Upping cd sound

Revisits, where much on the International current affairs front is up in the air which would make blogging on any one theme a struggle apart from the feeling we might need a break, is coming in this week after a change in the middle of 2022.

Physical media in 2026 seems to be back as streaming has dropped off a little, downloading outside of some more niche areas like classical music have dropped considerably from the mid 2010's.

From the "vinyl revival" where we are now seeing more classical titles new and older, "classic" accounts appearing on lp and deluxe popular editions and not from speciality labels such as Mobile Fidelity and Analogue Productions but the major labels.

Some artists are producing small runs of pre-recorded cassette and some better players are coming on to the market that had been dormant for like eons and even the cd, unloved in the last decade is making a comeback (and many used discs can be had for peanuts).

When in 2017 I acquired a sacd player having a fair number of hybrids - discs that have a regular cd and a super audio cd layer on a single surface - I had expected a steady stream of new releases in the classical field and a number of speciality popular releases. 

The classical numbers overall have decreased with only Bis issuing all of its titles in that form, Chandos only issue a small number even though HD downloads for all are available and while Japan and Hong Kong see a good number of limited releases, they are hard to get and frequently very expensive when they have to be imported directly by you.

Toss in a shortage of popular new(ish) titles and the fact you may have over 80% of your discs as regular cds the question arises "are we getting all we could from them" as early digital recordings of the same resolution often sounded at least as good if not better than the discs beyond the odd click?

We tried a SMSL external digital to analogue convertor in 2022 which as a bit better but when your 1987 all digital Depeche Mode album still sounds better on record than cd then it is well worth looking at other options.

Historically digital hifi products are at their lowest base prices thanks to volume production and many enterprising Chinese based companies and FiiO are one I've know from the earliest portable players of digital files in the mid 2010's that delivered amazing results for the money.

Much is made in audiophile circles about the type of circuit and chips used to decode the noughts and ones to sound and generally it was held the resistive ladder sort was best but they typically costs thousands and much less expensive "Delta/Sigma" chips tended to be used in the more affordable offerings.

The market in the last eighteen months has changed radically with those resistive "R2R" dropping in price and late last year FiiO introduced two inexpensive digital to analogue convertors that share a common aspect - a headphone output for computer desktop usage - and this R2R convertor.

The K13 is the second model down currently selling for around £280 which is peanuts really with a fairly full feature set so you can use it with Smartphones via BlueTooth, usb plus optical and coaxial digital inputs.

You can bypass the internal power supply for a higher quality one via a dc input that gives you an upgrading path and have options of using Oversampling or not which I didn't as I feel the sound is more musical without that.

This, when I plugged it in and give it a few hours "warm up", sounded really amazing bringing greater tonal colour, depth and projection than you have any right to expect at this price and demonstrating excellent low level linearity.

I haven't heard anything sound this good since I first experienced compact disc in 1986 and while higher resolution sources such as sacd's and HD Downloads can offer more "air" and improved sound-staging, given the shortages of them and that there exists a digital recording legacy where the sound is locked in 16 bit 44.1 or 48hkz forms for life, anything that can play it natively this well is well worth it. 

Tarun's review on "A British Audiophile" was spot on - you'd need to spend around four or more times as much for a real improvement so for £280 this was well worth doing.

The future of Higher Quality sound and me

 

Sailor Moon was an early special interest of mine, righting wrongs having her own unique quirks which as I sit reflecting on events in the last few days playing some HD downloads back I did find of classical music mainly from 2014-17 considering the future of that.

HD (High definition) is about getting great quality to that of regular cds to reveal more of the music making and venue but in an age that is more focused upon convenience, in the 2000's the iPod with its hundreds of poor quality lossy 128kb files or today with streaming, eating your data allowance on your smartphone when you have no right to expect anything to be there, it didn't become a everyday thing beyond musicians and hifi fans.

Part was and today remains it takes over £800 to get a super audio cd player and then only a few handfuls of discs are issued per year which was why I spent money improving on the regular cd reproduction even though I have a Super audio cd player in  the hifi.

