HiRez Poll King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King (2009) [DVD-Audio]

[carledwards]

My early impressions (I've only heard the red book CD and the MLP 96/24 stereo tracks on DVD-A) are very positive. I think the new mixes are quite good. I'll do the 5.1 today...

 

[theCharm]

Did you see Rusinurbe's post above? I assume " big one" means the box???

I did assUme so... and pinged Burning Shed directly about mine. They just replied that The 5-disk ITCOTCK Box stock had been received this morning and will start shipping in the afternoon. All ya faithfull -- hold your breath!

 

[budlyte]

I was not able to play the video (it freezes and skips), but other than that, excellent disc. I ordered a replacement copy from Amazon, so hopefully the video plays on that one.

Just a quick update - I received my replacement copy today, and the video plays fine.

 

[bloop]

I am not that pleased with the 5.1 Mix as most of you are. I gave it a 7.
The Mix is very nice, but the Mellotron in Epitaph and the title track is not as loud as in the original stereo mix and the guitar is way too loud on the left front channel. This is robbing some of the original atmosphere for me.

 

[kap'n krunch]

Last night I was going over the 5.1 again and....
EPITAPH!!!
Dang, it grabs you by the scrotum!
Excellent!!

 

[budlyte]

Last night I was going over the 5.1 again and....
EPITAPH!!!
Dang, it grabs you by the scrotum!
Excellent!!

My favorite track as well.

 

[carledwards]

I am not that pleased with the 5.1 Mix as most of you are. I gave it a 7.
The Mix is very nice, but the Mellotron in Epitaph and the title track is not as loud as in the original stereo mix and the guitar is way too loud on the left front channel. This is robbing some of the original atmosphere for me.

Yes, I also gave the 5.1 mix a 7, based on the MLP lossless version. My problem is the virtual lack of anything at all in the subwoofer channel on "21st." Granted, that song is somewhat harsh and bass-shy to begin with but the stereo mixes are much better in terms of frequency balance. The track also sounds rather (for lack of a better word) "tinny" to me. Still, the rest of the album sounds quite good and the spatial qualities are also well-done. I also noticed the mellotron levels referred to above. In all, I prefer the 96/24 stereo mix.

However, the DTS 5.1 is much better (on my system, anyway -- Oppo 983/Yamaha 1800) than the lossless 5.1 discussed above. The opening track reveals an obvious difference. My guess is there's something going on here rather than the usual "warmer" DTS signature bass characteristic. It almost sounds like the lossless version crosses over in the sub channel at a lower frequency than the DTS! Strange. But I'm much happier with the multi-channel sound because of the DTS version.

 

[ssully]

If DTS bass is more robust than (M)LPCM 5.1, it suggests you have the LPCM .1 bug.

 

[neil wilkes]

If DTS bass is more robust than (M)LPCM 5.1, it suggests you have the LPCM .1 bug.

Dang - you beat me to it!!
I can assure everyone that both streams were taken from my masters.
DTS stream encoded using version 2 of the DTS-HD MAS system, which is audibly the best yet from DTS - every new version further enhances the codec.

 

[wanners]

If DTS bass is more robust than (M)LPCM 5.1, it suggests you have the LPCM .1 bug.

what is the .1 lpcm bug?

 

[ssully]

what is the .1 lpcm bug?

aka The LFE Bug

 

[carledwards]

Thanks so much re: the LPCM bug, everyone! It appears I need to see what I can do regarding this Oppo I'm using. In the meantime, I'll stick with the DTS track for multi.

 

[Spencer1812]

I'm using an Oppo-980 to an Onkyo-603 via component, I have plenty of bass from my Acoustech H-100, and it's only turned half the way up.

 

[carledwards]

Correct me if I'm wrong, ssully, but I'm connected via HDMI, not analog. So the bug shouldn't affect my setup, correct? I talked to Oppo. They're baffled. The player doesn't act this way on any other title. Makes you wonder about the disc, in that case however, one never knows in the ever-evolving land of high resolution audio! In any case, thanks for the help. I'll continue to troubleshoot.

 

[ssully]

Correct me if I'm wrong, ssully, but I'm connected via HDMI, not analog. So the bug shouldn't affect my setup, correct?

