Jeff Beck's "Wired"....now available as multi-channel hybrid SACD from Japan Sony

[4-earredwonder]

Ps. I should add, posing the question is completely of my own accord, not solicited by AF nor anyone connected with them, nor Jon or QQ at all
(just something I've been thinking about for a little while.. and now seeing how many people here are willing to pay $49 for the right Surround albums & artists, seemed the right time to ask around..)

I think the Sony Beck QUAD SACDs are premium priced because of the elaborate packaging and I'm sure if you polled enough potential QUAD buyers, they'd much rather have the plain AF slipcase packaging [or NOT] versus paying upwards of $20 more for designer enclosures.

Same analogy applies to box sets with marbles, scarves, coasters, etc. I just want the QUAD/Surround disc and if I want scarves, marbles or coasters I'll go to a local boutique and buy them separately.

And would I pay a premium price for certain artists in surround...........Sure, why not. It's ONLY money! But I always find it ironic that smaller labels can release a RBCD/BD~A in a lavish hard bound enclosure and charge $10 for it and it sounds GREAT [i.e. Nosound: Scintilla]. Take that, you GREEDY Major [record Company executive] as*holes!

 

[privateuniverse]

..my question is; Would you stretch to $40 for an AF SACD with Surround on it..?

Like others have said, for me it would depend on the artist. With the AF discs, I dove into several titles that I had previously never owned in any format. I can't see myself paying $40 or more for something that I had previously been indifferent to. On the other hand, if Sony wants to give us the quads of Billy Joel's Piano Man and Turnstiles, I will happily fork over the cash. Wired is my favorite Jeff Beck album so I will be spending the cash for this one. However, I will wait to see if it starts showing up at other retailers to see if I can score it at a somewhat lower price.

On the subject of Billy Joel, I am surprised that Sony hasn't tried any of his albums yet. After Michael Jackson, he is probably Sony's most commercially successful artist. (Streisand and Springsteen are probably in the same league as well.) You would think that Sony would want to go with the artists who have the highest sales potential. Don't get me wrong, I love Jeff Beck, but he never sold as many albums as Billy did.

 

[fredblue]

Like others have said, for me it would depend on the artist. With the AF discs, I dove into several titles that I had previously never owned in any format. I can't see myself paying $40 or more for something that I had previously been indifferent to. On the other hand, if Sony wants to give us the quads of Billy Joel's Piano Man and Turnstiles, I will happily fork over the cash. Wired is my favorite Jeff Beck album so I will be spending the cash for this one. However, I will wait to see if it starts showing up at other retailers to see if I can score it at a somewhat lower price.

On the subject of Billy Joel, I am surprised that Sony hasn't tried any of his albums yet. After Michael Jackson, he is probably Sony's most commercially successful artist. (Streisand and Springsteen are probably in the same league as well.) You would think that Sony would want to go with the artists who have the highest sales potential. Don't get me wrong, I love Jeff Beck, but he never sold as many albums as Billy did.

Thank you for the feedback Rob, I totally agree with you, it is surprising that Sony have not tried to monetize their bigger legacy artists like Streisand, Billy Joel, etc with added content in the form of their Quads.

Yes, so doing would mean increased overhead of the costs of physical production & manufacture/authoring/tape transfers and remastering the Quad of course, to Sony.. but not Licensing (which it has been suggested is onerous) one would imagine?

Perhaps Sony Japan intends to release a number of other artists' Quads down the line and all the speculating in the world's for naught.. but hey it costs nothing to dream and its fun to discuss our ideas, isn't it..?!

 

[DennisMoore Jr.]

Interested. Depends on price. If it's like Beck, Bogert, Appice, no thanks until somebody off-loads.

Ah, the foolishness of youth, I recall it well.

@edisonbaggins, please forgive the gentle dig. You are one of my fondest creatures who abound here. Myself having lived through the seventies and being a guitar worshiper/player, I can indeed tell you that this disc in quad is an absolute must buy. Not quite at GOD status as Blow By Blow, but Beck's 2nd best recording by far, IMHO. This one is a no-brainer.

