[THIS AND THE FOLLOWING ARE REPOSTS OF THE PRE-RELEASE REVIEW I DID IN AN EARLIER THREAD. I COPIED IT HERE FOR CONTINUITY SINCE I WILL SOON DELETE THE PRE-RELEASE THREAD]
Those of you who have heard the CD-4, the Q8, the Q4, and some of the excellent conversions from these formats, be prepared to put those items in a storage drawer for posterity as they'll be no longer needed because this disc is one of the best sounding surround discs I have ever heard of material of this vintage.
The incredibly clean and crisp sound of these 40 year old tracks is astounding and the very broad surround mix that fills the room with pin-point precision and "turn around and look back" effects will have you grinning from ear to ear. The mix is the mix just as it was back in 1973. Nothing has changed except the delivery media is now worthy of the audio within it. It was made to showcase quadraphonic sound and this mix certainly takes it to the four corners of your listening area.
From the opening crowd noise that swells up from the rears on the live version of "Who Do You Love" that starts this disc off, the surround mix gets your attention and keeps it for the duration. The early tracks on this compilation taken from their first album, including the hit "Light My Fire", while not as spectacular in quad as their later songs, are much improved over the 3 channel sound found on the Perception Box DVD-A and AP SACD of "The Doors".
Of course, "Riders on the Storm" has the legendary whispering Jim Morrison vocal solo in the rear channels that has been a favorite of quad fans for years. That track never grows tired to my ears. You can really hear the keyboard clean and solo in the front left speaker during the musical interlude section. Very nice.
The Doors music has aged well and the surround sound mix keeps it in the present. Listening to this disc the first time was very reminiscent of when I first listened to AF Winelight SACD. I knew the material and the mix, but I could not help but notice that it sounded better than I had remembered it sounding, and in this case, so much better than ever.
I played this many times at home, much more than any other AF preview disc I had received. Every time I played it I marveled at the way it sounded. So good!
I was enjoying it so much that I wanted to listen to this in my car, so I went through some big time hoops to get the audio from the disc into my PC so I could make a DVD-A. Recording in the audio via analog outputs of an Oppo 83 into my MOTU and hard drive, I viewed the wav files in Sound Forge and found they were lean and clean. No brickwalling, no loudness, just pure audio. As I broke apart the files for discWelder, I decided that I would take the audio from the AP 'L.A.Woman' SACD and add the title track to the end of my car disc, just because I happen to like that track as well. Boy, what a surprise.
The L.A. Woman track sounded hollow compared to the AF SACD tracks. Mind you it sounded good on its own, but not as good as the songs on the AF disc, even when I matched the volume levels. It just didn't have the punch that the tunes on the AF disc had.
Although I am a "surround guy", I wanted to hear the Steve Hoffman stereo mix of this disc as it was specially created for this discs release from the Doors master tapes. I have to admit that it sounded terrific. As good as any stereo Gold disc in my collection. Stereo folks will like this disc just for the exclusive mastering, I'm sure.
So if you are on the fence with this title, take my word as in this case I am not worried. You will like this disc, you just might love this disc, but if you're a surround fan, old or new, this disc is a no-brainer must buy. A '10' if there ever was one. I will be anxiously waiting for you all to get yours, and will create a poll when the AF subscribers get their discs mailed out to them.
In the meantime, get your orders in and prepare for some great quad listening.......
to a 1973 quad recording.......
in 2015!!!
