HiRez Poll Benson, George - BREEZIN' [SACD/DVD-A]

[fredblue]

An "8", it's great!

If the 5.1 weren't such a wet, echoey mix I'd give it a 10!

I love George Benson and I particularly love this period just before he became too safe and sappy and in all other respects the fidelity is pretty good.

 

[EMB]

Too safe and sappy? If that doesn't describe BREEZIN'--and much of Benson's I-wanna-be-Wes Montgomery career--I don't know what does.

ED

 

[leevitalone1]

I go 8 this was one of my 1st.had the vinyl long ago, one day trying to get rid of a dude began to turn up my volume and adjust the tone control and it got louder and louder until I was envelped by violins, I maen flying around the room. It was quite the thing. oh, he left, "that guy listens to shit" he was heard to say as he left.
or your music sucks and is too loud. It also worked on my in laws with al dimela, pretty hard stuff in those days.
They left too! I had a setep maratnz with 65 watts and ultralinear speakers with an 8" woofer sony belt drive TT and a marantz eq.

 

[fredblue]

Too safe and sappy? If that doesn't describe BREEZIN'--and much of Benson's I-wanna-be-Wes Montgomery career--I don't know what does.

ED

fair comment, this is hardly ground-breaking!
I just always felt that after this big mainstream success, it all became very very bland on planet Benson.

Breezin' is nice and smooth but still soulful for the most part, for me at any rate. I'm sure it's just elevator music to a lot of people tho!

the next release of his I liked was the Monster Music "Songs & Stories" 5.1 workout that came donkeys years later!
everything else in between was just.. Dreck, for me.

 

[kap'n krunch]

a 7.
Love the title track and a few others, but the rest sound like filler...-1...
And then , along with Billy Cobham's "Spectrum", this is one of those discs that I have to boost the treble and bass ALL THE WAY to make it sound "Normal" (and even then...)
Veredict..FLAT AS A PANCAKE, don't know if it was the mixdown or mastering, but they were out to lunch....-2
Too bad cause it deserved better....

 

[rusinurbe]

Now i have no point of reference as I dont have the original album, have only have the suround mix here to go on, which i bought just because i have seen such polarised opinions here and I found it relativly cheeply.
I will not mark it yet but, i do find this a very enjoyabvle disc. Its not an all out aural prog assult, this is a plesant AOR/Jazz disc. The guitar is 'wet' rather than 'Dry' but i dont feel this is a distration, from the music and the sound has descrete elements all the way throgh not quite an AIX in the band mix not a Steven Wilson mix but a good surround mix which is on the whole in keeping with the music. In days of yore I would probably have given it a 9 verging on 10 but given the standards set by a Mr Wilson i think a a 7/8 is more in order but as i said will need to listen more before marking.

 

[fredblue]

Now i have no point of reference as I dont have the original album, i haev only have the suround mix heer to go on, which i bought just because i ahve seen such polarised opinions here and I found it relativly cheeply.
I will not mark it yet but, i do find this a very enjoyabvle disc. Its not an all out aural prog assult, this is a plesant AOR/Jazz disc. The guitar is 'wet' rather than 'Dry' but i dont feel this is a distration, from the music and the sound has descrete elements all teh way throgh not quite an AIX in the band mix not a steven Wilson mix but a good surround mix which is on teh whole in keeping with the music. In days of yore I would probably have given it a 9 verging on 10 but given the standards set by a Mr Wilson i think a a 7/8 is more in order but as i said will need to listen more before marking

Nice summary of your findings so far, thank you rusinurbe.

I don't have a problem as such with the amount of reverb on the guitar here, although personally a bit less would be great.. my main bugbear is the amount of reverb on George Bensons' vocals.

At times there's so much lead vocal reverb in the rears, it's really disconcerting.

Plus the fidelity's not as good as it could/should be.

Lots of things in the surround mix are effective and suit the music, which are of course among the key things in all these surround discs (content and mix) when we rate them and I still do enjoy this album as the last thing Benson did before he (imho) became too poppy and formulaic and went on to do those slushy ballads etc in the 80's.

It's just Breezins' so wet (awash!) with reverb of his vocals in the rears, it almost ruins it in 5.1, for me. Whatever the intentions of the surround team behind this mix, I'm not entirely sure, maybe to give it a concert hall, more alive effect, I don't know but on studio material, the result is just a bit unnatural, imho.

 

[rusinurbe]

Nice summary of your findings so far, thank you rusinurbe.

I don't have a problem as such with the amount of reverb on the guitar here, although personally a bit less would be great.. my main bugbear is the amount of reverb on George Bensons' vocals.

At times there's so much lead vocal reverb in the rears, it's really disconcerting.

Plus the fidelity's not as good as it could/should be.

Lots of things in the surround mix are effective and suit the music, which are of course among the key things in all these surround discs (content and mix) when we rate them and I still do enjoy this album as the last thing Benson did before he (imho) became too poppy and formulaic and went on to do those slushy ballads etc in the 80's.

It's just Breezins' so wet (awash!) with reverb of his vocals in the rears, it almost ruins it in 5.1, for me. Whatever the intentions of the surround team behind this mix, I'm not entirely sure, maybe to give it a concert hall, more alive effect, I don't know but on studio material, the result is just a bit unnatural, imho.