Me personally I am PHOOKIN ESTATIC, I thought the rumors were true about a bad 4.0 tape, but it looks like miracles still happen. Wired in Quad is a real shocker for me and the 7 inch packaging is so cool, I think all releases should be in that format.

Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Steve Howe, Davey Gilmour....it doesn't get any better than this laddie.:music

 

[4-earredwonder]

Ah, the foolishness of youth, I recall it well.

@edisonbaggins, please forgive the gentle dig. You are one of my fondest creatures who abound here. Myself having lived through the seventies and being a guitar worshiper/player, I can indeed tell you that this disc in quad is an absolute must buy. Not quite at GOD status as Blow By Blow, but Beck's 2nd best recording by far, IMHO. This one is a no-brainer.

Me personally I am PHOOKIN ESTATIC, I thought the rumors were true about a bad 4.0 tape, but it looks like miracles still happen. Wired in Quad is a real shocker for me and the 7 inch packaging is so cool, I think all releases should be in that format.

Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Steve Howe, Davey Gilmour....it doesn't get any better than this laddie.:music

Or as they muse on the beautiful plains of the American Southwest: Good~bye [to] Pork Belly Fat.....This IS the REAL DEAL!

 

[quicksrt]

Ah, the foolishness of youth, I recall it well. Me personally I am PHOOKIN ESTATIC, I thought the rumors were true about a bad 4.0 tape, but it looks like miracles still happen. Wired in Quad is a real shocker for me and the 7 inch packaging is so cool, I think all releases should be in that format.

Really, even at $50 a crack?

The rumors were true, the US has a bad copy of quad Wired, or the original here in US is shot, and Japan made their copy long ago (like 1976) and it's been stored correctly and was on prime tape stock to begin with.

I think a lot of old quad masters thought to be gone still survive in other territories. I wonder if Rick Wakeman's people made all the phone calls that they could before they settled with Q8 transfers?

I've said it before, the Sony Japan office is noticing AF and other labels doing quad layers of Sony product. They are likely to snatch up "Tyranny and Mutation" in quad before another labels does. They will look good and hard at the Chicago box, and try to decide on which Santana would be best to launch with.....

Yes, it was me who stated that Sony Japan was likely to have a good quad copy of Wired master. They are also likely to release some quad Santana, etc. I already said as much a while back, my quadraphonic crystal ball has been fairly good lately.

 

[4-earredwonder]

Really, even at $50 a crack?

The rumors were true, the US has a bad copy of quad Wired, or the original here in US is shot, and Japan made their copy long ago (like 1976) and it's been stored correctly and was on prime tape stock to begin with.

I think a lot of old quad masters thought to be gone still survive in other territories. I wonder if Rick Wakeman's people made all the phone calls that they could before they settled with Q8 transfers?

I've said it before, the Sony Japan office is noticing AF and other labels doing quad layers of Sony product. They are likely to snatch up "Tyranny and Mutation" in quad before another labels does. They will look good and hard at the Chicago box, and try to decide on which Santana would be best to launch with.....

Yes, it was me who stated that Sony Japan was likely to have a good quad copy of Wired master. They are also likely to release some quad Santana, etc. I already said as much a while back, my quadraphonic crystal ball has been fairly good lately.

Which leads me to my next question. AF is slated to release a stereo only SACD of Santana's Lotus as a 'thorough' search of the SONY vaults in both the US and Japan could not locate the 4 channel masters. Would it be prudent to hold off and risk a similar fate [like WIRED] of purchasing the AF stereo SACD or adopt a wait and see approach as to whether SONY Japan will miraculously locate the QUAD masters and release it on QUAD SACD themselves. One must also remember that at the time of the Lotus LIVE Japan recordings, Columbia Records and not SONY was Santana's label but I'm assuming there was also a Nippon Columbia [in] Japan at the time and since Lotus was recorded in Japan am curious if the original masters currently reside in that country.

Since a lot of us (QUAD) fanatics got 'burned' by purchasing the AP Stereo SACD of Beck's Wired [but in all fairness it was well executed], were there any rumors that AP sought to include the QUAD on the album and discovered that indeed the US QUAD masters were 'spent' or was it intended to be Stereo from the onset? Just wondering.

