Jeff Beck Group & Birds of Fire - Audio Fidelity 4.0 Multichannel SACDs (August 2015)
- Thread starter bmoura
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Not doin' bad for 42..
I agree...when I was 42 I had a LOT of dropouts..and they were longer than a few seconds:couch
I know there's a quad mix of "Between Nothingness & Eternity" because I have it on vinyl - and there seems to have been Q8 mixes of the next 3 albums - from the second Mahavishnu lineup. I would buy any/all of them. Sadly, I don't "think" there's an official quad mix of "The Inner Mounting Flame".
:yikes
There was supposedly a Quad mix of Apocalypse (that no-one's ever seen or heard..) but I didn't know about the other two and on Q8 no less! Wow!
I found it was more a case of "Hair today gone tomorrow"! :teleport:
My "Birds of Fire" SACD just arrived 15 minutes ago. I'm blasting it now, speakers are handling this effortlessly. I like the drums in back speakers, but I might change the speaker angle slightly. You feel like you are in the studio with the group with channel assignment in such a way as this. Cool!
To think that this has sat around unissued since the original SQ/Q8 release is amazing.
Jeff Beck Group I guess is still on back-order.
To think that this has sat around unissued since the original SQ/Q8 release is amazing.
Jeff Beck Group I guess is still on back-order.
Well, not sure about "confirmed," but reported on it, yeah. That said, I agree. That moment in stereo does not sound funny on my SACD. So now it's confirmed.
J/k
blue.monk
1K Club - QQ Shooting Star
Giving Birds of Fire its first spin. Great sound but, oh my, some of the mixing choices took me by surprise! It's uber-discrete to be sure and, as others have pointed out, drums are often isolated in rears (you can get an instant Cobham groove clinic by muting the fronts!). But some instrumental solos and accompaniments are somewhat obscured, particularly when panned hard front left or right. Those initial quibbles aside, I'm thoroughly digging it (it's my favorite MO album) and will be sure to give it high marks when I'm ready to vote in the poll.
I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but I wish the price of both of these SACDs was slightly higher.
Why?
I have a $25 Best Buy Reward Zone certificate to use before the middle of October, but I can't use it on either of these SACDs cause they are both $24.99, and in order to use the certificate, the order has to be the same or greater value than the value of the certificate.
Guess I'll wait it out a few more weeks and see if they go up in price so I can use it then.
I think my top choice would be "Birds of Fire", but "Jeff Beck Group" is currently in stock, so I may just end up picking up that one instead.
We'll just have to see...
Why?
I have a $25 Best Buy Reward Zone certificate to use before the middle of October, but I can't use it on either of these SACDs cause they are both $24.99, and in order to use the certificate, the order has to be the same or greater value than the value of the certificate.
Guess I'll wait it out a few more weeks and see if they go up in price so I can use it then.
I think my top choice would be "Birds of Fire", but "Jeff Beck Group" is currently in stock, so I may just end up picking up that one instead.
We'll just have to see...
FWIW (which may be nothing), I like the JBG album a little better than BoF. Only slightly though. They're both great.
I would give the Jeff Beck disc a higher grade myself. I finally got it today, and was comparing it after listening to Birds Of Fire. It really did strike me by the end of the first track that the quad treatment sounded more engaging and effective, to these ears anyway, and it held true for the whole album. I don't think anything negative about the Mahavishnu disc, I think they're both beautifully done - I just think the Beck disc is more successful.
Jim the Oldbie
My right elbow hurts.
It's hard for me to compare these two objectively. I've loved the Jeff album since I was a kid, know it by heart, it's part of my DNA. On the other hand (confession time), I only heard the Mahavishnu for the first time (in stereo) about ten or so years ago; so even though I enjoy the music, it's never really taken root in the same way. (And I call myself a jazz fusion fan! Shame!)
Anyway - I am so crazy about the clean, clear sound of this quad Jeff release that I'm sitting here thinking of ways to rip the SACD so I can try to create my own new go-to stereo mix to replace the original, the sound of which has always disappointed me somewhat.
Meanwhile, Birds of Fire sounds to me a bit like there are 2 Billy Cobhams, one in each rear channel, each playing half a drum kit. At certain moments this is actually kind of a cool effect; other times it's just disorienting. I wonder if this isn't exacerbated by my conventional 5.1 setup, which has the rears at ~105 degrees. With the traditional 4-corner quad speaker placement that this album would've been mixed for, I'd bet the drum sound is more cohesive. How about it, guys & gals? Anyone out there with this classic speaker setup? Maybe I need to set a miniDSP preset with a bit of cross-feed in the rears, to narrow the spread for some of these old-school quad mixes? Hmm...
One side-effect of the Mahavishnu disc is that it makes me hunger for more 70s jazz fusion in quad! How about The Jan Hammer Group? Return to Forever (and all those great solo albums from its members)?? The mind reels...
-- Jim, prattling on again (sorry)
I'm curious about this too. I might try a rearranging mine in a 'trad' setup just to hear the difference...
Well,there's Billy Cobham's Spectrum, which was an early 5.1 DVDA release...and a very good one. And of course the two Jeff Beck classics Blow by Blow and Wired though only one of those has been rereleased digitally.
That's what happens when you shop at Best Buy and they sell the SACDs for less than list price...
It's pretty subtle. In fact, I missed it when listening to my SACD copy here until you mentioned it and I listened much closer.
An excellent Multichannel SACD from Audio Fidelity. As is The Jeff Beck Group on Multichannel SACD. Lovin' both of them here!
Me too, loving them both. I just got my copy of Jeff Beck Group today from ImportCD, kinda late but whatever.
I like that these two albums were released together as in some ways they both appeal to the same listener mood.
I never order up things in advance of the release, and generally wait for good word to spread, but for both of these, I just clicked "order" and was done with it. I'm going to play the Jeff Beck loud later this evening, have only sampled a few minutes thus far.
Price was right at ImportCD even if they took quite a while to get me my Jeff Beck Group SACD which arrived today.
The Jeff Beck Group is very good at regular volume. If you crank it up, you and the neighborhood will be rockin!
The bass does have a heavy-ness to it, I have retail below me in my building and they are all gone by 5 or 6pm.
I still can't believe that after 40 years we are hearing these albums correctly for the first time in quad. It might not have happened.
I still can't believe that after 40 years we are hearing these albums correctly for the first time in quad. It might not have happened.
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