Warner Catalog: The Ultimate Sound Experience

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No way! I wasn't aware of the Joni Mitchell and Hootie & The Blowfish discs. How are they - mix-wise and content-wise?

Both Sides Now is a nice album and a great sounding recording, with a surround mix that doesn't feature gimmicks but befits the music. Despite Joni's cigarette-tainted vocals, the material and the orchestrations and arrangements are lovely. I'd definitely hunt one down.

The Hootie disc is one I'd say maybe get if it's cheap and if it's an album you either didn't play to death back in the day or still enjoy listening to this day. My feelings are that it's really nothing special, the surround mix is just okay and for me the music has dated a fair bit, so I never play it!
 
Many stores in Chicago had a dedicated DVD-A/SACD section. All 4 Tower stores had 2, one in pop/rock/jazz/etc, and one in classical!! Every Best Buy had a DVD-A section. All 3 Crow's Nests had 2 each, like Tower, so did the Virgin Megastore. Rolling Stones and Rock Records each had a DVD-A section. All these stores had virtually EVERY title in print. 35 stores had DVD-A sections and 9 had SACD sections. Although not a store, I regularly pick up at Music Direct, who has had THE best selection of SACD, including loads of imports. Today Rolling Stones and Best Buy have no DVD-A sections, but Music Direct has more SACD's than ever. Fry's is the only retailer with new DVD-A and SACD's today, and their selection is woefully small. They have one store here. All others listed are out of business.

Every Best Buy and Exclusive Company store throughout Wisconsin also had DVD-A sections. None do now.

There were hundreds of new CD stores in the metropolitan area. There were nearly 20 within a five mile radius of me. Those were the days!

"remember looking in stores, getting excited because they actually had a DVD-A section, then finding only Silverline discs in stock" - :(
 
Perhaps it's that both MH (EMI UK), and BSS (Leadclass) were leased titles. Paul Simon owns his own, which is now leased to Columbia. I also believe that Clapton owns his own.

Yes, overall the subsuquent WEA DVD-A's were better artistically/musically. I don't think there was a diffence in the mixes.

Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now is well recorded and mixed, but it is my least favorite Joni album. I rarely listen. Court & Hissing CD-4's are prized posessions and have had loads of spins. Ladies of the Canyon is still my fave Joni.
that's a very good observation Linda! where were the BSS & MH DVDAs in that little brochure!? I wonder why they weren't included?

it's interesting those titles you list in the second, third waves, etc.. do you consider the subsequent batches of Warner DVDAs to be better (mixes, artists, musically) than the first wave? I reckon phase 2, with Nightfly etc was the best lot!
 
Although not a store, I regularly pick up at Music Direct, who has had THE best selection of SACD, including loads of imports. Today Rolling Stones and Best Buy have no DVD-A sections, but Music Direct has more SACD's than ever. Fry's is the only retailer with new DVD-A and SACD's today, and their selection is woefully small. They have one store here. All others listed are out of business.

Music Direct's parent company owns Mobile Fidelity. So they are probably the best bet for MoFi SACDs. But don't forget web stores like Acoustic Sounds (owned by the same company that issues the Analogue Productions SACDs) and Elusive Disc. Both of those web stores also have a large number of SACD titles available as well as some DVD-A titles still in stock.
 
Although I buy things on the web, I prefer to buy in person. I'm sick of getting broken or cracked jewel boxes. In person, I can get a replacement before I leave the store. Music Direct is local, so I usually pick up.

Music Direct's parent company owns Mobile Fidelity. So they are probably the best bet for MoFi SACDs. But don't forget web stores like Acoustic Sounds (owned by the same company that issues the Analogue Productions SACDs) and Elusive Disc. Both of those web stores also have a large number of SACD titles available as well as some DVD-A titles still in stock.
 
Many stores in Chicago had a dedicated DVD-A/SACD section. All 4 Tower stores had 2, one in pop/rock/jazz/etc, and one in classical!! Every Best Buy had a DVD-A section. All 3 Crow's Nests had 2 each, like Tower, so did the Virgin Megastore. Rolling Stones and Rock Records each had a DVD-A section. All these stores had virtually EVERY title in print. 35 stores had DVD-A sections and 9 had SACD sections. Although not a store, I regularly pick up at Music Direct, who has had THE best selection of SACD, including loads of imports. Today Rolling Stones and Best Buy have no DVD-A sections, but Music Direct has more SACD's than ever. Fry's is the only retailer with new DVD-A and SACD's today, and their selection is woefully small. They have one store here. All others listed are out of business.

Every Best Buy and Exclusive Company store throughout Wisconsin also had DVD-A sections. None do now.