Maybe I should get a CD to listen and compare !! quite happy with this breezin' is a classic song and the final song 'Down here on the ground' i can't understand why iot was not on the original album.

 

[fredblue]

Maybe I should get a CD to listen and compare !! quite happy with this breezin' is a classic song and the final song 'Down here on the ground' i cant understand why iot was not on teh original album.

I feel exactly the same way about the bonus tracks! They should have been on the original, they're fantastic!
I can only imagine constraints on the running time of the vinyl forced them to be cut?!?

Also, Down Here on the Ground doesn't suffer from the excess reverb problem, for some reason.. only on the piano break, which works quite well, unlike the over echo-ey vocals.. whereas Shark Bite has more of the over the top reverb!

You don't have to spend/waste money on a CD by the way, if you just hit the previews of Breezin' on iTunes, you'll see what I mean about this remix.

 

[JonUrban]

While posting comments on this title going forward, please indicate if you are reviewing the DVD-A or the SACD. All posts prior to this post were created before the SACD was released (August 2014)

THANKS!

(Please note that when a disc is released in multiple formats, one one HiRez poll section is created if the source material is the same mix. This change was implemented at the suggestion of the membership. When a different mix is found on each format, two poll sections are created (i.e. Machine Head, etc)

 

[bmoura]

While posting comments on this title going forward, please indicate if you are reviewing the DVD-A or the SACD. All posts prior to this post were created before the SACD was released (August 2014)

THANKS!

(Please note that when a disc is released in multiple formats, one one HiRez poll section is created if the source material is the same mix. This change was implemented at the suggestion of the membership. When a different mix is found on each format, two poll sections are created (i.e. Machine Head, etc)

Thanks for the explanation Jon.

To be clear, there was an earlier SACD of Breezin' - a Single Layer Stereo SACD issued by Warner Japan in 2012. Haven't heard that one so I can't comment on its sound. So there are 2 SACD editions available - or will be on August 26, 2014 per Music Direct....

In the poll, fans here should be clear whether its the Audio Fidelity 5.1 SACD or another version (Warner Japan Stereo SACD, Rhino 5.1 DVD-A) that they are listening to when commenting.

 

[bmoura]

Some comments on the new 5.1 Multichannel SACD edition of Breezin' from Audio Fidelity - based on an advance copy that I've heard:

The highlight of the new SACD are the newly remastered SACD Stereo and CD Stereo tracks done by Steve Hoffman. He went back to the original 30ips two-channel Analog Master Tapes - and it shows. Excellent definition and detail, well worth getting the SACD to have the newly remastered Stereo DSD music from this album. Very nice !

On the 5.1 mix, I've always found the 5.1 mix on the DVD-Audio edition of Breezin' to be very weak. For the new 5.1 SACD of Breezin', the mix is the same but I find that - as is often the case on reissues - some fine tuning has been done on the 5.1 SACD tracks. Kudos to Audio Fidelity for taking that step prior to issuing the SACD of the album.

Overall, a "7" from me. The Stereo SACD tracks on Breezin' rate much higher but I think the 5.1 mix, even fine tuned a bit on the new 5.1 SACD, bring the overall score down. Or maybe I'm just a tough grader.....

 

[The Rang]

Thanks for the Breezin' review.

I think it's pretty much what we all expected: significant improvement on the 2ch with a 5.1 pretty much unchanged.

 

[bmoura]

Thanks for the Breezin' review.

I think it's pretty much what we all expected: significant improvement on the 2ch with a 5.1 pretty much unchanged.

I wouldn't say that. The fine tuning on the channel levels on the 5.1 SACD from Audio Fidelity moves the original mix from unlistenable on the DVD-A to a mix that one can listen to. Still not stellar, but a definite improvement.

 

[JonUrban]

I agree with Brian. The SACD sounds a bit better than the DVD-A on my Oppo. It seems a bit more even. Hard to describe.
If you like this title, it's probably worth checking out, unless my aging ears are failing me. @:

 

[The Rang]

I wouldn't say that. The fine tuning on the channel levels on the 5.1 SACD from Audio Fidelity moves the original mix from unlistenable on the DVD-A to a mix that one can listen to. Still not stellar, but a definite improvement.

Good news, looking forward to receiving my subscriber copy

 

[Circular Vibes]

OK, so my copy (SACD) was in the mailbox when I came home. I just had to hear it right away. I wasn't blown away at all. While I do prefer having a multichannel mix, I don't feel like I gained much more than spreading the sound a wee bit. There are discrete elements, but when I compared the title track to my run of the mill LP, I couldn't notice much sonic difference. I was really hoping that the mix would have sharpened up considerably, but it still sounds like it is coming through a thin wall. Unless you are a surround junkie or totally into this album, I can't give it high recommendations.

 

[wavelength]

Audio Fidelity - my head is shaking. You commit yourself to releasing 5.1 and this is your choice?

 

[LizardKing]

Audio Fidelity - my head is shaking. You commit yourself to releasing 5.1 and this is your choice?

??

Personally I'm thankful that they've issued something/anything (in Multichannel). OK - its not a 10 - but its not total/utter crap...

Mine's in the mail - I'm looking forward to comparing it to the DVD-A release - and my re-authored version with steelydave's suggested tweaks.

 

[timbre4]

It had to start somehow with something deemed marketable by their standards, however we might disagree.

Could be worse or not happening at all. I choose to be optimistic.


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