HD Downloads were easier in that you selected them from the store and most digital audio players of the portable sort would just play them - the players could be had for around £100 upwards but much of that marked has moved from playing downloads to streaming music.

It's a pity as while as with anything based upon digital files you need to keep them backed up, they leave your mobiles data allowance untouched and as you own them, there's no question of a performance becoming unavailable in the way sometimes labels and artists pull things on the likes of Spotify.

As the number of  super audio discs Chandos puts out has dropped in the last two years not helped by there being only a handful of plants world wide that can make them, I can see a return to more HD downloads not least where I may have "classic" performances on cd or even record

Mozart and his Requiem: a new recording

This week we going back to music I know, the first cd of this work I bought was way back in 1991 during the Two hundredth anniversary of one Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's  death in 1791 as part of a special budget price collection.

Time moves on, those recordings from the 1960's and 70's featured full orchestras and modern instruments that were unknown of in Mozart's own day so many have attempted to strip his music back to that with period instruments and so-called (and still controversial in some circles) Historically Informed Performance techniques.

Mozart's KV 626 Requiem was the last work he wrote and was not complete at the time of death and questions around how much of it really is Mozart's vision or how much is more completed in the style of have always been around not that as a music lover I get too hung up such things.

To me the question is more how satisfying the work turns out however it completed and in the case of a piece such as a requiem what it says to us as human beings about the nature of how we mark the death loved ones and those emotions.

If, like me you were brought up with catholicism, Roman Catholic or Anglo-Catholic via the Anglican Church much of this resonates most strongly.

For this performance Jordi Savall conducts Le Concert des Nations with La Capalle Nacional de Catalunya, keeping much of the richness in bringing to life the impassioned fervour of the Roman Catholic Faith and the hope of divine mercy for our sins that runs through the setting of the requiem sung in Latin with just twenty choristers.

It's not envisioned in this interpretation about clear outlines of the score with the work that was necessary that one may dissect and examine with an analytical mind when it come to the scoring, it is above all a felt experience.

And it works well.

Technically this cd by AltaVox of France is a Super Audio cd with a layer for regular cd players.

Advent Catgut music

 

Funny start to the month with rather cool days and even the expectatation more in eastern England of snow showers and very low temperatures so it doesn't really feel like one season or another.

It's never the best time of year for me - too many traumatic personal memories - so don't be surprised if I go from various sites unexpectedly as stuff just comes over me in waves I'm afraid.

 While with the postal dispute still raging deliveries have been somewhat erratic, thinking at one point earlier in the week I may need to chase up a record, this interesting cd of violin solos played by the renowned violinist Rachel Podger came  out last month.

Personally I quite enjoy violin based music and am a sucker for a compilation of short works including transcriptions from organ or piano.

This which is a Super Audio cd with a regular layer is just fantastic to listen to.

Family Reunion

While preparing to be away next Saturday, I thought I'd revisit an album of mine we last mentioned in late 2010 which is like 9 years and about ten months ago where I had replaced a worn lp with a distressed jacket for a brand new shiny cd issued through Edsel who then had got the rights to the pre 1976 O'Jay's catalogue over here.

In early January this year the pioneering re-issue company Vocalian-Dutton issued a bath of Super Audio cds and interestingly it included that title. 

One interesting quirk of their decision to issue it back with the next O'Jay's album was this the original lp jacket wasn't used in any form for the re-issue front cover  but shown on the rear.
Most companies tend to set both covers in a two on 1 on front reduced in size in a frame with the titles prominently displayed.

The cover of this album is important because the whole concept of the album is about "The Family" and this reflects their view at the point it was held the family was breaking down structurally not least in African-American society and the feeling this was fuelling other social ills such as criminality, single parenthood as choice (not the result of abuse or other issues within a relationship needing one party to leave) and unwanted babies.

That is the theme of the opening song, a meditation on the meaning of Family appropriately enough called Family Reunion and it includes the singles I Love Music and Living For The Weekend.

