The 4th?
RHINO QUADIO batch #6 - Speculation Extravaganza!
- Thread starter J. PUPSTER
- Start date
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I like that, but, is it considered a “Rocker”?
Not sure if this is a conversation piece or a "hey, I wanted to show you this to get you to leave my house" piece.
(Apologies for the slightly crusty picture, it's the only one I have to hand.)
It may not be sexy to the true believers here who buy all four discs that make up each Quadio batch, but if Rhino is bringing the individual Doobie Bros. albums back into print, it's not only good for this hobby, it's a sign that the 'state of surround' is in good health.
I remember back in the early 2010s (aka the Third Dark Age of Surround)I had some friends (civilians with no surround knowledge) over to listen to my system and they were absolutely blown away - funnily enough one of the things they liked the most was I Cheat the Hangman from The Doobie Bros. Stampede album. The conversation eventually turned to the costs of something like this for themselves, and where to get the music. The hardware part of the equation was easy - 5.1 systems of every size and price were available both new and used, but when it came to the music, it got into "well, it's complicated..." territory. "How do I get these Doobie Bros. albums in surround sound?" Well, you can't, unless you want to download them off the internet, presuming you have the capability and know how. "Can I buy stuff off Amazon or something?" Well yes, but probably only a handful of Elton John SACDs and maybe some King Crimson or Porcupine Tree. "What about all the surround albums I see on your shelf?" Well they're all out of print now, so you have to hunt them down on the internet and the popular ones cost fifty or a hundred bucks, or sometimes more.
You can see why, after a conversation like that, that the time and money investment for someone on the outside looking in seems totally prohibitive. Imagine something you like but aren't fanatical about, like TV for instance - imagine you can get 720p video of a decent amount of channels from your local cable company for a fair price, but in order to get 4K video you had to buy used copies of movies on eBay for $100. I think you'd probably be like '4K is cool, but life's too short and money's too tight (to mention), I'll stick with my 720p thanks.' This is the same challenge you face with getting stereo CD and vinyl listeners to even think about surround sound.
The point I'm getting at (this is the tl;dr) is that for surround to flourish, evergreen titles need to be plentiful and affordable. People shouldn't be giving their money to internet profiteers for a single rare disc, they should be buying five of them for the same price from a record label, so the artist and everyone involved in its creation can be rewarded. No one wants obscure titles more than me - give me Mongo at Montreux, give me Ain't No Bout-A-Doubt It, give me David Gates First - but having evergreen titles like Toulouse Street available in surround in perpetuity should be the rule and not the exception, so if this is the first of many, I welcome it. I want to be able to message my friends and be like "you know that album you love? Go to this website, you can buy it for 20 bucks, and there are two-dozen others to look at while you're there."
I remember back in the early 2010s (aka the Third Dark Age of Surround)I had some friends (civilians with no surround knowledge) over to listen to my system and they were absolutely blown away - funnily enough one of the things they liked the most was I Cheat the Hangman from The Doobie Bros. Stampede album. The conversation eventually turned to the costs of something like this for themselves, and where to get the music. The hardware part of the equation was easy - 5.1 systems of every size and price were available both new and used, but when it came to the music, it got into "well, it's complicated..." territory. "How do I get these Doobie Bros. albums in surround sound?" Well, you can't, unless you want to download them off the internet, presuming you have the capability and know how. "Can I buy stuff off Amazon or something?" Well yes, but probably only a handful of Elton John SACDs and maybe some King Crimson or Porcupine Tree. "What about all the surround albums I see on your shelf?" Well they're all out of print now, so you have to hunt them down on the internet and the popular ones cost fifty or a hundred bucks, or sometimes more.
You can see why, after a conversation like that, that the time and money investment for someone on the outside looking in seems totally prohibitive. Imagine something you like but aren't fanatical about, like TV for instance - imagine you can get 720p video of a decent amount of channels from your local cable company for a fair price, but in order to get 4K video you had to buy used copies of movies on eBay for $100. I think you'd probably be like '4K is cool, but life's too short and money's too tight (to mention), I'll stick with my 720p thanks.' This is the same challenge you face with getting stereo CD and vinyl listeners to even think about surround sound.
