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Reviews: Mike Oldfield: Tubular Bells

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Reviews: 10

Review by Marc P March 1, 2003 (2 of 3 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
I found it quiet strange I was the first to add a review of this album to SACDinfo. Surely most of you out there have this album by Mike Oldfield.
The disc has a stereo and the original quad mix on there, even though I only heard the quad version once it has impressed me.
I listen to the stereo version exclusively and enjoy it a lot. The SACD version has a lot more detail and clarity then the 25th anniversary Limited Gold edition re-master that I’ve got.
I waited a long time before getting this disc because it’s not an album I tend to play a lot and I already owned a more than decent sounding CD version. The SACD version was also very expensive so that also kept me from getting it. When I came along the opportunity to this disc as get a free membership bonus from a Dutch magazine, I gladly became a member because I tended to buy the magazine anyway. This way it was a double bonus, the cheaper price because of the membership and this disc as a gift.

If you like this album, you should get the SACD because you’ll love. Especially when you have MCH setup, so you’ll get a chance to enjoy the original quad mix.

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Review by vonwegen September 11, 2003 (2 of 4 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
I agree with Mike P. about this release--it really is nice, and the quad mix is really crisp, with a few parts that make my subwoofer kick in. The clarity really makes a difference in both the stereo and 5.1 mixes (okay, NOT 5.1-- actually 4.0--but you hardly notice the absent center channel). The tubular bells themselves are from 2 different sources, depending on which mix you choose, but are clear (and almost deafening, if you crank it up loud enough.

The liner notes about the various circumstances are quite nice, but very, very hard to read without a magnifying glass.

One quibble: it would've been nice to have included the 45 single edit of Tubular Bells, just to remind people of how clever the edits were--if you didn't know this was a 42-minute piece beforehand, you would never figure it out from the 'radio version', which retained a lot of the full version's charm.

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Review by Whitehall March 19, 2004 (1 of 3 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
An old favorite returns but improved. I too was very impressed with the 5.0 version that I played. It did point out that a bit more tweeking of my new setup is required.

As to the music, it makes one appreciate overall structure and "theme and variation" in classical music. While the piece did build to a climax, the repetition got to be a bit much in places.

Maybe I should listen to it in the same illegal state of mind that I listened it when it first came out?

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Review by hawkfan May 22, 2004 (1 of 4 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
Excellent Album and excellent 5.1 mix, shame about the silly talk end of track 2 (Viv Shanshall) i believe,
i tend to switch off when he starts talking.

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Review by PaulHoncoop January 22, 2005 (9 of 10 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
If you have Pink Floyd's DSOTM, you'll need to have this one too.
The sound of this masterpiece is excellent. Things you never heard on the normal album appear on this surround mix. The sound is so brilliant and clear, you won't believe that the recording is more then 30 years old. Tubular Bells is one of the best sounded SACD's on today's market.

Great performance (Mike was about 19 when he made this record) that's grown up for the best selling instrumental pop album all time.

Great sonics. Tubular Bells sounded never so good as on this SACD. Enjoy the multichannel version, it's so damn good! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

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Review by graforlok April 17, 2005 (1 of 2 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
The best album on electronic music was released now on DSD format, allowing you to listen to it as it is supposed to be listened. This multichannel edition brings new air and spatial depth to the instruments, making your feel part of them. Highly recommended.

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Review by StyleAndEntertainmen June 17, 2005 (2 of 13 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:  
This review is for those of you who want to hear "The Exorcist" theme in MC SACD: do not buy this album. That mix is NOT on this CD. If you like 70's electronica, then yes, this a very fine rendering. I am personally disappointed because I really don't like the music on this very well done CD. And the money song is not there (it's barely recognizable as the movie theme). Perhaps I'm showing my ignorance... but I bought this album to crank that one song. It's not there and I am disappointed.

StyleAndEntertainment

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Review by drdark January 14, 2007 (5 of 5 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:  
I have the original Quadraphonic album I purchased about 20 years ago in a boxset that also included Quad pressings of Ommadawn, Hertige Ridge and an album called Collaborations that was exclusive to the boxset, but has recently come up as bonus material on various Oldfield remastered CD's.

I always loved that the Quad version was slightly different than the stereo mix (most notably the Sailors song at the end of part II). This was always a favorite of mine and the MCH mix off the Quad is amazing. The seperation comapared to my old quad system is amazing in itself. The fidelity is solid and, like mentioned by others, really brings out things I've been missing.

They should definately give the other 3 albums that were in that ol' boxset the SACD treatment. Ommadawn would most definetly find its way into my home.

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Review by mccontrol July 16, 2008 (6 of 6 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:    
So much has already been written about this title musing and pondering over this "format" and that "remaster" so I'll keep my words brief.I don't claim to be an audiofile nor am I an expert on the works of Mr.Oldfield but I do know a good recording when I hear one and this particular reissue of "Tubular Bells" sounds incredible.I am not old enough to have heard this recording in it's original Quad vinyl pressing and cannot see the need to spend money on a Quad Turntable(record player) so I can hear a few recordings from the seventies the way they were meant to be heard.Therefore,I'm more than happy to be offered the chance to hear these four channel mixes of some of the greatest albums of our time on SACD(check out Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon").Besides,I don't care how expensive your turntable is,you will still get surface noise and rumble coming through your speakers.Something you don't hear off a digital disc!So,if you are not too pedantic about how you listen to "Tubular Bells",this is the closest you can get to true Quad Sound in 2005!!! Fantastic!!!!

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Review by gregs1104 January 30, 2010 (1 of 7 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:  
One of the best sounding SACDs available. It's amazing that an album this old can be so incredibly difficult to reproduce. Out of the five SACD players I own, only the best two can play this disc without screwing up the extremely challenging dynamics and high-frequency content here.

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