Audio Fidelity 5.1 SACD - Coming Soon?

From his master's voice:

https://twitter.com/SteveHoffmanTV/status/468061094599081984

 

I hope these are not revisits of titles already in stereo SACD

 

Same here. I tweeted back at Steve with that very question. No answer yet though.

 

finally. finally. finally. my grovelling has not been for naught. after all the snide comments i get when i stick a "why not in 5.1" in reply's to af sacd releases on this forum.

 

Keeping my fingers crossed...

 

My wallet is already feeling the pain of this thread!

I was heavily debating the return of my old 5.1 sound system, just dying to hear the latest Steven Wilson "surround" remixes of "YES", but THIS thread might finally make me get it done, depending on which titles are to be done by Steve Hoffman? Let's hope for stuff that hasn't already been reissued a hundred times before!

 

I'm outta here. See ya!


(says my money)

 

I wonder who would be doing the 5.1 mixes?

 

I'm very interested.

 

I get that sentiment, but there are many many folks who missed out on the good old days when SACD and DVD-A surround titles were readily available and simply can't or won't pay the crazy prices some of them bring now. Call it a hunch, but I suspect these WILL indeed be reissues of previously available 5.1 titles and not new mixes of albums that never received the treatment.

My dream would be to see AF issue original quad mixes that never saw light of day in the 5.1 era; the mind boggles at the possibilities: Loggins & Messina, Average White Band, Sly & The Family Stone, Dylan, Bread, Al Green, Poco, Billy Joel, America, Chicago, Carly Simon, Doobies, Eagles, Guess Who, Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan, Spinners….Hey, the tapes still exist so they wouldn't have to do any remixing or invent a mix that never existed back in the day. They could call it Quadio or something and actually follow through on the promise

 

Nope, never released on SACD before.

Classic Rock coming soon

 

Good.

Not so good (not a big fan of "Classic Rock", although that is such a big bucket I might be ecstatically happy with the releases.)

 

Just one

 

Well, you have to believe me, that I personally did everything that I could to help keep the "surround" concept alive, when all of those old DVD-A's and SACD's were originally released! If I told you just how many high-end stereo stores that I had to hit, just to find ONE dealer with a 5.1 surround set-up, just to actually hear a "surround" disc that I bought, before I had my own set-up, you'd laugh yourself silly!

"Surround", when it comes to "music" was NEVER and I mean NEVER properly sold (or better yet, explained what it even was) to the masses by Warner Brothers, Universal or Sony and it's always been the same old albums and artists, time after time, that get the treatment, instead of discs by artists that would really shine in "surround", like E.L.O., The Alan Parsons Project or Supertramp. Even to this very day, I still have a hard time explaining the whole "surround" concept of music playback to friends. The fact that they would have to buy a special machine to play an SACD or DVD-Audio disc, along with having a special receiver that decodes the "surround" elements, plus buying the extra speakers, let alone paying for the discs themselves, was something that they all thought that I was crazy for doing. To be honest, when the majors gave up on SACD's in surround, was when I tore that 5.1 system down and I went back to total 2-channel playback. I figured if they didn't believe in the concept anymore, why should I? I'm highly doubtful that Audio Fidelity or Steve Hoffman will change the minds of those same people that didn't believe years ago, but it will be interesting to see what they have in store for the few believers that still dare to believe in surround!

 

5.1 has been dead for a very long time, what on earth are AF doing?

 

Well I hope Steve can give us some more info. on what's being released.
Exciting news in deed.

peter

 

Excellent news, cant wait!! Need some good 80's stuff in surround. Hint Hint

 

Tell that to Steven Wilson, whose own stuff (Porcupine Tree) generally comes out on 5.1, and the newest and planned releases of XTC, Yes, Jethro Tull, etc. all generally mixed by Steven Wilson

If may not be "alive" for the mainstream, but it sure ain't dead yet!!

Bring em' on.

 

You are dead wrong on this. Is 5.1 selling through the roof, no, but there is definitely many people that understand the benefit of listening to things in surround and buying these special releases when they come out. The recent reissues of King Crimson,Yes,Jethro Tull,XTC are proof that there is a market for 5.1

peter

 

Maybe in your house...

 

Many people have upgraded to 5.1 for home theatre, great new market. But I think a DD or DTS 5.1 track should be included for those with non SACD 5.1 capability.

 

Looking forward to what's coming.

 

I don't know if that's technically possible.. though with a Hybrid SACD I guess you could theoretically have the redbook layer DTS encoded (core DTS/lossy) so as to be a "DTS CD" and then Hi-Res Stereo & Surround on the other layer.. though it may be commercial suicide wiping out the redbook stereo for the sake of DTS compatibility..?

 

Yeah, no lossy Dolby Digital or DTS layer possible on a SACD.

 

Agree, and 2 disks would be costly. But it has been done -Depeche Mode for example.
I have SACD 5.1 capability, but many others I'm afraid will not.