5.1 Music Discs

[willland]

I never liked Audyssey MultiEQ XT.

 

XT is the only version I have ever used or heard. 

 

The good thing is newer AVR's have an "Audyssey Flat" setting to bypass the HF roll off.

 

My NAD T175HD pre/pro has a "flat" setting, "Audyssey EQ" setting but also has a custom "NAD EQ" target curve that sounds wonderful with music.  I choose the standard Audyssey XT curve for movies and as mentioned the NAD house curve for music.  MY NAD pre/pro is Audyssey Pro compatible so I may give it a try one day.

 

Bill

[Chris A]

I can see the expense of going to the better versions of Audyssey (Rudy has and has reported much better performance than the out-of-the-box version) if you change your setup configuration fairly often and don't have active crossovers. 

 

I also note that there are many folks that are seemingly hesitant to use REW and a calibrated microphone.  However, my real satisfaction has been to deeply understand what is happening in-room acoustically by using REW.  I feel that I wouldn't have achieved the setup performance that I have by having Audyssey do it for me, and certainly wouldn't have understood what I do now.  (YMMV.)

 

To drift back to the topic of this thread, I've found that many hard-to-listen-to multichannel discs do much better once you get the kinks out of your setup.  I've also been amazed at how discerning our ears (my wife's and mine) have become once everything gets dialed in. 

 

That work getting everything set up has led to my excursions using Audacity to remaster most of my two-channel music.  And yes...most two channel music needs to be "unmastered" from what those mastering bozos have done to it -- especially my classical discs and solo instruments--like solo piano or violin, etc.  It's actually a crime to see and hear what they've done and why all the tinkering in the world with our setups won't make these tracks sound like real life - you wind up having to remaster--trust me.  I'm up to about 4000 tracks remastered now, and have about 2-4 times that many left to do in my collection.  I've learned a whole lot thus far.

 

Interestingly, the tracks that I usually don't have to do anything to are from multichannel discs.     That's a significant reason why I've preferred listening to them over two-channel tracks.  The problem is--there aren't very many truly multichannel discs out there (that haven't been "upsampled" and synthetically divided into 5.1 from two channel recordings).

Edited April 8, 2015 by Chris A

[etc6849]

I agree.  I'm learning slowly a few of the things ChrisA has already learned (thanks to his help).  Even with Audyssey Pro, studying room acoustics has increased performance for me, far beyond what I thought it would.

 

Guitar Noir from AIX records is pretty neat, as are some of their samples.  They'll probably throw in a free sampler with your order if you call and order from them directly.

 

Nora Jones Come Away With Me SACD is another excellent recording.

 

If you can find one used on Amazon, this is an extremely dynamic multi-channel recording; definitely one of my favorites:

Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band - XXL

[willland]

Nora Jones Come Away With Me SACD is another excellent recording.

 

Yes it is.

 

I was playing the "CD" the other day on my living room system and realized after I went to put it back in the case that it actually is an SACD.       Who would have thought?  I bought it at The Salvation Army for $1.00.

 

So, I loaded that baby in my Cambridge Audio 751BD in my main rig and I was in Nora Jones euphoria.

 

Bill

[garyrc]

 

... the good thing is newer AVR's have an "Audyssey Flat" setting to bypass the HF roll off.  I don't know if it bypasses the midrange compensation, but this is something the Pro kit allows you to disable ....

 

I like Audyssey Flat with some recordings and Audyssey Reference on others.  On newer AVRs Audyssey Flat bypasses the midrange compensation (the "BBC Dip"); on older AVRs it doesn't.  I don't know what year the changeover occured.

 

Audyssey MULTIEQ XT always worked well for me, but that may depend heavily on the speakers, room and of course, mic layout during calibration.  After calibration, I turned the sub up a bit, as most people do.

 

I love my mostly classical multichannel discs (5.0 or 5.1).  I even like some of the 3 channel SACD remasters of very old recordings (late '50s, '60s) by Mercury and RCA Living Stereo.  SACD Lives!

Edited April 15, 2015 by garyrc

[OO1]

 

The Phillip Glass Koyaanisqatsi DVD-A is perhaps the best digital recording I have ever heard.

what's the technology -

[TJIann]

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon SACD is a must.

Allman Brothers - Eat A Peach SACD

[gadgtfreek]

I have the Dark Side of the Moon SACD, playing it thru my Oppo to older Def Tech speakers is why I had to upgrade. I wanted to go louder and they couldnt, and that is how I got the RF82ii and RC62ii I have now.

 

I will have to check out the Brothers in Arms. My dad would like that.

[Max2]

^{Some of these multi channel audio disks fall short of a fluent re-mastering. Its almost like these recording guys are shooting for a movie formatted take. What I really don't like is when the vocals are not blended with the mains and they put it all coming out of the center channel. JT's "Aqualung" 40th DVDA box set has a few songs that were done this way and its really annoying whether listening to DTS HD master or straight PCM. Its still well worth the buy as it is delicate and detailed to the max, but it was just so close to being perfect and a few songs came up short IMO.  Another somewhat let down is The Dead's "American Beauty" DVDA. It just comes across as 5 channel stereo.  All of the Dark Side SACD is wonderful as everyone else has mentioned. Queens multi channel offerings are stellar if you can get past a few moments of too much treble in Freddie's voice. The Drums in "Dragon Attack" spinning around the room is an instant smile maker and the intro guitars in "Death on two legs" will make your hair stand up. Any of the Rush multi's kick butt. "The Camera Eye" has been one of my favorite tracks since I was a kid and delivers with power and dynamics unheard of before. All of Steely's stuff is always spot on. I don't know how those guys do it, but everything is clean, punchy and never over the top.  I wish there were more people that would buy multi channel audio, we need a better selection. But lets face it, some music content is difficult to get mild effects with and not veer too much from the original take.  Just like GD's "American Beauty", folk music would be more difficult than other styles to create a more dynamic version. Now you take GD's album  "Infrared Roses" and that is a whole different ballgame.  That would be an awesome multi channel disk.  I just picked up the Doors "Perspective" box set and have not been able to listen to the multi channel yet due to being short two crossovers for my rears at the moment, but the two channel version offers the cleanest tracks I have ever heard from the Doors. Its well worth a  c-note to have every studio album in multi channel.}