Coupled with this was the follow up album, Survival which I had bought a few years earlier  home of the singles Give The People What They Want and the title track.

As with the others in this series they are presented with a regular stereo cd layer for standard cd players and cd rom drives for copying to Mp3 or Flac and a higher quality Super Audio cd layer that requires a dedicated player.

Both albums received short lived SQ Quadraphonic and Q8 tape issues in the four speaker form of surround sound at the time and this release includes for players that can access it those original long time unavailable mixes.

It sounds excellent  and was well worth the modest cost of buying direct from the manufacture over here. 
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Dire Straits on Super Audio cd

Dire Straits were formed in the late 1970's of Mark and David Knopfler, John Illsley and Pick Withers and immediately caught my ears as someone who does appreciate well performed rock music from the moment I heard them in the Summer of 1978 on the radio which back then coupled with the music press was where you heard about artists and new single and album releases.

I moved from borrowed tapes to getting the original cd versions in the mid 1980's as funds and technology permitted but while newer editions had been issued, many had issues with the tendency to reduce the contrast between soft and louder parts and unlike many rock acts soft ambient moments do feature helping frequent listening.

Thus when it was announced in 2016 that the first four studio albums were to issued on the superior Super Audio cd form by the acclaimed Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs (Mofi) I and several others were excited but it wasn't until October 29th of 2019  that they actually came out.

The delay seemed to be because this issue was also to come out on record and the US company they had the license from to issue them (Warner Bros) had decided to reissue the records NOT wanting any competition  so in effect had embargoed the release even though it was agreed in the beginning until October 2019.

 The first album came out in 1978 with a simple graphic art cover more akin to Windham Hill's ambient music albums and was exceptionally well recorded in February 1978 containing the hit single Sultans Of Swing.

The follow up Communiqué, came out in the summer of 1979 with rather less of a buzz about it being something of a sleeper sales wise and featured the single Lady Writer and Where Do You're Think Going? This again is an excellent recording.

 This album came out just in time for the Christmas market in 1980 featuring the hit single Romeo And Juliet, Skateaway was featured in the UK on a EP in 1983 and seaside flavoured Tunnel Of Love.

This album wasn't nearly as well recorded although this disc does sound better than all previous ones.

 1982's Love Over Gold is an astonishing recording being done at 30 I.P.S. rather than usual 15 capturing well the atmospheric effects in breathtaking detail on tracks such as Telegraph Road and the top five UK hit single Private Investigations.

1985's Brothers In Arms was the first album to sell more on compact disc than any other format upon release that year aided no doubt by the cd and tape versions having longer versions of four songs compared to the lp 

Indeed it was used by Philips who co-invented cd to promote the format and they sponsored  the subsequent tour.

It was the home to four big singles So Far Away which as the lead single, Money For Nothing with its famous video, Walk Of Life from early 1986 and Your Latest Trick.
This super audio cd came out in 2013 which managed to extract more detail and warmth from the early all digital recording which was a bit 'lean' sounding which was common in the mid 1980's.

I had the first four for Christmas, mentioning they were with Mr Claus caused some mirth at a audio website and so out of bounds until Xmas and they sound so much better than the originals.

The card gatefold sleeve and insert is really classy so while getting all four at once was expensive for me they are well worth it being the only versions I need around.

Blasts from the 70's in four speakers

Sometimes on here we don't do things by halves and this week we're going back in time to some 70's albums that recently remerged.

 MFSB stood for "Mothers, Fathers, Sisters and Brothers" and were the backing band on many of the soul label Philadelphia International Records distributed through Columbia/CBS rather like the Funk Bros were to Motown and this is a pairing of their 1975 album Philadelphia Freedom that features their recording of the  Elton John hit and 1976's Summertime* which is just summer inspired compositions in a more jazz influenced Funk style which I like.
This for me is a great replacement for my so-so 2010 edition issued by Edsel on regular cd.

