DVD/DTS Poll Stewart, Al - YEAR OF THE CAT [DTS DVD]

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Rate the DTS DVD of Al Stewart - YEAR OF THE CAT

  • 6

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 5

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 4

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 3

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 1: Terrible Content, Surround Mix, and Fidelity

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    55
I gave it an "8". The surround mix starts out "lazy" but gets better throughout. YOTC is terrific!
I have seen this before. The surround mix engineer should always circle-back to the beginning once he's done to see if he can improve on the earlier tracks. This must have been a bit of a rush job.
 
This album in surround was certainly not what I expected. I am used to the silver MFSL cd and MFSL vinyl. What I noticed in this surround mix is that I am hearing music in the back channels that I have never noticed before! Likewise, music in the mix I was familiar with is not as noticeable. Vocals seemed much more spread out between the front channels and on some songs, almost seems detached from the rest of the music. I actually like the surround because it IS DIFFERENT. If I have a complaint it is that the LFE channel hardly has any LFE in it. The song ""on the border" is missing the powerful bass I am used to. I'm not sure why, but I never get tired of listening to YOTC and I always listen from start to finish. voting 9
 
...If I have a complaint it is that the LFE channel hardly has any LFE in it. The song ""on the border" is missing the powerful bass I am used to...

I'm very happy with this release. It's a little bright, but the bass is all there for me. The LFE channel is redundant on music 5.1 titles (not sure about Atmos); so just delete the LFE channel and let your bass management do its job of directing the bass to the sub. For this title, I deleted the center channel as well. I usually delete the LFE on music 5.1 titles to avoid the phase and sync issues.
 
My first time ever hearing this album and, like several posters before me, I felt it started subdued with the surround and opened up as the album progressed. Considering the codec used is "outdated" (why they couldn't do MLP...???) this still sounded great for music recorded 40+ years ago. I'm putting this as a dead on NINE...nice packaging, even though discs came loose in shipping, good book and content.
 
This is the only Al Stewart album that I owned on Vinyl back when it was first released. For me, his voice, while not bad, has always been an acquired taste. I did get used to it and played the hell out of the record because the songs were so darn good. But, what is interesting, I never did purchase it on compact disc. So, after dumping all my vinyl records in the mid 1980’s, I don’t think I ever did hear it again. At least, not that I can remember.

I was so excited when this album was announced that it was coming out in 5.1. I just couldn’t wait to hear it. Overall, I find it to be a decent mix with a couple of exceptions. While listening to it for the first time, I found it to be overly bright, with the first track being the worst on the entire album. Also, the mix is lacking on the low end. Because I listen with Audyssey XT32 room correction, my remedy while using Dynamic EQ is to use the Reference Level Offset set at zero, as opposed to the -10 that I use the majority of the time with music tracks. That raised the low end back up and helped take care of the majority of the brightness, which makes sense. The exception was Broadway Hotel. That track is still lacking bass.

I heard a couple people mentioned that Midas Shadow is most likely an Upmix. I wouldn’t doubt it. It sounds very much like the Moody Blues 5.1 surround mix of In Search Of The Lost Chord. It’s like the front speakers were folded into the rear speakers sans vocals and it has this out-of-phase sound.

It was great listening to this album again and bringing back all those memories from years ago. I’ve had several of the songs playing in my head for the past week. This one, while not perfect, will be on heavy rotation in my disc spinner for some time. I’m giving it a ’8’.
Thanks for this tip. I also use the room correction on my Denon (XT in my case). Do you set the XT32 to Reference or Flat? I'm guessing Flat would only make the matters worse, if perceptable at those higher frequencies? You mention using DynEQ for music most of the time, you find it works well then? I will try it with YOTC and go from there? Thanks
 
Thanks for this tip. I also use the room correction on my Denon (XT in my case). Do you set the XT32 to Reference or Flat? I'm guessing Flat would only make the matters worse, if perceptable at those higher frequencies? You mention using DynEQ for music most of the time, you find it works well then? I will try it with YOTC and go from there? Thanks
I keep it at the Flat setting for both movies and music due to sitting closer to my speakers.
 
I received the set yesterday, I'll listen to it a bit more before voting though. Some here are lamenting that it's not a DVD-Audio disc "as described or labelled"; I see no mention of DVD-Audio anywhere so I don't understand what they are talking about. The disc is clearly labelled as a DVD. DVD-Audio, I am afraid is now virtually a dead format. Too bad it wasn't either a Blu-ray audio disc or a SACD.
 
