wangdang

This week's pick: "Deacon John's Jump Blues." DVD-A, also playable on any DVD, includes Dolby Digital and DTS tracks. Deacon John, backed by a big band, plays some mean toe-tappin' soul and blues classics that are danceable from the opening licks. Deacon plays guitar and sings most of the tunes. He's backed by some of New Orleans best, including allen Toussaint, Dr. john and Tweedy Boutte (great pipes!). I got the disk direct from the label, AIX, at www.aixrecords.com. Like all AIX stuff, the mix and engineering are first-rate, extras are plentiful, and while you may pay a buck or 2 extra, but I have yet to feel I didn't get more than my money's worth from them.

By the way -- the Klipsch auto-censor edited Buendia's name in my post. I guess it has a hair-trigger, since the deleted letters do not spell anything that i recognize as sensiitive.

You know how some disks you always keep in the car and you never take them out and after a while you realize you listen to them more often than anything you own? Or maybe a group comes out with a disk and you buy it and inside the disk is a diskography and you realize you own everything they have recorded? For me, makes this disk my CD recommmmendatioon of the week -- "The Ride" by Los Lobos. Great rock, soul, California Mexirock, whatever you call it. They end up in my player more than any other group. This disk, their latest, includes a mix of new songs, plus a few of their older songs sung by guest vocalists such as Bobbie Womack, El***o Buendia, Mavis Staples, Tom Waits, Richard Thompson, Elvis Costello and Ruben Blades. If you aren't familiar with them, it's a good intro; if you are, the guest vocalists just add a nice element to some fine music. (Side note -- Ruben Blades has turned up as a guest on another disk I recently found -- "Bad Haggis" DVD-A from AIX Records. This guy really has a nice tone!)

It's a concert DVD, but the sound, songs and musicianship on "Live at the Quick" by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones make for great audio. The only Jazz Banjo player I've ever heard is backed on this set by his "regular" band (bass great Victor Wooten lays it down heavy and his whacked out brother futureman handles drums/rhythm), plus 3 reed-players, and a trio of "world music" players that make for a very unique approach to very listenable jazz. Great DTS output. Plus Dolby. Nice extras. If there is anything wrong with the disk, it is that the list of songs is broken by a short interview segment between every 2 tracks (come to think of it, about every DVD concert I own is that way -- WHY??!!?), and it sure ruins the pure listening pleasure. Still, a minor gripe about a MAJOR performance! I listen with the TV off and skip thru the interviews.

Well, I am sitting here less than 2 hours from Hope, temp is 95 +, humidity's about the same. What better way to escape it than to listen to Jimmy Buffett's new one -- License to Chill. I've never been a big fan of his, but this hits my cool button. Maybe it's the heat. Maybe it's the times. Nice tunes. Nice collaberations. Pretty good CD sound.

"Sanctuary", new CD by bluesman Charlie Musselwhite.

The "Porcupine Tree" DVD-A. Is it early Pink Floyd reincarnated? Super sund. Good guitars.

I am an AIX fan. in fact, since buying a DVD-A player a couple of years ago, half of the disks I own have been on that label. Yep, they cost a couple of bucks more, but the sound quality and the extras are worth it. If you want to just find out, get the "Getting Started" sampler. These are the disks I use to show off what DVD-A can do. If wifey would let me get away with it, I would have no qualms about getting their entire catalog, although admittedly some of the styles are not my favorites. My favorites: Deacon John - Jump Blues Nitty Gritty Surround Paul Smith Trio Laurence Juber - Guitar Noir Zephyr: Voices Unbound Bad Haggis - Span One more reason I am a fan -- i have bught direct from a number of small specialty labels. I have never had anything other than top notch service from these folks. Fast shipping. No surprises. Happy listening!

"Unclassified" by Robert Randolph and the Family Band. This one can make even folks as stiff as Kerry or Bush get dancin'

Well, the lovely bride has decided we need to replace the carpet throughout the house with hardwood floors, including in the den where the 5.1 HT is set up. Since she kindly let me splurge on all new gear this past year, my input on this decision is basically nil. I know I will need to recalibrate all the sound, but first I'll need to rewire. Right now, all the speaker wires run beneath a doorway threshold and then along the baseboards (somewhat hidden beneath the carpet). With her new floors, I've got some wiring decisions to make and so I need some good advice: 1. The threshold will disappear. Right now the wires for left front, sub-out, and rears go underneath this threshold. What's the best way to get these from the receiver to the perimeter of the room and the baseboards and still maintain a high score on the Spousal Approval Factor? 2. I know I can get channeled baseboard to run the wires thru, but the runs will be long. I've thought of going beneath the house and up thru the floor. Any thoughts? 3. Right now, I do not have a run for a rear center. I'd like to add it. Should I also add enough wire for a 7.1, 9.1, 20.1 system? 4. When she goes to hardwoods, she is going to start glaring at me about the audio rack. Wrong style. Currently, all black, metal poles, 4-layer Sanus System rack, with a 32-inch TV on top. Room decor is early attic/cottage. I do not want one of those mega cabinets with doors. But all the racks I have seen lately look awfully modern. Any suggestions on a shaker/mission brand that has a variety of configurations? 5. Finally, your counsel about how to predict these sorts of dilemmas next time I go on a spree. I wish I had seen this coming! Her floors are a LOT more expensive than my new gear. What do you think she is going to do to me when I chunk that 32-inch TV and go Plasma? Help! DB