 The Guess Who were formed in 1969 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and were a very popular hard rocking band in North America.
This features their very polished 50's influenced  Rockin' album of 1972 and Best of Vol: 2 album of 1973 in Quadraphonic and stereo.
Volume 1 of The Best of was issued in 2014 by now deceased Audio Fidelity in stereo and quad too and I was able to pick up a copy recently which contains earlier hits like American Woman and Laughing.

I do like some Jazz and got this recent issue of Herbie Hancock's Sextant album in stereo and quadraphonic sound from 1973 that features the ARP synthesizer.

1973's Head Hunters which is acclaimed by many was re-issued by Analogue Productions in stereo and quad too in 2016.
You'll note all of these releases are on Super Audio cd also playable on regular cd playing equipment and all apart from *  which is just in stereo also have the original Quadraphonic surround sound versions issued on record and Q8 tape on the Super Audio cd layer.

Wish you were here

It sometimes is the case on this blog as is on the other one you get a follow up post sometime afterward and this weeks is no different in that we last touched on it in March 2018.
I've like the Pink Floyd for a very long time, long enough to have had recordings on various formats by them but while some artists recording frequently emerge on newer formats, theirs seldom do.
I mentioned last time the albatross around the neck which is Dark Side of the Moon that did originally come out on Super Audio cd in 2003 but in 2011 it and the follow up were issued very briefly on Super Audio cd in the form of a 'digipak' more like a small hardback book actually.
Recently December 30th last year to be exact, both got re-issued in this form by Analogue Productions of Kansas, U.S.A. which having missed out on Wish You Were Here which is a personal favourite I was keen on getting on sacd as my cd goes back to 1985!

This is the front of Digipak which is neither the UK or North American front cover  which is pretty understated.

 When you go to turn it over, on the inside left pocket you have a full set of postcards originally issued with the lp scaled down included which played on the title "Wish you were here" from the days people would send a postcard home with that phrase on it

 At the rear we have song writing and publishing credits and on the right a tray where the disc normally fits and which thankfully the teeth are tight so it doesn't fall out.

 Here is the actual disc itself made in Germany and one change that has happened since 2011 is the ownership of their recordings has moved from EMI Records to their own lable Pink Floyd Records that are distributed in the UK and Europe by the Parlophone division of Warner Bros and the US by Sony/Columbia.

 This is the rear of the digipak which indicates it has both a regular cd layer for normal cd playing equipment and the higher definition Super Audio layer.
That layer houses both the regular stereo mix and a 5.1 multichannel mix  where the lp and tape had a quadraphonic mix originally issued in limited numbers.
Much of this album thematically looks at the life of a rock group part influenced by the damage to band originator Syd Barratt, also at the corporate music business on how it stifles and controls art mocking record company executives in Have a Cigar who say how great they are but ask "And which one's Pink?" showing their ignorance that there's no performer called Pink in this band before trying to get them to change material to the latest fashion so they can sell more even if it's not what the band was formed for. 
Really all that matters to them is the profit not the idea of artistic and musical integrity and maximizing that is really what meeting the band was about.
Personally I feel this new version on the stereo Super Audio cd layer remastered by James Guthrie has more depth and springs forth from ones loudspeakers  more than any other version and so while it was expensive is nontheless worth getting.

Previous Pink Floyd on sacd entry:
The Dark Side of the Moon 

Chase

While there much political discourse going on with no signs of being that clear just how things will pan it, it reminds me so much of the early 1970's where it seems the UK was ungovernable.

This takes me round to on the last of the Vocalion Dutton releases of October that feature the work of Chase, a Jazz-Rock group formed by Bill Chase who went on the release three albums. Jim Peterik who was with Survivor for a period performs on this album.
This two on one super audio cd  contained the last album Pure Music and the first, Chase, whose style is more reminiscent of Terry Kath era Chicago than anything else I can think of with original compositions such as Open Up Wide and Close Up Tight and covers such as the Mike d'Abo song Handbags and Gladbags.
As with the whole series on a regular cd layer and the super audio layer you get the stereo mix and on the super audio cd layer for player that can read it, the original Quadraphonic mixes issued on SQ Quad lp and Q8 Quad 8 track "surround sound" mixes are present and have not been available for a exceedingly long time.
I managed oddly enough to get this for £9.99 including mailing which was a absolute steal.

