HiRez Poll Earth Wind & Fire - OPEN OUR EYES [SACD]

[rtbluray]

The Good news about this disc: Considering this is a Quadraphonic mix from the 1970s, the mix itself and fidelity are really quite good!
Most all of these Audio Fidelity Quadraphonic reissues on SACD have surpassed my expectations concerning fidelity, and for that, they are to be commended!

Bad news about this disc: I don't really dig the content, which doesn't surprise me as I have never been an EW&F fan, but once again, kudos to Audio Fidelity for reissuing this Quad mix as this was about the only thing anyone could have done to make me sit down and listen to an EW&F album all the way through.

An '8' vote from me.

 

[edisonbaggins]

I had to go with an 8 on this one. Sounds really good to these ears. Cool mix. Pleasing sonics. No worries there.
Sometimes, listening to quad, I find that if I just spin my chair 45 or 90 degrees it dramatically changes the arrangement.
Like, I can have the drums dead-center behind me, if I want to.
The content is ok. I primarily know EWF from their work with Phil Collins [puts on flame retardant suit].
I wanted to hear the horns, baby! Oh well. The wife liked it, so it will go in the wife-approved stack.

 

[quicksrt]

This is one of the great surprises in the series. I love the music and the mix. I appreciate that the rear chans are equal in level to the fronts. The arrangements are so strong and the quad positioning so well thought out, you can tell that they loved doing this quad mix and were quite proud of the result. And then for this mix to sit in a tape vault for decades unheard is just terrible. I hope that the production team gets to hear this SACD and know that it made it back out in a high quality format.

A beautiful quad SACD!

 

[Ninecats]

That's it, I'm so ordering this now!

 

[fredblue]

I SO hope Audio Fidelity choose to give the other Earth, Wind & Fire Quads the Surround SACD treatment.. "Head To The Sky", "That's The Way Of The World" and "Spirit" are also seriously good (better than this one even I'd say..)

 

[Quad Linda]

Does MoFi still have rights to That's the Way of the World ('75 studio album)? I have a 2ch SACD they released of that several years ago, which I believe is OOP. thankfully, I have mint SQ LP's of it and Spirit from back in the day.

 

[quicksrt]

Does MoFi still have rights to That's the Way of the World ('75 studio album)? I have a 2ch SACD they released of that several years ago, which I believe is OOP. thankfully, I have mint SQ LP's of it and Spirit from back in the day.

I doubt that MFSL still have legal hold on it. But it if has only been a couple (2-3) years since it was out on that label, AF might not touch it even if they can.

Seems AF are going to avoid anything that was out recently even when they can get it. It's fine as this was the 4.0 and 5.1 launch year, and they needed to be risk very adverse. They were no guarantees that there were enough of us surround fans to support anything other than Pink Floyd and The Beatles.

Looks like AF are going to go for ONLY titles not out other audiophile series in the last 5-6 years or less. They don't need to. They have at least two more years like 2015 of first rate titles before they need to think about doing repeats (previously issued but non-quad layered SACDs). It's after this roughly three year period that I see some adventurous and slightly risky titles coming. They won't really be risky because they will be first rate albums, or A-List titles (with quad layers) I like to call them. The risk part is that they will have been out five years prior to Dec 2017 on another label in stereo only.

 

[fredblue]

I didn't enjoy the MFSL SACD of That's The Way Of The World, I found it a bright tough listen tbh.
The SQ LP is really a joy to behold, I was comparing it to a t/f of the Q8 earlier this evening and really the difference in sound quality is night and day.. and through the Surround Master the SQ gives the Q8 a serious run for its money.. still we just know the original Quad master tapes would sound spectacular and have the utmost channel separation.. Come on AF, let's be havin' em..!

 

[Clint Eastwood]

I didn't enjoy the MFSL SACD of That's The Way Of The World, I found it a bright tough listen tbh.
The SQ LP is really a joy to behold, I was comparing it to a t/f of the Q8 earlier this evening and really the difference in sound quality is night and day.. and through the Surround Master the SQ gives the Q8 a serious run for its money.. still we just know the original Quad master tapes would sound spectacular and have the utmost channel separation.. Come on AF, let's be havin' em..!