The point I'm getting at (this is the tl;dr) is that for surround to flourish, evergreen titles need to be plentiful and affordable. People shouldn't be giving their money to internet profiteers for a single rare disc, they should be buying five of them for the same price from a record label, so the artist and everyone involved in its creation can be rewarded. No one wants obscure titles more than me - give me Mongo at Montreux, give me Ain't No Bout-A-Doubt It, give me David Gates First - but having evergreen titles like Toulouse Street available in surround in perpetuity should be the rule and not the exception, so if this is the first of many, I welcome it. I want to be able to message my friends and be like "you know that album you love? Go to this website, you can buy it for 20 bucks, and there are two-dozen others to look at while you're there."
Thanks, I thought it added a certain understated je ne sais quoi contrast to the wall-to-wall Mapplethorpe photographs that adorned the other three walls.
The Rang
2K Club - QQ Super Nova
If Toulouse Street is indeed part of batch #6 I hope it’s not just a straight copy of what’s in the Quadio (the stereo sound on that set disappoints).
Live At The Aquarius (first performance and second performance).
JediJoker
Audio Engineer/Enthusiast
True. If they had simply replicated the mastering used for the original CD releases in hi-res, they would've had winning stereo on their hands.
What's wrong with the Quadio stereo track (the box set was/is the first time I heard the stereo track, I've listened to the CD-4>stereo downmix as my stereo version since ~1976)?
Kirk Bayne
JediJoker
Audio Engineer/Enthusiast
Poor EQ choices. Both the Chicago and Doobies boxes suffer from them. An overly "smiley" contour—boosted lows and highs, or conversely, "scooped" mids—was either applied by, or existed on the stereo masters and was inadequately compensated for by Craig Anderson. I believe he claimed that the Doobies mixes were all flat transfers, so take that as you will.
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izgoblin
Active Member
Count me as another who wasn't especially keen on the quad mastering on at least some of the titles in that set. So I'll cross my fingers the mastering on these will be revisited.
I think that both sets sound fine, excellent in fact! For everyone who complains about smiley face equalisation there is someone else who complains about the lackluster sound of the "flat" transfers by AF. Sad that modern equipment seems to lack simple bass and treble controls. With the twist of a knob (or two) the sound is tailored to your taste! It's like adding salt and pepper to your food!
I would be surprised if Rhino wasn’t expecting to clear a profit on their new releases, although they might release a handful of “let’s try this one” albums. So if they’re re-releasing something they’ve already done, it’s because they sold out pretty quickly.
That doesn’t mean I’ll buy a second copy. My time budget seems to be lower than my financial one in this instance, and as we’ve already discussed, many of us have a stack of media that has yet to be played. I don’t buy media just to put on the shelf, even if some of my fellow QQers do. Not judging, just explaining my position. I won’t buy stuff I don’t like, although I do take a chance from time to time, with mixed results, which is to be expected.
I’m extremely glad that Rhino is bringing back all these gems, even if some of them won’t be in my cart.
That doesn’t mean I’ll buy a second copy. My time budget seems to be lower than my financial one in this instance, and as we’ve already discussed, many of us have a stack of media that has yet to be played. I don’t buy media just to put on the shelf, even if some of my fellow QQers do. Not judging, just explaining my position. I won’t buy stuff I don’t like, although I do take a chance from time to time, with mixed results, which is to be expected.
I’m extremely glad that Rhino is bringing back all these gems, even if some of them won’t be in my cart.
I think that all of the bundles have had enough variety for most, the different styles - which is a good thing for many of us listeners, but that I can easily see some folks passing on half of them for just that same reason. So the four releases at a time is pretty ideal for everyone, gives us options.
Not meaning to make assumptions, but it sounds like further boxes are not likely.
If you mean A Space in Time by Ten Years After, I can't see why Rhino would bother as SDE released it last year:if Tusk or A Space in Time was in the next bunch, I'd buy the whole bunch anyway next week
A Space in Time
It's also not a WB title
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