And I do agree, as famous films once thought to have perished have shown up in collector's attics or basements, I'm sure some of these audio masters, as well, are in private collections as there have also been theories/rumours that some of the world's most famous works of art hang in private collections and forgeries are hanging in prestigious museums in their place. Fact or fantasy?

 

[quicksrt]

Since a lot of us (QUAD) fanatics got 'burned' by purchasing the AP Stereo SACD of Beck's Wired, was there any rumors that AP was seeking to include the QUAD on the album and discovered that indeed the US QUAD masters were 'spent' or was it intended to be Stereo from the onset? Just wondering.

No one knows and there was not a comment from APO in regards to their Wired release. I don't think that they meant to burn anyone, but I do consider anyone who bought the APO stereo only disc, to now need this quad one as well. You've been "double-dipped" no doubt. It happens and it is not anyone's fault.

I own the MFSL gold CD of Wired. So I would not touch any further reissue unless it had that elusive quad mix.

 

[rustyandi]

About the SACD Wired
I pulled out my SQ LP copy
And run it through the trusty Surround master Vinyl .
The music to my ears was of the 70s and although the playing
was very good there was no tune that stuck in my mind
I do like a tune now and then
Of course I am getting a bit older so I may be getting grumpy
As for paying more for a surround sound SACD $50 US is way too high
That is $65 AUS. Plus post

That’s my $65 worth

Ron

 

[ssully]

Really, even at $50 a crack?

The rumors were true, the US has a bad copy of quad Wired, or the original here in US is shot, and Japan made their copy long ago (like 1976) and it's been stored correctly and was on prime tape stock to begin with.

I think a lot of old quad masters thought to be gone still survive in other territories. I wonder if Rick Wakeman's people made all the phone calls that they could before they settled with Q8 transfers?

Actually, for Six Wives of Henry VIII, they settled for a software decode of the SQ vinyl.

 

[quicksrt]

About the SACD Wired
I pulled out my SQ LP copy
And run it through the trusty Surround master Vinyl .
The music to my ears was of the 70s and although the playing
was very good there was no tune that stuck in my mind
I do like a tune now and then
Of course I am getting a bit older so I may be getting grumpy
As for paying more for a surround sound SACD $50 US is way too high
That is $65 AUS. Plus post

That’s my $65 worth

Ron

"Blue Wind" is the song that seemed to stick in other people's mind. It's been covered by other guitarists, sometimes live as part of a medly.

 

[fredblue]

"Blue Wind" is the song that seemed to stick in other people's mind. It's been covered by other guitarists, sometimes live as part of a medly.

Which just so happens to be awesome in surround on the Quad..!! :banana:

 

[DennisMoore Jr.]

Really, even at $50 a crack?

The rumors were true, the US has a bad copy of quad Wired, or the original here in US is shot, and Japan made their copy long ago (like 1976) and it's been stored correctly and was on prime tape stock to begin with.

I think a lot of old quad masters thought to be gone still survive in other territories. I wonder if Rick Wakeman's people made all the phone calls that they could before they settled with Q8 transfers?

Agreed. $50 is too much, but then most of my surround purchases are way too expensive. The Tull - Aqualung box being a nasty financial buggering, as it were. Even CDs from Japan back in the day were $50. So the Wired 4.0 price is nothing new and the packaging is the best I've seen to date from any single release.

You bring up a great point about the Japanese 4.0 tape if that in fact was used for the transfer. Records were pressed in the U.S., Japan, Germany & England and who knows where else. So do each of these locals have 4.0 archives??? What other gems are out there?

As far as Wakeman: The entire re-release thing was all due to a Wakeman SuperFan who is a high level executive at Universal. And he did this with great personal motivation. Wakeman or Universal had nothing to do with it. Universal's vaults were searched through. You bring up an excellent point.
Are there other 4.0 tapes that exist in other jurisdictions? Wakeman and progressive music in general is loved in Japan so one would think that if a Japanese entity owned the rights to Wakeman quads we should have already seen releases.

 

[par4ken]

This is great news, my favourite Jeff Beck. I'll definitely spend my money on this one, regardless of price!

 

[fredblue]

Agreed. $50 is too much, but then most of my surround purchases are way too expensive. The Tull - Aqualung box being a nasty financial buggering, as it were. Even CDs from Japan back in the day were $50. So the Wired 4.0 price is nothing new and the packaging is the best I've seen to date from any single release.

