DVD AUDIO ANYONE?

[oldtimer]

What can you expect? I know what you mean but back when most of the world listened to radio or cheap stereo combo/record players there was a market for hi-fi including audiophile pressings of LPs and imports. Now that some of us are old enough to afford this type of step up the economics of the matter conspire to deny us? the hardware is there but the software is drying up; I somehow feel cheated.

[SCOOTERDOG]

I like DVD Audio a lot, but have mostly just had a problem with the fact that it tends to need a monitor to navigate through the menus.

I love my SACD's though!!!! I just wish that they were pumping them out. It's so sad that SACD and DVD-A didn't really make it, but what can you expect when most of the world listens to music through either a $100 boombox, some $40 computer speakers, or iPod headphones.

Definitely stay as close to having all tower speakers as you can. I have 6 Klipsch towers and then a RC-7 center channel.

Wow I never have to turn on my monitor. My DVD player defaults to DVD Audio when you insert one. Check your menu maybe yours can do this too.

[Martin the Vampire]

Greetings,

I am also a fan of dvd-a, eventhough I do not have alot of titles yet.

Mine are:

Queen - The Game

Queen - Night at the Opera

also my wife and I are both fans of Bollywood movies, and they are releasing some of their movie soundtracks now on dvd-a. We have:

Dhoom 2

Ta Ra Rum Pum

Veer Zaara

Veer Zaara should arrive soon in the mail, but thats about it. I also have the Bjork Surrounded box. It isn't in dvd-a but the DTS 96/24 is really nice on it.

I really enjoy dvd-a for the quality, and the feeling that you are indeed in the room with the performers. Well worth it.

[Mike Lindsey]

I have a number of DVD-A and SACD recordings, and much prefer the DVD-A format. My favorites are:

The previously mentioned Grateful Dead - American Beauty and Blue Man Group

Diana Krall - Love Scenes

Pat Methany Group - Imaginary Day

Steve Stevens - Flamenco A Go Go

Big Phat Band - Swingin' For The Fences

Mike

[papashawn]

Does anyone have a copy of the Emerson Lake & Palmer "Brain Salad Surgery" DVD-A that you would be willing to sell? I didn't even realize this album was ever made as a DVD-A. Please email/pm me if you have it and would be willing to sell. Thanks!!

BTW, the Yes-Fragile DVD-A is pretty good, a little more reverb in the vocals than I'd like, but still very good and clean sounding. The Grateful Dead album "Workingman's Dead" is almost as good as "American Beauty". Beck's "Sea Change" is a nice choice also, even has video's for the songs but I prefer to turn off the TV when listening. Last but not least would be The Beach Boys "Pet Sounds". Sounds awesome in 5 channel, and they just re-released it in a 40th anniversary edition with both the redbook and DVD-A discs in one case for $16!

[UFObuster]

Regarding multi-channel....I agree, Carl......I use a pair of RF-5 speakers for surrounds. There are a number of DVD-a and concert DVDs that use the surround channels well. Clapton's DVD Sessions for Robert J. comes to mind...and also the Deutsche Grammophone DVD recordings of Von Karajan's Beethoven series.....virtual action movies of symphonic music. How could you not listen to Steely Dan's DVD "Two Against Nature" without tower surrounds, although, all of those horns coming from behind and a little left are weird. Lest I forget, some good SACDs....Elton John comes to mind.

BTW, I use a left-over RC-35 (Klipsch-center channel speaker) in my system as a center-back channel, too. It smooths out the rear channel response a lot in a big room and helps the surrounds not "ping-pong". I think recording engineers have a way to go to get surround channels right.

Disclaimer: if your HT needs are to listen to bus, car, plane, train crashes and battle/action all night long...the previous comments will make no sense.

[Mike Lindsey]

BTW, the Yes-Fragile DVD-A is pretty good, a little more reverb in the vocals than I'd like, but still very good and clean sounding.

By far, the worst sounding DVD-A I own. Compare it with Gaucho and it's night and day. I'm glad someone likes it though. []

Mike

[oldtimer]

I have yet to hear the Fragile dvd-a. I have two import press lp's from two different countries and neither quite does it for me. I think that there must be flaws in the master recording because there are spots that sound too distorted to be in character for Yes.

[Strabo]

Pink Floyds DSOTM DVD A is outstanding and so is the SACD but I prefer the DVD A version.

scooter

The differences here are not because of the medium. The SACD was remixed in 2003 for multi-channel and stereo release. The DVD-A is a bootleg of the original quad release.

http://www.highfidelityreview.com/reviews/review.asp?reviewnumber=12583627

[Professor Thump]

As far as the speaker requirements for multichannel music versus movies, the closer all five of your speakers are to being identical the better for multichannel music. Diffusing, surround-specific speakers for the rears are a no-no as the soundtracks were mixed to be played back with direct radiating monopoles.

