Sound Quality/Music Reviews and Comments on SACD/DVD-A

Good stuff, Bill--keep 'em coming

I'm collecting some thoughts for a review of Eric Johnson/Ah Via Musicom and need to give it another listen. It's one of my favorite redbooks but a DVD-A review is a little complicated. Hopefully later this week.

good thread bill. i'll post some in the near future. i have the eat a peach sacd. it's kind of a weird disc with half of it being live and half of it being studio but i agree with you about the sound quality - not the very best but very good. sometimes i just pop in to listen to melissa and little martha just to get a taste.

I like this idea. I brought this up in the "main" SACD thread the other day but got no bites.

this post will be a combination review/comparison.

beck - guero (dvd audio)
sound quality/sonics - 8, surround mix - 9.5


beck - sea change (dvd audio)
sound quality/sonics - 9.5, surround mix - 9.5


i find myself listening to the guero disc a lot lately. sea change gets a lot of cyber-ink - for good reason. it sounds awesome. very clear and dynamic with very cool use of the surrounds. very robust use of the .1 channel as well. as great as sea change sounds, i defintely listen to guero more. i'm sure it has a lot to do with the overall tone of the disc. guero is very fun and entertaining. great use of the surrounds. it's an absolute blast to listen to. beck is very innovative and it really shows on guero. he's known for all the varied sounds he uses. but he has some very cool vocal arrangements as well. guero's sonics aren't up to sea change's standards. but the dynamics are great and subwoofer is fantastic. especially on broken drum, farewell ride and emergency exit. if you have a decent sub, you will have a hard time clearing the smile off of your face. there are only a few discs that i play start to finish everytime i listen. this is one of those. highly recommended.

Bill, thnx for the detailed Aja review. It is disappointing, to say the least, for us SD fans. As a consolation I will post a review of my SD DVD-A collection. I like the concept of this thread, much more useful info than the "purchases" thread.

This is a 3 for 1 combo review but I invite anyone who would like to review any of these in more detail to do so.
Artist: Steely Dan
Titles: Gaucho, Everything Must Go, Two Against Nature*
Label/Yr: Giant 2000 (TAN) MCA 2004 (Gaucho) Reprise 2006 (EMG)
Format: DVD-A, 5.1 96/24 (and 2.0 96/24) **
Rating Scale: 1 – 10 Ascending
Recording: 10
Surround Mix: 10
Content: 10 Goucho, others mebbe 9.5
Style: funk/r&b/jazz/rock fusion
Review: Full disclosure: I am a SD fan, and have enjoyed "Aja"*** as one of my RBCD demo discs for many years. That being said, I think any hip MC music enthusiast should give at least one of these 3 DVDA discs a listen on a good MC music system. Each is a finely-crafted masterwork album by top-notch professionals working long and hard on a labor of love. Donald and Walter are involved, no immersed, in every phase of production and are the core of SD. They had the luxury of spending months on an album and even selecting a particular artist for a particular track. The musical style is unmistakably and characteristically SD and, as I said, that ain't exactly hard for me to listen to. On the other hand, my wife will walk right out of the room if I crank up SD. AFAIK all these discs are available at reasonable prices and of these, I'd say Gaucho is my fav, because of the songs themselves. For ex., Hey Nineteen is a great demo selection, but it's hard to resist Babylon Sisters and Time Out of Mind as long as the disc is spinning.

IMO this is how modern music should be done and the result is a state-of-the-art studio MC mix. The lead vocals are from the CC and the main instruments are arrayed across a broad front soundstage with great tonal quality, imaging and detail. Surrounds are used to create precise phantom images along the sides. Back-up vocals, horn section, percussion fills, etc. are arrayed to good effect resulting in a surround mix which is very enjoyable. Speakers simply disappear; it is as though one is standing at the conductor's podium with musicians arrayed slightly more than 180 degrees to the front from L to R. The dynamics are excellent. The kick drum and electric bass set the standard for tight and punchy right up front. ****
NOTE: the 2 channel mix is very fine stereo with excellent SQ but missing the LFE and that delicious bass. (More disclosure: I played electric and acoustic guitar and electric bass professionally for many years).

System Info: 5.2
Player: OPPO BDP83SE (via HDMI)
AVR: Denon A100
Amplification: Emotiva XPA5
L/R: Dali Helicon 400 (9' from each other and MLP)
CC: Dali Helicon c200
Surrounds: Dali Helicon w200-direct firing (ignore the matching pair used as DSX wides for film)
Surround angle from MLP: 105°
Subs: Velodyne DD10 X2
DSP: Audyssey XT32 with Pro calibration ON, mains xover=40Hz
Room: 16’X22’ w/ 8’ walls arching to vaulted 12’ceiling (3500 cu’) family room/HT/Music w/ no formal treatments (see slightly dated pic)

*Two Against Nature is available as a very affordable DVD of a live studio session, which SD fans will enjoy.

**Gaucho is also avail in SACD, also with exc SQ, per Bill's post below

***There is a DVD "Aja" in the series Classic Albums by Eagle Rock which is inexpensive and offers a glimpse into behind-the-scenes production, selection of players, writing, interviews etc., of interest to fans. For me, it's cool to hear 3 different accomplished guitarists' solo takes on the same song. Note it does not include full cuts off the Aja album.

