Your first experience that made you a surround music lover

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Stupy's post just reminded me of how I was first inspired to eventually get in to all this 5.1. Although, as a Sprinsteen fan, it was Live in New York DVD's that put me over the edge, it was actually The Eagles Hel Freezes Over that inspired the whole thing. I was in a mall walking past a stereo or TV store and noticed the Eagles DVD playing. They were on stools, pure black background. I didn't even hear it until I went in to ask what DVD was playing. That's the moment I was inspired to get a system to properly play concert DVDs. At that Moment, I don't think I knewanything about DVD audio and SACDs. That came later.
 
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I think for me... wow I am not sure. I know that Hell Freezes Over and The Dance had something to do with it. The first disc I really remember listening to in surround intentionally was The Beatles Love. Love for sure was originally the lossy Dolby Digital track, but I was able to play it in my existing system for sure. Loved it (no pun intended). At some point around 2007 I got a region-free Pioneer DVD player that would not only play my German DVDs I picked up while living there, but it would also play SACD and DVD-Audio. That was when several discs I had purchased simply to have the CD remaster were able to be played in full hi res surround glory. These two discs were NIN The Downward Spiral and Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon. These two releases blew my mind ("Closer" anyone?) and from there it was a slow climb to getting more and more surround content.
 
I remember it like it was yesterday. My buddy invited me over to listen to the Led Zeppelin DVD when it first came out on his modest 5.1 system. I was absolutely blown away. I had never heard anything like it. The THUMP of Bonham's drums. The WAIL of Plant's vocals. The SCREAM of Page's guitar. And the PULSE of Jones's bass. I would never listen to music the same way again.
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It was around 2005; I'd just gotten my first Universal player, the Denon DVD-3910. Several years earlier, a co-worker had given me the CD "Reptile" by Eric Clapton, and I played it in my car endlessly. I was in some kind of large box store like Fry's and saw the DVD-A of Reptile and decided I had to have it. Once I heard it in it's full surround glory I was awestruck (highly under appreciated IMNSHO); but then I found the Scheiner mixed "The Nightfly" by Fagen and the hunt was on.

:SB:dance :51QQ :QQlove :SB
 
It was winter 2012, I was listening to Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. Like once or twice a day, I was addicted to this album. I was awestruck by the layering of sounds and the playing, how every note is exactly where it should be. I was reading a lot about it and then stumbled on an article that mentioned the surround version on SACD. I remember there was a double take - I read through it and then something clicked and I realised what it was that I read, and went back to read it again. I never realised this was even a remote possibility, I was completely oblivious. Next thing I know, I'm reading the Beatles in Surround page here on QQ. A week later I had my first surround set up and a gazillion dollars worth of music ordered on amazon and ebay. I remember playing it for the first time through to the end, and thinking if I died right then it would be OK...
 
I had outfitted my computer with a Soundblaster (there I go, dating myself) with 5.1 output, and was happily watching movie DVDs with a 3-speaker Boston Acoustics system (still have it, and it works!). That was around 1998 or 1999. Kept updating my computer and soundcard, and added a really cool 5.1 system with satellites and a huge subwoofer made by Logitech. The controller died, taking the system with it, but not before I happened across a fire sale at a local "Treasure Hunt." That was around 2012 or so. They had bought out a music shop that had gone belly up, and had, literally, thousands of CDs and SACDs and music DVDs all piled in heaps on row after row of tables. Two dollars a piece! Talk about a feeding frenzy! Went back daily for a few days, and scored a ton of stuff that I know now was rare -- lots of MoFi releases! Yes, two dollars a piece! Among my loot was a DSOTM SACD, and Peter Gabriel's PLAY. I didn't realize at the time that I couldn't play the SACD, as it was a hybrid and I was only hearing stereo. PLAY was a DVD, however, and my dying system lived long enough for me to hear it in DTS 5.1.

<bells in heaven rang>

My system died, but I used the old Boston Acoustic and saved my money until I moved into a new home (with built-in speakers on the back wall that used to be part of the original owners' 5.1 system). I splurged on a Denon amp and universal player and five Klipsch speakers, a L and R and C and two bookcase surrounds I used as Wides (with the rear wall speakers as surround -- sounded really good!). It was then, as the old story here goes, five years ago, my OCD collecting of surround music took hold. Since then I've upgraded my system to better amps and player and converted from 7.2 to 5.2.4 ATMOS, and added a few more titles (ahem). But I've never found MoFi's and SACDs for two dollars since :cry:.
 
