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

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Rate the DVD-A of King Crimson - IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING


  • Total voters
    184
Yours, o' course...and FACE was a QS album. I've seen that av around, just wondering if you're a Dead diehard or someone I've seen around elsewhere. Whatever, welcome to QQ!

ED :)
 
Yea I'm pretty fond of the dead, though could never see Jerry, seen all the reincarnations. EXCEPT THE DEAD! Down with Haynes....

Anyways never knew it was QS album, although many regard it as a terrible album. I prefer the good old audience recordings.
 
My copy of the CD/DVD version arrived in pristine condition from Amazon UK this morning. :banana::banana::banana:

Only one problem, the insert with the discs and the booklet are so tightly packed into the outer sleeve that you can't get the damn things out without creasing the outer cover in some way. Someone, somewhere saved 1 millimetre on the packaging. Wish someone had thought to provide some cut-outs on each side so that you could at least get a grip on the inner contents without stretching or bending the sleeve. It seems to me the only way to get at the contents is to open up the end flap (thereby bending that) and pushing the insert out from that end. Bjork all over again. :mad:
 
A straight "10" from me (despite my frustrations with the slipcase). Gorgeous sound and a great surround mix.:banana::banana::banana:
 
My copy of the CD/DVD version arrived in pristine condition from Amazon UK this morning. :banana::banana::banana:

Only one problem, the insert with the discs and the booklet are so tightly packed into the outer sleeve that you can't get the damn things out without creasing the outer cover in some way. Someone, somewhere saved 1 millimetre on the packaging. Wish someone had thought to provide some cut-outs on each side so that you could at least get a grip on the inner contents without stretching or bending the sleeve. It seems to me the only way to get at the contents is to open up the end flap (thereby bending that) and pushing the insert out from that end. Bjork all over again. :mad:

Got mine in California today. You weren't kidding about the slip cover! I finally got mine out, it's never going back in again.

Sounds great! Very nice mix. Still listening before voting.
 
Received mine from Burning Shed today, 4 days after getting notice it had shipped. Pretty impressive, but Red has not arrived yet, 13 days after shipping. I sent them an email...

Out of town the rest of the week. Listening waits until Saturday.
 
My bought-and-paid-for-Preordered-from-Burning-Shed copy showed up today too. Very cool! (although I didn't open it yet so I have to check out the "tight package"! So all of you who ordered one from US locations should be seeing it soon.
 
Got mine in California today. You weren't kidding about the slip cover! I finally got mine out, it's never going back in again.

It seems that the problem is caused by the manufacturer putting the booklet between the two discs before inserting the whole thing into the slip cover. Try putting the discs back without the booklet between the discs and you should be able to slide the booklet into the slip cover beside the disc holder. Everything then slides in and out quite easily. Works for me (now all I need is an undamaged slip cover). (y)
 
This is the only King Crimson album I had heard before. I find it much more accessible than Red.

The job on this title is just... great: music-wise, sound-wise, and surround-wise!!!

The packaging is very nice, but I find it a bit tight to fit the album in the slipcase!

A solid 10 for me.
 
This is the only King Crimson album I had heard before. I find it much more accessible than Red.

The job on this title is just... great: music-wise, sound-wise, and surround-wise!!!

The packaging is very nice, but I find it a bit tight to fit the album in the slipcase!

A solid 10 for me.

If it's the only King Crimson album you have heard then how can you find it more accessible than "Red" if you haven't heard "Red"? Also, I think that you will find that "Red" grows on you the more you listen to it. Even "Providence"
 
I know them all, very well, though I am not proposing that I am some sort of expert by no means. Red is my least favorite of the bunch but I am still psyched to hear it. Of the current batch I am most looking forward to Lizard. Larks' Tongues, I hope I survive it, but if I don't what a way to go...
 
A familiar avatar from the past...do I know you? :)

ED :)


Reminds you of Jeffery, perhaps? :)

I've ordered Court and Red from amazon (IOT, waiting for delivery). Pre-ordered, so the price dropped to $18.99. How does that compare with some other shops? I'm salivating here, imagining the sound based upon the reviews on this thread!

I, too, never tuned into 'Lizard' back in the day, and didn't have the LP. Instead I had the cassette version, so it goes without saying that the new release will be a marked improvement!
 
Today I got "In the Court.." and played the DVD-Audio 5.1. I regret that I will be the first to raise a major criticism. This mix is a victim of the Loudness Wars.

The main sin of the Loudness Wars is to compress the waveform so that the sound is unnatural and even distorted. Red and In the Court do not suffer from this (though at times I feel they could have had a little more "air", and so perhaps there is more waveform compression than I would like).