[Chris A]

https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/topic/139218-the-multi-channel-music-review-thread/

[Nismo]

This was kind of fun. The 7 tracks were really engineered well.

 

See if you can pick one up, I've enjoyed listening to it.

 

The DTS-X Tracks really wake up the room.

 

 

[NBPK402]

This was kind of fun. The 7 tracks were really engineered well.

 

See if you can pick one up, I've enjoyed listening to it.

 

The DTS-X Tracks really wake up the room.

 

 

Where did you find it?

[NBPK402]

Just picked up Pink Floyd - Wish you were here in 5.1 SACD, and Dire Straits -Brothers in Arms in 5.1 SACD too.

[Nismo]

 

This was kind of fun. The 7 tracks were really engineered well.

 

See if you can pick one up, I've enjoyed listening to it.

 

The DTS-X Tracks really wake up the room.

 

 

 

Where did you find it?

 

I grabbed it in January from eBay....I think I paid $12 bucks.

 

I was looking for some Atmos demo's (didn't find any) so I picked up this.

 

The included Music Tracks are very crisp & full bodied.

[TasDom]

 

 

This was kind of fun. The 7 tracks were really engineered well.

 

See if you can pick one up, I've enjoyed listening to it.

 

The DTS-X Tracks really wake up the room.

 

 

 

Where did you find it?

 

I grabbed it in January from eBay....I think I paid $12 bucks.

 

I was looking for some Atmos demo's (didn't find any) so I picked up this.

 

The included Music Tracks are very crisp & full bodied.

 

 

 

I have the 2014 one. Last year you could just call DTS marketing and they'd send you one free. I think her name was Erin IIRC

[NBPK402]

 

 

 

This was kind of fun. The 7 tracks were really engineered well.

 

See if you can pick one up, I've enjoyed listening to it.

 

The DTS-X Tracks really wake up the room.

 

 

 

Where did you find it?

 

I grabbed it in January from eBay....I think I paid $12 bucks.

 

I was looking for some Atmos demo's (didn't find any) so I picked up this.

 

The included Music Tracks are very crisp & full bodied.

 

 

 

I have the 2014 one. Last year you could just call DTS marketing and they'd send you one free. I think her name was Erin IIRC

 

Someone had a number to call last year, and when I called it their was a message that the person no longer worked there. I am not sure if it was Erin though.

[NBPK402]

New copy of Talking Heads- Speaking in Tongues in DVD Audio.

[Zen Traveler]

 

...To drift back to the topic of this thread, I've found that many hard-to-listen-to multichannel discs do much better once you get the kinks out of your setup.  I've also been amazed at how discerning our ears (my wife's and mine) have become once everything gets dialed in. 

 

Very well said. I will also add that since going to Mulitichannel Music I hardly ever listen to 2 channel! Everything from Alice Cooper to The WHO and quite a few things in between. Of course there are limited choices for some, but I rediscovered the whole Talking Heads collection along with everything from R.E.M. in multichannel and there are deals to be had on disks (along with having to spend money on a rarity)….

That said, I was surprised with the SQ on the Blu ray, ROLLING STONES From the Vault, which unfortunately is from the format they used in the early 80s.

 

Edited April 24, 2015 by tkdamerica

[Zen Traveler]

New copy of Talking Heads- Speaking in Tongues in DVD Audio.

Burning Down the House is my favorite show off song. Fwiw, here is a good thread over at AVS on the Talking Heads and one of my comments: http://www.avsforum.com/forum/112-surround-music-formats/1217491-talking-heads-brick-dvd-ratings.html

 

 

 

...

Cool! I almost missed the Bonus Track of Psycho Killer on "Talking Heads:77 (really the only song I like on that disk) so I also would like to get your impressions of the Bonus Track of Burning Down the House on "Speaking in Tongues," which is my favorite show-off song. It sounds AMAZING on my 9.2 Home Theater! I realize that it's only a 5.1 mix but on my system the vocals and drums travel all of the way around the room and it actually seemed like it was mixed in 7.1! When David Byrne starts talking to himself the returned vocals actually come out of my rear speakers and not my surrounds and is WAY cool.

For the record, I listened to it at -10 on the MV which made the SPL meter needle hover around 85 dB with a 94 dB peak (C weighted and Slow). I also checked out This Must Be the Place at the same MV level and it gave me about an 80 dB level with peaks to 85 dB or so--Not as loud but still awesome sounding. {Note: I have an AVR-4311ci and use Dolby PLIIz with rear and height speakers. I also have DYN EQ on but DynVolume off)

Edited April 24, 2015 by tkdamerica

[NBPK402]

Last night I fired up the Talking Heads disc, and it was an awesome recording! I had forgotten how much I liked Talking Heads.