NEW Audio Tier Thread - Page 11

Are there any "must own" BD's coming out this year?

Terminator salvation, District 9 in this year and The Hurt locker and Gamer when released early in next year. Especially gamer is totally ridiculous in lfe/audio vise.

Just a quick thought on Terminator Salvation. It's a loud ,aggressive soundtrack complete with deep bass. The surrounds are fairly active but overall I don't consider it reference. Maybe mid to low Tier 0. It's certainly not in the same class as Star Trek. I'll do a more formal rating later if I find time. I look forward to getting others thoughts when it streets Tuesday.

Speaking of Star Trek, we watched Transformers 2 right after it last night, and I guess I didn't realize how low (in volume) the LFE in ST was compared to TF2. I still preferred the smooth and balanced track of ST, but the LFE is considerably lower than TF2 was. It still had a couple of moments that shook the walls, but I'm forced to reconsider my original thoughts since watching the two of them back to back. Still a reference track by all means, just not with the LFE I thought it had. It could also be a case of what frequencies are actually being used in the LFE channel of each of those tracks. Don't know...

Contact (TrueHD) - Tier 1

I agree with your comments. There are a few scenes throughout the movie where the sound level increases dramatically which took me by surprise including the very beginning of the movie. For the most part the movie as a whole is more Tier 2 but the last 45 minutes with the transporter scenes takes it to a higher level as they are reference. During these scenes there is excellent surround use with some directionality which puts you right in the middle of everything and just amazing LFE, couch vibrating LFE.

Seems like I remember the DVD not having the greatest sound, either. Kind of harsh and thin if I remember correctly. Guess I'll pass on the BD.

Someone shared their thoughts on Harry Potter in an above post, and I just remembered I still haven't seen a Harry Potter movie. BD or otherwise.

I got my shipping notification from Amazon earlier this evening, and I'm really, really excited about hearing Salvation. It should be a blast. Also looking forward to D9. I can think of several scenes that should impress if the disc is done right.

The Polar Express in 3D (TrueHD 5.1) Tier 0

Even using my replacement sub, this one hit hard and sounded wonderful. Silvestri's infectious theme shined through all 5 channels. A couple of really great demo-worthy scenes including the train sliding on the ice as the ice was cracking, which was my favorite. This was real close to reference but I thought a couple scenes lacked that true sound envelopment that I usually look for. A prime example is when the boy is on top of the train trying to find the girl and the conductor. With the train moving as fast as it was and the wind and snow blowing, it should have sounded better. So overall, Tier 0 and I was really impressed with the way this track sounded.

Was that the DD mix that you did not like? What was "unlistenable" about it?

There's a DTS-HD MA 5.1 track and a PCM 2.0 track.

I've had some SACD/DVD-Audio discs where I vastly preferred the 2-channel mix over the 5.1 version.

What Peter said, it was the DTS HD MA track, which put most of Corea's keyboards into the R surround, and I'm not talking about the natural instrument decay sounds here which would have been fine with me. On top of that it was mixed too loud compared to the L main and surround channels where DiMeola was mixed into. The entire presentation tilted to the right, and gave me a severe fatigue, which is why I called it "unlistenable". The 2 ch PCM however was awesome, and I can highly recommend it. I use matching monopole speakers for surrounds, and they follow the ITU configuration that is recommended for surround music reproduction, and I also after countless experimentation agreed upon as well, and yes they are meticulously calibrated. I do favor surround presentation over Stereo, in 99% of the time, this was one of the 1% I encountered so far.

G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra (DTS HD MA) Tier 0

I was expecting a Wolverine type of let down here based on the majority of the votes here. But this was much more in tune with the Transformer movies, maybe a slight notch below those, but close. I don't consider those reference btw. Anyway I though surround usage was plenty and very well executed. Dynamics did appear on some occasion a bit muted, like some of the explosions in the forest fight scene, or the Eiffel tower scene. But the rest seemed in line of what one could expect. Same goes for the bass, while it won win any bass king status, it was very satisfying nonetheless. Dialog remained clear for the most part, there was only a few spots that I had "peak my ears" of what was said, and of course some of the accents won't help in this regard. Balance was very good, score was forgettable, a first for Alan Silvestri IMO. Since this is a demo thread, there is a lot to recommend here, hence my vote.

Angels and Demons (DTS-MA 5.1) - Tier 0

Dialogue is clear throughout. Clear crisp sound, quite a few discrete sounds. Surrounds used for ambience and action with directionality. LFE is very good during the action although I was expecting a little more of a bang in the last action sequence.

Romancing the Stone movie and soundtrack are one of my favorites. I waited for years for the soundtrack to be released on cd. I finally ran across a copy about one or two years ago. I guess they released a limited number. I don't remember where I found it, luckily it wasn't quite an arm and a leg to pay for it but was well worth it.

Up......DTS-MA........Tier 0

Good sounding BD, but I thought it fell a little short of being reference. Surrounds are used well, but I personally would have preferred to hear the balloons more as they are fling. LFE is used when appropriate but never over the top and dialogue was never a problem.

Superman / Batman: Public Enemies.....DD......Tier 2

Not much to discuss hear. The overall track sounded kind of flat. LFE left a lot to be desired, especially during explosions, surrounds are used very minimally but there were no problems with dialogue.