George Benson and Poco

This week I'm looking at a few albums, some I had in July but with being very poorly I never got around to writing about and another that's on just out this week.
Some groups wrote the template of whole genres and one example is The Byrds to which there has been the odd entry on this blog about for forging Country-Rock with the seminal album  the Sweetheart of the Rodeo in 1968.
That lead to an explosion of acts of which one the most famous is of course the Eagles who started out as Linda Ronstadt's backing group but in many ways the template they used comes from another group,forgotten by most.
Poco were formed before the Eagles being part formed of members of Buffalo Springfield upon that bands dissolution such as Richie Furey and Jim Messina, had one soon to Eagle and one Ex Eagle in the line up too and were fairly popular in North America not being off the radio or in our tape player.

 This is a pairing of their 1974 albums Seven which was more hard rock influenced and Cantamos which saw a return to Country-rock

 In 2013 the now defunct label Audio Fidelity issued on super audio cd their debut album which remains a fine example of late sixties country-rock. I originally hadn't picked it up but was able to get a still sealed example without paying the silly money sharks collect from collectors.

 An interesting coupling on regular cd was issued in 2006 of 1971's Delivering album which was recorded at Boston's Music Hall and New York Felt Forum and 1973's Crazy Eyes that features ex Byrd Chris Hillman on guitar.

This 1971 studio album was remastered in 2013 by Vic Anesini and issued on IconClassic via Sony/Bmg.

An interesting guy is George Benson who meanders around jazz-funk and smooth soul whose vocal performances had held in enraptured over the years when I've hear them on radio.

 Like many artists of his longevity he's been on a number of labels and this 1973 release was originally on CTI records and issued on CD4 record and Q8 quadrophonic tape briefly.
This week it's all out again on Super audio cd which I'm pleased about as I love it's proto smooth jazz sound

In 2014 Audio Fidelity re-issued his 1976 Breezin' album complete with a 5.1 multi channel remix on the sacd layer which was one his best albums for Warner Bros which was where he was headed after 1975. The album featured This Masquerade is noted for the lush piano introduction and solo by Jorge Dalto and most of the album is instrumental in nature.
Talking of his Warners Output to which it is generally true to say he's more famous for has been re-issued on regular cd and at least in  Europe can be had on two complementary 5 regular cd sets rather cheaply.

This issued in 2010 contains Breezin';Weekend in L.A.;Give Me The Night;Tenderly and Big Boss Band.
Weekend is a great originally double lp live album that shows off his guitar playing abilities well.
Give Me The Night was produced by Quincy Jones with input too from the late Rod Templeton (Ex Heatwave) and stylistically borrows a bit from Michael Jackson's Off The Wall and later Thriller sets and Quincy's own The Dude for the more vocal soul numbers.
1990's Big Boss Band is a more straightahead big band jazz album.

This five pack issued 2013 contains the following albums:
In Flight;Living Inside Your Love;In Your Eyes;20/20 and Twice The Love covering the 70's through 80's.
As with most sets like this the discs come in single card covers replicating front and rear jacket art and nothing else but on the other hand take up little space and are inexpensive just about £11.99 each per set so is a cheap way of replacing any worn tapes like I had.

Reintroducing Angela Bofill and Bill Withers

From time to time I feature the odd bit about recordings I like or have recently bought  on here as they are what I relax to.
One female artist who made waves in the late 70's and 80's was Angela Bofill born to Cuban and Puerto Rican parents and educated in New York came to the attention of Dave Grusin, a well know writer of scores for films who'd set up a record label GRP.

