Multichannel recordings - recommendations?

[GTekie]

Blu-ray
Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, NTSC
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Release Date: Feb 22 2011
Fabulous!
DTS HD MA
I've started using a Networked Media Player. spdif / component video out, no hassles, as with HDMI as mentioned here, problems.

[Hoerninger]

A versatile composition of very British music, good bang for the buck.
It is a studio production with a choir.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
conducted by Richard Cooke
recorded February 1996 London

SACD multichannel hybrid

ASIN: B000E0LC4E


___________
Peter

[Hoerninger]

D 803 - op. posth. 166
camerata freden
TACET Real Surround Sound EAN/barcode: 4009850013334
Winner of the "Surround Sound Award" 2004 (VDT)

recorded 2003
/C/ / P/ 2004 by Tacet
http://www.tacet.de/main/seite1.php?...layout=katalog





Playable as DVD Audio and DVD video

The surround mix gives this composition the right dimension.
Violin, violoncello, clarinet, double bass, horn, 2nd violin, bassoon and 1st violin are placed around you. The mix is worth to give it a try.

Think of being in heaven and the angels are playing around you, than you'll get the picture.
___________
Peter

[hjames]

I mentioned this album was coming a few months back in another thread - its the 3rd album by Caravan - the 40th Anniversary Edition of The land of Grey and Pink.
40 years?? That's hard to believe - then again, it had been out a few years when I heard of it stateside ...

Its a 3 disc package - the original recording, cleaned up, another disc of extra bonus tracks, and a 3rd DVD disc with the album tracks remixed/remastered in 5.1 surround (DVD-A) and some videos from the Beat Club. The price through Amazon US was steep, but I ordered through Amazon UK and got it for about $24 US shipped.

I had a chance to play the surround mix disc Friday and its quite nice! The surround mix is credited to Steve Wilson of Porcupine Tree fame, he apparently went back to the original tapes and reworked from there to get quite a nice surround mix with all of the instruments well placed and clear - a very full rich sound - and very enjoyable if you like the Canterbury kind of progressive music! Steve Wilson has also been involved with creating surround sound remixes of a number of the classic King Crimson albums

Packaging is sort of wonky - a two tray digipack with the 3rd disc of DVD/Surround just slipped into a card board sleeve. But I'm here for the music, and its great, even better for the nice price.

[JBLAddict]

At our last meet, JBLAddict brought Beck's Sea Change disc for a spin. I believe it was the SACD.

never got back on this, for completeness, yes it was SACD. I bought it for $50 and consider that a steal for the prices I've seen it go for in tracking it the last year, not to mention the good times it allowed me to share with others....

[JBLAddict]

I've managed to grab a number of SACDs over the last 3 months ... some for the quite reasonable price between $10-15 (plus shipping, of course)
3 from the RCA Living Stereo series, some Eric Kunzel symphony, and some Pop stuff

Heather, I never noticed how casually you laid out Roxy Music Avalon! You do realize this is the holy grail of multichannel music, pretty much the consensus as good as it gets for any release by anyone, ever? And this is written about extensively as being all about the mix, whether you like the music or not....

I can't ever recall seeing it go for less than $85-90, with $120 being the avg

So.....what did you think of the mix/sonics. I keep searching same as I did with Sea Change for a sub $60 opportunity

[JBLAddict]

since I dove into MCH last year with the arrival of my Oppo 83SE with analog outs, I've been reading and searching, and buying, and reading, and searching and buying--all SACD and DVDA

Here are my can't miss multi-channel high resolution discs, if you like the music all the better....

Beck-Sea Change
Fleetwood Mac- Rumours
Miles Davis-Kind of Blue
Dire Straits- Brothers in Arms
Neil Young- Harvest
Chicago-II
Steely Dan-Gaucho
Diana Krall--Look of Love
R.E.M. --Automatic for the People/Out of Time

[hjames]

Heather, I never noticed how casually you laid out Roxy Music Avalon! You do realize this is the holy grail of multichannel music, pretty much the consensus as good as it gets for any release by anyone, ever? And this is written about extensively as being all about the mix, whether you like the music or not....

I can't ever recall seeing it go for less than $85-90, with $120 being the avg

So.....what did you think of the mix/sonics. I keep searching same as I did with Sea Change for a sub $60 opportunity

If I recall, I just saw Avalon at Best Buy when the SACD first went on sale, and bought it new,
even though I couldn't play SACDs at the time (I'm a big Roxy Music fan and saw them a 4-5 times in the 70s,
plus on the endless Avalon tour around 82-83 and the 2000 reunion tour). I had no idea the price had gone crazy -
its not their best album, but it is a nice mix of Avalon, plus it has the surround mix of Always Unknowing -
a great extra song I only had on a collection disc before.
I also have the SACD version of Bryan Ferry's "Boys and Girls", bought that off Amazon for $13 back in 2008.

I image all of his albums have extensive studio tape to work with.

