Yes that looks like a good way to get into the surround listening world - if you really like it you can always upgrade later if you want.
It will be festive holiday season .
Yes that looks like a good way to get into the surround listening world - if you really like it you can always upgrade later if you want.
It will be festive holiday season .
In general I'm not a lover of compilation-albums and since I hadn't got a blu-ray player at the time of release of Gentle Giant's Three Piece Suite I didn't buy it. But times are changing so when I found a copy recently I bought it and played it yesterday. Steven Wilson did a fine job remixing 9 tracks from the first three GG-LP's (plus a pre-recording contract demo) in great surround sound. The blu-ray also contains stereo-mixes from thos three albums, but I haven't heard them yet (I already have CD-versions of the first two records).
Today I played the 2SACD-version of Jeff Wayne's Musical Version Of The War Of The World. The surround mix gives the music a lot of power, while the surround effects of the Martians give the whole experience an extra dimention. Funny I sometimes expected Tom Cruise to come into the scene.
Worldwide released in 2005 and very cheap nowadays, unless you want the boxset: https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/2779178?ev=rb
Thank you!
(I loved the person selling a copy that had a $46 shipping charge. Shipping is simply…all over the place. I recently purchased an older, heavy synth module, and was astounded that it cost $100 to ship! But at least that is crazy heavy…a CD is…NOT!)
Anyway, all the shipping woes recede when I sit back in the ATMOS glory or when I play several synths all layered together. Better living through technology!)
I've thought about getting the War of the Worlds but every time I pull out my original vinyl and play it I'm reminded that there are some really great parts to it but there is also a pretty big cheese factor as well - so I've never gone for it.
I guess if the surround improves it a lot I may have to reconsider. Damn.
Well, if it disappoints you, you can blame me for bringing this up.
But you're right about two things: the album does contain some cheese moments, especially on the second part where some compositions are more in a musical-vein than a rock-opera, but the surround mix brings a lot of scary sounds and effects to the game, which make those cheesy parts less dominant.
Yeah, shipping charges are not our friend these days. But the price you mentioned is for the box-set, the price for the regular 2SACD-version is better: https://www.discogs.com/master/71524...ds?format=SACD
The disadvantage of being a record-collector is that you have less and less time to listen to the great stuff you already have. That Kompendium-album is one of them. It must have been 10 years ago since I heard that wonderful progressive folkrock-opera, but last Friday I finally listened to the DVD again. Great pleasure!
It brings me to one question though: I never know which surround-version is the best? This one has the following options:
- 24/96 5.1
- DTS 5.1
- Dolby Digital 5.1
I played the last one
^^ I suffer from the same affliction as book collectors. They own more books than they can read in a lifetime. I own more music than I can listen to in a lifetime.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
I would say the quality is in that order - 24/96 is the highest bit rate, DTS us 24 bit and Dolby 16 bit (I think).
I always choose DTS when it's between that and Dolby.
Me too - I've been going through my downloaded stuff and books of CD's that are on the shelf and discovering things I'd listened to only once or twice before so I'm focused on listening to that stuff at the moment.
One of the first surround mixes I must have heard was The Dark Side Of The Moon. It was during a demonstration at a hi-fi-show where I bought my SACD/DVD-player, and indeed, that album is very suitable for demonstrating 5.1 surround. Another album that demonstrates very well the possibilities of your system, an album I just played, is Daft, the SACD from Art Of Noise. The label describes this one as "A Zang Tuum Tumb Super Compact compilation containing noise-shots from the records Who's Afraid Of Of The Art Of Noise, Into Battle and (the 12") Moments In Love. So it includes Close (To The Edit) and three versions of my favorite AON-track Moments In Love. Just noticed on Discogs this has become quite a collectors item...
Just listened to the new SACD-version of Santana's Welcome. Another one of those originally quadrophonic releases of the 70s released in Japan in wonderful 7"-sleeves with posters, etc. Very powerful mix with a lot of instruments from the back-speakers.
First reactions: https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/for...th-2023.35039/
These originally-Quad mixes that have been turned into Surround fascinate me. First, as a teenager I was smitten with the quad receivers and setups I saw in the catalogs. And second because i am intrigued by how good some of these mixes were/are. Have you been able to make any generalizations about the Quad mixes from various bands?
Thanks to Taliesin I use DTS when I have these options.
Yesterday I played The Geese & The Ghost, Anthony Phillips' first solo-album in 5.1 surround. Gracious music that has a nice "quiet", detailed mix. The DVD in the boxset from 2015 has another option:
- MLP (Meridian Lossless Packing) Lossless
In what rangorder would you place that option?
Unless it's DTS HD +; it is a lossy format - so if the choice is btwn the three - I would take the 24/96 as my preferred option
Death inspires me like a dog inspires a rabbit
If those are the exact words - then it would appear that MLP Lossless 5.1 would be the way to go - for DVD-A that would be six channels of 24/96 audio - lossless, so super faithful.
DTS-HD is the successor to reg ol DTS 5.1
Some peeps don't like DTS-HD because it's core is lossy (like regular DTS 5.1) but sends a 2ndary stream of data that is the missing data that DTS strips out - so kinda dual stream
Death inspires me like a dog inspires a rabbit
Dolby TrueHD, the successor to AC3 is the same generation as DTS-HD. And is of similar quality.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
This weekend I played two surround SACDs that have some things in common.
First Sam Yahel, Ari Hoenig, Mike Moreno and Seamus Blake playing Jazz Side Of The Moon: The Music Of Pink Floyd (Chesky Records, 2008). Produced by David Shesky and Hammond B3 Organ-player Yahle in The Producer Series this album was recorded live in the studio with one microphone. As shown in the booklet this mic was placed in front of the instruments, so there're no instruments in the back speakers. The only things coming from the back speakers are the echo's of the instruments (especially the drums and organ).
Then Allan Holdsworth's All Night Wrong (Sony Music Japan, 2002). When I remember correctly this live in Japan-performance was also recorded with one microphone, but I'm not sure about that (and can't read the Japanese essay). But what you do hear is that this recording puts the drums of Chad Weckerman in central position (so you hear everything as if you were on Chad's seat with all the parts of his set around him), while Holdsworth and Jimmy Johnson are mainly on the two front speakers with echo's on the back speakers. Of course the audience is from the back speakers.
I've got not many jazz-SACDs, but the few I have (Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue and The Dave Brubeck Quartet with Thim Out) all are more or less sounding like the first one, so not much surround-music apart from reverb and echo. Yet, they sound as if those players are in your room, which is mainly the reason SACDs were developed I think.
Yesterday I listened to the SACD Act Of Free Choice (2000) by David Bridie. His music can be described as a mixture of ambient pop, orchestral pop, Britpop and a bit of Lou Reed. If you like the noises on Roger Waters' Amused To Death, you'll enjoy this one too. Bridie uses a lot of field recordings, sampled dialogues etc and those effects plus the music make this to a great surround experience. The SACD is still available for good prices: https://www.discogs.com/release/3080...Of-Free-Choice
I didn't know this when I bought this disk, but later I realized I had another recording of Bridie: The Little Desert (1985), the LP from his band Not Drowning, Waving, and yes, on that one plenty of field recordings are used too.
B.t.w. I noticed on Discogs Bridie did a lot of soundracks, so it's no surprise he loves those field recordings.
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