 This resulted in a string of albums being issued until her retirement from the music industry in 2006 of which this release captures here first two which are in the then in vogue Soul/Jazz "Fusion" style that lays lush arrangements on to more jazz styled vocalization from 1978 and 1979 respectively that garnered a number of hit R&B charts singles.
People such as the Crusaders and Earth Wind & Fire  were amongst the artists I had a lot of respect for during this period which operate with a similar style so I was interested in revisiting these albums freshly mastered for Super Audio cd (also playable in regular cd) by the enterprising British company Dutton Vocalian this month.
An example of talent lies in her composition Children Of The World Unite where she not only wrote the song but produced the arrangement that equals that of many more famous female vocalists with rich instrumentation.
This two on one sacd in just stereo is a great find for fans of female jazz/soul music. 

 In 2016 the specialty label Mobile Fidelity the all time compilation Bill Withers' Greatest Hits which itself was partly expanded in the 1980's by CBS/Columbia  hence the awkward "Featuring..." tag line in the title.
Featuring the original recordings of Ain't No Sunshine, Just The Two of Us and Soul Shadows its a timeless short selection of some of the finest soul music of the seventies and in this remaster for Super audio cd (also playable in regular) he very much sounds as if he is in your room so well mastered this disc is over it's regular edition.
I didn't get around to buying this immediately upon release but was able to pick up a mint used copy to remedy that.
     

Supertramp

In a week that's been rather warm, drinking a lot and trying to keep cool, in the cooler late afternoons I have been playing some classical music to help relax by.
Last week we talked about the demise of one specialty compact disc and lp label, Audio Fidelity  and as if by co-incidence a disc by one its competitors is here, delayed a little which isn't uncommon.
Perhaps unfairly seen as typifying a nineteen-seventies style over substance trend, Supertramp tended to do albums around concepts, house individuals of some professional musical merit as performers and attract producers who liked to make recordings that had an 'oh wow!' technical feel to them.

Probably the best known studio album is Crime Of The Century which as a lot of hifi worthy production points thanks to producer Ken Scott but another was nineteen seventy-nines Breakfast In America with it's clutch of singles such as 'The Logical Song', 'Goodbye Stranger' and the title track a kind of statement about complacency and corporate values in the States.

 One problem with the albums production is the recording equipment was not that good at capturing quick bursts of high frequencies and it tends to sound over bright on good quality equipment which has lead to a number of attempts to fix that and put the emphasize on  the vocals.
This issue by Illinois based  Mobile Fidelity on Super Audio cd that is also playable on regular cd has managed strike a good balence between keeping in detail and bring out the vocals. A job well tacked by mastering engineer Rob LoVerde who has really pulled it off.
As with all their issues on 5cm disc, this comes in a mini lp form with a gatefold featuring the full album art and inner for the disc which looks and feels great in the hand so I'm mightily pleased with this disc that joins my collection.
It also comes with a full colour insert in one of the two pockets which is a nice touch.
When it comes to compilations while not perfect, 1986's The Autobiography of Supertramp easily found used is the best sounding with a very wide dynamic range taking their recordings to 1985's Brother Where Are You Bound and the Cannonball single.

Early 70's favourites

There's a post planned for next Friday which will be published even though by the time you see it I'll be on a train making my way back here.
Recently I had a couple of new discs arrive here - so new they've only been out for a week from announcement - and train comes into it for one act's title.
The Hues Corporation come into it as they were on Soul Train, the black music tv show a lot during the mid 70's during the soul and 'disco' explosion of the summer of 1974 when what was played and danced to in underground clubs broke out to clubs and as I remember vividly even the children's dances in seaside resorts.

As it was the fantastic 70's, that wasn't all, these recording were issued in Quadraphonic 'surround' sound on SQ record and Q8 tape for tape players like Dad's in car one and this disc comprises of their second album Rockin' Soul that contained their smash hit Rock The Boat the title track of which was released in  November 74 as a 45 and Love Corporation, the 1975 follow up that apart from having the title track issued on 45, also contained tracks such as Follow The Spirit that reminds one of the O'Jay's.
The first album contained Freedom For The Stallion written by Allen Toussiant issued in 1973 which I associate more with Edward Bear who covered it in Canada,to  which I have ordered the regular cd in mini lp form. That album had the original version of Rock The Boat that was reworked for the 45 and featured on their second album.
Some artists start out as session musicians, some move to it from being in groups and in Rick Derringer's case he was a McCoy who had a big hit with Hang On Sloopy and a part of the group the Strangeloves who performed I Want Candy but by the early 70's was doing session work for Edgar Winter Group, Todd Rundgren and Steely Dan amongst others.
This lead on the back of that to be given a chance to do solo recording for Columbia.