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I REALLY never enjoyed the joys of DISCRETE Surround until I invested in a QUAD Open Reel Deck in the mid to late 70's. Prior to that, I had a 'crappy' QUAD receiver and never had ANY satisfaction with matrix nor CD~4 Vinyl. Of course the sparse selection of Open Reel QUAD releases relative to VINYL was a bit discouraging but it was a real joy to finally hear classic albums as they were intended to be heard by the remixers.

I ONLY wish we had access to an 'internet' back then as I wasn't remotely aware of the Japanese Open Reel Market. Bought OR mainly from local vendors and it seemed they never carried Japanese QUAD Open Reels.

But hearing Jefferson Airplane, Starship, Bette Midler's The Divine Ms M, etc., in discrete QUAD was one of the greatest joys of my early QUAD awakening.

And now with the effortless DIGITAL playback of surround releases, available almost everywhere .... worldwide .... continues that JOYOUS discovery of Surround. These ARE great and exciting times as more and more artists are embracing surround as a credible sonic expansion of their original releases and not the gimmick it was once perceived as.
 
My first interest was about '74 when the SQ of Dark Side of the Moon was released in Australia. I tried building a kit from one of the local electronics mags which was called a +2 add-on decoder amp. The idea was you mate it to an existing stereo amp and end up with a decoder with 4 amplified channels. Never got it working so that was that, although I never lost interest in wanting to hear DSOTM in surround.

Skip forward to 2000. I had a bit of a windfall at work and received an unexpected $10k in back pay. I immediately purchased my first Yamaha surround amp and appropriate speakers. Utilising a PC based DVD player I started my movie collection, as well as cherry picking some of the early well reviewed music DVDs such as Hell Freezes Over and The Dance. As these titles were not available locally I delved into international ordering from the likes of Amazon, DVD Express, Reel.com etc.

While browsing for anything surround on these sites I stumbled across some listings for DTS CDs - Band on the Run, Jasmine Nightdreams, Not Fragile etc. Finally - a surround format that I was already equipped for! Not long after this DVD-As started appearing in the local stores and while I was not DVD-A equipped, it was worth it just for the DD or DTS tracks. Eventually sourced a proper player in the form of a Pioneer DV-45A and the rest is history.

It was around 2002/3 that I stumbled across QuadraphonicQuad while searching for surround reviews, and ever since it's a multiple times a day read catching up on the news. The single most important site for this hobby as far as I'm concerned!
 
I missed the Quad experience first time around in the 70's. But when Dark Side was released in discreet 5.1 I was hooked. Brothers In Arms also helped to get me to spend ridiculous amounts of money, but worth every penny.

Brothers in arms was my first :)

Was given "cd player guy said..." Really months later looked its a dvd/sacd player...so hook it up go online find bia...get it put it in play 5.1 thru sony...jaw drops to ground...yep stops playing...look for replacement...get the sony x800 but avr no hdmi....start searching... Reading etc...buying discs..more speakers...some play thru coax but some Dont...hmmmm.....read read read....:)

Found sth forum bought oppo then found u guys...yep dropped quite a bit $ between equipment speakers oppo food

Well u guys know ✌
 
I bought a Pioneer Elite Universal DVD player in 2002. The salesman was a funny guy talking about multi channel output on it and then having “a liquid lunch.” I think I paid $500 for it. Luckily my marantz av receiver had multi channel inputs. So, as a yes fan I noticed rhino put out the DVD-Audio of Fragile, bought that and I was hooked.
 
Hi. All

My first real encounter of true Quadraphonic is when a friend of mine came back from America 1979 with a new Tate 101a decoder and he invited me over one night when he got everything connected and up & running and put on...….. "Pink Floyd Dark Side Of The Moon " ……..⚫……
THAT BLUE MY MIND and I was hooked...
incense-burner-pink-floyd-dark-side-of-the-moon__81597_1560280083.jpg
 
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