Your first experience that made you a surround music lover

[Frogmort]

I've always been a fan of surround movies, especially action or sci-fi, but when it came to music, I thought that if it was originally released in stereo, then what's the point in making it a 'surround mix'? I didn't truly understand that they could go back to the individual tracks and arrange them discretely anywhere around the soundstage that they chose. The first true surround experience for me, when I realized what could be done with surround mixing for studio music, was Steely Dan: Gaucho.

When I first heard the discreteness of the percussion, horns, and harmony parts in the separate rears, and the lead vocals from the center and main instruments more from the left and right speakers, I finally understood what was happening and it absolutely floored me, the sudden understanding of what is possible aurally, all around me.

What's your cherry-poppin' surround story?

 

[winopener]

Santana Caravanserai, SQ.
Amazing disc, stellar mix.

 

[ji eff]

Never had a surround sound system of my own when I first realized Cubase was 5.1 capable.. I just thought: why not? Did a quick mix with an orchestral track of mine (without hearing a thing) and went to a friend's who had one (movie buff): "whoa!" ... and I ended up buying my first system a few days later. Started to read endlessly about surround on the internet, stumbled on QQ, the Polls and the results, and purchased a few "top rated" albums..

Insurgentes and Fear of a Blank Planet were my firsts.. it hurt and I bled a lot.. j/k

I was stunned..

"Abandoner" (on Insurgentes) and "Anesthetize" (on FOABP) popped my "surround cherry" real good !

So I purchased the whole Steven Wilson / Porcupine Tree surround discography during the following months. For me to go back to "guitar music" after 12 years of total aversion, it HAD to be something.

 

[himey]

For music it was Dark Side of the Moon. Had always loved that album, most people do obviously, but the first time I listened to the Alan Parsons quad mix, it took an already great album to the next level. I was hooked...

Many years before that, concert films and sporting events but both of those had video attached. I had a NEC dolby pro logic decoder in my bedroom and matching 27" CRT TV, NAD reciever and matching NAD AMP. Polk Audio SRS series speakers and cheap rears, phantom center.

 

[salsdali]

Santana Caravanserai, SQ.
Amazing disc, stellar mix.

The funny thing is I've been a surround fan for a while and it was only just yesterday that I had my first listen to Caravanserai in surround and I was a bit blown away, it was like my first surround experience.

I'm sure the first surround experience that hooked me was Stars Wars in the theater in 1977 probably followed very soon after by Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

For music it was Dark Side of the Moon. Had always loved that album, most people do obviously, but the first time I listened to the Alan Parsons quad mix, it took an already great album to the next level. I was hooked...

This was probably the first surround music only mix that hooked me as well. I'm still blown away by it to this day.

 

[kap'n krunch]

Santana Caravanserai, SQ.
Amazing disc, stellar mix.

in 2007 it was a Conversion I did using Lucanu's script of Caravanserai to LPCM 4.0 in 96/24..
but,
as a kid, my stepdad got a "cheap" Panasonic receiver / Q8 player and , although he was a fan of Ray Conniff, I truly enjoyed the classical stuff (a Eugene Ormandy's Tchaikovsky Q8)..
after that I always had wanted a Surround system, which I got in 2008...

 

[salsdali]

in 2007 it was a Conversion I did using Lucanu's script of Caravanserai to LPCM 4.0 in 96/24..

OMG I think that's the mix I heard yesterday.

small world

 

[ar surround]

It was 1972. I had been listening to my parent's Magnavox stereo console, which had a switch for an external speaker that I put on the other side of the room. The console became the right channel and the external speaker the left. Shortly afterwards, I read about Dyanquad, found two old speakers sitting around, and hooked them up in series as per the Dyanquad diagram. Instant surround sound! Albeit it was from four completely unmatched speakers, but I was totally hooked. One standout track that I recall as I could hear actual separation (probably likely because of the unmatched speakers) was Listen from CTA.

