Just heard this disc. Here are the comments I posted at D about this almost certain bootleg. This just has to be a fake. If this was actually an official release then it's one of the most epic screw-ups I've ever heard in my life! This is NOT the quad mix or even anything remotely close to it. The mp3-like sound quality really gives it away. It sounds distorted - like turned up too far with a peak limiter kind of distorted. It seems mostly in stereo with the band in front instead of nicely separated like the original quad mix. Kind of reverby in back and is the center channel a mix of Lf + Rf? I can only speculate. Sounds really awful though. Could the quad master really have been lost? Here's the thing, we know the multitrack tapes still exist because when the vinyl remaster was made there was an entire 2nd lp of the whole album remixed (extra bits at the end of songs and stuff like that). I believe a 2 CD version was also made. Even if it was lost, it could have been recreated. Honestly, it would only take a few hours to remix. You could put up an existing Q8 copy to compare to and match the moves. What's on this disc isn't even close. Again, it sounds very much like the silly "CD upmix" projects you see people post sometimes. Seriously, give any good engineer only an hour with the multitracks and a Q8 copy to match and it would be a LOT closer. Turn in something sounding like this and you'd be fired instantly! Especially for such a classic album. I'm throwing this one away. Get the 24/96 transfer of the Q8 (that somebody kindly made for you as a backup copy of your Q8 tape that you purchased a long time ago because it's been out of print for many years). It rocks like crazy!
More proof:
Look at this DVDA content. Notice how each track is in it's own chapter instead of one chapter with all the album tracks (so they don't have that extra pause glitch when played on a hardware DVD player). That likely comes from using Discwelder and not knowing how to put all the tracks in one chapter. More than that, if this were an official release, there would be 24/96 copies of the stereo mixes in another chapter in the audio folder. There'd likely also be a chapter for the stereo remixes as well. Nope, this is a fake. Don't waste your time with this one folks. The real quad mix is available.
Well, that's what I wrote. It sure looks real though. Now I know about the scenario where a DVDA gets a surround remix when originally it was only released in stereo. Can't have a DVDA without a surround mix right? So some intern turns out a really awful remix to throw on the disc for bonus tracks. Yes Fragile DVDA comes to mind. The difference is that album never had a surround mix and the main focus of the disc is the 24/96 stereo master. A Machine Head DVDA release would certainly have the stereo master in 24/96 and certainly have the original quad mix in 24/96 as well.