| Review by hooperthom January 15, 2015 (3 of 7 found this review helpful)
|
|
| On my Oppo it says 5.0 but it is 4.0 so as with all 5.0, 4.0 on my system need to crank up the bass. Didn't care for the Variations on a Theme 2nd movement, but I never did before. WOW, what a great sound. And When I Die sounds so good I had to repeat before going to the next selection. Horns are mostly in the rear but sometimes its through all 4 speakers. Music is so airy and open. Spinning Wheel is different. What happened to the ending where the band goes off key and talks. All it does is fade out. No band messing around and talking saying that wasn't to good. Anyhow this is just great and a must have.
|
Was this review helpful to you?
yes |
no
|
|
|
| Review by Marpow February 13, 2015 (2 of 4 found this review helpful)
|
|
Blood, Sweat & Tears: Blood, Sweat & Tears. Hybrid SACD, stereo and multichannel.
2014 Audio Fidelity limited release. My # 2179.
No one-liners please! How about, "this disc is absolutely fantastic" "best rock surround disc of 2015" "i can't stop listening to it".
My dear friend rammiepie, loved BS&T, Child Is The Father To Man, I believe he will like this better. This disc has it all including a superb performance enough to claim, US 4 X multi platinum.
Released in 1968 and received Grammy Album of The Year in 1970.
Performance: For me the most exciting thing about this disc is the performance over the sonics. I just love the music on this disc. Jazz and rock combined with the big band horn section sound, brilliant. The bands Chicago and Tower of Power soon to follow. All songs are great as they cover a wide variety of styles including the, And When I Die, that sounds like a Marlboro commercial with one of the greatest lyrics in all of Rock n Roll that I personally have repeated over and over.
"I swear there ain't no heaven and I pray there ain't no hell". How great is that?
Stereo Sonics: Superb, excellent separation, great sound quality. I love the hybrid sacd's because I can listen in my car over and over. This, the best stereo version I have ever had, owning the original LP and cassette.
Multichannel Sonics: The 4.0 is stunning. I believe by eliminating the center speaker the remix person has a greater advantage as the FULL placement in sound of the 4 speakers. Many times in 5.1 versions of other discs, albeit they sound great, the mix gets lost as there are actually too many choices, speakers. This mix is full and cohesive. My sub did pick up some ambient sound and did help my listening pleasure. This is one of the greatest surround discs I have heard, and I must admit a lot has to do with the great performance. Not liking a performance does not help when listening to a great mch mix. I loved the fact that the mixer, Gus Skinas, sometimes would have bass guitar rear left and on next track front right and that goes with all the instruments as the mixer did not pigeon hole his self to a set of rules.
One small negative: Track 9, Blues Part II, has tape noise that annoyed me a tiny bit, you hear it more on mch than in stereo.
Packaging: Typical Audio Fidelity packaging, plastic jewel case. mini paper booklet with original and 2014 notes.
Oh, man. 5 stars all the way, as I said above, "I can't stop listening".
|
Was this review helpful to you?
yes |
no
|
|
|
| Review by old hippie February 13, 2015 (2 of 5 found this review helpful)
|
|
| I've loved this work of music since its initial release all those years ago. Although I give it 5 stars across the board (some due to sentimental reasons), I do have one big quibble. I don't know who (I suspect Gus Skinas since he did the DSD transfer) at Audio Fidelity decided to fade out the last remaining 30 odd seconds of Spinning Wheel. At first, I thought they had put the single edit on the CD, but realized that wasn't the case since that version clocks in at 2:39. Whoever made the decision, it was a poor one. It takes away from the whole integrity of the original release. I would hope Audio Fidelity might remedy this and restore the song to its original length, then be generous enough to consumers that have purchased the current version to replace theirs. I don't anticipate this happening, but I do hope, especially since they have moved out of the gold disc market and moved into the multichannel SACD market, that they won't do something like this to any future releases. Thank God I kept my 2005 MFSL version of this lp.
|
Was this review helpful to you?
yes |
no
|
|
|
| Review by Rhinojack February 19, 2015 (1 of 2 found this review helpful)
|
|
| Wow, this is it. I have the MOFI SACD in stereo and always wish for a multichannel version of this album. This certainly delivers. For me it was like listening to it for the first time. All the instruments are given a chance to step forward or backward if you will. This has moved into my show off SACD category. It is that good. The clarity seem a notch up from the MOFI edition. I particularly wanted to hear the chimes in "Variations...", so clean and crisp. "Blues II" is particularly good in multichannel. As others have mentioned "Spinning Wheel" simply fades away and gone is what I always called, "The Crazy Circus Organ" that ends "Spinning Wheel", and the dialog. I missed it. Bottom line, even if you only have a passing interest in this Quad version, get it, you won't regret it.
|
Was this review helpful to you?
yes |
no
|
|
|
| Review by feinstei February 21, 2015 (3 of 5 found this review helpful)
|
|
The new issue sounds great, the stereo version sounds vastly superior to the first SACD issue that came out when SACD's first hit the market.
Be forewarned, the multi-channel Quad version is extremely disappointing simply because the Quad master that this was taken from used the shortened, truncated versions of "When I Die", "Spinning Wheel", and "You've Made Me So Very Happy". The Quad sonics were great, just the truncated "45" versions sucked.
|
Was this review helpful to you?
yes |
no
|
|
|
Sonics: 
