5.1 Bonanza

[Titanium Dome]

Yeah, yeah, I know some of you are die-hard two channel listeners, and I totally respect you for it, but some of us also like multi-channel sound, so please humor me for a moment.

If you have a former Good Guys which became a CompUSA which is now being closed like the one at Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance, CA, then you might want to visit. Today I got a basket full of DTS 5.1 and DVD-A titles for a song.

Ray Charles, genius loves company superdisc DVD-A, DTS, super hi-rez CD included
Diana Krall, Love Scenes, DTS
Paul McCartney and Wings Venus and Mars DTS
Blue Man Group, The Complex DVD-A, DTS, hi-rez stereo
The Moody Blues, Days of Future Past DTS, HDS
Steve Miller Band, Fly Like an Eagle DTS, HDS
Marvin Gaye, Forever Yours DTS
Sting, Nothing Like the Sun DTS
Sting, Brand new Day DTS
Sting, Ten Summoner's Tales DTS
Don Henley, The End of the Innocence DTS, DTS-ES
Crosby-Nash, Another Stoney Evening DVD-A, DTS, hi-rez stereo
Queen, The Game DVD-A, DTS, hi-rez stereo
Queen, A Night at the Opera DVD-A, DTS, hi-rez stereo
Tchaikovsky, Classics DVD-A, DTS
Frank Zappa, Halloween DVD-A, DTS, hi-rez stereo
Frank Zappa, Quadiophiliac DVD-A, DTS, hi-rez stereo
Medeski Martin and Wood, Uninvisible DVD-A, DTS-ES, hi-rez stereo
Tom Petty, Sound Stage Live DVD Video, DD5.1
Johnny Cash, Live From Austin DVD Video, DTS, hi-rez stereo
Planet Earth (environmental compilation) DVD-A, DTS, hi-rez stereo

I think that's 21 titles. Cost: about $140. Less than $7 each. I would have purchased more, but I ran out of money.

I'll have plenty to listen to over the next few weeks! :bouncy:

[Fred Sanford]

I'll be passing two of them today, thanks for the heads-up!

je

[Fred Sanford]

No, I'm a knucklehead, I passed two CompUSAs that are staying open. No joy here.

:(

Thanks for the heads-up, though, let me know how you like the Queen discs.

je

[Titanium Dome]

I was in the neighborhood again today, so for $16 I picked up

Joe Cocker, Night Calls, DTS
steely dan, Gaucho, DTS
everclear, so much for the afterglow, DVD-A, DTS-ES, hi-rez stereo

It's been a lot of fun so far. :bouncy:

[JBLnsince1959]

Yeah, yeah, I know some of you are die-hard two channel listeners, and I totally respect you for it


nice to know you still respect me this morning:D

seriously tho, our CompUSA is still open. I checked it the other day just in case...

[Titanium Dome]

I've always considered Gaucho a fine album, one of steely dan's best. I got the chance to listen to the DTS version today, and I'm totally blown away. This sucker is so amazing that I'm having a hard time describing it.

It's bass is incredible, percussion totally, er, percussive, and the clarity of the recording is breathtaking.

Some of these DTS discs are just OK, like the Venus and Mars I listened to earlier, but this one is a total kick. I'm spinning it again, louder! :D

[Mr. Widget]

I've always considered Gaucho a fine album, one of steely dan's best. I got the chance to listen to the DTS version today, and I'm totally blown away. This sucker is so amazing that I'm having a hard time describing it.I agree, I think it is one of their best too.

I have that album in vinyl, (Japanese import pressing) redbook CD, SACD, and DTS CD... I find the pumped up bass of the DTS mix "fun", but obviously not true to the original. Hearing the horns and back-up singers coming from the rear just destroys it for me. Maybe if I was a musician and used to being in the band it would work, but as an audience member... those special effects are just too special. The DTS highs are also a little crunched sounding... the SACD is significantly better. There is a lack of delicacy on the cymbals and chimes that both the vinyl and SACD have.


