HiRez Poll Yes - CLOSE TO THE EDGE [DVD-AUDIO/BLU-RAY]

[colsky]

Yes, the site was down, also today.

My hearing position is the favorite of Mr. Wilson.
I sit between my rears. They are not behind me.
And I came to this conclusion by comparing it to other recordings.
Yesterday when I heard the DTS-HD stream it was a different experience...now the vox were more integrated.
So I will hear it from now on in DTS-HD.
As you mentioned I also think that SK is better in PCM.

I'm sat between the rear speakers too. The difference with your listening position is that you probably have a stein of excellent German beer in each hand to help balance

 

[IMachine]

Hi elmer,

Agreed on all points.

Don't worry bout the low scores, that's mostly from our German friends. They are still a little sore about WWII and the Brittish.... YES being from England... just don't mention the war, whatever you do! (Fawlty Towers, anybody???)

[video=youtube;yfl6Lu3xQW0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfl6Lu3xQW0&list=PL78199F58B9CB9B31[/video]

Seriously:

I do think I may have found a reason for some of the debate on the CTTE sound quality/value judgements.

For better or worse, Steven Wilson did a LOT of dead center channel mixing on this. (Especiall on And You And I),the kick drum, the main vocal, Rick's main synth lines, etc... I think for this particular mix, one's sound system must really be setup perfect or the sounds will blend and not stand out quite like SW is trying to deliver through his mix. I have hearing issues with the synth and various volume level issues, but I think I need to really have my system setup better, and that will solve most issues. I do think that when Steven Wilson mixes, he assumes we have 5.1 full range speakers and set up correctly. If we don't, the mix will sound a bit(or more) off.

To those coming out of the woodwork and posting:

Welcome! Keep it coming and don't be afriad to bring your sense of humor!

HUMOR!!!!!!
STILLGESTANDEN! SAUERKRRRRRAUT!

God save BERLIN!

 

[DennisMoore Jr.]

HUMOR!!!!!!
STILLGESTANDEN! SAUERKRRRRRAUT!

God save BERLIN!

English translation: "Halt!" "Cabbage!"

Wow, and the mods told me "I" had a strange sense of humor...@:

Well at least you lot got that mess in East/West Berlin all sorted out...

No joke: my next-door neighbor just bought a Volkswagen mini-SUV. She likes it a lot.

 

[groo]

I am in the same camp as mam, I too feel there is a lack of bottom end. SW mix is exemplary as usual, but I found a couple of his works lacking in the bottom end, case in point The Incident. Maybe that's his style of remix. Anyhows, I am happy as a bumblebee with this new remix. It feels much more cleaned, instrumental sounds are clean and have a separation even in the rear channels. But... compared to Steve Hoffman mixed SACD, the pipe organ here sounds a little bit deficient. So I just docked 1 point for this.

 

[kap'n krunch]

You know?
I played it again last night and , i don't know if it was because I placed myself a little bit more in front of the sweet spot in my room, but this time I heard the BASS.
Maybe it's because SW mixes in a room/speaker combo that is bass heavy or he just likes it that way, but I found it weird...

Definitely love the panning on the synth sequencer "upwards" 64th note line in the back....

Yes , the back vox are "louder" than normal because of the placement, but Jon's voice is loud and clear...it sounds like it's coming from above the center speaker!!!! And no, you can't have what I'm having...(got a prescription for that! )

Overall , getting better with every listen...

 

[Jeffrey Michael]

kap n',

Have you not heard of peaks & nulls? Or, room correction?

 

[groo]

No arguments here about SW clarity(love it to death) in mixing but in my setup I have 2 subs, one is ML Abyss and the other HSU VTF-3, that is plenty of sub for one room. But comparing to the recent 2 channel SACD release, the organ and the bass does sound a little thin. So this is coming from reference point. So maybe the solution is just nudge the subs up for the Blu-ray.

 

[peterzach]

You know?
I played it again last night and , i don't know if it was because I placed myself a little bit more in front of the sweet spot in my room, but this time I heard the BASS.
Maybe it's because SW mixes in a room/speaker combo that is bass heavy or he just likes it that way, but I found it weird...

Definitely love the panning on the synth sequencer "upwards" 64th note line in the back....

Yes , the back vox are "louder" than normal because of the placement, but Jon's voice is loud and clear...it sounds like it's coming from above the center speaker!!!! And no, you can't have what I'm having...(got a prescription for that! )

Overall , getting better with every listen...