I love the content of That's The Way Of The World..but I was scared off from the SACD due to the sound quality..

 

[fredblue]

Hmm I'll hold my vote until I've listened to it more often,
The first thing is that SH put a HF Cutoff on this BIG TIME....NOTHING above 20K (I'd say 15K)..not even gonna bother with a spectrum analysis..wow, I'm sure that the SQ LP would sound MUCH BETTER (the SACD sounds as if somebody put ,not one, but SEVERAL blankets on top of the speakers...
Also, as dr. simple states, this being a 70s QUAD mix you have to sit in the middle of the square, so turn down the rear channels about 3 dB (depends on your setup and hearing).
I mean, it's great that these guys are rereleasing these mixes....but , if this is how it's gonna be, I'd rather buy the SQ LPs and do my own conversion....

Very interesting you should say about the sound Kap because I was playing the old SQ LP thru the Surround Master last night and it's quite different to this SACD, for one it is brighter.. how much of that is down to my turntable setup I don't know but once I'm MOTU'd up I'll post a short clip or two so people here can compare the two.

I prefer the SACD by quite some way, it's warm where the record is quite the opposite.. which is unusual in my albeit limited experience with the EWF SQ LPs so far, in that the records sound absolutely terrific, especially "Head To The Sky" which is absolutely stunning sound and surround.

I hope AF get around to doing Surround SACDs of all the EWF Quads.. and maybe even that Ramsey Lewis "Sun Goddess" 5.1 that was up for Sony SACD pre-order back in the day and - along with Wild Cherry's "Electrified Funk" - got unceremoniously dumped.

 

[fredblue]

I love the content of That's The Way Of The World..but I was scared off from the SACD due to the sound quality..

Be afraid Clint..!
Seriously, it's underwhelming.

I was comparing the MFSL SACD to the SQ LP last night (unfair in and of itself I guess, the 'surround' was always gonna trounce the stereo.. although there are aspects of the stereo mix I prefer to the Quad, some of the vocals are very dry and upfront in the Quad where they have more reverb and are more nebulous/diffuse in the stereo.. still there are many nice touches to the Quad, there's lots of cool isolation of stuff going on.. most of all though the old SQ LP sound quality is just so so gorgeous it's embarrassing how bad the MFSL is by comparison and that for me is the final nail in the coffin of the MFSL SACD.

 

[MIDIQ]

I finally decided to get both of the EWF releases. Glad i did. I am enjoying them better than i thought i would. Music 8 surround mix 10. Overall enjoyment 8.

 

[key_wiz]

I didn’t vote on this until now?

I give it an “8” overall. Almost a “9”.

Really good 70s discreet quad mix. Instruments and voices all over the place but still enveloping and warm.

Content: The first EWF album that really sounded like classic EWF, so they are still finding their footing here a bit. But some classsic tracks with Mighty Mighty and Devotion.

Sonics are great for ‘74 and hold up very well today!

Still hope we get That’s The Way of the World and Spirit from someone someday!

 

[fredblue]

what was I thinking.. to have downgraded it overall for its brevity was silly of me when it sounds great and the mix is top notch. changing from an "8" to a "10".

 

[quicksrt]

I was shocked at how well thought out the quad mix is here. The multitracks must have been a joy to work with. The end result is staggeringly great imo.

 

[key_wiz]

Like Fredblue, I just upgraded my vote to a “10”. I don’t know what I was thinking first time around.

This album is great. Classic EWF before they became classic. It just took me a couple of more listens to realize how strong the tacks on this album are. And the quad mix is excellent. The kalimba spinning around the room at the beginning of “Drum Song” is way fun!

That mixes like this have been “lost” for decades is really a travesty. We need them all to be released from their prisons!

Free The Quad!

 

[Scott65]

Another disc I acquired a few years ago and am revisiting. Great sound quality and quad mix. Some tracks are short but it does not bother me. 10.