i agree yu need the ICBM. but part of your problem may be that you really do not have DVD-Audio disks. Aren't both DTS? If so, that means they will not output a true 6-channel analog signal. Doesn't mean they are bad -- just that your optimium sound may likely be thru the DTS signal processing in your receiver or DVD-player. Here's a note about the DVD-A processing from the Queen review at High Fidelity Review (http://www.highfidelityreview.com/reviews/dvdaudio.asp): ============= The inlay card continues DTS current theme of DVD-Audio misdirection. It states: Each DVD-Audio disc from DTS Entertainment includes a DTS master quality multi-channel soundtrack and a standard stereo track for complete compatibility with all DVD-Video players, plus an MLP 5.1 soundtrack for DVD-Audio players. The perception therefore, is that only the DTS track is master quality, where in fact only the MLP really is a true representation of the original master tapes. The DTS track on the disc is the companys newest extension format, DTS 96/24, a lossy but backward-compatible way of delivering 96kHz sampled data. In reality however, the entire audible portion of the frequency spectrum, 20Hz - 24kHz, is only delivered at 48kHz resolution and, to accommodate the inaudible data above 24kHz, at a bitrate lower than that of standard (full-rate) DTS. Once again, for reasons explained in the following paragraph, well reserve judgement on the merits of DTS 96/24 until a later date. =============== Try yet another disk that is clearly not part of the DTS line. Hope that does the trick. DB

---------------- On 9/1/2003 4:54:21 PM HT Rookie wrote: \I see my budget being between $8-9K \2500- TV \900- receiver \399- surge protecter/line conditioner \200- equipment rack \1850- install labor and materials (includes monster cables) \Totals $5850 I have the Yammie 2300, a full set of RB Reference speakers and a room about the size of yours. A couple of thoughts about your budget -- I don't see the reason for the high priced install and cables, especially given your relatively cheap rack and frankly, small set-up. Nor the need for a high priced line conditioner. My suggestion is to cut bucks there and spend more on speakers -- or the addition of DVD-A, SACD, LP, disks. DB

Is there a way to look at an SACD box and tell if it is Multi-channel or Stereo? At Best Buy, it always seems like their price tags cover the sticker. And of course, not all brands carry the sticker. Any suggestions about hidden codes, colors, symbols, aromas? DB

Ditto on "Hell freezes Over." Other great Concerts: Bela Fleck Live at the Quick (where else can you get banjo and throat-singing?) Jethro Tull -- the 2001 "Live From the Past" DVD Talking Heads -- Stop Making Sense James Taylor Live at the Beacon Only Okay: Don Henley sans Eagles; and the DTS audio double-disk of Bonnie Raitt Live (very marginal sound). For something slightly different but darn good -- I've got to keep plugging the AIX DVD's that have DVD-A recordings on one side of the disk and videos of the recoding sessions on the other -- sound quality on both sides is supurb (especially the Nitty Gritty Surrund disk).

i want to plug the AIX Records catalog in this thread. I bought the Nitty Gritty Surround DVD-A and received their free demo disk. Since then, I've gone a bit nuts ordering from them. The recording quality, engineering and the disk-extras (!!!) really show off DVD music. There's a pretty good selection of classics, jazz, and acoustic works. Check 'em out at www.aixrecords.com.

Griff -- I have Yammy (2300) and Klipsch . The very fine audio store where I purchased them had them set as a demo. That's one reason I bought both -- the sound was and is great. The horsepoop about "Bright and Brighter" is one of those myths that pervade the WWW. Frankly, as I get older and have more trouble hearing high frequencies, a bit of brightness is desired.

Some favorites ... Nitty Gritty Surround -- get it from the AIX records website and get a free demo of other music on their label -- great recordings and tons of extras Olu Dara Neighborhoods Dave Grusin West Side Story -- not the soundtrack, excellent jazz Blue Man Group audio -- even my wife likes it Santana Abraxas DTS

I just bought a DVD-A player. Now what must-have titles do I need? So far, I have the AIX demo disk and Nitty Gritty Surround. Any recommendations?

I just bought a DVD-A player. Now what must-have titles do I need? So far, I have the AIX demo disk and Nitty Gritty Surround. Any recommendations?

Hey, colterphoto1, your last post indicated you were contacting Klipsch about bi-wiring. Did you get any insight? DB

---------------- On 3/18/2003 9:49:47 PM darkpark wrote: there are 3 popular formats out there: 1) SACD 2) DVD-Audio 3) DTS 5.1 here are the differences... 1) it's 20 bit audio (i don't remember the sampling rate) and it's multichannel 2) it's 24bit/96khz and two channel 3) 16bit/44.1khz (same as CDs) and it's also multichannel. ---------------- Are you saying DVD-A has no true multi-channel output? Are yu sure?