All American boy was his first successful rock offering from 1973 that had Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo  written by him originally for Johnny Winter and included on their album and it's 1975 follow up Spring Fever whose lead off single was a reworking of Hang On Sloopy is included as like the other these are 2 on 1 re-issues.
Rick managed to get some great session folk playing on these albums  a number associated with to become Eagle Joe Walsh formally of James Gang, who in style this was a slightly more poppier version of which sold well and which I had the 8 track of as a kid.
The chance to get this on Super Audio cd as fan of early 70's rock was too much to miss especially as it too has the stereo and original Quadraphonic mixes we loved back then on the  sacd layer.
For £11.99 each with two albums in stereo and Quad on them they're a bargain.

A double helping of Art Garfunkel

Just after Easter here and after last weeks 'golly gosh Caro actually posted about cycling!!!' post, we're back on firmer territory albeit with a bit of a twist.

The last time I posted anything around Simon and Garfunkel was way back in April 2010 when after living with reissue lps and the odd tape I finally sorted out my recordings by them but that left the period after they split off.
Fast forward on to January 2018 and the small British company Vocalion announces it is to the release the first two Art Garfunkel albums recorded for Columbia/CBS in 1973 and 1975 which of itself wasn't so unusual as both got their UK cd debut in 1992 in the short lived Collectors Choice budget choice.
What was is that they were being issued on hybrid Super Audio cds like a few others I've commented on in the recent past on this blog that play on regular players and for improved quality on Super Audio cd players like my current one.
The twist being they included the original Quadraphonic four speaker surround sound mixes too that came out on SQ Quad record and Q8 discrete Quad 8 track tape for the first time ever.
This means those mixes much acclaimed are now available while tracks such as "Mary Was a Only Child", "I Shall Sing", "I Believe (when I fall in love it will be forever)", "Disney Girls" originally recorded by the Beach Boys and featuring BB member Bruce Johnston on this recording, "My Little Town", a Paul Simon Song where they duet and the British smash "I Only Have Eyes For You" have never sounded better being carefully remastered from the original mid 1970's analogue tapes.
If you lived through this period and liked more soothing performances you won't want to miss this as they sound the best ever in any format. Recommended especially as they're just £11.99 each delivered less than U.S. speciality companies charge.

Past entry:
Simon and Garfunkel: Simon and Garfunkel on cd

The Dark Side Of The Moon

For some of us the Pink Floyd album The Dark Side of the Moon was one of those pivotal albums that as we went beyond more simplistic pop tunes usually in the form of 45's (aka "Singles") we explored usually with some support by older siblings to more deeper lyrical concerns and musicianship not that I didn't love (and still love) my Mud and Bay City Rollers 45's.

Sooner or later you move from hearing it a few times back then from tape to buying yourself the whole package and this album was such a thing being in a gatefold sleeve with lyrics, two posters and stickers.
The album explores the nature of the human condition specifically loneliness and mental illness using what were start of the art tape and electronic instrument techniques of the early 1970's.
My copy was a Canadian Capitol pressed edition with different posters I learnt several years back that Brits had in their own which to limit wear I taped to cassette for portable use and open reel tape for home use. You're welcome to try lugging such a machine and changing 7" tape reels on the move!

In the ever so fantastic plastic 1970's it wasn't enough to be thinking about sound from two speakers but four so a special four channel "Quadraphonic" mix was made and by some quirky math based science you could get four channels into the two channels of a stereo lp and (paws crossed) get four channels back out to impress the neighbours by surrounding them in  sound! 
They called it SQ standing for Stereo/Quadraphonic.
That lp jacket is of the UK Quad edition Q4 SHVL 804.