Things quickly improved as I subsequently got a BSR turntable, built a Dynaco ST80-Q amp, and bought a pair of AR-5 speakers followed later with a pair of AR-7's for the rears.

 

[GOS]

I wish I were older (just a little) and had all these great early 70's Quad stories. I don't...and my older brothers were really not into music, so it wasn't gonna come from them.

Having a nice stereo system has always been a priority to me. So, naturally, when DVD came along and they started pumping out all those movies in 5.1, I was hooked. Musically, what really hooked me into surround music was the concert DVD of Fleetwood Mac - The Dance. I simply could not believe what I was hearing (and seeing). From that point forward, I was smitten with surround music and the dimensions it brought to the table.

 

[bossfan]

For me it was probably Springsteenss live in New York dvd. I saw it at Costco I think and thought if I got that and a good surround system I could watch the Boss live in surround anytime I wanted. Was impressed with the results and the rest was history. Dsotm, porcupine tree, steven wilson....

 

[edisonbaggins]

I first became curious about surround when I noticed that several of my albums had 5.1 "bonus" discs. Queen - A Night at the Opera 40th and Genesis - Invisible Touch both come to mind.

I also realized that many movies and concerts had 5.1 soundtracks and was curious about how much better that would make the experience.

I needed a project to keep myself from going crazy while on R&R from a deployment, so I decided to wire my media room for surround (though I didn't even buy the necessary receiver and speakers until the end of the tour - little coming home gift to myself). I had things at wrong angles and it took several months to finally get all the settings right between my player(s) and receiver. Plus, I couldn't access the SACD or DVD-A layers of any albums! I'm not sure how many albums I listened to, unintentionally, in faux surround! (This was long before my QQ poll voting days).

Anyway, my first truly sublime surround experience, with good angles and proper settings? It is really hard to say for sure. Maybe King Crimson - Red? It stands out in my mind from that time period. Maybe Discipline? ANatO, of course. The proggy stuff on Invisible Touch. Then I started a surround albums thread on a Rush board and began acquiring like mad, armed with a spreadsheet! Those were the days!

Hmmm... Beck - Sea Change really stands out. It is BD so I could hear it in hi-res, unlike most of my other albums at the time.

 

[CPR]

I heard Elton's GBYBR/Funeral for a Friend, & Tommy/The Who, in DVD/Audio, & kinda lost my mind
Actually, bought an Acura TL, just so I could play DVD/A's; sadly, only DTS discs play in their new ELS systems

 

[LuvMyQuad]

I was 16. The year was 1973. I had a 1966 Mustang as my first car. I was already into stereo at home with LP playback, cassettes, etc. I came upon a used quad 8 track deck for the car and installed it along with four surface mount speakers, one in each corner of the interior. My first Q8 purchases were Floyd's DSOTM and Edgar Winters "They Only Come Out At Night". I was hooked. Within a few years quad began dying off. I never did update the house stereo to quad for several reasons (parents house, limited cash, etc). I just could never understand the quad die off, especially since I was so thrilled with it. No more Q8's were being produced, and the tape deck along with my Q8 collection was sold off with the car.

Fast forward to 20+ years to 2000. By now I was married and had my own place. My sound system was still stereo based but I did have rear and center channels for movie playback and synthesized surround. My cousin was visiting from Germany where he was stationed in the Army. On a trip to a local record store he purchased a few DTS 5.1 music disks (early DVD-A's). He had a system back in Germany that could play them. Although I did have DVD playback capability and was DTS compatible, I was not DVD-A capable. I was intrigued by the DTS layer of Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar babies. Within a few more years I re-configured my system and bought my first universal disk player for SACD and DVD-A's. I haven't looked back since.

 

[keenly]

When I changed rooms 8 years ago I decided to get a home theater system. I then saw a review for 'Top Ten surround albums', which led me to ordering War of the Worlds SACD. I was blown away and wanted everything in surround after that.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

When I changed rooms 8 years ago I decided to get a home theater system. I then saw a review for 'Top Ten surround albums', which led me to ordering War of the Worlds SACD. I was blown away and wanted everything in surround after that.

