Listening to Now (In Surround) - Volume 2

sbrom said:

You've got me intrigued with your description of the Dutton title. It's now on my to-buy list.

Agreed that La Stravaganza is not very discrete. Is is though, to my ears, the most engaging, high fidelity, "live-sounding" classical title I've heard. In truth the performance and recording are so good I'll take it any way I can

This is often a quandary for me...do I want a mix to sound "real", or discrete? Both are attractive in the right musical scenario.

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+1 I love La Stravaganza.

And, a lot of the time these days, I'm lucky if I can sit in the "sweet spot" for a few minutes here, a few minutes there. It's all about the music and how good it sounds. Half the time I have a fussy baby making discrete noise or I'm in the kitchen or something. @::music@:

skherbeck said:

Do you have any recommendations for surround mixes as good as the Vivaldi?

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If I recall correctly, the Vivaldi albums were made in Abbey Road; I know they're the top of the game of the Dutton releases. As for active quad like that, look for the Pentatone Remastered Classics albums with the Boston Symphony (Carmen, Damnation of Faust, etc). For modern active surround and classical, your best bet is recordings by Tacet, who take a very aggressive approach to surround recording, to a degree that's sometimes almost too much for me. Most of the main players record in the "hall ambiance" mode, one exception of the Rachmaninoff Vocalise on Channel classics, which is recorded from the perspective of the conductor, not the audience.

Good thread aggregating previous ones here: https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...ecommended)-Classical-Music-in-Surround-Sound

skherbeck said:

Do you have any recommendations for surround mixes as good as the Vivaldi?

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Have you checked out the Cristale albums on surroundmusic.one? Very discrete and very tastefully done, IMO. Good music too. Like Orchestra for a movie, I'd say.

A very unlikely candidate for a REAL surround extravaganza is Dutton Vocalion's Music From Spain conducted by Andre Kostelanetz. Another D~V QUAD SACD two~fer with ravishing music and amazing discreteness: https://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=CDLK4594

VERY highly recommended!

And last night, as I've been crowing about for the last few hours, The Interstellar Suite in 5.1 is absolutely spectacular on every conceivable level. If you have any interest in space music, Tomita, awesomely beautiful and heartwretching melodies and an astounding surround experience, I very highly recommend this title. Although it's only DTS 5.1 on both the DVD~R and BD~R , it sounds as good as ANY hi res lossless disc in my vast surround collection. Impeccably mastered by Bernie Grundman.

HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION. Its simply astounding! http://aminbhatia.com/is25mayday/

Just ordered this based on a recommendation from Lute (ordered directly from Pentatone):

Tchaikovsky - Overtures & Jean Sibelius - Valse triste, Karelia Suite SACD (Sir Colin Davis)

Today I revisited my 1812 Overture SACD from Telarc with Kunzel conducting... the cannons are WAY too loud relative to the music (have I matured musically since I bought the Telarc? Who knows... I definitely havn't matured in any other way.)

skherbeck said:

Random surround playlist (foobar picked out some good tunes this morning!)

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I just now figured out how to play all of my surround songs (SACD ISO's and Flacs all included and mixed in together) in random order with Foobar, and it's just freakin' incredible! :yikes :banana: It's like having my own personal surround sound radio station! Thank you so much for bringing this option to my attention bro! So incredibly cool to listen this way. Already heard tons of songs I haven't listened to in forever, and it's also a lot of fun to try to pick out which song is playing with some songs I'm not as familiar with, as I'm usually online instead of looking at the Foobar GUI. This is a whole other level of awesome and a new way to listen to all of my surround music. Got a feeling that this will be my main way of listening to surround music for quite a while! Thanks dude, this rocks!

Also just saw this:

Damn, Foobar picked 'Blackwater' by The Doobies. Foobar is just allright. :upthumb

skherbeck said:

Vivaldi- The Four Seasons SACD (Dutton Epoch)- Classic soundtrack for Grey Poupon and Luxury Cars.

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Is this hilarious or rude? I like rich-people mustard and nice cars, so I'm not exactly sure.?

skherbeck said:

Just ordered this based on a recommendation from Lute (ordered directly from Pentatone):

Tchaikovsky - Overtures & Jean Sibelius - Valse triste, Karelia Suite SACD (Sir Colin Davis)

Today I revisited my 1812 Overture SACD from Telarc with Kunzel conducting... the cannons are WAY too loud relative to the music (have I matured musically since I bought the Telarc? Who knows... I definitely havn't matured in any other way.)