I received the set yesterday, I'll listen to it a bit more before voting though. Some here are lamenting that it's not a DVD-Audio disc "as described or labelled"; I see no mention of DVD-Audio anywhere so I don't understand what they are talking about. The disc is clearly labelled as a DVD. DVD-Audio, I am afraid is now virtually a dead format. Too bad it wasn't either a Blu-ray audio disc or a SACD.
I think some people are getting micro focused on that it’s marketed as a DVD-Audio but this doesn’t have MLP. The disc does have the dvd-audio logo on it though.
image.jpg
 
I think some people are getting micro focused on that it’s marketed as a DVD-Audio but this doesn’t have MLP. The disc does have the dvd-audio logo on it though.
View attachment 66046
It's not a DVD-A, though. Even the uncompressed stereo resides in the VIDEO_TS folder. Esoteric does this all the time, and it grates.
 
I have listened to the DTS / Dolby Digital Surround album completely around 4 times and slightly prefer the DTS surround mix. I am sensitive to bright treble / high frequency recordings and am not having any problems with Year of the Cat 5.1 as far as being too bright.
I do wish the 5.1 surround mix of the Lord Grenville and On the Border were adventurous in the rear channels but as others have noted the 5.1 surround mix is better after Midas Shadow.
 
Got mine from Amazon this week. I was lucky to get a refund of $29 since I bought it on prebuy. Prebuy price was 90 with tax, but they gave me 29 and some change refund when I chatted with them and asked for it, since the Amazon price is now $59. I hope that was a good deal since I didn't check prices.
 
Going with an 8, but a solid 8. Get this!
-1 point for DVD-V when other superior formats are available and -1 point for the questionable DTS mastering.


I tend to agree with Mike. A classic remaster like YEAR OF THE CAT deserves replication in 21st Century Technology ...... DVD~A 96/24 or BD~A. The upper register 'tizziness' a lot are experiencing is not as apparent on my system. Everything is clear and concise but as I did mention in another post, my discs were scrambled in shipment and the LOSSLESS LPCM 96/24 Stereo tracks skip. I will ask for a replacement but a word to the wise .....as Mike inferred in his YOTC LIFE IN SURROUND segment .....make the pockets deeper or else enclose the discs in those Japanese poly sleeves [which I did with all the discs].

Although the 5.1 remix is conservative on some tracks, overall, Alan Parsons did another fine remix.

PLEASE ESOTERIC .... in the future treat these remasters as sacrosanct and dispense with the LOSSY DVD~Vs ........If that encompasses less lavish packaging...so be it!

In the end IT'S THE MUSIC THAT COUNTS!

I'm voting an 8! But the music/remix is a 9!
 
It's not a DVD-A, though. Even the uncompressed stereo resides in the VIDEO_TS folder. Esoteric does this all the time, and it grates.
Definitely irksome!!

The ONLY benefit I can see w/Esoteric putting dts/dd tracks on the video side and not putting MLP on the audio side, is that the disc will be compatible for for everyone with a dvd player or blu ray player, most players would not recognize the dvd-a folder. Universal players are quickly becoming extinct as we know. BUT no doubt they mis-labeled the disc as dvd-a.
 
Definitely irksome!!

The ONLY benefit I can see w/Esoteric putting dts/dd tracks on the video side and not putting MLP on the audio side, is that the disc will be compatible for for everyone with a dvd player or blu ray player, most players would not recognize the dvd-a folder. Universal players are quickly becoming extinct as we know. BUT no doubt they mis-labeled the disc as dvd-a.

But that was exactly one of the benefits of dvd-a; there was room for MPL AND DD or DTS. They were fully compatible with any dvd player; though you couldn't get lossless without DVD-A capability, you could still get surround.
 
But that was exactly one of the benefits of dvd-a; there was room for MPL AND DD or DTS. They were fully compatible with any dvd player; though you couldn't get lossless without DVD-A capability, you could still get surround.
100% yes! I wish someone from Esoteric was here that could respond to this. Maybe they don't have MLP codec capability, maybe they feel MLP is irrelevant?
 
100% yes! I wish someone from Esoteric was here that could respond to this. Maybe they don't have MLP codec capability, maybe they feel MLP is irrelevant?

More likely they either don't know what true DVD-Audio is, or if they know they don't want to pay extra someone who can author DVD-Audio discs.
 
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