Kp'n, thats what I found as well as I don't have the bluray so I reported following in dvd audio section.
YES, I finally got my copy yesterday just minutes before I got home. This was so much fun to listen to and now I understand what some others were saying about this both good and bad.
I don't like fiddling to much with my surround setup so main thing I like doing is sitting in what I think is the sweet spot but I found I was sitting to close to the back speakers as the counter vocals done by Steve Howe,Chris Squire was louder than Jon Anderson's so on next listen through I positioned my chair more forward and that was much better. My drive into work this morning listened in the car and again sounded awesome.
I want to do a few more listens before voting but initial impression is this is getting max score and might even need to go to 11 as Nigel would say in Spinal Tap.
I am grinning ear to ear as to finally being able to listen to this for the next week and beyond.
YES are amazing and Steven Wilson has done another great job on this.

To the person who said about room correction and peaks nulls, not sure about the kap'n or others but I find that way to time consuming to do all those setups as I have tried the audessy that my marantz receiver came with to do it but I don't like it so I use the direct option on my reciever so that the receiver doesn't do anything extra other than provide power so that it is uses the oppo bluray as the total input.

Back to the Yes discussion.
I don't remember it being very bass heavy from my lp listening years as I find what Steve has done is very similar to his own recordings, everything comes through with suck clarity and detail that this is now my best YES recording that I own.
I can't get over how good this sounds and all instruments come through with such amazing clarity so if I want to focus on Chris Squire's bass playing its not hard to do, its right there(you don't have to go around the corner or put some headphones on).

I will only vote on Dvd Audio section as thats what I have but the more I think about it this should be rated a 11,.

 

[IMachine]

Kp'n, thats what I found as well as I don't have the bluray so I reported following in dvd audio section.
YES, I finally got my copy yesterday just minutes before I got home. This was so much fun to listen to and now I understand what some others were saying about this both good and bad.
I don't like fiddling to much with my surround setup so main thing I like doing is sitting in what I think is the sweet spot but I found I was sitting to close to the back speakers as the counter vocals done by Steve Howe,Chris Squire was louder than Jon Anderson's so on next listen through I positioned my chair more forward and that was much better. My drive into work this morning listened in the car and again sounded awesome.
I want to do a few more listens before voting but initial impression is this is getting max score and might even need to go to 11 as Nigel would say in Spinal Tap.
I am grinning ear to ear as to finally being able to listen to this for the next week and beyond.
YES are amazing and Steven Wilson has done another great job on this.

To the person who said about room correction and peaks nulls, not sure about the kap'n or others but I find that way to time consuming to do all those setups as I have tried the audessy that my marantz receiver came with to do it but I don't like it so I use the direct option on my reciever so that the receiver doesn't do anything extra other than provide power so that it is uses the oppo bluray as the total input.

Back to the Yes discussion.
I don't remember it being very bass heavy from my lp listening years as I find what Steve has done is very similar to his own recordings, everything comes through with suck clarity and detail that this is now my best YES recording that I own.
I can't get over how good this sounds and all instruments come through with such amazing clarity so if I want to focus on Chris Squire's bass playing its not hard to do, its right there(you don't have to go around the corner or put some headphones on).

I will only vote on Dvd Audio section as thats what I have but the more I think about it this should be rated a 11,.

Just to get things clear: EVERYONE WHO IS NOT A GERMAN HAS TO VOTE IT WITH 10!
:ugham:

 

[IMachine]

English translation: "Halt!" "Cabbage!"

Wow, and the mods told me "I" had a strange sense of humor...@:

Well at least you lot got that mess in East/West Berlin all sorted out...

No joke: my next-door neighbor just bought a Volkswagen mini-SUV. She likes it a lot.

I'm sure she voted 10 for the car!

 

[DennisMoore Jr.]

Just to get things clear: EVERYONE WHO IS NOT A GERMAN HAS TO VOTE IT WITH 10!
:ugham:

You know what???....... .....That's not a bad idea!

And then we can have a separate poll for Germans on what is their favorite beer.

Seriously: What is this marching with cabbage business???@:

Ok, real serious part: Who's the chap who gave CTTE a 6???


@Kap'n: Que tal, amigo?

 

[IMachine]

Seriously: What is this marching with cabbage business???@:

I think this cannot be answered by a german .

The 6 vote......it was Steven Wilson @: shhhhhhhhh.....