It is interesting to note what users expect from surround speakers or shall I say "rear" speakers when playing back multi-channel music.

In a previous life, I was working with Laurie Fincham, Chief Scientist at THX on certification issues for the Klipsch ProMedia V.2-400. Multi-channel DVD's were just getting big for the consumers via free DVD players in computers. DVD Audio was just an idea on the horizon for the average consumer but it intrigued me.

THX is very secretive about their specifications for products and understandably so. It is their lifeblood for income. I was talking with Laurie Fincham about THX specifications for surround speakers when we got onto the topic of rear speakers for music, i.e. DVD Audio. We debated as to whether a mono-pole, bi-pole or di-pole speaker was the best solution for music source in the rear sound stage. The question that both of us had come to was...what did the mix engineer have in mind for sound stage imaging in the master mix? Was the listener to be in the middle of the band, or in the conductor's position? Could he or she be in the drummer's audible perception or in the audience of some premier performance hall with great acoustics? Any one of these answers could be correct depending on how we like to hear our music and / or what instrument we see ourselves playing.

To be in the audience meant that a standard multi-pole speaker that was full range would be just fine if the master mix had reverb and fans clapping as the only signal going to the rear speakers. If you expected an instrument or especially a voice to come from one of these speakers you were in trouble. You didn't want the voice smearing across the rear walls of your listening area with out any direct signal coming from the speaker unless you were trying to imitate the performer singing away from you. I am a big fan of multiple speakers in the rear and above you for movie play back and any reverb effects. According to Thomas Holman, 20.2 is the limit before diminishing returns. I am only at 10.2 because I have run out of amplifiers and practical places to hang rear speakers. Now that we think about DVD Audio one could argue that you need a separate room or at least speaker designs for the rear, which is good for me because I design speakers. I just need to find an amplifier engineer to swap with....[8-|]

Do you think Klipsch needs to make a DVD AUDIO SPEAKER?

Keep Thumpin...

[Zen Traveler]

Do you think Klipsch needs to make a DVD AUDIO SPEAKER?.

If you read the responses in this thread you will see that they already do. ;-)

[UFObuster]

As far as the speaker requirements for multichannel music versus movies, the closer all five of your speakers are to being identical the better for multichannel music. Diffusing, surround-specific speakers for the rears are a no-no as the soundtracks were mixed to be played back with direct radiating monopoles.

It is interesting to note what users expect from surround speakers or shall I say "rear" speakers when playing back multi-channel music.

In a previous life, I was working with Laurie Fincham, Chief Scientist at THX on certification issues for the Klipsch ProMedia V.2-400. Multi-channel DVD's were just getting big for the consumers via free DVD players in computers. DVD Audio was just an idea on the horizon for the average consumer but it intrigued me.

THX is very secretive about their specifications for products and understandably so. It is their lifeblood for income. I was talking with Laurie Fincham about THX specifications for surround speakers when we got onto the topic of rear speakers for music, i.e. DVD Audio. We debated as to whether a mono-pole, bi-pole or di-pole speaker was the best solution for music source in the rear sound stage. The question that both of us had come to was...what did the mix engineer have in mind for sound stage imaging in the master mix? Was the listener to be in the middle of the band, or in the conductor's position? Could he or she be in the drummer's audible perception or in the audience of some premier performance hall with great acoustics? Any one of these answers could be correct depending on how we like to hear our music and / or what instrument we see ourselves playing.

To be in the audience meant that a standard multi-pole speaker that was full range would be just fine if the master mix had reverb and fans clapping as the only signal going to the rear speakers. If you expected an instrument or especially a voice to come from one of these speakers you were in trouble. You didn't want the voice smearing across the rear walls of your listening area with out any direct signal coming from the speaker unless you were trying to imitate the performer singing away from you. I am a big fan of multiple speakers in the rear and above you for movie play back and any reverb effects. According to Thomas Holman, 20.2 is the limit before diminishing returns. I am only at 10.2 because I have run out of amplifiers and practical places to hang rear speakers. Now that we think about DVD Audio one could argue that you need a separate room or at least speaker designs for the rear, which is good for me because I design speakers. I just need to find an amplifier engineer to swap with....[8-|]

Do you think Klipsch needs to make a DVD AUDIO SPEAKER?

Keep Thumpin...

