Beck, Bogert & Appice in SACD Surround Sound from Sony Japan

[4-earredwonder]

I did a good listen to this new surround disc, B,B & A and is great sounding, and very discrete, meaning instruments move around and are defined in the 5 speaker set up. Advertising within the package shows it as a 5.1 set up, and it is. Drums, bass and vocals are primarily front 3 speakers and Becks guitar is primarily rears, but all parts move around. Musically it is not as entertaining as Blow By Blow, a little more grittier, kind of like Cream, for instance. Sonics are of course the best I have ever heard both in mch and stereo. Now, are we going to hear the "out of phase" commentary in a couple years? I couldn't tell you. Beck's guitar moves front to rear, right to left, one Appice drum solo stays front, so is this correct? Doesn't really matter I guess as in it's current release it should be considered reference quality.
The most happy news, for me, is in there advertising the Japanese list the 3 Quad releases, Blow By Blow, The Jeff Beck Group (orange), this disc and Rough And Ready. I take this advertisement as there is a planned Japanese release in surround of Rough And Ready, ECPN-13 SQ 4, I cannot wait!

Mark, just checked the CDJapan website and can see NO reference for an upcoming QUAD SACD release for Jeff Beck's Rough and Ready.

 

[DuncanS]

Mark, just checked the CDJapan website and can see NO reference for an upcoming QUAD SACD release for Jeff Beck's Rough and Ready.

I went looking as well, sadly nothing, just the Japanese release of Jeff Beck Group in the same format as BBA
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/EICP-10003
We can but hope!

 

[marpow]

I was not perfectly clear, there are 3 small booklets, Japanese writing liner notes, included in the mini album package. One of them advertises Rough and Ready and (Orange), underneath in English it says SQ 4. I am only assuming there is an upcoming release as I cannot read Japanese. They have released 3 surround 7 X 7 mini albums, why not 4 ? Next year ? You will not see anything at CDJapan.

 

[4-earredwonder]

I was not perfectly clear, there are 3 small booklets, Japanese writing liner notes, included in the mini album package. One of them advertises Rough and Ready and (Orange), underneath in English it says SQ 4. I am only assuming there is an upcoming release as I cannot read Japanese. They have released 3 surround 7 X 7 mini albums, why not 4 ? Next year ? You will not see anything at CDJapan.

Why not release 5, Mark, including WIRED which would complete all five of the Jeff Beck SQ releases. I'm sure SONY Japan will release the aforementioned two (incl. Rough & Ready) as sales of these surround releases go through the proverbial ROOF!

Next....SANTANA?

 

[rtbluray]

Why not release 5, Mark, including WIRED which would complete all five of the Jeff Beck SQ releases. I'm sure SONY Japan will release the aforementioned two (incl. Rough & Ready) as sales of these surround releases go through the proverbial ROOF!

Next....SANTANA?

Maybe they won't release "Wired" because the tapes are not in good enough shape. Audio Fidelity passed on it for that reason…

 

[4-earredwonder]

Maybe they won't release "Wired" because the tapes are not in good enough shape. Audio Fidelity passed on it for that reason…

I am aware of that Ryan, but perhaps SONY Japan has access to better masters (or a safety QUAD master). If NOT, C'est La Vie!

 

[rtbluray]

I am aware of that Ryan, but perhaps SONY Japan has access to better masters (or a safety QUAD master).

Maybe, but I'm certainly not holding my breath for it, especially given how expensive these Japanese SACDs are… :violin

 

[4-earredwonder]

Maybe, but I'm certainly not holding my breath for it, especially given how expensive these Japanese SACDs are… :violin

I did procure the AP Stereo SACD version of WIRED and it actually decodes well in DSP on my system.

Perhaps SONY will reissue these QUAD/5.1 BECK SACDs down the road without the fancy packaging although their version of Blow by Blow is still OUT OF PHASE.

 

[steelydave]

Maybe they won't release "Wired" because the tapes are not in good enough shape. Audio Fidelity passed on it for that reason…

The Japanese have never been averse to using a safety copy or EQ'ed cutting copy of a tape as a source for their SACD's, and often the results are excellent. Just for example, for my money the Japanese Steely Dan stereo SACD's (Countdown To Ecstacy, Pretzel Logic, Aja and Gaucho) are the best sounding digital copies of these albums by far, and they were evidently created from Japanese backup copies of the master tapes because according to SD engineer Roger Nichols the original masters are now unusable.

If they did a quad SACD of Wired from a safety copy or some other 2nd generation source I'd still happily pay $50 for the privelege of owning it.

 

[rtbluray]

Perhaps SONY will reissue these QUAD/5.1 BECK SACDs down the road without the fancy packaging although their version of Blow by Blow is still OUT OF PHASE.

I don't think I would necessarily count on Sony to do that (here in the US or in Japan), but Acoustic Sounds/Analogue Productions could certainly release some more Jeff Beck Multichannel SACDs, especially for "Beck, Bogert, & Appice" and "Rough & Ready".
Audio Fidelity's release of "The Jeff Beck Group" is the one for me, so I won't be buying that one again, no matter how many times it is reissued!

 

[4-earredwonder]

I don't think I would necessarily count on Sony to do that (here in the US or in Japan), but Acoustic Sounds/Analogue Productions could certainly release some more Jeff Beck Multichannel SACDs, especially for "Beck, Bogert, & Appice" and "Rough & Ready".
Audio Fidelity's release of "The Jeff Beck Group" is the one for me, so I won't be buying that one again, no matter how many times it is reissued!

You're probably correct, Ryan. The AF "Jeff Beck Group" QUAD SACD IS outstanding, as, IMO are ALL their QUAD SACDs. No doubt, we'll be receiving more (but less infrequent) QUAD/5.1 SACDs from AF at 'the nice price.'

 

[Clint Eastwood]

Just checked my mail box and found this...it might have been there yesterday because I didn't check...shipped on 7/20 from Japan...that is quick....notice the size of the packaging...very cool indeed...I put a normal SACD beside it to show how much bigger it is...like a mini vinyl

 

[GOS]

Cool - so is that the same size as a DVD-Audio?

 

[Clint Eastwood]

Cool - so is that the same size as a DVD-Audio?

No...it's bigger...here is the Winelight DVD-A

 

[GOS]

View attachment 26837

No...it's bigger...here is the Winelight DVD-A

Holy Cow! Man, that is bigger...so now you have a different size case to find a spot on the shelf.

 

[GOS]

I know, I know....but I'm gonna have to get that disc....been threatening for several weeks now. :violin

 

[JonUrban]

Got my SACDs in a few days ago. Here's a look. Excellent presentation on these by Sony Japan!

(Sorry for the weird color scheme. My camera must be on the way out)

 

[JonUrban]

Closer looks:

 

[4-earredwonder]

Closer looks:

View attachment 26901
View attachment 26902

FINALLY received my copy of BB&A today from CDJapan.

My first impression: Worth EVERY penny. The unique packaging is sublime. SONY went all out for these reissues.

As for the sound.......I can FINALLY retire my DTS RBCD version without ANY regrets!

As QQ poster MARPOW previously pointed out, there is a pic of ROUGH and READY with the SQ~4 designation in one of the disc's descriptive inserts: One can ONLY hope SONY Japan has a well preserved QUAD master [or safety back~up] in their vaults.:banana:

 

[fredblue]

Couple of quick Questions please..

1.) Is the MultiCh on these authored as 4.0, 4.1, 5.0 or 5.1..?
2.) Are the Stereo Redbook and/or Stereo SACD tracks SQ-encoded, or fold downs of the Surround..?

Thank you!