There were hundreds of new CD stores in the metropolitan area. There were nearly 20 within a five mile radius of me. Those were the days!

fascinating insight! by comparison to the UK, DVDAs and SACDs were seemingly plentiful and readily on store shelves in the U.S.A..!

here we had Virgin Megastores (which later, briefly, having been bought out, were re-branded "Zavvi" and then promptly went bust!). Virgin/Zavvi used to just have their SACD & DVDA stock in alongside all the regular CDs, so it was always a long drawn-out affair hunting for the high-res stuff in their stores.

Of the other big British chains, Our Price used to have SACDs only if they were part of a deluxe package (like the GYBR SACD Deluxe Ed) but apart from that nothing.

HMV would have SACDs in with the rest of their CD inventory, with a small separate DVDA section, next to the music DVDs.

now Zavvi and Our Price are long gone and HMV is looking like it could go the same way, sadly. at this moment, HMV have very few SACDs now, still just lumped in with the regular CDs, if they ever have any at all and the last time I was in HMV's flagship store on Londons' Oxford Street, they had got rid of their DVDA section altogether.
 
Perhaps it's that both MH (EMI UK), and BSS (Leadclass) were leased titles. Paul Simon owns his own, which is now leased to Columbia. I also believe that Clapton owns his own.

Yes, overall the subsuquent WEA DVD-A's were better artistically/musically. I don't think there was a diffence in the mixes.

Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now is well recorded and mixed, but it is my least favorite Joni album. I rarely listen. Court & Hissing CD-4's are prized posessions and have had loads of spins. Ladies of the Canyon is still my fave Joni.

ahh.. so they were the only ones that weren't true Warner-owned catalogue titles! brilliant sleuthing, thank you QL!

glad you agree the music on the Warners that came after was better! I do feel the 5.1 mixes on the next batches were more consistently engaging, with none of the double stereo or enhanced/widened stereo that were on a good few of the first wave of Warners'.

my only two real problems with Both Sides Now are Joni's nicotine-screwed voice and that maybe the tone of the album is just a bit too "down" or somber and these days I often turn to my surround music to uplift me more than anything else.
 
Although I buy things on the web, I prefer to buy in person. I'm sick of getting broken or cracked jewel boxes. In person, I can get a replacement before I leave the store. Music Direct is local, so I usually pick up.

I'm with you on the smashed jewel cases.. then again, case in point, I've got a Foreigner 4 DVDA on its way from eBay that nobody else bid for on there this week.

I'm fairly certain nobody was interested because the front of the case had a big crack in it, which the seller showed very clearly in the listings' pic and the sellers' item description, to their credit.

I figured that the crack was worth swallowing, as its coming in the regular mail from the USA and its' case will probably get cracked even more on its way anyway, so what the heck..?!?
 
Many stores in Chicago had a dedicated DVD-A/SACD section. All 4 Tower stores had 2, one in pop/rock/jazz/etc, and one in classical!! Every Best Buy had a DVD-A section. All 3 Crow's Nests had 2 each, like Tower, so did the Virgin Megastore. Rolling Stones and Rock Records each had a DVD-A section. All these stores had virtually EVERY title in print. 35 stores had DVD-A sections and 9 had SACD sections. Although not a store, I regularly pick up at Music Direct, who has had THE best selection of SACD, including loads of imports. Today Rolling Stones and Best Buy have no DVD-A sections, but Music Direct has more SACD's than ever. Fry's is the only retailer with new DVD-A and SACD's today, and their selection is woefully small. They have one store here. All others listed are out of business.

Every Best Buy and Exclusive Company store throughout Wisconsin also had DVD-A sections. None do now.

There were hundreds of new CD stores in the metropolitan area. There were nearly 20 within a five mile radius of me. Those were the days!

All I had was BB and CC local that sold eithe HR discs. Both had displays and a set up of small speakers so you could hear it. I don't ever remember it being on or used correctly. It was in and out. I was not the only one buting them, I would see them go, but I think there was only a few of us buying them up, once I had what I wanted there was no more. then they took the displays down and put what stock in with the cd's. Soon I would go and ask where they were and they had no clue what I was talking about. never put out new stuff, or restocked, what was there was that. Then it was Acoustic sounds, then a few others, then I got an e mail one day telling me about QQ. I never knew half of what was out there. And I went looking, so when you think about the avg person, no wonder! It never worked. With the old papers QLinda posted they pushed at quad much more and tried to educate a lot more people.
 
All I had was BB and CC local that sold eithe HR discs. Both had displays and a set up of small speakers so you could hear it. I don't ever remember it being on or used correctly. It was in and out. I was not the only one buting them, I would see them go, but I think there was only a few of us buying them up, once I had what I wanted there was no more. then they took the displays down and put what stock in with the cd's. Soon I would go and ask where they were and they had no clue what I was talking about. never put out new stuff, or restocked, what was there was that. Then it was Acoustic sounds, then a few others, then I got an e mail one day telling me about QQ. I never knew half of what was out there. And I went looking, so when you think about the avg person, no wonder! It never worked. With the old papers QLinda posted they pushed at quad much more and tried to educate a lot more people.

if only we'd had demo areas with speakers setup it might have attracted more attention to the formats in the stores here in the UK!
 
