I voted 10 on the Audio Fidelity 4.0 SACD Poll. I will be honest, that after that Feb 28, 2016 vote, I evolved into not as good as I thought, mainly I had so much surround under my belt, I can discriminate better. The reason I soured a little with the AF it sounded flat to me, even though the separation within the Quad was great.
All that said,
I vote 12 on this new Rhino Quadio release.
I had a Goldilocks affair with this release, I was ripping other discs, I finished ripping this disc and I was so anxious to listen I popped it into the Blu Ray player and listened in sequence, 4.0-5.1-2.0. My Goldilocks jumped in the 4.0 bed.
I'll explain but some facts first.
Blu Ray Rips, 4.0 FLAC file-24bit/192Khz-DTS HD MSTR-DR's are 11's, 12's, 13's, 14, 15, 16.
5.1 FLAC file-24bit/96Khz-DTS HD MSTR-DR's are 12's, 13's, 14's, 15's, 16's.
2.0 FLAC file-24bit/192Khz-DTS HD MSTR-DR's are 11's, 12's, 13's, 15, 17.
Back to Goldilocks listening: My choice was the
4.0, far superior to the AF 2016 version, more fuller in sonics, not as flat as the AF.
I heard in the
4.0, the star Billy Cobham with his drums very present and in all 4 speakers, much of a even surround.
The 5.1 had Billy's drums up front and laid back sometimes being hidden behind Tommy Bolin's guitar, the rears where kind of a reverb of all.
The stereo, well for a surround listener such as we are, given the choice, the stereo is just too flat and all buried.
This album originally released in 1973 just had to be Jeff Becks template for Blow By Blow in 1975, and Tommy Bolin was, had to be an effort even for Jeff Beck to keep up.
Billy Cobham's drumming with his double bass technique is outstanding on Spectrum.
I love this album and now the surround improvement over the AF, puts a giant smile on my face.
Please Keep Poll Threads Pure To Your Listening Experience Only.
Keep it going Rhino, we support you immensely.