Fight Club (DTS-MA) Reference

Wow! What a track! This one has quite a few great demo scenes of both the action and more ambient variety. No complaints at all. Dynamics are incredible, dialog perfect, LFE use is amazing, surround use for both action and non action type scenes is perfect......this one is a solid reference title. 2 reference tracks (Star Trek and this) released on the same day which might be a first?

Godzilla (DTS-MA 5.1) - Tier 0

I had to listen about 3 dB lower than what I usually do as it is quite loud. Dialogue was clear. Surrounds were used throughout with directionality. Significant LFE.

Revenge (PCM 5.1) - Tier 1

The music sounds clear and crisp throughout with surround use. There is surround use for action with directionality. LFE was good but could have been better, best in the beginning of the movie with the F15s. Dialogue is clear.

Just want to echo your thoughts on Fight Club. This may be my favorite mix for use of the surrounds, just incredible the amount of little details that can be heard behind you. Love this mix. Reference for me as well.

Wow. That is a great deal! LOVE the audio on this one.


Good deal. Yeah, the surrounds were just fantastic throughout and this has to be one of the best in that department. I enjoyed this one atleast as much as Star Trek.

Nice! I plan to pick it up either today or tomorrow. Amazon says Terminator should arrive tomorrow, too. I'm REALLY looking forward to hearing if that one lives up to the early reviews.

About two weeks ago I was having lunch with Mark S., who was the supervising sound editor on "Trek," and I had mentioned to him about getting both "Trek" and "Fight Club" on BR... he mentioned to me that "Fight Club" is his favorite track (it's also in my top 10 of all time.)

Thanks for the responses. I'll have to agree with you that the mix favors the right. Chick Corea was high on the right surround and did overpower Al DiMeola on the left. It did not seem to bother me too much though. When I noticed it I actually raised my left channel levels a little to compensate.

Maybe it would bother me more if I listened at a louder volume. It was pretty late at night, and with the little one asleep I was listening at a very low volume when I viewed it.

I'm glad you enjoyed the the pcm mix though. I can't wait to listen to that thru my headphones. My listening preference is the opposite of yours. When I watch and listen to a music bd it's usually the 2 ch pcm mix thru my headphones. Good headphones make a huge differance in the listening experience imo, and maybe that's why I prefer 2 ch. thru headphones. I'll have another listen the next time at louder volumes thru my speaker setup and see if I feel the same way about the MCH mix as I did the 1st time I viewed it.

Did you listen to the 2ch mix aswell? I much preferred the 2ch mix on this BD , I found the bass on the 5.1 mix to be too heavy and over powering ,and it seemed to muddy up Stings voice a little bit.Did anyone else notice this?

Thanks for sharing that info FilmMixer.....that is really cool I expected this one to be great going off the DVD track which has always been one of my favorites, but at the same time I was thinking well it is 10 years old now and I wonder if it can keep up with some of these modern tracks? I have not watched/listened to this movie all the way through in a few years and there have been some amazing tracks in that time. Well for my money it not only keeps up but beats out most of them to some degree. Definitely hangs with the reference list IMO

The other thing is this is one of my favorite films and to get such a great A/V treatment on BR is a real treat.


I think you should be very pleased with Fight Club. Report back after you watch it

As for Terminator Salvation, I am doing one of my rare blind buys on that one since I have enjoyed all 3 previous Terminator films and it sounds like the audio should be a blast from early reports


I know some have found that to be the case on this one and a few have reported compression as well which I still need to check out as I did not notice it the few times I have watched this one. As for the bass, I thought it was perfect, BUT this was running my subs EQd flat and NOT hot at all. I think I made note in my review that if you have any peaks in the lower end and/or are running your sub hot that the bass would sound bloated. Not saying that is the case for you since I dont know how you have your equip setup and even if you have everything flat/EQd/not running hot you might still here it the same way, but I think this one will reward those with an EQd sub and you definitely dont need to run it hot!

I think you'll like Salvation. I certainly liked it better than I did T3. It's basically just an action movie that has the benefit of being part of a bigger family of movies, but it delivers where it needs to. The early audio word is really good, so I'm looking forward to tomorrow night.

UP: REFERENCE

Wow, i've been hearing some reference tracks here lately. I definitely feel this one qualifies.

First of all the dialogue and score are perfect, zero intelligibility problems. The surrounds were actively and articulately displayed throughout the film, I could hear fine details in the mix.

Up (DTS-MA 6.1) - Tier 0
Dialog and score are rock solid, although to be fair the score here doesn't get the same treatment as what we got in Rat(but that may be due to the nature of the score, because the one there was really something special). Surround use great. LFE is just okay.

It's a fantastic sounding track, but I don't think there's enough here for it and I'm not referring to the LFE, there were no Wow moments for me in terms of audio.

TERMINATOR SALVATION: REFERENCE

I knew this would sound great on BD when I saw it in the theater, however I didn't expect it to sound as fantastic as it does. What can I say but very articulate dialog, excellent score presentation and I do believe I heard more detail in this action mix than i've heard since Master and Commander.

Amazing track!!

Would Master and Commander be generally accepted as the best sounding blu-ray movie? If not, what is?