Search - The Moody Blues :: Question of Balance

Classic Band in Classic Quad

S. Depaola | NY | 07/18/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This review is for the Quad mix, not the music which has been reviewed several thousand times over the past 40 years. Having owned the original Quad reel tape of QOB, I go way back with surround sound. And today's DTS and SACD DVD surround sound releases are better than the Quad tape and (Quadradisc, SQ or QS) LP releases of the 70's. As far as I remember, this is the original 4.0 mix from the 70's when the Moodies released most of their albums on quad reel tape (a 5.1 setup is fine too but don't expect music from the center or subwoofer on this or any other original 70's Quad re-release). And, compared to other surround mixes I've heard over the years, this one rocks. It was great then and even better now. You'll hear instruments and vocals in the rear channels completely discrete from the fronts, in fact sometimes you get just a lone vocal complete with breath noises you could never hear in a 2 channel mix. The SACD format really sparkles on the highs, very clean, not over-emphasized or distorted, there's no tape hiss to be heard, no dropouts and as I said the separation is awesome. Listening to this great band in Quad in this format really does them justice."