quads even sound good on my shitty old SQ records, like they are really really really good Quad mixes even in that form.. wet as it may sound, this still hurts.. and every time I try to forget this is happening, more salts rubbed into the wounds when I'm reminded of the reality of it all..

If anyone (not having a go at AF here especially I'm thinking MFSL may Quadblock them just as well anyway) gets the licences to
Poco's Seven & Cantamos albums and then releases them in Stereo SACD only I will literally flip my flippin' lid :nuke

 

[fredblue]

Sounds like you are shaken, not stirred by this news Fred. Sorry could not resist. Was watching Bond last night.

News of Musicmagic in Stereo was like a boot in the Octopussy :smack:followed by a kick in the Miss Moneypenny's :violin when it should have been a Licence To Thrill in Surround.. and For Four Ears Only :music

Edit: Where's Q when you need him...??
(Q stands for Quad btw, that's his secret agent name)

 

[4-earredwonder]

News of Musicmagic in Stereo was like a boot in the Octopussy :smack:followed by a kick in the Miss Moneypenny's :violin when it should have been a Licence To Thrill in Surround.. and For Four Ears Only :music

Edit: Where's Q when you need him...??
(Q stands for Quad btw, that's his secret agent name)

Oh, Adam, As Cher quipped at Nic Cage in MOONSTRUCK....."Snap Out of IT." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x-fkSYDtUY

NO ONE is MORE DISAPPOINTED than I.

To ease the pain [and mental anguish], I just pre~ordered BOC's QUAD SACD Secret Treaties and Leon Russell & The Shelter People (AF Stereo SACD).....and the new Warner/Archives BD~V of Tennessee Williams "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" with a smokin' Liz Taylor and Paul Newman.....lovingly restored for lovers of pain and mental anguish.

 

[Q-Eight]

Yet another resounding "meh" from me. There are much better titles I'd want to hear other than Weather Report and MusicMagic. I'm sure I'll completely survive this.

Like I said in another thread, I'm happy to hear Mr. Blonstein is being a little more selective over which titles get the Quad go-ahead, one still has to wonder.... why are these albums being re-released in SACD? Is there really that much demand for either of these groups?

I say let's dig for more unreleased stuff.

 

[4-earredwonder]

Yet another resounding "meh" from me. There are much better titles I'd want to hear other than Weather Report and MusicMagic. I'm sure I'll completely survive this.

Like I said in another thread, I'm happy to hear Mr. Blonstein is being a little more selective over which titles get the Quad go-ahead, one still has to wonder.... why are these albums being re-released in SACD? Is there really that much demand for either of these groups?

I say let's dig for more unreleased stuff.

As with ALL the reissue companies, I'm sure that a lot of the released SACDs resonate with the 'selection' committee comprised of the powers that be....meaning company CEOs, etc.

Yes, there are so many MORE classic albums than the usual suspects that SHOULD make the grade and I've always surmised that SO MANY MORE COOL titles are released on LP than on hi res SACD any day of the week.

One of the unfortunate circumstances of being involved in a niche market/hobby (although Vinyl also falls into that category, as well, but seems to win out EVERY TIME as far as selection is concerned).

 

[fredblue]

Its just bonkers they can do stuff like that Mannheim Steamroller in Surround and not release these two lovely old Quads (clearly licensed with surround release in mind, can't be any coincidence) I don't care what anybody else thinks, I love them and am livid about the whole thing. End of conversation afaic