Where's DSOTM ?

Guy - HMV downtown Toronto (Yonge & Dundas) has a large display in front of the Cash.

Guy, Do you find it's worth ordering from the US? Have you had any customs charges? It's 11.99 US....but I'm afraid by the time it gets here, with tax, customs, first born child, fillings from my teeth.....it might be better to get it in Toronto! Your thoughts?

I find the custom charges on discs from the us sometimes happens and sometimes does not.

I have never paid customs from the U.S. on discs. All my ordering from the U.S. has been from amazon.com. Generally however I have found that it is a lot cheaper walking into BestBuy and picking them up. Although I find myself going in for one and leaving with three. This time however Dark Side was not in the stores and I couldn't wait. I was out today and BestBuy, Walmart etc still doesn't have it. Hopefully it will arrive from amazon.com before the stores have it. Tuesday, Trapeze by Tom Cochrane comes out on DVD-A. Hopefully they will have that one in stock on the proper day.

sirtonym I just noticed your reply regarding the availability in the HMV store in downtown Toronto. Thanks for the feedback. I work in North York and live in Whitby so downtown is off my usual course. I pass a BestBuy every night in Ajax on the way home. It's a dangerous trip. I guess I will wait until it arrives now via courier from Amazon. I was really looking forward to this release and watched it go from DVD-A to SACD and then a release date was published and I bought the capability to play both formats and then I waited and waited for what seemed like an eternity and when it was delayed I panicked and ordered it online. Oh, well. I picked up Sea Change by Beck in the absence of DS and I am really enjoying it musically and sonically. Great stuff. Trapeze this Tuesday and DSOTM via mail should hold the addiction for another week.

Thanks Guy. I just came back from another SACD player hunt...Bestbuy has a BIG demo display for SACD....but they have no player on the shelf....they have the speakers set up for 5.1, lots of discs (but no DSOTM)but no player. Arrrgh!The other frustrating thing is having to EXPLAIN to these guys what SACD is. I think I could work there with no training at all! Same thing at Futureshop...they had a total of 6 DVD-A/SACD titles COMBINED!

The BestBuy in Ajax has 3 Sony 650 multichannel SACD/DVD 5 disc changers for $249 in stock. This is a discontinued item that I cannot vouch for. I went with a Pioneer 45a which is a universal player and after breaking it in after about 3 months the SACD is sounding really good. The DVD-A is also great. For me this is pretty close to perfect. I have always been a picky person when it comes to sound. It is missing the distance compensation for SACD but no other player does this anyway. Bass management is built in. I have been through many players and I am sticking with this one for at least a year. The others lasted 3 months or less. You can get it for around $800 before tax. A bit steep but you can put in any disc of the CD size format and it will choose the optimal format based on what you set-up in the players menu. Sound and Vision magazine actually gave it a product of the year award for 2002. whitby Audio or Bay-Bloor Radio or Downtown Tv across from Sam The Record Man In Toronto are the places of coice to buy this unit.

Well I broke down and tried the local HMV today. They had tons of copies of DSOTM so I picked one up. I have another friend I can sell the one I ordered from amazon.com to, when it arrives. Unfortunately I will have to eat the difference between the $20 and the Amazon price. I won't do this again. I have listened to the disc 3 times now. Fantastic. The only bad section that grates on the nerves a bit are the loud sections of "Us and Them". These sections seem a bit thin but clear. Other parts of the song have incredibly powerful bass and the sound is more proportioned. Small negative. You can crank this disc really loud and it maintains it's composure other than the section mentioned above.

Us and Them always had a problem....the chorus part with all the backups singers and descending leslie'd guitar lick..very cluttered and tinny...I'm guessing it suffers from too many overdubs...I always thought that was the worst sounding part of DSOTM...
BTW, I have a friend going to Florida next week, hoping she'll get it for me at BestBuy for $11.99US...might have to ask her to check for CCR SACD's too, they are REALLY expensive up here!....now if only I had a player!

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>The only bad section that grates on the nerves a bit are the loud sections of "Us and Them". These sections seem a bit thin but clear.[/quote]
This true on the sacd... The British Q8 Sounds much better thou I feel!
I can send you a small clip to listen to , if you want to hear the differance between the B-Q8 and the SACD/MC
Guy! drop me an e-mail {[email protected]}
Rob

DSOTM is available in all HMV's because I was in the one in Pickering and they had lots of copies. I would try this first. Even at $12 U.S. you are looking at over $19 Canadian and it is $19.99 at HMV. The Canadian pressing is from Japan as well. These days with digital technology that probably doesn't matter though.