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That disc is worth having. Of course many listeners will initially be attracted to the 1812 but the Romeo & Juliet and Sibelius pieces are fantastic!

Earlier today you had me listening to Vivaldi with PentaTone's SACD:

Vivaldi: 8 Violin Concertos

Salvatore Accardo
I Music


Now listening to Tristan. WOW! I forgot how beautiful this recording is. Yep, I got it cranked! The only way to listen to Wagner. LOL! @:

Wagner: Overtures & Preludes (Meistersinger, Tristan, Lohengrin, Flying Dutchman, Tannhäuser), Siegfried Idyll

Staatskapelle Dresden
Silvio Varviso (conductor)

London Chamber Orchestra
Richard Schumacher (conductor)

Listening to some Diana Krall, on a warm rainy Monday Morn.

DVDA LOVE SCENES ,"Peel me a grape "

And "The Girl In The Other Room" on SACD .

I have the DVDA (DUALDISC) as well and this is probably the only instance where I prefer the SACD over the DVDA , go figure.

Frogmort said:

Is this hilarious or rude? I like rich-people mustard and nice cars, so I'm not exactly sure.?

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I like Grey Poupon but drive a Honda.

Lute said:

Earlier today you had me listening to Vivaldi with PentaTone's SACD:
Vivaldi: 8 Violin Concertos
Salvatore Accardo
I Music

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I was listening to the "Vivaldi: 8 Violin Concertos" as well... I also bought that a while back based on your recommendations... beautiful music, and nice surround activity!

Lute said:

Wagner: Overtures & Preludes (Meistersinger, Tristan, Lohengrin, Flying Dutchman, Tannhäuser), Siegfried Idyll

Staatskapelle Dresden
Silvio Varviso (conductor)

London Chamber Orchestra
Richard Schumacher (conductor)

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Just ordered! Thanks again for all the great recommendations

Tears For Fears-Songs From The Big Chair.....had to dust this one off...love "everybody wants to rule the world".....I remember being shocked when we found out Steven Wilson worked on this one

fizzywiggs41 said:

Listening to some Diana Krall, on a warm rainy Monday Morn.

DVDA LOVE SCENES ,"Peel me a grape "


View attachment 30763

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This was my first surround audio purchase(the DTS version)...I didn't really know what I was buying...I was in Best Buy in the late 1990's and was looking at receivers...a salesman approaches me with this disc in his hands...he asks me if I have a DTS capable receiver and I tell him I have one...he puts this oversized case in my hands and I'm baffled...it's bigger than a normal CD case and I ask him about it....he tells me it's a new form of pure audio(his words)that works with DTS capable receivers...so I buy it and take it home and play it..it sounds excellent and I was impressed with the "quiet passages"....but after a couple of plays it collected dust....OVER a decade passed before I got to it again...the problem was at that point in my life I was all about video...although I loved music...surround music wasn't even on my radar..

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Damn the Torpedoes - BD-a 5.1
R.I.P. Tom...

Clint Eastwood said:

This was my first surround audio purchase(the DTS version)...I didn't really know what I was buying...I was in Best Buy in the late 1990's and was looking at receivers...a salesman approaches me with this disc in his hands...he asks me if I have a DTS capable receiver and I tell him I have one...he puts this oversized case in my hands and I'm baffled...it's bigger than a normal CD case and I ask him about it....he tells me it's a new form of pure audio(his words)that works with DTS capable receivers...so I buy it and take it home and play it..it sounds excellent and I was impressed with the "quiet passages"....but after a couple of plays it collected dust....OVER a decade passed before I got to it again...the problem was at that point in my life I was all about video...although I loved music...surround music wasn't even on my radar..

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I love that album too, Clint, especially on Peel Me a Grape when the cork on the champagne bottle pops from front to rear. I have both the DTS and DVD~A version and both sound remarkably fine with the DVD~A having the edge as to be expected.

I saw Ms Costello recently at our local Capitol Theater and truth be told....I wasn't impressed as I had seen her husband with The Roots a few weeks earlier at the same venue and they were incredible.

Listening now to Hypnotic Eye, BD 5.1 DTS HD Master. Released 2014. Tom Petty & The Hearbreakers.