It is interesting you brought this up. One of the disks my cousin raved about was WOTW... even in stereo. I had the stereo LP, and never really cared much for it in my younger days. Things with narration just never seemed to interest me. he always told me I had to listen past the narration. Recently I revisited it after many years. Damn if he wasn't right. It really is excellent musically, and well recorded too, especially in surround.

 

[holland123]

Great thread here.
I was bitten twice; first time was back about 1974-75 when I went into my local Lafayette Electronics store and in their listening room they had a beautiful new Quad setup with a Sansui Reciever, 4 giant speakers and a Quad reel pumping out the most glorious music I had ever heard. the soft glow of that Sansui and it's massive 25 watts per channel just ate a hole in my brain that was sadly never able to be filled. by the time i was able to save up enough money to buy some equipment, it was hard to find anymore, I ended up with a secondhand Lafayettte 4 channel amp but never completed the system, there was no e bay in those days.

second bite; round about 1999- 2000 I walked into my local Circuit City store and stumbled onto this weird little kiosk where you stood in front of a monitor and on the sides were outfitted with a nice little Bose surround system, speakers hanging off arms behind you and three in front. with racks of odd discs (DVD-A) on both sides that you could purchase, you were able to audition 4 or 5 different albums, one disc was Yes-Fragile, which is easily one of my top 10 of all time. Never heard anything this amazing before. played it a dozen times, I think my old lady left me there and came back later, because i lost all track of time and space that day, I think they may have had to physically remove me from that kiosk. I purchased a player and a new receiver and every disc I could find the next day.

 

[proufo]

I'll concentrate on "lover". I had Quad equipment way before that.

When the flute goes all the way (truly all the way, CD4) in one of the songs in Aqualung. It was so cool!

 

[Gmat25]

I first put together a surround system in 2002. I had always enjoyed surround at the movies, but had never really experienced music that way - as I never was able to set up a quadraphonic system back in the 70's. After setting up my speakers I put in a copy of Steely Dan's Two Against Nature DVD. The initial opening information was silent and I thought there was something wrong with my system then all of a sudden I heard Green Earrings and it was amazing! Soon after that I found DVD Audio discs at Best Buy and purchased America's Homecoming. It was then I knew I needed to collect as many of these HiRez discs that I could. At over 350 and still collecting!!!

 

[quicksrt]

Back in the late 70s and all through the 80s I was not seeing good quad 8-track players around used nor cheap. I think for a long while folks held onto their investment in those players. The tapes were around but not like these 18, 24, and 34 etc. piece lots we see on ebay daily.

So I spent decades listening to Q8 tapes on a regular 8-track player. I would listen to fronts first and then rear chans after, and never got both at the same time. How sad and pathetic huh. So I never got the real quad experience even being old enough to know about it in 1974. It was simply out of my price range. Even my SQ LP listening was all in stereo. CD-4, stereo too. My friends had no interest in it, just me.

It was not until DTS Ent. released some CDs, and quad conversions to DTS CD-Rs appeared that I got to hear what quad sounded like playing correctly.

This is why I am so thankful for what we have seen reissued. Aqualung and Wish You Were Here are the two I wanted the most in a modern format. And we got them both.

 

[keenly]

It is interesting you brought this up. One of the disks my cousin raved about was WOTW... even in stereo. I had the stereo LP, and never really cared much for it in my younger days. Things with narration just never seemed to interest me. he always told me I had to listen past the narration. Recently I revisited it after many years. Damn if he wasn't right. It really is excellent musically, and well recorded too, especially in surround.

The music is brilliant. The story is poorly thought out. If ETs have the capabilities of inter steller travel, why even come into earths atmosphere? Why would they want Earth, when there are BILLIONS of planets out there? Why would they send themselves in pods to risk injury? Always annoyed me. That technology can be weaponized and everything on Earth could be killed in literally 1 second. There would be no war. It bugs me to this day!!