First 2 Audio Fidelity Multichannel SACDs Announced - Supersession and Breezin'

[fredblue]

Haven't heard any plans or interest from Audio Fidelity in Blu-Ray or BD Audio. Their future releases continue to be planned for SACD and Vinyl LP.

too true! I can't see AF doing Blu-ray Audio anytime soon/anytime ever! I'll be happy to eat my hat if they do but I just can't see it going down well with the AF-ophiles and the SHF.tv-ers.. it's been a hard enough sell getting some of them to even entertain the idea of Surround SACD, let alone embrace it, maybe once they've heard it they'll be happy... but Blu-ray?! pah! spit! I can see the fallout now... @:

 

[PK]

SS went gold almost immediately upon release, albeit with little or no airplay, just word of mouth. IMHO, Bloomfield is one of the best blues/rock guitarists ever. Only Hendrix was head and shoulders above him. Of over 20,000 albums in my collection, Super Session is in my top 100.
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Oh my, that's quite the endorsement QL! I'd never heard of Bloomfield so I went to Amazon to check out the samples. I was sold after 10 seconds. I'm in

Thanks QL

 

[dr8track]

I'm curious why you think that a hi rez format is desired more by those seeking just the stereo content? I think in the past that may have been true but since the inclusion of multi channel soundtracks in most blu ray movies IMO the tide has shifted. More people have home theater systems now that include more than just stereo setups. I saw this trend increase over the last 5 years with inexpensive theater in the box systems with 5.1 capabilities. I'd be curious to know just what % of sales are driven by multi channel customers.

I'm just assuming. I have absolutely no statistics to back up that assumption. But my guess would be that of the percentage of music sold that is stereo vs the percentage of music that is specifically purchased because it is multi-channel, it must be about 97.5% in favor of stereo and 2.5% who seek out multi-channel specifically. Look at the mp3's that are sold on ITunes. The vast majority of the music buying public could give a sh*t about surround sound music. I would say that even with the big expensive boxsets we've seen in recent years, many more are buying that stuff seeking the stereo content (and marbles and scarves of course) vs the multi-channel content. I think those of us who love multi-channel music over stereo music are, and will continue to be, the exceptions and a very small portion of the record buying public. Yes, pretty much every home has a system capable of playing back multi-channel music these days, but I'd be shocked if more than just a small handful of us hardcore fanatics are using it for that purpose.

 

[winopener]

The Aretha Franklin release is a little different. Soul titles historically have not been big sellers as audiophile reissues. So the reissue labels will tread very lightly in this area. Too bad, I'd love to see more SACDs in this category. I'm sure "Philly Bob" feels the same way!

I do remember we ran a kind of poll here on "what would be the next Qaudio title" and it don't remember the AF Greatest Hits receiving many chances. A "What's going on" would had been a killer title in SACD surround - probably the best Motown quad mix ever released.
BTW, i'm not going with Breezin because i already have the dvd-a. That's enough for me.

 

[fredblue]

I'm just assuming. I have absolutely no statistics to back up that assumption. But my guess would be that of the percentage of music sold that is stereo vs the percentage of music that is specifically purchased because it is multi-channel, it must be about 97.5% in favor of stereo and 2.5% who seek out multi-channel specifically. Look at the mp3's that are sold on ITunes. The vast majority of the music buying public could give a sh*t about surround sound music. I would say that even with the big expensive boxsets we've seen in recent years, many more are buying that stuff seeking the stereo content (and marbles and scarves of course) vs the multi-channel content. I think those of us who love multi-channel music over stereo music are, and will continue to be, the exceptions and a very small portion of the record buying public. Yes, pretty much every home has a system capable of playing back multi-channel music these days, but I'd be shocked if more than just a small handful of us hardcore fanatics are using it for that purpose.

I agree we are a tiny percentage of the market and I don't have any facts either, all just imho.. but I can't work out to this day how there's anecdotally so little demand for these surround discs and yet so many sell out and when they go out of print they fetch hugely inflated sums thereafter? If OOP SACDs and DVD-A's were totally unwanted, I'd have saved a small fortune over the past 5-ish years of intense hoovering up of these pricey and hard to find discs!

 

[timbre4]

I agree with dr8track; the stereo buyers will always be the majority purchasers and surround awareness will remain low. Ask Acura drivers if they are enjoying their discrete 5.1 surround system and perhaps 90% will answer "huh?" They bought the car and it has a "cd changer thingy".


From QQ deep space

 

[Clint Eastwood]

I'm just assuming. I have absolutely no statistics to back up that assumption. But my guess would be that of the percentage of music sold that is stereo vs the percentage of music that is specifically purchased because it is multi-channel, it must be about 97.5% in favor of stereo and 2.5% who seek out multi-channel specifically. Look at the mp3's that are sold on ITunes. The vast majority of the music buying public could give a sh*t about surround sound music. I would say that even with the big expensive boxsets we've seen in recent years, many more are buying that stuff seeking the stereo content (and marbles and scarves of course) vs the multi-channel content. I think those of us who love multi-channel music over stereo music are, and will continue to be, the exceptions and a very small portion of the record buying public. Yes, pretty much every home has a system capable of playing back multi-channel music these days, but I'd be shocked if more than just a small handful of us hardcore fanatics are using it for that purpose.

You might be right, there is no definitive way to establish this either way. I just thought that hi rez music is a very small segment to begin with and within that small segment multi channel is growing. I can't honestly see the reason why someone would spend the money on a SACD capable player and not use it to it's fullest potential. IMO that's like buying a high performance car and using regular gas. I would say this about your MP3 example; it could be argued that those people don't give a sh*t about music quality anyway; it's just a convenience. I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir by telling you that, as you like multi channel too.