 

[peterzach]

Just to get things clear: EVERYONE WHO IS NOT A GERMAN HAS TO VOTE IT WITH 10!
:ugham:

Or people like me would like to vote 11, I come from german heritage as my parents spoke german with us as kids growing up, in fact I didn't know a word of english when I started school in a small farming community in BC Canada. That explains why I can't can't do either now, as parents were learning english same time as us kids so we spoke a mix of german and english at home so we spoke Genglish so thats my explanation to why I suck(just reread what I posted, suck clarity, what's that) at forming any readible sentences.
Anyways, OOPS going on tangents here, sorry JON and whoever else is reading here looking for more informed information on CTTE.

back to Yes.....

still loving listening to CTTE, can't wait till whatever the spring selection we get.

 

[milt]

Ok, real serious part: Who's the chap who gave CTTE a 6???

I was going to comment on this earlier so I'll post it now.
Who rated it a 6 and didn't have the kahones to justify it?
By any logical, rational reasoning it's a 9 at minimum for SQ and a Nigel 11 on the Definitive Scale.

 

[rusinurbe]

I gave it a 9 possibly because I was being hard on the disc but compared to the XTC disc this just fall slightly below.
1) not keen on the packing
2) the mix while good just lacks a bit of Bollocks compared to the XTC disc.
3) the content again is just below the XTC disc.

so as the standard is the XTC dic then this is just below the new standard

 

[atlantasteve]

I have had a chance to compare America on the CTTE blu-ray and Fragile DVD-A. The versions are different. I find the CTTE version more orchestral and the Fragile version more rock based. The Fragile version has more movement in the speakers. I also had to turn the volume up on the CTTE version. I'm glad to have the opportunity to compare two versions of the same song. I had the opportunity to do the same with Layla and am thinking about doing the same with Tommy. Keep the versions coming!

 

[Scott M4]

Thoughts cut and pasted to Blu Ray section.

 

[Scott M4]

Had my first listen and enjoyed it immensely but do have some quibbles. The vocals, guitars and bass sound great - not shrill and with a fatter bottom than previous editions. I found the keyboards generally subdued compared to the guitars and my key disappointment is that Bruford's cymbals also feel subdued and his snare seems to lack his characteristic punch and ring. Bruford's playing was such a prominent part of the album for me but rarely commanded my attention in this surround mix. (The drum sound felt more like Alan White's.) All that said, I'm thrilled to have this gem in surround and I'll treat it as a true alternate vision of the album. I can return to the original stereo mix for its virtues and wallow in this wonderful version the rest of the time. It's a thrill to finally be enveloped in this album as it takes me on its trip, so BIG thanks to SW dispite my quibbles. I look forward to his other visions of Yes in surround.

 

[kvsawilson]

I finally got my copy and, with the wife out of the house, gave it a good loud listen. It's my favorite album and it has never sounded better. Incredible! The best my stereo (generic term) has ever sounded. This was the holy grail of surround discs for me and doesn't disappoint.

I will say that with the flat transfers and no compression, it really does seem these have to be played quite loud to really be appreciated. If the softer passages are going to be loud enough for the the detail to come through, then the louder passages are going to be very loud. It's hard to really hear it all at background levels. I first found this on ELP's Take a Pebble, where I need to turn it up quite a bit to really hear the percussive water sounds and then when the hand claps come shortly after it seem too loud. I find myself turning the volume up and down to compensate and this recording is somewhat the same. When you're ready to play it loud and not be disturbed, it's fine. But at lower volumes, I think the quieter parts get lost and I would personally appreciate some dynamic compression. Could just be my old ears are worn out.

K

 

[grill]

I finally got my copy and, with the wife out of the house, gave it a good loud listen. It's my favorite album and it has never sounded better. Incredible! The best my stereo (generic term) has ever sounded. This was the holy grail of surround discs for me and doesn't disappoint.

I will say that with the flat transfers and no compression, it really does seem these have to be played quite loud to really be appreciated. If the softer passages are going to be loud enough for the the detail to come through, then the louder passages are going to be very loud. It's hard to really hear it all at background levels. I first found this on ELP's Take a Pebble, where I need to turn it up quite a bit to really hear the percussive water sounds and then when the hand claps come shortly after it seem too loud. I find myself turning the volume up and down to compensate and this recording is somewhat the same. When you're ready to play it loud and not be disturbed, it's fine. But at lower volumes, I think the quieter parts get lost and I would personally appreciate some dynamic compression. Could just be my old ears are worn out.

K

Yes, the mch mix of all album songs has a quite wide dynamic range: DR 13-14 (DR 14 on average).