5.1 Bonanza

[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.

[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.

[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-know

I 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.


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.


Widget

Well, I can't advise you on the former , 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.

[Titanium Dome]

For some reason, Huikyong loves Joe Cocker. I guess she used to hear him on Armed Forces radio in Seoul. She's been playing the DTS Cocker disc, Night Calls, for a number of weeks now. She likes to sit in the living room, surf the net, and blast Cocker through the Performance Series MC set up in the adjacent family room. There's no wall between the two.

I gotta say, I love this disc. It's got a slightly different playlist and order than the two channel CD, and it just sounds a whole lot better to me. Joe's voice really benefits from the extra ambience.

Curiously, the standard set up of the Performance Series system works fine for this and all other DTS discs I've tried, despite my recent comment that on the L7 I had to dial down the LF as it would get too boomy with most DTS mixes.

[Titanium Dome]

Hmm, I noticed I have some more DTS discs, like Eagles, Hell Freezes Over.
I guess I need to do an inventory.

[JBL 4645]

For some reason, Huikyong loves Joe Cocker. I guess she used to hear him on Armed Forces radio in Seoul. She's been playing the DTS Cocker disc, Night Calls, for a number of weeks now. She likes to sit in the living room, surf the net, and blast Cocker through the Performance Series MC set up in the adjacent family room. There's no wall between the two.

I gotta say, I love this disc. It's got a slightly different playlist and order than the two channel CD, and it just sounds a whole lot better to me. Joe's voice really benefits from the extra ambience.

Curiously, the standard set up of the Performance Series system works fine for this and all other DTS discs I've tried, despite my recent comment that on the L7 I had to dial down the LF as it would get too boomy with most DTS mixes.

I tend to find only few dts CD have less LFE.1 dynamic range that slams kicks and drops down to the depths of a virtual black hole.

The dts music demo disc that came with the dts Millennium decoder has wicked crazy music effects track that tests the ability of ones sub or there natural caution to trim the level down because it goes down low and high at the same time most times!

I think there is very little call for dts CD at the moment that’s the sense I’m getting unless they have nice back-catalogue to choose from at reasonable price.

I would have thought the JBL Synthesis can trim each mode independently so for music mode you can customize the levels EQ etc over the movie mode so you wouldn’t have to keep making manual changes to the trim levels.


I think there is very little call for dts CD at the moment that’s the sense I’m getting unless they have nice back-catalogue to choose from at reasonable price.

[JBL 4645]

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

I have simple idea for you that shouldn’t cost much?


Okay so you’re distracted by the stereo surrounds voices back vocals when they cut in?

First you’ll need matching JBL five fronts yes I said five!

I’m thinking as hard as I can...but this cold is driving me absolutely nuts. You see I can deal with the JBL bullets and whooshes flying over my head on the surrounds.

You need simple means of sending the stereo surrounds to the inner fronts that will have nice frontal effect when they come in as that is where the voices will be if your watching a performance.

Or you can use a audio mixer to send the stereo left and right fronts and surrounds and send them out of the two basic channels with four inputs, do you follow what I’m getting too? Its piss easy to do and shouldn’t take no more than 10 minutes if you have mixer and spear cables.

[rdgrimes]

I gotta say, I love this disc. It's got a slightly different playlist and order than the two channel CD, and it just sounds a whole lot better to me. Joe's voice really benefits from the extra ambience.

Curiously, the standard set up of the Performance Series system works fine for this and all other DTS discs I've tried, despite my recent comment that on the L7 I had to dial down the LF as it would get too boomy with most DTS mixes.

FWIW, it should be noted that DTS 5.1 CDs should not be considered a "high fidelity" medium. What they offer is surround audio, not audio quality. Essentially they take a 5.1 track and squish it down into the available bandwidth of a CDA. Potential audio quality will be comparable to a DTS track on a DVD video. Not horrible, but lossy nonetheless.

[Titanium Dome]

FWIW, I think we knew that.

I'm the kind of person who can pull out the Chritstine McVie cassette I've got and stick in my Technics dual cassette player and enjoy the heck out of it. Sometimes I just like to listen to the music, and not the sound.

I like all kinds of music and all kinds of sound. When I can procure excellent representations of both, that's extra nice, and I've sure ponied up the $$ and the commitment to get the best sound I can afford, supplemented with my skill and labor, but it's always music fist, sound second for me.

My old Stan Kenton and old Wackers LPs still get played because I like the music. The sound, now, that's something else.

Same with the DTS stuff. It's not top flight, but it's really good in some cases and really bad in others; however, it's the music and how it speaks to me that matters first and most. With Cocker's Night Calls, I prefer the DTS version far above the CD.

It's probably fair to say I generally prefer five channels to two as well.

[BMWCCA]

I'm the kind of person who can pull out the Chritstine McVie cassette I've got and stick in my Technics dual cassette player and enjoy the heck out of it. Sometimes I just like to listen to the music, and not the sound.

A "Perfect" statement, pun intended.


Yikes!!
Glad I own the original LP.

[John]

I just like to listen to the music, and not the sound, but it's always music fist, sound second for me.

More people around here should try to do that!!!