I just wonder what the future of SACD will be when SACD capable machines are either hard to find or expensive. Sony has "pretty much" given up on SACD and they were co founders of the format with Philips. So when it becomes even more of niche market will the 2 channel crowd still want to buy these machines, I don't know. Of course everybody assumed vinyl was on life support and would die and it's actually made a comeback.

 

[Clint Eastwood]

I agree with dr8track; the stereo buyers will always be the majority purchasers and surround awareness will remain low. Ask Acura drivers if they are enjoying their discrete 5.1 surround system and perhaps 90% will answer "huh?" They bought the car and it has a "cd changer thingy".


From QQ deep space

I think you could probably insert any car in there that has a premium audio system in it, most buyers aren't aware or care about the audio system. I was recently at a BMW dealer and I looked at a lot of their inventory and very few had anything above the standard audio package in the existing inventory. The dealers that order the inventory never include the Harmon Kardon upgrade and it's relatively cheap at $875; but of course they all had the premium package at $4,000 and above. I guess the only person that really cares about music in a car must be Neil Young and his "pono"@:

The point isn't "surround awareness", it's music quality awareness; it hardly exists outside these forums. I won't start a rant on the portable devices and the loudness campaign but style over substance is the prevailing attitude. Convenience trumps most things for the vast majority of people; quality is in the distinct minority.

 

[dr8track]

I agree we are a tiny percentage of the market and I don't have any facts either, all just imho.. but I can't work out to this day how there's anecdotally so little demand for these surround discs and yet so many sell out and when they go out of print they fetch hugely inflated sums thereafter? If OOP SACDs and DVD-A's were totally unwanted, I'd have saved a small fortune over the past 5-ish years of intense hoovering up of these pricey and hard to find discs!

While we all love the music and the fact it is presented in multi-channel surround, I think there is also a high percentage of us who have a strong "collector" genetic makeup. Part of why we grab up these out of print titles for high prices is because we want to hear the music, but there is also a strong component of wanting to add it to our surround sound "collection." Let's be realistic, we probably all have so much multi-channel music in our collections that if we started playing it now we'd drop dead years before we got through much of the collection. So, I think the collector bug adds to the demand and high prices. But I digress and am veering wildly off topic.

 

[wavelength]

Here's a link where you can hear the Super Session songs in their entirety:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QzxtVvt9M0&index=2&list=PL997FD3074EEC72B9

 

[kap'n krunch]

Just to f*ck with them I ordered the Cheap Trick "In Color" LP!!!!!

 

[Quad Linda]

I'm nowhere near as technically savvy as Neil or some of the other guys here. Besides that, how high a reel can reproduce will be predicated by lots of factors: tape generation (1st or 2nd, etc.?), machine(s) it was recorded/played back on, speed, mixing board limitations, microphone(s)' frequency response, amp frequency response (ex: if guitar NOT plugged into console,), even things like limitations of Dolby A, dbx, or any other processors used, and lots more factors I haven't outlined.

Any recording, transfer to other media, remixing or final reproduction on an a/v system can go no higher in frequency than the WORST piece of equipment in the chain. It's true from microphone to your speakers.

OK, to finally answer your question, IMHO over 20k is very likely on a reel, albeit there is rolloff SOMEWHERE above that.

on a related tangent.. what are the chances there's much musical information above 23k on the Super Session master tape? Just curious as to yours and everybody's best guesses ...

 

[cupboy]

Here's a link where you can hear the Super Session songs in their entirety:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QzxtVvt9M0&index=2&list=PL997FD3074EEC72B9

I couldn't make it past 30 seconds of that "music". Probably would sound best in mono.

 

[Quad Linda]

There's a simple solution to that: DON'T BUY IT!

I couldn't make it past 30 seconds of that "music". Probably would sound best in mono.

 

[Snood]

I couldn't make it past 30 seconds of that "music". Probably would sound best in mono.

Really? Snood was hooked on the first 10 seconds.........lub me some good GEE-TAR sounds :banana:

 

[Snood]

Just to f*ck with them I ordered the Cheap Trick "In Color" LP!!!!!

Best Cheap Trick title in their catalog.........THE BEST!!!!! :banana:

Snood loves that album :bounce

 

[bmoura]

I wonder if AF were to unearth, say, an unreleased surround mix of Songs In The Key Of Life (I'm not saying one actually exists!) or the Quad mix of What's Going On (both of which have been milked to death by Universal and also been remastered by AF and MFSL in stereo) there'd be such a poor response..?

the titles and artists are what makes it for the target market for these releases, as much as anything and clearly The Queen Of Soul wasn't doing it for Quadiophiles..

As a big fan of Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder, I can't explain it!

 

[cupboy]

There's a simple solution to that: DON'T BUY IT!

I'd have to quit my AF membership to not buy it, so that's a bit of a problem. I wonder if they'd excuse me from the purchase. Not sure of their policy.

 

[Circular Vibes]

I'd have to quit my AF membership to not buy it, so that's a bit of a problem. I wonder if they'd excuse me from the purchase. Not sure of their policy.

Or you could flog it on here...

 

[Snood]

I'd have to quit my AF membership to not buy it, so that's a bit of a problem. I wonder if they'd excuse me from the purchase. Not sure of their policy.

Yeah what Vibes said......eat the 30 bux plus shipping and sell for 20 to 25 plus shipping........someone will grab it from ya. Best to eat the 5 to 10 bux than to quit the membership. Make sure ya don;t get tempted and play it hehe