Equinox--hybrid CD?

[Rudy]

While looking around half.com, I found this curious note about Equinox:

This is a Hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Has anyone noticed this on the packaging? If so, this may account for the top-gouge list pricing on the U.S. release.

(One advantage of SACD is that it is a dual-layer design, backward compatible with CDs, since CD players will ignore the extra layer.)

-= N =-

 

[Mike Blakesley]

That's gotta be a mistake. The packaging is an identical reproduction of the LP sleeve (right down to the style of type used on the spine). Inside the plastic wrap is a small wrap-around card like you find on Japanese releases...this has a portion of the liner notes, plus the songwriter credits (which were missing from the original LP) and musician credits, and the notation "96 kHz, 24-bit digital transfer availalbe until May 2005." No word about SACD anywhere.

The CD itself is like the Verve release of LOOK AROUND with the ochre label, except the A&M Logo is white (rather than transparent).

 

[Rudy]

Interesting...I didn't think it would be SACD either. Then again, we don't know anyone with a SACD player who could test it for us. (And does anyone know if Univer$-hell Music Group is even in the SACD bunch, or did they side with DVD-Audio?)

They may have mistakenly called it SACD due to the 24bit/96kHz notation.

-= N =-
...waiting for a shipment of Stevie Ray Vaughan CDs...

 

[jimac51]

Universal is planning a SACD roll out. Since the Verve board doesn't exist,I don't visit much(though Harry's review of "Equinox" is there now) but they were planning Getz/Gilberto Vol.1,Coltrane's "A Love Supreme", Ella & Louis(ST) and Diana Krall's latest,"Look of Love" for an 8/6/02 release with other Universal holdings coming out on SACD(Buffet's hits?Tom Petty hits?),the same day that Tjader's "Soul Bird' comes out. Mac

 

[Rudy]

I think we're all stifling our collective yawns about SACD. (The nuances of 24 bit, 96kHz sound don't mean a thing when I'm playing the music out on the deck, working in the yard. )

But I, for one, am going to grab Tjader's Soul Bird: Whiffenpoof as soon as it comes out, as long as Verve (aka The Evil Univer$al Music Group) doesn't want to rip us off for $18.99. I only wonder when they'll get around to releasing the rest of the Tjader albums...they're the only label that hasn't stepped all the way up to the plate. There was a lot better chance when it was Polygram running the show. SB:W isn't a bad album, but I think I'd have picked Along Comes Cal before this one. Fortunately I was able to find both Along Comes Cal and In A Latin Bag on reel tape. Although it has the typical reel-to-reel barrage of tape hiss, it's still cleaner than any vinyl copies I've come across (and those are hard enough to come by as it is!).

I just feel that like A&M, Verve is going to be the next major label that Universal kills off through mismanagement. They're already choking Verve as it is...

-= N =-