Widget

[Titanium Dome]

It might be the calibration from system to system and/or the actual equipment in use, but I got no sense of displacement at all with the horns and back up singers. The soundstage was quite solidly up front with acceptable ambience coming from the surrounds.

This is in marked contrast to the McCartney/Wings DTS disc that was annoyingly disorienting at times. :wtf: Sometimes Paul is

here---------------------------here------------------------------here

--------------------------------here-----------------------------------
or here.---------------------------------------------(but never here?)

I'll double check the Gaucho highs vs. the vinyl, but unfortunately my vinyl is domestic and well used, so it's not likely to show well in the comparison. :(

At least we can agree on the music. :yes:

[Mr. Widget]

It might be the calibration from system to system and/or the actual equipment in use, but I got no sense of displacement at all with the horns and back up singers....Either you have a different DTS Goucho disc, or you may not have your system set to properly decode DTS 5.1 discs. I assume that you have used a test disc to set the relative levels of the 5 channels and the sub. My recording is DTS CD1014. This is a 20 bit 5.1 recording and I am playing it in DTS 5.1... no effects, synthesized 7.1, or other "music settings."

I haven't played the disc in a few years... I just put it on again and sure enough on cut one, Babylon Sisters, when the horns first appear they pan from the front to the rear and stay in the rear...


Widget

[Titanium Dome]

That number isn't evident anywhere in the packaging or on the disc as DTS CD1014, but on the disc itself the mastering house (Technicolor) has etched 51014-2-2.

[Mr. Widget]

Every CD and record will have a number on the spine. My disc has other numbers on the disc itself but the number on the spine is 7102151014-2-2... so I'd really doubt they are different mixes.

How is your system set up? I can't believe you aren't hearing the horns and singers coming from the rears.


Widget

[Titanium Dome]

Yeah, I'm certain it's the same disc. It's hard to imagine there'd be two versions from DTS.

Rereading your comments, I double checked the display on the FAP-T1+, and there was the answer:

CD--------------DTS+DPLIIx-M 7.1
Optical 3------------------- -17.5dB

Did you see it? I guess ol' Jim Fosgate's tube-based algorithms neutralized some of Elliot Scheiner's unique mix. Fosgate is a pretty smart guy when it comes to this sort of stuff, and IMO he rarely misses, though Dolby can lose a little in the transition from his tubes to their digital domain. Once I turned DPLIIx-M 7.1 off, in 5.1 DTS it was startlingly as you said.

http://www.dtsonline.com/entertainment/catalogue/music.php?upc=710215101422

Tastes differ, though, and I liked it even in pure DTS. ;)

[Mr. Widget]

Tastes differ, though, and I liked it even in pure DTS. ;)Well... no real surprise there. ;)


Widget

[bonanzadave]

If I ever demo the L100s Its done with my jap press of "Hey Nineteen". What were your impressions of Diana Krall ? Just saw her on Letterman. She is way prego with a Elvis double wammy. Her performance was wonderful for TV.

[Titanium Dome]

If I ever demo the L100s Its done with my jap press of "Hey Nineteen". What were your impressions of Diana Krall ? Just saw her on Letterman. She is way prego with a Elvis double wammy. Her performance was wonderful for TV.

I used to be a Krall skeptic. About five years ago when I was demoing a CRT projector at a local high end shop in its "premier room" HT (very cool room, BTW), the associate put on the DVD Live in Paris and played it LOUD through some overachieving Bowers & Wilkins 800 Series in a 7.1 set up with Krell hardware and Monster Sigma Retro cables (or whatever preceded that line). The room was very attractive, but it was not well-designed and the equipment was overpowering to say the least.

The musicians seemed to be slapping their instruments, her piano sounded like my head had fallen onto the soundboard, and there was so much sibilance and breathiness to her voice that I thought she was shrieking and gasping over my shoulder into my ear.

Needless to say, I lost all interest in B&W speakers and Diana Krall.

