HiRez Poll Fleetwood Mac - RUMOURS [DVD-A/SACD-JAPAN]

[Mooserfan]

Just got this, and am wondering, do other people hear added reverb on some of these lead vocals? Along with bringing them back in the mix, I find it distracting unfortunately.

As far as the track list goes, I love “Silver Springs“ so much, they could’ve lead off the album with it and I wouldn’t have minded.

 

[Cyber 1]

One of the 5.1 playlists is actually an audio commentary set to instrumental versions of the songs.
Very cool!

Wow I totally missed that, man thanks, must check that out.

 

[thebarnman]

Just got this, and am wondering, do other people hear added reverb on some of these lead vocals? Along with bringing them back in the mix, I find it distracting unfortunately.

It's been so long since I've listened to it, I don't remember! When I give it another listen, I'll be sure to check that out.

 

[Mooserfan]

It's been so long since I've listened to it, I don't remember! When I give it another listen, I'll be sure to check that out.

Thank you! There are a lot of aspects of the DVD-A to enjoy, and not all tracks are affected, but I swear some of them swallow up the lead vocal (relatively) in reverb and overall mix them lower. If I’m right about the reverb effect that would explain why boosting the center channel can’t compensate for it, or enough anyway. But it obviously could just be me, lots of people here love the mix.

 

[Todd 987]

When I purchased this release years ago, I listened to it once and put it back on the shelf for a year. The mix sounded so different to me I couldn’t get into it. It took me another few years of listening to it now and again to get into it. Love it now.

 

[gvl_guy]

I finally bought this one, the SACD, mainly because I had placed an order with Import CDs and thought I'd buy a bunch of discs and save on shipping. I had seen everything from love it to hate it on-line about this version. This album has been remixed and remastered so many times that some of the songs don't even sound the same from the original release on some releases of Rumours. Even the vocals sometimes sound like the used a different take.

Well, I have to say I'm super happy with this version. And well worth the $27 I paid for it. Some of the cuts sounded different from the original that I was used to, but in a good way. The musical instruments were more pronounced on some tunes. I was very pleasantly surprised. Plus, until I bought this, I had never heard Silver Springs.

The surround mix was just OK. I love very active mixes. This was not that. But I still liked it. Very natural sounding.

Full blown 10 for this absolutely classic album.

 

[thebarnman]

I finally bought this one, the SACD, mainly because I had placed an order with Import CDs and thought I'd buy a bunch of discs and save on shipping. I had seen everything from love it to hate it on-line about this version. This album has been remixed and remastered so many times that some of the songs don't even sound the same from the original release on some releases of Rumours. Even the vocals sometimes sound like the used a different take.

Well, I have to say I'm super happy with this version. And well worth the $27 I paid for it. Some of the cuts sounded different from the original that I was used to, but in a good way. The musical instruments were more pronounced on some tunes. I was very pleasantly surprised. Plus, until I bought this, I had never heard Silver Springs.

The surround mix was just OK. I love very active mixes. This was not that. But I still liked it. Very natural sounding.

Full blown 10 for this absolutely classic album.

Yea, I'm baffled on how albums can sound very different from the same master. I guess it all has to do with the levels being used from each recorded track. I have one from Earth Wind & Fire that sounds SOOOOO different than what I've heard when compared to the regular two channel version I've heard for many years.

 

[quicksrt]

A 10 on material, sound and mix. The material is not in question. Even with over-play and burnout of all songs here "Gold Dust Woman" is pure demo material especially in 5.1

Someone said this disc makes their Denon 2900 sound like a $10,000 player or something to that effect.

 

[pat bateman]

18 years late to the thread, glad to see the relatively recent activity.

I have both the SACD (Japan) & DVD-A. Question for those who own/listened to both - I started with the SACD and loved it. Then the DVD-A, and it's insanely bass heavy. I turned the subs down, and it's a good mix aside from the huge bass, but not nearly as surround active as the SACD. A very noticeable part if I were to demo the difference, would be on The Chain.