You bring up a great point about the Japanese 4.0 tape if that in fact was used for the transfer. Records were pressed in the U.S., Japan, Germany & England and who knows where else. So do each of these locals have 4.0 archives??? What other gems are out there?

As far as Wakeman: The entire re-release thing was all due to a Wakeman SuperFan who is a high level executive at Universal. And he did this with great personal motivation. Wakeman or Universal had nothing to do with it. Universal's vaults were searched through. You bring up an excellent point.
Are there other 4.0 tapes that exist in other jurisdictions? Wakeman and progressive music in general is loved in Japan so one would think that if a Japanese entity owned the rights to Wakeman quads we should have already seen releases.

Its the best packaging I've seen from a single release, DMJ.. the best 7-inch packaging for a single release!
(wocka wocka wocka!).

as for territories the Wired Quad appeared in, it was to the best of my knowledge only ever made available on Q8 in the U.S. and on SQ LP in the U.S. and Israel.. no Japanese, German or UK Quad release afaik..!?

 

[quicksrt]

Wakeman and progressive music in general is loved in Japan so one would think that if a Japanese entity owned the rights to Wakeman quads we should have already seen releases.

Owning the tapes and owning the rights to release are two completely different things. And if a Japanese entity had rights (and tapes), not that would not automatically mean we would have seen quad releases.

The idea of old quad coming out on new SACDs is a recent phenomenon. There were DTS releases, and there were SACDs from Sony 15 years ago. But no, Sony (or anyone else) has not been thinking about quad masters on physical media in the last ten years. It's only very recently that it was noticed fans were interested and it would help sell expensive deluxe editions. The labels now know it is an additional enticement to include quad, and the players are out there.

What is $50 in 1976 dollars anyway?

 

[quicksrt]

Its the best packaging I've seen from a single release, DMJ.. the best 7-inch packaging for a single release!
(wocka wocka wocka!).

as for territories the Wired Quad appeared in, it was to the best of my knowledge only ever made available on Q8 in the U.S. and on SQ LP in the U.S. and Israel.. no Japanese, German or UK Quad release afaik..!?

CBS Japan could have been sent a quad master and decided to hold off on issuing it back in the 70s. Or Audio Fidelity were given a bum steer, and shown a bad copy by Sony, while the nicer master was not offered up. Politics can be nasty and dirty tricks, I see it almost every day.

But I would of expected Epic/CBS to have released Wired in quad in Japan back in the 70s. Beck has always been big there.

 

[fredblue]

CBS Japan could have been sent a quad master and decided to hold off on issuing it back in the 70s. Or Audio Fidelity were given a bum steer, and shown a bad copy by Sony, while the nicer master was not offered up. Politics can be nasty and dirty tricks, I see it almost every day.

But I would of expected Epic/CBS to have released Wired in quad in Japan back in the 70s. Beck has always been big there.

Good point (though I'm not totally sure) but I don't think Epic/CBS released any SQ LPs in Japan in 1976..?

Did Blow By Blow come out on SQ LP In Japan?
I've never seen one.. come to think of it, did Sony release any SQ LPs in 1975..?

They had their SX-74 range and there's those Pack 20 discs, some of which in each range are SQ LPs but other than that it seems CBS Japan were pretty much done with SQ before Wired came out, maybe..?

 

[kap'n krunch]

It's a pity that Amazon doesn't carry this to avoid the Customs charges (at least for me in España)...
You know that EVEN if you don't get to pay ANY Customs THEY STILL CHARGE YOU about 20 EUROS for having "handled" the package....bastards!

This is definitely not the country I moved to 25 years ago... :flame:nuke

 

[privateuniverse]

It's a pity that Amazon doesn't carry this to avoid the Customs charges......

I wouldn't be surprised if they had it listed soon. CD Japan might have gotten the scoop on it first because they're a Japanese company. You might see it listed on Amazon and other retailers soon. I just checked for the Japanese Blow By Blow SACD and found it on Amazon, Deep Discount, Import CDs & Bull Moose so it makes sense that those places would carry the Wired SACD as well.