A cutout is usually a promotional item that's not meant for sale or to be sold. A cutout can also be an out of print or overstocked item that's being sold for much less than the original retail price. A cut out usually refers to the bar code being punched out so it can't be scanned as a bona fide sale, however, in the days before bar codes were used on records (pre-1980 or so), the term referred to an actual corner of a record album having been cut off or a slit cut into the album cover to denote its status as non-regular inventory.
Many thanks for that explanation. From what you say the disc is - apart from the bar code - in no way different or inferior to a regular version?
Correct ... except it has a hole punched through its barcode and the artist makes no money from the sale.
Is there any way for a Canadian to buy these without getting brutalized by the exchange rate, i.e. within Canada?
Music Direct, what happened? I had a bunch of these Beach Boys SACDs in my cart today, including Holland, Sunflower, Surf's Up, Pet Sounds, Surfer Girl, and a few more. I used the 20% discount code and it showed in my cart. I waited a while, because I was looking for other stuff to add to my order. Well, I come back to my cart to check out, and I find all of the Beach Boys items don't have the discount anymore. I go back to look at the listings, and every BB SACD has the "this product is not eligible for further discount" added! Really? What the hell? Sigh. I thought Acoustic Sounds only did that. I guess it's over to Elusive, they still have a 10% discount currently. I just checked again, and oddly, Little Deuce Coupe is the only one that allows a discount - weird. By the way, I don't have any of these Analogue discs yet, I was going to buy a bunch of them using the 20% off deal.
eBay. Amoeba Blowout had a number of them for 22.99us a couple of weeks back. The shipping was $12 but only a dollar per extra disc so if you get a few the shipping was reasonable.
Mine shipped today also - I suspect MD didn't want these to get the 20% discount but they made a mistake and so honored the orders but finally figured it out. Acoustic Sounds specifically made these exempt from even their 10% promotional discount, and won't let preorders get free shipping.
I got Surfs Up, sealed cutout at Record Surplus in West LA for.... $14 something. Honestly, after listening to it, I would have had no problem paying full retail for it, it sounds incredible.
That stinks. I am sorry to hear about that. I guess I am fortunate to have put my order in a few days ago when the 20% off was being honored. I got shipment notification today.
I got my order from Music Direct yesterday! Listened to Smiley Smile and Surf's Up in multichannel, and I have to say that I'm blown away by the multichannel mix. First off, like someone said earlier, it's not a busy Quad mix but very modern sounding: the sound is enveloping and big. Very tasteful. Second, if you get good imaging with your front speakers, the center channel is absolutely there; so it really does seem like a bona fide 5.0 mix. I then compared the SACD to my Artisan pressing played through the Dolby Pro Logic setting on my Denon AVR: there's no contest. The SACD sounds so much more natural; the Dolby bloats the bass and puts way too much information in the center channel. Sunflower is up next later in the morning.
Just played Sunflower in multichannel back to back--it's that good! Wow! Just for the multichannel experience alone, Sunflower and Surf's Up are must-haves. Now contemplating getting Party and Holland (to complete the set) or getting more AP vinyl, which will bankrupt me for sure.
Today my Sunflower SACD arrived. Via Ebay.de, from Amoebia Hollywood, with the cut-out. It sounds really nice! I've compared the multichannel version with the 4.0 FLACs I made with dbPoweramp's channelmapper DSP from the standard CD - as posted above. The rears are a bit reduced, which sounds more natural to me. But anyway, the overall surround image is almost the same. So I'll try to optimize my matrix parameters in that direction now. To convert the other possible albums (like CatP, Spring, KtSA..).
I just listened to Carl and the Passions' hi res download (24/192) with my receiver set at Dolby Pro Logic II Music. I listen to a ton of surround music, but always direct as intended. It was quite a nice listen, and similar to the Sunflower and Surf's Up 4.0 versions on the SACDs. Of course, the Dolby interpretation of CATP puts info into the center speaker. I now have all of the SACDs except Holland, and have filled in the studio catalog up to that with 24/192 hi res FLAC downloads burned to DVD-A: Christmas mono/stereo, Wild Honey, Friends, 20/20, and So Tough. I'd love AP SACDs of those, but don't hesitate if you're on the fence - they're really fantastic.
According to Wikipedia, it was. Carl and the Passions – "So Tough" - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia »
Maybe if you tried Dolby Pro Logic, you might get something out of the rear speakers. Remember that none of these, even the Sunflower and Surf's Up SACDs, are true, discrete 4 channel recordings.
Usually with AP promos, the one getting screwed is the label since the artist has already been payed via licensing. Stock copies, both artist and label since promotional items come out of the artist's royalties, the label manufactures the item with the intention of the item to be played in-store, on a media outlet, or reviewed in print. WEA used to stamp numbers on their promo LP's to keep track of who's selling them. Pet Sounds to me is like ice cream, it depends which flavor you're interested in: mono (vanilla), stereo (chocolate), or 5.1 (pistachio) I like plain dull vanilla.
I can't find much of any discussion between the Audio Fidelity Pet Sounds CD and this AP SACD; has anyone compared those two by chance?
Finally got around to listening to the 5.0 mix on Surf's Up. I greatly preferred the regular stereo (2.0). The surround mix seems to result in a blurring of the vocals (why did they route vocals to the surround channels).
You misread my post. My point was that there is no 4-channel matrix information on any CARL & THE PASSIONS-SO TOUGH CDs. And SUNFLOWER and SURF'S UP are definitely multichannel discs, although not labeled a such.
