jimfisheye
2K Club - QQ Super Nova
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2010
- Messages
- 3,634
As a surround sound download? No, that doesn't exist. There are high-res stereo download options available.
The quad surround mix specifically, yes.
As a surround sound download? No, that doesn't exist. There are high-res stereo download options available.
I just got mine today and as soon as I hit play on the 5.1 mix the bass is just way to loud! I have Goodbye Pork Pie Hat playing and it sounds HORRIBLE! JB's guitar is low in the mix and full of echo and reverb. At about 4:30 JB's guitar is in the left rear speaker and it sounds like my speaker is blown ! I ejected the Wired JSACD and put in the Blow By Blow APO SACD 5.1 mix and that sounds fine. I'm so disappointed with the Wired JSACD 5.1 mix! This is one of the worst sounding multichannel mixes I have!
To make sure it's not my system I rebooted my XMC-1 processor and just put in Beck's Sea Change SACD and that 5.1 mix sounds as good as ever. Either the Wired 5.1 mix is just bad or I have a bad disc.
Interesting Bill is hearing poor fidelity, blanket over speakers, distortion, and excessive brightness. In other words horrid.
Others are raving about a 10 rating for sq and the mix.
Hummmm
The bullshit that Analogue Productions pulled with Blow By Blow for out of phase rears was rediculous. Only through critical listening with pen and paper could you tell the difference. Trust the Japanese they are good.
Interesting Bill is hearing poor fidelity, blanket over speakers, distortion, and excessive brightness. In other words horrid.
Others are raving about a 10 rating for sq and the mix.
Hummmm
I don't have a shipping confirmation yet, but importcds just did the pre-authorization on my debit card for this so hopefully that means it's shipping soon.
:lookaround
the shifting guitar in Goodbye Pork Pie Hat is intentional (imho).. this is how I've always known it (the tracks a bit of a Quad demo for me, I've played it for a few people in the past, including my brother who is a huge JB fan and he was impressed at how dramatic the Quad is whereas the Stereo just hangs there by comparison, though to be fair he does prefer the Quad of Blow By Blow to the Quad of Wired, sound quality and the mix, saying BxB is one of his favourite surround music mixes of those he has heard/been subjected to by me in the past!).. the basic way the mix pans out is the guitar starts in the rears, the fronts are near silent, then the drums kick in upfront really thundering away at times (there is some break up on cymbals etc but this has been on every version of the track, inherent in the recording I think, which is not the best) guitar moves up to the front for the bulk of the track, with little rhythm guitar / guitar overdubs and accents from the keys in the rear throughout, then there's a bit where the lead guitar (4:30 approx as you said) shifts back to the rears (iirc its in both channels but louder in rear left than rear right) before moving back to the front.
as for the overall fidelity, I am at a bit of a loss as to how something can sound shrill yet like a blankets been thrown over speakers at the same time.. shrill indicates excess treble, blankets indicate lack of, I guess.. is the sound midrangey in parts? yes. are the fronts bass heavy in the mix? yes. are the rears devoid of bass? a lot of the time pretty much.
also the amount of bass in the LFE on this SACD shouldn't really have an impact as there is on certain tracks tons of bass in the Front L&R in the mix already and not a lot of anything truly audible in the sub channel you should just feel most of it if you're crossed over @80/60.. and the rears have little or no bass throughout this mix (as prev mentioned) which may be causing some in-room imbalance.. I've played this SACD with C & LFE on and off and personally prefer it in its 4.0 config (pure as the overdriven guitar.. as Quad intended!) but the C & LFE are not invasive or destructive imho they're pretty subtle.
I've also prev mentioned that I think Sophie is unlike everything else in the Quad presentation and possibly some sort of fake/upmix (ages ago and more recently.. more than once) but some days it does feel like I post in a vacuum, the lack of response to things that I reckon should be "rather interesting" to fellow Quad/surround enthusiasts sometimes baffles me but I soon get over it and move on to something else, I've realised this year that less people here give a lot less of a shit about the old Quads than I have come to and a lot more of a shit about Prog that I sometimes can't be arsed with.. but that's fine by me, its all good!
just for fun, try any other Stereo mastering you already have of Wired and then try the Quad.. the Quad is so superior to the Stereo for the most part (not just the mix but also sound quality) its staggering, imho.
As Bill said the bass is loud with the sub engaged. I pulled down both the tone control and the sub setting to save the glass in my kitchen cupboards.
One annoyance for me is the keyboard solo at the end of "Come Dancing" drops down (or out) to an almost undetectable level.
Outside of that...I'm a JB fan and am enjoying this with all the patience of an adult watching his child pull the wings off a butterfly. Butterfly probably had it coming, amirite?
Seriously though..I think its great despite minor annoyances..
Fred,
As always thanks for your detailed thoughts ! When I say "shrill" the top end especially the cymbals through out the quad mix sound bright and not well defined. In one track (forget which one) the cymbals are quite dominant and they lack definition not sounding like cymbals should sound. If I get a chance I'll try to play the disc again to get the exact track and time. The issue with Goodbye Pork Pie Hat at 4:28 is that the guitar sounds distorted or if the tweeter in my left rear speaker was blown. It just doesn't sound good when it pans from the front to the rear.
I have a buddy in town who has almost the same system as mine. He also ordered the Wired JSACD. If he doesn't get his disc soon I'm going to give him mine to play. I'll be curious as to how he thinks it sounds on his system. My only other thought is if it's possible I received a bad disc.
Bill
Sophie has almost zero content in the rears. What's there shows up at around 6 minutes at a low volume.
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