No, not correct -- if you have the LFE bug it will still affect your setup with HDMI, whenever you play multichannel DVD-Audio that has .1 content.

I am going to assume that 1) your AVR does all bass management and speaker distance correction and 2) your AVR does all decoding of DTS and Dolby Digital. So your player is really mainly a digital transport for PCM or bitstream data.

With such a setup, if you have the LFE bug, the 'fix' is to go into the Oppo user controls, and raise just the subwoofer channel by +10dB. This will only affect PCM audio, not DTS/DD bitstreams.

But if you don't have the LFE bug, then don't do this. The way to check is to compare subwoofer level , e.g. with an SPL meter held near the woofer, when you play the same track as DTS versus DVD-Audio. The measured difference will be obvious if you have the bug. I used the Chesky Ultimate Surround test disc, but the first few seconds of Steely Dan's 'Two Against Nature' worked well too, since it's nearly all bass.

 

[carledwards]

No, not correct -- if you have the LFE bug it will still affect your setup with HDMI, whenever you play multichannel DVD-Audio that has .1 content.

I am going to assume that 1) your AVR does all bass management and speaker distance correction and 2) your AVR does all decoding of DTS and Dolby Digital. So your player is really mainly a digital transport for PCM or bitstream data.

With such a setup, if you have the LFE bug, the 'fix' is to go into the Oppo user controls, and raise just the subwoofer channel by +10dB. This will only affect PCM audio, not DTS/DD bitstreams.

But if you don't have the LFE bug, then don't do this. The way to check is to compare subwoofer level , e.g. with an SPL meter held near the woofer, when you play the same track as DTS versus DVD-Audio. The measured difference will be obvious if you have the bug. I used the Chesky Ultimate Surround test disc, but the first few seconds of Steely Dan's 'Two Against Nature' worked well too, since it's nearly all bass.

Interesting! Thanks so much. I swapped the 983 out for the 980 (which I own but wasn't using) and the 980 handles it fine! How weird. Must be something about the 983 and the way it handles the menus on this disc maybe? I actually prefer the 980 for audio since it streams DSD and the 983 does not. So I lose a bit of video upsampling quality and gain in audio. I'm good with that. Anyway, I appreciate your help.

 

[carledwards]

I am going to assume that 1) your AVR does all bass management and speaker distance correction and 2) your AVR does all decoding of DTS and Dolby Digital. So your player is really mainly a digital transport for PCM or bitstream data.

Yes, that's right.

 

[sKiZo]

I talked to Oppo. They're baffled.

You actually got hold of Oppo? How?? I've been trying for months.

I'm running a 980H and for whatever reason, It will occasionally fire up tinny with reduced volume. I stumbled and poked around some and found out that resetting one of the speaker sets (e.g. My center is set to small - I change it to another size, and then back again) "fixes" it. Shazaam ... audio goodness in all it's glory once again.

I did check their website and found out I'm running the most recent bios burn, so that's no help. No real biggie - just annoying is all.

Anyway - give that a shot and see if it helps.

 

[carledwards]

You actually got hold of Oppo? How?? I've been trying for months.

I'm running a 980H and for whatever reason, It will occasionally fire up tinny with reduced volume. I stumbled and poked around some and found out that resetting one of the speaker sets (e.g. My center is set to small - I change it to another size, and then back again) "fixes" it. Shazaam ... audio goodness in all it's glory once again.

I did check their website and found out I'm running the most recent bios burn, so that's no help. No real biggie - just annoying is all.

Anyway - give that a shot and see if it helps.

I actually talked to them twice today! Just pressed 2 from the initial menu and they came right on. Weird about the speaker settings, huh?

I went to channel trim and upped the sub to +10db. It's all good!!!!:banana:

 

[ssully]

I actually talked to them twice today! Just pressed 2 from the initial menu and they came right on. Weird about the speaker settings, huh?

I went to channel trim and upped the sub to +10db. It's all good!!!!:banana:

I still hope you verify that this was a global problem with DVD-As in your system, and not something peculiar to this disc or to the Oppo. Especially since this post below reports that a closely related Yamaha AVR to yours ( Yamaha RX-V1700/RX-V2700) did NOT have the LFE bug.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=748147