Discogs shows the DVD was reissued again in 2002 after the 2001 release. I wonder if I got the 2002 VS 2001 and the release was a different mix? Sorry if I missed all this in the comments somewhere. I'm 99% sure I'm not crazy.

 

[himey]

18 years late to the thread, glad to see the relatively recent activity.

I have both the SACD (Japan) & DVD-A. Question for those who own/listened to both - I started with the SACD and loved it. Then the DVD-A, and it's insanely bass heavy. I turned the subs down, and it's a good mix aside from the huge bass, but not nearly as surround active as the SACD. A very noticeable part if I were to demo the difference, would be on The Chain.

Discogs shows the DVD was reissued again in 2002 after the 2001 release. I wonder if I got the 2002 VS 2001 and the release was a different mix? Sorry if I missed all this in the comments somewhere. I'm 99% sure I'm not crazy.

Same mix. Check the player/receiver settings, specifically speaker layout and bass management.

 

[pat bateman]

Same mix. Check the player/receiver settings, specifically speaker layout and bass management.

They are definitely different. L/R/C shown.

 

[thebarnman]

At least the louder one isn't clipped!

 

[pat bateman]

At least the louder one isn't clipped!

Yep, and to be clear, this isn't a loudness difference im talking about, although the DVD-A is indeed louder. LS/RS/LFE shown here.

 

[Titch]

I've had the the SACD for a few years but never really liked the sound all that much. The mix seems to drown out the vocals on several tracks. After debating for an eternity, I finally purchased the DVD-A. I do like the sound better - it just feels "richer". For my taste, the vocals are still too low in the mix, compared to the instrumentation - particularly on songs like Don't Stop, Go Your Own Way and You Make Loving Fun. But overall, I prefer the DVD-A. I compared it with the SACD: the bass drum is MUCH more pronounced on the DVD-A! Easy to hear on the second track Dreams. I would give the DVD-A a 7: the album is a classic, but the mix is iffy. The SACD I would give a 6.

 

[ar surround]

That's interesting @Titch . One would think that the SACD might have an extremely slight tonal difference. I'm wondering if your player simply sounds better playing MLP than DSD, or if the SACD is mastered differently.

[edit: Oops, I see some posts above that show the mastering to be slightly different.]

 

[quicksrt]

I've always thought that those SACDs that came out (long) after the DVD-A came out were made from the DVD-A /mixes/transfers, and not fresh remasters or transfers whatever you want to call it. The DVD-A files are the original, SACD copied from that. Just the way it is.

 

[Titch]

I've always thought that those SACDs that came out (long) after the DVD-A came out were made from the DVD-A /mixes/transfers, and not fresh remasters or transfers whatever you want to call it. The DVD-A files are the original, SACD copied from that. Just the way it is.

Well, it was impossible to find any sort of consensus, based on reading these posts and a similar one over at Steve Hoffman. I don't look at sound waves or bit rates, I just listen with my ears. My Oppo 203 is hooked up to a Denon AVR-X7200 9.2 channel receiver with an HDMI cable and it is very easy for me to make a comparison between the SACD and DVD-A, simply by switching discs. There is an obvious, discernible difference in sound quality between the two formats on Rumours, when I playing them sequentially, without making any adjustments to the receiver. Whether it is the decoding of the different formats, or some other reason, I couldn't say. But I'm glad I finally purchased the DVD-A, because the sound is an improvement to my ears, as well as to a couple of my friends. They listened to a couple of tracks, without knowing which disc I was playing.

 

[thebarnman]

The DVD-A (5.1) of that album always sounded way different than the regular stereo mix...so much so; it almost sounds like a totally different album (at least to me.)

 

[himey]

Oppo 203 is hooked up to a Denon AVR-X7200

Is there an extra conversion going on from DSD to PCM? That is usually the case, and maybe why you like the DVD-A.

 

[edisonbaggins]

Is there an extra conversion going on from DSD to PCM? That is usually the case, and maybe why you like the DVD-A.

It can also be the case that folks are outputting DSD from their players, disabling any room correction or other processing. The DVD can benefit from all that. I'd bet that a great deal of DVD preference over SACD around here is due to that.