My copy arrived from Importcds a couple of days ago and I've been listening to the various mixes extensively. I have to say that beyond the lush production and excellent sound fidelity of the recording, the new Atmos mix is one of the most immersive I've heard. On my 7.4.2 speaker setup, the Atmos mix places the listener squarely in the center of a gorgeous hemisphere of sound. Vocals are predominantly front and center, but extensive echoing and reverb bleed into the surround and overheads. Instrumentation such as harp, violin/fiddle, percussion and stringed instruments can appear anywhere in the soundfield, with various drones (tamboura, synths, etc.) often washing through the surrounds and overheads. Bass is very deep and convincing, particularly if you have good subs. Even though you can clearly hear individual instruments coming from individual speakers if you listen for it, the mix is so well balanced that everything contributes to the overall soundfield in a unified way. I've sampled the Atmos mix just with individual speaker sets engaged (heights, side surrounds, center, etc.) and can say that all of these are continuously and often aggressively engaged throughout the album. Also, you can really crank the volume without a hint of harshness or brittleness in the high end, something that the original CD suffered from.
The 5.1 mix, with and without upsampling into the 7.4.2 setup, is a step up over the stereo mix but to me sounds nowhere near as impactful or engaging as the Atmos. Not only are the overheads either missing or simply ambient, but in the horizontal plane the aggressive differential use of both side and rear surrounds in the Atmos mix provides a much more convincing 360 degree soundfield.
Somewhat surprising to me was the included binaural headphone mix of the album. Although I've heard about binaural recordings I never had the opportunity to listen to one before. In comparing the flat stereo mix to the binaural mix on Bose noise canceling headphones it was obvious that the binaural mix has far more depth, space and clearer instrument placement across a wider soundstage. If using headphones is part of your music listening activity, the binaural mix is certainly a welcome addition.
The package itself is a very attractive book set, similar to the Marillion and Jethro Tull formats except that the discs are housed in thin cardboard page sleeves - something I typically don't care for but the sleeves are loose enough that the discs can be extracted and replaced easily. I wasn't sure what to expect from this release, but I can now say that I'm very pleasantly surprised. I'm giving the Atmos mix an enthusiastic 10 (now my preferred way of experiencing he album), the 5.1 mix an 8, and thumbs up on the binaural mix as well. The included live material is well recorded in stereo and worth a listen. Should they decide to follow up with similar editions of The Mask And The Mirror and The Book Of Secrets, I will certainly purchase them. Anyone who likes well recorded Celtic flavored World music will not be disappointed, but keep in mind this is pretty far from rock.
