i'm totally with him on loving Jasmine Nightdreams! its one of if not the most underrated fantastic Quads of all-time!!!
Brad Miller
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i'm totally with him on loving Jasmine Nightdreams! its one of if not the most underrated fantastic Quads of all-time!!!
ahh.. i lusted after one of these as a nipper... but had to settle for AC-3 (which to be fair i still found very impressive at the time and a great leap over Pro Logic).. late 90's was a great time to be into "gadgetry".. people (i.e. the masses) still sought quality over quantity/convenience.. now we're the minority
Yep. There's a thread here all about that:
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/index.php?threads/brad-millers-soundbird-records.26803/
I still have my Millennium decoder and although it might just be the placebo effect I still think that it sounds better than the built in DTS decoders in my DVD and Blu-ray players. You are supposed to be able to use it with CD players that have digital outputs but I've found that not to be the case as most of those output PCM, you need bit-steam output like you can get from a DVD players digital output.
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It's been so long since I've used the 2.4.6 but if I recall it was a pass through for any signals not dts.
ahh.. i lusted after one of these as a nipper... but had to settle for AC-3 (which to be fair i still found very impressive at the time and a great leap over Pro Logic).. late 90's was a great time to be into "gadgetry".. people (i.e. the masses) still sought quality over quantity/convenience.. now we're the minority
When the 2.4.6 first came out, I was drooling, had to scrounge up the cash and did some extra work to afford the additional cables (Vampire Wire) to hook it up via pre out/ext in. I think they torched me for like $250-300 worth of interconnects along with the $700 for the 2.4.6. Dang those Vampire Wires were expensive.
Yes, DelGrasso was originally at Image Entertainment marketing Laserdiscs. DTS hired him to create some content for their system to encourage consumers to buy DTS equipped audio gear via DTS Entertainment. He was the guy behind the DTS Entertainment Laserdiscs, DVDs and DVD-As.
He contacted me because there was some sort of error in the DTS LaserDisc of "Hell Freezes Over" and he sent me a corrected copy of it. I could never figure out what the error was. I will have to look back through old emails, maybe I still have it.
Here's the email:
-----Original Message-----
From: David Delgrosso
To: Jon Urban
Date: Monday, December 29, 1997 10:12 PM
Subject: Re: DTS Eagles
-----Original Message-----
From: David Delgrosso
To: Jon Urban
Date: Monday, December 29, 1997 10:12 PM
Subject: Re: DTS Eagles
Damn what I would have done to have been an “insider” like that. Maybe I should have pursued that journalism career after all! Stereophile awaits me!
Damn what I would have done to have been an “insider” like that. Maybe I should have pursued that journalism career after all! Stereophile awaits me!
The odd thing is that this was way before QQ, and I probably "ran into him" either in a newgroup or on CompuServe! I can't remember. It's even hard for me to believe that I have 23 years of emails stored up!
The odd thing is that this was way before QQ, and I probably "ran into him" either in a newgroup or on CompuServe! I can't remember. It's even hard for me to believe that I have 23 years of emails stored up!
Ha!! And I thought I was bad with having emails back from 2000.
Such great memories at the audio shows, rest their souls Brad and Dave. They were pioneers for sure!
Brad and I owned the Mill. We had a fellow in the Bay design it, and we manufactured in Taiwan. I still have the prototype with a serial # of TAD
Dave Delgrosso was a good dude. First time we met was at George Martin's Studio AIR London to do demos for British industry people, using the purple box, the first incantation of a dts decoder. Went to great Indian joints in London. We had a lot of fun doing demos over the years from Vegas Consumer Electronics, to AES in NY and California. We called the bunch of us running around the planet to push DTS- the Gladiator Warriors. We were going after the heads of all these audio companies, trying to get them to understand it is time to allow access to 6 channels so we could connect decoders. Up to that time you could input a stereo signal, but we needed more! This was a battle, which Denon first saw as an opportunity. Dave had a lot of pressure as DTS Entertainment was only set up to push the system, and blew thru lots of dough. Explaining where it is going and why he needed more. After a while when the new chips came around which made it easy to incorporate into the new audio receivers as the chip did all the work, the DTS folk all became more worried about the stock price more than anything. DTS Entertainment went away.
I’d love to see some pics of the prototype. I was in love with the 2.4.6 is was just a fantastic piece of audio equipment and the gateway to the best sound at the time. Not a lot of home theater folks that I knew had the 2.4.6 they were holding out for Pioneer and Onkyo and HK, etc, to release pieces with DTS built in.
Of course he loved it! It just was Edgar’s commercial “stiff” which some fans enjoy. Wanted it over the platinum “They Only Come Out at Night”? Ok.
BBA takes a lot of heat then and now where Blow By Blow (and Wired) seem not to. It’s the vocals which are where it’s lacking according to others’ opinions.
I was quite complementary on much of the DTS product in my post. And yeah some less than stellar choices were made I should say it again!
Time indeed ran out in them just like it has and will for so many others. But DTS got enough right, as I said, I like their short limited run.
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I have one of those decoders and have used it with CD players tos/link optical output with no problem.
I wonder if I can get a few bucks for my Millennium on the used market? I still have the original box manual and demo disc included.
I remember ordering it and asking for the black model and they said ok. It arrived and was the silver model not the black I wanted. I called them and was told they were out of black, I’d have to return it for refund or settle for silver.
Oh well. I think I got it on sale as it was being discontinued. I used it for a year (or so) before springing for a pricy Denon 1600 DVD-A player which handled DTS discs fine including those QR conversions on CD-R media.
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Fascinating conversation & era, and the particulars of Brad Miller & associates (here on QQ even!), DTS, etc. are filling in some gaps.
Thank you gentlemen, for sharing your knowledge and experiences for another old dog to enjoy.
Thank you gentlemen, for sharing your knowledge and experiences for another old dog to enjoy.
To add to what Miller, DelGrosso and dts were doing at the time, the dts vs. AC-3 wars were something special. It was amazing the amount of coverage between the magazines, the burgeoning internet and what was happening in both big box and specialty brick and mortar stores (rapid technology advances with electronics (tv's shifting to handle dvd and later on HD material, the movement away from tube and screens getting larger and larger, etc). Customers, employees, reps and industry folks debated endlessly the merits/quality of both and whether quad/surround sound music could make a comeback. I remember bouncing from demo room to demo room at a/v shows with certain rooms touting dts or ac-3. If I recall there were a lot of people who were either firmly in the "stereo is king" camp, or the what if there were multiple formats of surround sound, how would people distinguish or understand (lots of people didn't want the confusion of the various quad formats of the 70's).
All the while being overshadowed by the relatively quick transition from vhs/laserdisc to dvd and then dvd to hd-dvd and blu ray.
Yes. I was always in the DTS camp, still am for that matter, but in the area I lived talking to sales reps was like talking to your stereotypical teen. (see what I did there?)
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