But another sin of the Loudness Wars is the idea that the quiet bits should be made louder. This is great for background music and listening on the iPod, but it destroys the impact of quiet and loud in the music.

Unfortunately Steven Wilson has made the quiet bits of these mixes louder.

This can easily be fixed at home by turning the volume down for the quieter songs (esp the Moonchild improvisation). But by the time I got to the title track I found that I was constantly adjusting the volume up and down during the track.

Because Steven Wilson makes what used to be quiet bits loud in his own mixes, I feared that he would do this. I even posted on the DGM forum raising this concern. Unfortunately my fear was justified.

There is lots to praise in this recording. But the fact that every time I listen I will be juggling the volume control to recreate the real dynamics is, for me, a major disappointment.

I have not yet made an comparisons with earlier versions. And I intend to give some more comments later on. But as no one else has commented on the loss of dynamics I thought that I should post quickly to bring this to people’s attention.
 
Only one problem, the insert with the discs and the booklet are so tightly packed into the outer sleeve that you can't get the damn things out without creasing the outer cover in some way. Someone, somewhere saved 1 millimetre on the packaging. Wish someone had thought to provide some cut-outs on each side so that you could at least get a grip on the inner contents without stretching or bending the sleeve. It seems to me the only way to get at the contents is to open up the end flap (thereby bending that) and pushing the insert out from that end. Bjork all over again. :mad:


I just opened the other side of the slip cover (it's not glued closed), and then was able to push the CD case out easily. No creasing problems.
 
I got the discs yesterday and, as I do, was archiving it to my hard drive. Since I was shuffling data anyway I decided to objectively compare the three PCM versions of Steve Wilson's 2-channel remix -- the CD (44/16), the MLP (96/24) and the PCM (48/24). I used 'Schizoid Man' as the test track. There was very little visible (waveform) difference apparent between the CD and MLP, nor much difference in 'dynamic range' : both had peak-minus-average levels (crest factor) of ~16dB on both channels, differences were within a few tenths of a dB -- with the MLP having just *slighty* more measured 'range'. suggesting that CD is just a good transcode of the MLP. But curiously the 48/24 both looked and measured notably different...crest factors were between 14 and 15 db, meaning the 48/24 has ~1dB less 'range' than the MLP and CD stereo versions.

Neil, would there be any reason at the production end for this -- some reason to make a distinct 48/24 mastering, rather than a transcode? If not, I'm wondering if my method for ripping it -- converting the raw (headerless) pcm on the fly to 48/24 wav pcm via DVD Audio Extractor -- somehow created the difference.

(Btw, I also threw in the original mix to the analysis -- it has a crest factor closer to ~17dB, so by that measure the most 'dynamic range' of all, but obviously (and visibly) more noise as well, showing why crest factor is not a true measure of the difference between noise floor and peak -- the true meaning of dynamic range.)


I'd rather NOT have this thrown into the loudness war thread, btw, since 1) I'm not taking about the surround mixes, 2)I don't see Neil responding on that one and mroe importantly 3)I'm not saying one sounds worse than the other; from quick listen, they all sound fine, and I'm sure I'll want both the 2ch remix and the original on my playlists. Mainly curious about the possible presence of multiple masterings of the remix on the same set.
 
Gave it a 9.
Very nice, shame the extras are not in 5.1 but hey, this is 1969 material...
I found the surround mix rather conservative, but that is probably best with limited tracks available to play with.

Everything sounds crisp and clean - well as crisp as such a recording can ever hope to be. It made my day.
The alternate takes are also welcome additions. Fripp must be very proud his baby sounds so nice at last!
 
Another great job by SW et al! A perfect 10 for me. "Epitaph" is the highlight for me - stunning in surround and very dramatic to say the least. The notion that "Moonchild" is somehow brickwalled is rather curious. Aside from the lovely melodic intro it is mostly random noodling - I always thought that this was the weakest track and often skipped passed it - now at least I can hear what's going on - still not my favorite but not a deal breaker either way.
 
It is only misrepresentations of my posting which suggest that Moonchild is brick-walled. It most certainly is NOT.

My comment was that this track has a slightly higher volume than before (but certainly no clipping), and thus with this DVD-A I prefer to turn the volume down for this track. Sound quality wise Moonchild is a revelation, and the increased clarity plus surround mix makes this track a more enjoyable listen than with earlier versions.
 
My comment was that this track has a slightly higher volume than before

... and here I thought your comment was that the quiet passages were louder. Big difference there ...

Too quiet? I said ...

... and here I thought ...

.
.

;)

Anyway, there are solutions available. Methinks you would be a good candidate for some DBX range enhancement. I can't imagine life without my 3BX ...
 
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