That said, the entire Roxy Music/Bryan Ferry catalog was completely remastered around 1999.
Since I only had the original vinyl I bought the whole catalog of Remastered CD when they did it,
in the mini-LP obi-sash versions.
All of the remastered albums sound hugely better than the original CD releases do.
Bryan Ferry has always been a studio obsessive - listen to any of the albums he did albums from Avalon forward.
Mamouna is one of my favorites - http://www.amazon.com/Mamouna-Bryan-...dp/B0000087GY/
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamouna

The recording sessions were legendary for the number of people he recorded that are mixed into those songs,
and the number of years he kept reworking the music. At some point he took some of those songs, trimmed them down,
and released them as Mamouna - but the original studio version is available on some torrent sites as unreleased album Horoscope.


The original Avalon CD was terrible and desperately needed a remaster!

[JBLAddict]

thanks for the insight, I'll have to do some sample listening and investigate a purchase. BTW, if you're bored with Avalon SACD and want to sell it at a special LHF price?

[JBLAddict]

last post to this thread but this is a good link of DVDA/SACD recommendations I referenced when first starting out

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6462_7-...4.html?tag=txt

there are also "recommendation" threads on Quadraphonic.com for DVDA/DTS and in AVS for all formats that are very helpful....

[hjames]

Thanks very much for the tip list ...

I already had a couple of those, but hadn't relistened to them
since I swapped that borken Harman AVR7300 for the Integra pre-processor.

If you like Dire Straits, find a copy of Knopfler's Shangri-La on SACD - a very nice mix and quite pleasant from the chime-y opening sounds of 5:15AM and on as it swells and swings all the way through - quite nice!

Beck was new to me- for some reason I hadn't taken to him in the past, but if Sea Change is much different than his other work, thats why. I listened to the MFSL (Stereo) recording - it has a nice use of space in the music, yet a deep mix - some of it reminds me of early Elton John (Madman Across the Water) with the orchestral touches, other stuff has a hint of Nirvana - VERY cool ... I did find a surround mix on the web and that's very cool also - will have to take some time for long listens to really appreciate it.
Got some Miles Davis on the way - In A Silent Way - its kind of ambient jazz with a pre-Mahavishnu John Mclaughlin on guitar - the stereo disc is one of my favs - but I've never heard the surround version!

I'll have to hunt down the Fleetwood Mac -

Thanks for the tips!!

since I dove into MCH last year with the arrival of my Oppo 83SE with analog outs, I've been reading and searching, and buying, and reading, and searching and buying--all SACD and DVDA

Here are my can't miss multi-channel high resolution discs, if you like the music all the better....

Beck-Sea Change
Fleetwood Mac- Rumours
Miles Davis-Kind of Blue
Dire Straits- Brothers in Arms
Neil Young- Harvest
Chicago-II
Steely Dan-Gaucho
Diana Krall--Look of Love
R.E.M. --Automatic for the People/Out of Time

[JBLAddict]

I've been making a list for a long time, and acquired almost all of my must have discs.

Shangi-la has been on there for a while and I haven't pulled the trigger for some reason, but think I will. Peter Gabriel --UP, just won two days ago on ebay for $41 and the reviews on SA-CD.net for this one are gushing so I'm amped to hear it.

Billy Joel, The Stranger is on the list and had excellent MCH reviews. Also been one fence with Floyd DSTOM mostly for the sonics as I'm not a big fan of their music so never purchased it.

Beck Sea Change is unlike anything he previously produced, the break up disc as TiD stated is pretty deep to the soul if you like that sort of thing, which I do very much.

While I'm listing music, the others I have that are pretty good include Genesis- We Can't Dance, Talking Heads--Little Creatures, Police-Every Breath You Take, Ryan Adams--Gold, and Natalie Merchant--Tigerlily (which is one of my top five albums period, talent extraordinaire!)

Miles Davis Kind of Blue on SACD is widely acclaimed and it really lives up to the billing.

I keep looking for Avalon but the $77 is sold for last week is the cheapest I've ever seen and that's past my threshold.

[hjames]

Been on a multichannel kick lately, so I some new and used discs from Amazon:

Got Stevie Ray Vaughn - Texas Flood SACD - wasn't so impressed - sound was ok stereo.
Also Ladysmith Black Mambazo - Raise Your Voices Higher - amazing separation, some nice tracks - but not quite my cuppa ...

On another day I ordered:
The Allman Brothers - Eat a Peach - SACD and
Elton John - Madman Across the Water - SACD

Eat a Peach is nice, and I'll def spend more time with it over the weekend,
but Madman is a flat gorgeous mix - I was so impressed with Elton's separation and mixes
I just ordered three more early Elton album SACDs - Elton John - Elton John; Tumbleweed Connection,
and Honky Chateau (thanks for the heads up, Hoerninger).

Still looking for other surround sources ... when its right, its a lot of fun!

[Hoerninger]

... when its right, its a lot of fun!

Recently I purchased Elton Johns "Honky Chateau" as SACD for a reasonable price. The music is produced 1972, e.g.Rocket Man. It makes intensive use of the four channels and is very enjoyable.

EAT A PEACH is very enjoyable as well. It has a decent surround mix as "The Allman Brothers at Fillmore East" on SACD.

The FILLMORE concert as DTS surruond nix makes use of four dicrete channels for the instruments which I prefer with this kind of music.
__________
Peter

[Hoerninger]

no comment so far
____________
Peter