Listening to her with Ray Charles on genius loves company made me interested in hearing more, so when I saw this DTS CD, I grabbed it. I must say, I'm a bit of a fan now. :yes:

[Steve Schell]

Diana Krall has been a guilty pleasure of mine for some time now. I like both her singing and piano playing. Her recordings have been overused at hi fi shows, like Amanda McBroom's were years ago, putting some people off. The Live in Paris DVD has been widely criticized for bad sound, and rightly so. The Live in Paris CD seems to have better sound, and nicer versions of some of the songs. Her engineer always seems to capture a superbly natural close miced vocal, making DK one of the best choices for a female vocal demo. "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" from All for You and the title track from "When I Look in Your Eyes" are two good choices.

[Titanium Dome]

So here I am listening to in absentia by porcupine tree. The disc includes DVD-A, DTS, and PCM audio tracks, plus DVD video content.

Gotta say, these boys is purty good. The mixing is imaginative and eclectic, making good use of the medium's capabilities. I'm thinking Steve Schell and Widget wouldn't like it, but I could be wrong. :dont-know

I find it addicting.

And I just have to say again how much those HTPS400 subs have evened out the LF response in the room. Amazing! It really shines on mutli-channel sound. The Performance Series is made for this kind of content, no doubt. It's beautiful, pure, clear, immediate, thunderous, and, when needed, HUGE.

Life is good, men and women, life is good. :thmbsup: :wave:

[Steve Schell]

Dude! Ye of little faith. I just had a listen to "Blackforest Eyes" on their Myspace page and liked it a lot. Reminiscent of Dada, heavier metal but of like inventiveness, harmonies and attitude.

Apparently they have visited the trance genre as well. I'm an enthusiastic though inexperienced trance fan, having enjoyed Shpongle and Dead Can Dance so far.

I'll bet that In Absentia would be big fun in a surround mix.

[Titanium Dome]

I sit happily corrected. :D

[Mr. Widget]

Gotta say, these boys is purty good. The mixing is imaginative and eclectic, making good use of the medium's capabilities. I'm thinking Steve Schell and Widget wouldn't like it, but I could be wrong. :dont-knowI happen to own that CD... bought it a couple of years ago... I am not sure if my version has surround channel info, but I have only listened to it on my 2-channel rig.

I really want to like the album, but so far it just hasn't resonated... maybe getting stoned and listening to it in surround mode is what I need to do... neither of which is terribly likely. :D


Widget

[Titanium Dome]

maybe getting stoned and listening to it in surround mode is what I need to do... neither of which is terribly likely. :D


Widget

Well, I can't advise you on the former :spin: :hyp:, but on the latter there is room for comment. The DVD-A experience spatializes the music more for me, and that's a plus in this case. There are also three nice bonus tracks not on the CD.

However, surround sound never made me like music I didn't like in 2 channel or vice versa. So you probably wouldn't find the surround mix changing your mind.

[Titanium Dome]

I spent a couple of days with Don Henley's The End of the Innocence DTS-ES disc.

I'm not a big Henley fan, though I like some of his music. I like it more now. All ten tracks on this disc are well known, though perhaps some are not listened to carefully. That's the case for me. I knew all the tunes, but didn't know the lyrics on most of them.

However, it's still the music that carries the day for me or loses it. This disc is a definitely mixed bag, sounding like it was remastered by different people at different times on different equipment with different sources. Whatever. :dont-know

Here's my breakdown on how they sound, with a little credence given to the value of the song itself.

1. The End Of The Innocence Excellent
2. How Bad Do You Want It? Hated it!
3. I Will Not Go Quietly Okay
4. The Last Worthless Evening Excellent
5. New York Minute Very good
6. Shangri-La Okay
7. Little Tin God Hated it!
8. Gimme What You Got Okay
9. If Dirt Were Dollars Very Good
10. The Heart Of The Matter Excellent

On balance, I wouldn't buy this at full price or even 50% off, but for a couple of bucks, sure. Plus, now there are five Henley songs that I like better than I did before, the surround versions are quite good, and I actually understand them.