Quad had to everywhere like in our car so we had a Q8 eight track four channel tape player that was pretty swell and special four channel tapes were issued that offer better separation between the four channels than the fancy four into two and back as four electronics could manage from lp record and radio.
This is the UK tape, Q8 SHVL 804 that used the actual four channel mix direct as Capitol in making theirs took that funny 4 to 2 processed version for the SQ lp and decoded it before putting that on their tape which was silly as the actual four channel master existed and technically poorer but hey it's Capitol Record USA and they do stupid stuff at times.

Roll on March 31, 2003 and it's the thirtieth birthday of Dark Side of the Moon in an era that has seen the establishment of the compact disc as the pre-eminent sound carrier and the start of attempts to improvement on the sound it's had since the early 1980's.
It was decided to issue it in the Super Audio CD format that I mentioned on "the other blog tm" in the form of one disc with a regular stereo cd layer and a Super Audio cd (sacd) layer for both stereo and an improved form of surround sound called 5.1 often used for movies with a special remix being done for that version.

At the time only a few people had sacd players and because of this few heard that layer of the disc so when so-called audiophiles started debating all the 5 cm disc versions of this album all they heard the slightly compressed when it comes to the loudest and softest sound regular layer which has become a common trend since the mid 1990's and dismissed it.
I bought this sacd at the time and was very much encouraged to ditch it for a much older version by a certain forum but that ignored one thing. The regular cd layer and the super audio cd stereo versions were done separately and actually the stereo sacd layer sounds better than any of the cd only issues when played back on a machine like mine.
That ironically is why a decade on I ended up rebuying this disc and believe me its fantastic with clearer instrument sounds and effects like the heartbeat and chimes in "Time".
One moral of this story is don't let others tell you what to like and buy as they may be wrong.

Alpha by Asia is now on SACD

Followers of the other blog tm will be aware I actually won't be around when I normally post but away on one of my middle/little weekends away so as I'll be through the door at about Twenty past Seven tomorrow morning which is why the post is today.
That's so I can get the links posted out.
In the past I have written a bit on both blogs about speciality remastered editions of albums and today I will return to an artist I last wrote about here on June 16 2010 which is a mighty long time ago and before we worked through what this blog was about.
Asia, the group were a supergroup formed musicians associated with deeply unpopular at the time progressive rock bands of the nineteen-seventies and comprised of Carl Palmer of Emerson Lake and Palmer, John Wetton from King Crimson, Steve Howe and Geoff Downes from Yes.
In 1982 they issued the album Asia yielding hit 45's in the form of Only Time Will Tell and Heat Of The Moment that was re-issued on 24 Gold cd in 2010 and reviewed here: Asia 24kt AF Gold cd

After touring to great acclaim with Asia, the band booked time in the studio to record the follow up Alpha which was released as I well recall in July of 1983 with the lead off 45 being the opening cut, Don't Cry with non album b side Daylight making the US Billboard top ten.

Single and album art was by Roger Dean.
A second 45 was issued The Smile Has Left Your Eye but while the album sold well, it didn't sell nearly as well as the debut did plus in some circles the highly produced heavily synthesizer lead production garnered criticism. The repercussion of all of this was John Wetton was edged out of the group.
Personally I put more score on the reverb heavy production which even on the lp version I bought cut using the true master tapes and pressed in the Netherlands was for the time loud and unrelenting. As well while the first lp side wasn't as immediately grabbing the quality of the songs is certainly quite high not least in My Own Time (I'll Do What I Want)
The original cd issues of this were no where near as satisfactory as the lp where the remastered version sandwiched with bonus tracks on Anthologia - the 20th anniversary Geffen Years compilation  were even louder!
On September 15th 2017, Audio Fidelity issued a sacd also playable on regular cd remastered version mastered by Kevin Gray which while not perfect (only remixing it could cure some of the issues) offers better bass extension and improved dynamics.
In my opinion at last we have a listenable version for regular and super audio cd players of this ignored album.