Comments Inspired by Beatles, The - ABBEY ROAD (5.1 Surround Mix) [Blu-Ray Audio]

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Which is it?

What do you mean? As I said, I think the Beatles had a certain "magic" up to and including 1967. They were ahead of the competition, and were dishing out genre-expanding stuff on a daily basis, and the average quality is sky high. Everything seems inspired and unique.
By 1968, it shifts towards something a little more worksman-like, at least to my ears. They were operating more as individuals, and the average quality seems to slip a little. It's just not quite as "ahead of everyone else". I make a bit of an exception for The White Album because, while it is certainly guilty of everything I just mentioned (nothing is quite as mind-blowingly unique as the stuffleading up to it, average quality is definitely a step down all in all), it is at least a very "honest" album that puts it all on display. I love the hits, and enjoy many of the misses. I veer back and forth on which is my favourite Beatles album, but it is between any in the top 5 I think.
Abbey Road is where it gets just too "crafty" to me.

But in any case, I have been enjoying the heck out of this reissue, and has bumped up my enthusiasm for it at least a notch or two. It seems more "human" and more in touch with the rest of their catalogue. The sessions in particular kind of reminded me of what I heard from the White Album sessions. So I have concluded that it's the production, which is occasionally bordering on the saccharine, that I really dislike.
 
I bid on an abbey road bluray and just noticed it says eu (for europe) . Does the eu disc play in an oppo in the usa? are there problems with the eu disc? Can someone post a photo of the usa bluray (not the jacket).....
 
I bid on an abbey road bluray and just noticed it says eu (for europe) . Does the eu disc play in an oppo in the usa? are there problems with the eu disc? Can someone post a photo of the usa bluray (not the jacket).....

Yes the Music Blurays are non region and will play in the USA - No problems heard of so specifically for Europe so far, but even as people reported here, some USA blurays have had some playback problems. They either play or do not.
 
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Listening to all The Beatles surround albums today, I feel I need to revise my votes as follows:
Abbey Road: Perfect fidelity and almost universally excellent surround mixes. 10.
Love: Same as Abbey Road. 10.
White Album: Overly bright sound and about half of the surround mixes are excellent. 9.
Sgt Pepper: Overly bright sound, heavy limiting, and some underwhelming surround mixes. 8.
 
Listening to all The Beatles surround albums today, I feel I need to revise my votes as follows:
Abbey Road: Perfect fidelity and almost universally excellent surround mixes. 10.
Love: Same as Abbey Road. 10.
White Album: Overly bright sound and about half of the surround mixes are excellent. 9.
Sgt Pepper: Overly bright sound, heavy limiting, and some underwhelming surround mixes. 8.
Still a bit generous, I'd say, but agree on the ranking. 🤗
 
Paul being mixed in one speaker? Hell no. Bass should be centered. Is it just me? Bass in left or right?
When I listened real carefully to the 5.1 mix I could swear that there are two separate bass lines on a couple of songs. Either overdubbed bass lines or maybe even different bass guitars playing in sinc.
Either that or it's one bass line with a separate EQ setting on each channel.
 
I’ve been wondering where to post my ideas about listening to Abbey Road 5.1. Some of the previous posts in this thread convinced me this thread is the best place. I find listening to surround music in DTSMA is fatiguing and the music sounds too bright. Glad to see from previous posts I’m not alone in this regard. I choose the Dolby TrueHD version when both are available. When I first heard Abbey Road in the DTSMA I was a little disappointed since there wasn’t a Dolby TruesHD 5.1 version available. Then something Jon posted about the atmos mix down converting to a 7.1 Dolby TrueHD gave me an idea.

I converted the atmos version to 7.1 Dolby TrueHD. Since my system won’t play 7.1, I summed the rear left channel with the back left channel. Also summed the rear right channel with the back right channel. The volume of the resultant combined channels was quite a bit increased over the volume of the individual rear or back channels separately. Decided to give it a listen to hear how much decrease in volume would be required to make it sound balanced. Low and behold it was perfect at the summed volume. Brought tears to my eyes. Listened to the whole album that way and it sounded great. No more too-bright DTSMA sound. Rear channels in perfect balance with the three front channels.

Just thought I’d share this for anyone who may dislike the sound of Abbey Road in DTSMA. There is a better option available with a little work involved.
 
