Jon, just curious where you purchased your copy at? Do you own any other Monster discs to compare it to in terms of surround...? I own the Benson & Jarreau and Ray Charles and they are both GREAT in my opinion.
Dan
Dan,
Let me just say this. This is the best surround music disc of a newly recorded (2009) album that I've heard in a L-O-N-G time. This disc is spectacular. (I got mine from Amazon)
Holy Crap!
The surround mix is totally aggressive, without being the dreaded "gimmicky", and the 24/96 DTS Audio track on the DVD sounds incredible. The detail in the guitars, percussion, and backing instruments will grab your attention right from the opening bars of the first track.
Listening to the tunes I already am familiar with, like "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight", "Rainy Night in Georgia" and "Sailing" brought a smile to my face. What a great recording.
I can't recommend this one enough. Please support Monster Music, as here we have a genuine surround audio disc release in 24/96 that you can play for friends and they will go "Wow!", I'm sure of it. Pure demo material, and it sounds so good.
There's even an "Abbey Road" moment when "Sailing" ends. (You'll get it if you let the disc play through with your monitor on). Speaking of Abbey Road, it sure would be nice to get George Benson's "The other side of Abbey Road" in surround on some format. Anyone remember that one from what seems like 100 years ago?
One thing that got me, though, as I've gotten so used to Blu-Ray discs. When I song is playing, there's a graphic screen with the song title and info on the song. There's also a blurb that says "Press TOP MENU to see the options for listening to this song" (or something like that). Well, I pressed "TOP MENU" and the playback stopped and returned me to the main menu. That doesn't happen with BD discs, there's a real pop-up menu, but aside from that little quirk which is really not a problem with a DVD, this disc is a solid 10+.
Order this disc while you can still get it. I don't know how many were made, in fact, as you can see by looking at the scan above, my "Limited Edition" number was BLANK!!! So, who knows how many there will be out there.
At this point, this disc is well worth the selling price. Go for it!