****Please note that I commonly tune the LFE settings for SACD and DVDA as described in this post.

Man love what you did with place Bill, I'll see if I can write a review on Flaming Lips DVD-a..

Djoel/Dan

soundofmind - thanks for the steely dan reviews. i have gaucho and it's hard to overstate how good it is. i'm a big dan fan as well.

the two against nature dvd-a is on my wish list. but it looks like i may have to fork over half a c-note for it. i have the two against nature concert dvd in dts 5.1 and it's great. i watch it a lot.

Sure thing, will do as I would need to take another listen to PT, but PT needs to be listen LOUD with no one around

Just shot you a PM.

D

OH SH!t was there just a tremor in NYC? or my music too damn load..Lol



Well it's been an interesting day, with some unusual seismic activity here on the east coast sorry about the above comment. I was in the middle of hearing Flaming Lips At War With the Mystics which was re-realest sometime in 2006 Hi Rez 5.1 surround in 24 bit 88.2khz and in 2.0 Stereo 24/88Khz there are some video in Dolby Digital but I wouldn't get into those as I didn't watch..

I'm not too familiar with this album as much as I thought, it was in my old apartment where I lived with a few room mates, and we would listen to it from time to time.
It's a bit different from Yoshimi Battle the Pink Robot which is my favorite Flaming Lips Work, they're very versatile band from their early Punk, psychedelic to some mainstream success mega hit She Don't use Jelly A little side note, these guys toured with Beck during the Sea change, and played as his band as well I only wish I've had seen Beck and Flaming Lips doing those songs, as I heard but must have been in a fog when they hit NYC

From the first track all I can think these guys don't take themselves too serious and and the Lead singer Wayne Coyne raspy falsetto voice is an indication of that. There is lots of guitar distortion but it's deliberately done through the album.I'll skim through some of the songs, and skip a few as this is not a true 5.1 review per say.

Track#1 The Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Song is such a playful song that makes just want to dance and eat some Pringles, I think it was use in one of those commercials, but not one hundred percent sure of that. Great us of the rears as it's held up a nice sonic bubble.

Track#3 The Sound of Failure/it's Dark....is it Alway this Dark?? sounded a bit messy to me, as it collapse a bit and not as tight as the first few song in the surround speakers.

Track#4 My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion Reminded me of one of the songs from Yoshimi album.Nice and open track, and rich sounding and lots of cacophony distortion but it didn't not bothered me at all.

Track#5 Vein of Stars immediately remained me of a Death Cab for Cuttie leaving me feeling good, such a pretty song. You folks with great sounding tweeters will appreciate the highs in this song right away..

Track#6 The Wizard Turns On God bless groups like this, that take these huge risk, I can only imagine what goes on in these Corporate listening sessions

Track#10 W.A.N.D Love this track with it's bad ass riffs , I can't help thinking this is such an American song, great for road trips..Great power mix, just great rocking song.

Track#11 Pompeii Am Gotterdammerung This is one of the tracking that for some reason plays allot in my Ipod when in shuffle, but with it Doctor Who Synth, (the series from the 70's) guild tune, it build up to a nice crescendo. It's a great track, with an awesome sound mix, from front to back.

Hm the last track I was a bit overwhelmed with the natural occurrence here I'll give it a second listen and edit some of the above.

Thanks

Djoel - Daniel J.





System Info:
Source: Oppo BDP-93
AVR: Denon-AVR4311ci via HDMi, will be experimenting with single
Amplification: Emotiva XPA-3 with costume face plate, it does nothing for sounds but it looks real cool.
FR/FL: B&W 802N 8 feet or so away, and slightly toed in..
Center: B&W HTM3S
Surrounds: 805N on their b&w stands
Surround location: As these are monitor and don't have any diffusion, the Left is pointing straight to the front right speaker and the Right monitor is pointing to the Left front speaker
Sub: JL Audio F113, sweeping up the bottom, with ARO active to tighten poor corner location.

Room: 20' W, 14' D with 9' high ceilings. Some room treatments in the first reflection, but would like to add more in the future, nice heavy rug which helps allot.

Tremor!

Yeah I thought it was my great system that had my head dizzying swaying back and forth.


Dan

Elton John...

Elton John (Self Titled)
Tumbleweed Connection
Madman Across The Water

These are Elton John's early work, I think all from 1970-1971. These do sound fantastic and were especially remixed as part of a series with some of his later work. If you are like me, you became sick and tired of his popular hits that were played over and over on the radio and still are. He had some other great tunes on these that you probably haven't heard. I prefer his early work, I do not own much (actually any) of his that came out past 1975.

For the most part, on most songs the center channel contains only Elton's voice (and I mean only his voice...nothing else, you can hear his breathing between some of the lines and words really well). They completely tore the masters apart and made a special surround sound mix...all of the speakers play something different with lots of seperation. Some particular songs, such as "Take Me To The Pilot" on the self-titled contain some fine bass that will rock your subwoofer.

Jon