I’ve been wondering where to post my ideas about listening to Abbey Road 5.1. Some of the previous posts in this thread convinced me this thread is the best place. I find listening to surround music in DTSMA is fatiguing and the music sounds too bright. Glad to see from previous posts I’m not alone in this regard. I choose the Dolby TrueHD version when both are available. When I first heard Abbey Road in the DTSMA I was a little disappointed since there wasn’t a Dolby TruesHD 5.1 version available. Then something Jon posted about the atmos mix down converting to a 7.1 Dolby TrueHD gave me an idea.

I converted the atmos version to 7.1 Dolby TrueHD. Since my system won’t play 7.1, I summed the rear left channel with the back left channel. Also summed the rear right channel with the back right channel. The volume of the resultant combined channels was quite a bit increased over the volume of the individual rear or back channels separately. Decided to give it a listen to hear how much decrease in volume would be required to make it sound balanced. Low and behold it was perfect at the summed volume. Brought tears to my eyes. Listened to the whole album that way and it sounded great. No more too-bright DTSMA sound. Rear channels in perfect balance with the three front channels.

Just thought I’d share this for anyone who may dislike the sound of Abbey Road in DTSMA. There is a better option available with a little work involved.
As I understand it, Atmos will automatically down-mix to 5.1 on a 5.1 system.
 
I’ve been wondering where to post my ideas about listening to Abbey Road 5.1. Some of the previous posts in this thread convinced me this thread is the best place. I find listening to surround music in DTSMA is fatiguing and the music sounds too bright. Glad to see from previous posts I’m not alone in this regard. I choose the Dolby TrueHD version when both are available. When I first heard Abbey Road in the DTSMA I was a little disappointed since there wasn’t a Dolby TruesHD 5.1 version available. Then something Jon posted about the atmos mix down converting to a 7.1 Dolby TrueHD gave me an idea.

I converted the atmos version to 7.1 Dolby TrueHD. Since my system won’t play 7.1, I summed the rear left channel with the back left channel. Also summed the rear right channel with the back right channel. The volume of the resultant combined channels was quite a bit increased over the volume of the individual rear or back channels separately. Decided to give it a listen to hear how much decrease in volume would be required to make it sound balanced. Low and behold it was perfect at the summed volume. Brought tears to my eyes. Listened to the whole album that way and it sounded great. No more too-bright DTSMA sound. Rear channels in perfect balance with the three front channels.

Just thought I’d share this for anyone who may dislike the sound of Abbey Road in DTSMA. There is a better option available with a little work involved.
On my system (Oppo 203 - Yamaha Aventage 2070)
DTS-HD - 96k sampling
Dolby Atmos or DTHD - 48k sampling
Is this normal?
 
As I understand it, Atmos will automatically down-mix to 5.1 on a 5.1 system.
I also down mixed the 7.1 to 5.1 something like georgeshannon did above and didn't really notice much difference from the auto down-mix; on my system anyway (but then I'm an old Mutt and various aural nuances may waft right past me :unsure: - :oops:)
 
It is by far the most dynamic version I have heard, but of course they were working on state of the art new equipment too. Giles Martin really has great taste in the choice of outtakes to add on these sets. It shows that there is a learning curve to mix in 5.1 surround and I love how he respects his father's original mixes. To bad George isn't still around to suggest what he might have done.
 
It is by far the most dynamic version I have heard, but of course they were working on state of the art new equipment too. Giles Martin really has great taste in the choice of outtakes to add on these sets. It shows that there is a learning curve to mix in 5.1 surround and I love how he respects his father's original mixes. To bad George isn't still around to suggest what he might have done.

Sir George had very little hearing left by 2000 so I doubt he could have helped much except from memory.
 
I played this one from start to finish yesterday. Now that the initial shock and awe of actually getting this in 5.1 has worn off, this mix has become the new baseline in my brain. I found that I was playing around with the surround levels...juicing up side one by +3dB and the side two tracks by 0dB to +3dB depending on the song. It's still a ginormous 10 all the way; but it's just funny how one notices warts on almost everything when familiarity sets in.

Then I played Loggins and Messina Full Sail start to finish. Of course it's no musical titan like Abbey Road, but from a mix and sound quality standpoint, I actually prefer that product.
 
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