Good info....but like you said....more speakers/amps gets more and

more expensive and becomes more and more unfriendly to the "living"

part of the living-room. I doubt I'll ever see a dedicated HT room in

my place. So it requires this question: If recording engineers of the

glory days of stereo could produce great sound fields with just two

front channels, why are many multi-channel recordings so lame in use of

just a 5.1 media? In my opinion, we should have our "cake-n-eat-it"

too. It seems reasonable to expect that the use of 5 monopole speakers

of your choice with a good sub should be able to do just about any

playback representation such as 'live' performance in concert halls to

'in-studio' surround from any perspective. Why can't recording

engineers use the same techniques for ALL discrete channels giving great detail in staging

or just ambient sound depending on the recording's objectives?

As

I ask that question, it's partly answered in that there are some really

great DVD-A,DVD-video recordings out there many of which are named in this thread

(and SACD). I guess I'm impatient for more choice and for better use

of the sound and video system potential that I already own. IMHO, playback technology and available equipment is way ahead of the source material.

[j-malotky]

As far as the speaker requirements for multichannel music versus movies, the closer all five of your speakers are to being identical the better for multichannel music. Diffusing, surround-specific speakers for the rears are a no-no as the soundtracks were mixed to be played back with direct radiating monopoles.

Do you think Klipsch needs to make a DVD AUDIO SPEAKER?

Keep Thumpin...

Mark, you company does already makes a whole bunch of DVD Audio speakers.

As for end user expectations...Being a drummer / guitarist, I do have specific expectations of my sound. Because of that, I can not imagine using di-poles in my HT. I have a 7.1 system using 4 Heresy's as my surrounds.

Here is a good example of what I expect. In the Led Zep DVD, when John Bonham's drums move to the right sides and rear, I MUST hear the same hard hitting snare smash as I do out of my mains. But that is ME []

What I did to give the allusion of a diffused sound was mount them in the corners of my ceiling / walls over the listeners head and angle them downward to keep the monopole sound. My processor provides the rest of the so called special sauce.

JM

[jacksonbart]

Top Notch!

[eq_shadimar]

In addition to all the discs mentioned here I would add that pretty much anything from AIX Records that matches your tastes rocks. They "get" multi channel sound. I am using 5 Cornwalls +2 subs for in the system with my DVD-A/SACD/DVD player.

Laters,

Jeff

[Zen Traveler]

Worst...Now this is a bit harder, ... my vote goes to The Doors- LA Woman. I almost defy anyone to get all of the channels to reproduce at the same time. An otherwise spectacular album reduced to a karaoke disk.

I just listened to this on DVD-A Multichannel and thought it sounded better than the 2-Channel version...Riders on the Storm with the thunder and rain sounded AWESOME!

[Heritage_Head]

Pink Floyd wish you were here comes out next month finally

on sacd. (Was done a few years ago but never released. Also The Wall comes out

feb 2012 on super cd but no conformation on multi-channel yet. I really hope

they release multi-channel on the wall. Just ordered 3 new ones Gaucho, Honky

Chateau, and Brothers in Arms. Do any of you own these? And how good is the multi-channel

in your opinion. I read these are a few of the best multi channels cds released

so far.

[Zen Traveler]

Just ordered 3 new ones Gaucho, Honky Chateau, and Brothers in Arms. Do any of you own these? And how good is the multi-channel in your opinion. I read these are a few of the best multi channels cds released so far.

Yep. I have them and agree they are all Multichannel Reference material. I listened to Elton growing up and have all of his SACDs (and the Yellow Brick Road dvd-a) and Brother in Arms is probably my most played SACD, along with Roxy Music's Avalon. Fwiw, I never listened to Steely Dan much in 2 channel, but after buying Gaucho, I've been collecting them and Fagans DVD-As. The Multichannel playback is extremely clean, while being instrumentally as well as lyrically interesting.

[Heritage_Head]

Got the cds today and wow the Brothers in Arms SACD sounds just

amazing. They did a great job on the multi-channel mix. I have the cd and it was

already a good sounding cd but wow the cleanness and warmth is scary good. Sadly

the ps3 plays SACD but doesn’t play dvd audio (didn’t know that) so the steely Dan

can only play the Dolby 5.1 track and not the 24 bit one. I plan on getting a separate

player that plays both. Anyone have any recommendations?

[WHayton]

I couldn’t agree more, the Brothers in Arms SACD is phenomenal. Ride across the river jumps and with Cornwalls left, right and center (Cornwall center pics on the Updates and Modifications section) you can actually feel the base riffs. I’m playing it now while I’m writing this response and I just know this is the reason I went for a 5.1 system with SACD (OPPO 983). If you get the chance you should try the Ray Sings, Basie Swings SACD album it’s nicely done.

Will