Had 26 of these DVD-A discs, sold two, lost two, so 22 net for me. [sold Joni & Corrs; lost kd Lang & Breezin']

Memories: Getting rid of my first unit, the JVC 723 DVD-A player as quick as I could. What a huge lemon! It shipped back to JVC factory service center for a fix within a month. As soon as it came back I sold it on eBay.

Better memories with better players since.
 
What problem with the JVC 723 DVD-A player?
Sucks big time the crippled firmare,in order to reject CDR media, other than that my unit has always worked flawlessly and it does plays dvd-a on DVD-R media.
 
Had 26 of these DVD-A discs, sold two, lost two, so 22 net for me. [sold Joni & Corrs; lost kd Lang & Breezin']

Memories: Getting rid of my first unit, the JVC 723 DVD-A player as quick as I could. What a huge lemon! It shipped back to JVC factory service center for a fix within a month. As soon as it came back I sold it on eBay.

Better memories with better players since.

I wonder what happened to your missing DVDAs?!?

Maybe kd lang had a "Summer Fling"and never came back..

and George Benson is somewhere "Down Here on the Ground"..

;) ;)
 
Since I am not a "hoarder/collector" and only get or keep the ones I like, I have 10 of these.
I have had 3 of these and have sold/traded them (Joni, Dead and AI S/T).
There are a couple I'd like to get eventually; "Rumours" and "Winelight"...OK, maybe the Alice Cooper ones would be cool too,,,but I missed the bandwagon and started my Surround adventure WAY late ..in 2008!
 
Since I am not a "hoarder/collector" and only get or keep the ones I like, I have 10 of these.
I have had 3 of these and have sold/traded them (Joni, Dead and AI S/T).
There are a couple I'd like to get eventually; "Rumours" and "Winelight"...OK, maybe the Alice Cooper ones would be cool too,,,but I missed the bandwagon and started my Surround adventure WAY late ..in 2008!

Oh, I'm a terrible hoarder/collector! It drives my partner nuts!

The other day they turned round and said, "one day I'm gonna come home and find you dead and buried under a great big pile of your records that's fallen right on top of you!"

Oops.. :yikes

Oh, that Winelight DVDA in particular is SUPERB, Kap'n! You must get it one day!

Well, its funny you should mention the timing of getting into these things, on reflection, I've been very lucky with the surround collecting as my local Laserdisc emporium, which was literally a 5 minute walk from my house, rather enterprisingly of the proprietor, I thought, started to stock DVDAs when they first came out over here (2001, i think it must have been) so I snapped up things like The Queen A Night At The Opera DVDA from him as soon as they came out (which turned out to be the Elliot Scheiner mix before Brian May got involved! Yeay!) not fully appreciating what these discs could do as I didn't have a DVDA player at the time, only DVDV.

Then when the Elton SACDs started appearing ('03) I got into SACD collecting and just kept on picking up stuff as and when it was my cup of tea.

Buying all the crap I knew I would most likely never listen to (!) has only really kicked in the last few years as the high-res situation just got worse and worse.

I mean, I just bought the Barenaked Ladies Maroon DVDA "for the collection" as it was 'there' and fairly cheap.. well, that's never gonna get played! :D
 
I've been called a HOARder, but I prefer to be called a collector, or at least an obsessive pack rat.

I waited for DVD-A with baited breath. I resisted SACD until they introduced MC. I could resist no more.

My collecting drove both my spouse and partner nuts. My solution: get rid of first the spouse, then the partner.

Oh, I'm a terrible hoarder/collector! It drives my partner nuts! ... Then when the Elton SACDs started appearing ('03) I got into SACD collecting...I mean, I just bought the Barenaked Ladies Maroon DVDA "for the collection" as it was 'there' and fairly cheap.. well, that's never gonna get played! :D
 
I've been called a HOARder, but I prefer to be called a collector, or at least an obsessive pack rat.

I waited for DVD-A with baited breath. I resisted SACD until they introduced MC. I could resist no more.

My collecting drove both my spouse and partner nuts. My solution: get rid of first the spouse, then the partner.

if you keep collecting spouses and partners, you're not gonna have enough space for your stuff....didn't they teach you that in school??? ;)
 
I've been called a HOARder, but I prefer to be called a collector, or at least an obsessive pack rat.

I waited for DVD-A with baited breath. I resisted SACD until they introduced MC. I could resist no more.

My collecting drove both my spouse and partner nuts. My solution: get rid of first the spouse, then the partner.

haha! the secret to happy hoarding! ditch the other half! :wave
 
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