Nyad
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Beatles 5.1
- Thread starter Lance7489
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MidiMagic
2K Club - QQ Super Nova
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Recordings that make you think you are there are the reason I got into quad in the first place.
I started with a Dynaco diamond. Experimenting with it, I found quite a few recordings I already owned that gave me that "you are there" feeling.
The first two quad albums I got also made me feel that "you are there" feeling on most of the tracks.
The Dynaco 4-Dimensional Demo gives me that feeling on most of the tracks on the classical side and a few on the pop side.
The Ovation sampler also has several tracks with that feeling, although some of them do not have it.
Then came my disappointment when most of the quad releases were mostly ping-pong-pang-poing stereo (reminding me of some of the first stereo releases). And most of the discrete releases were ping-pong-pang-poingy. Plugh!
Even the discrete versions of classical music did not have that "You are there" feeling. Instead, I heard the hall ambiance coming from the locations of the two back speakers instead of surrounding me. I heard sounds coming mainly from five directions - the locations of the 4 speakers plus center front.
SQ also had this problem. I heard mainly the locations of the 4 speakers plus center front. And the front - back separation limited to 3 dB was too small to effectively record concert hall ambiance. The SQ classical records boost the ambiance (cheaty cheat) to compensate for the lack of separation.
Like I said, I have some albums (including rock) that make me think "I am there" when I play them in QS or EV:
- Neil Diamond "Hot August Night" (I have the CD and the effect is gone - remix?)
- Steppenwolf "Live"
- Three Dog Night "Live at the Forum"
- Several tracks from Melanie "Candles in the Rain"
- Meco "Encounters of Every Kind"*
- Meco "The Wizard of Oz" (and I swear you can even "hear" the color come on)*
- Most of the Beatles "Magical Mystery Tour"*
- The long continuous recording on side 2 of the the Beatles "Abbey Road"*
- "Tommy" The Who and the London Symphony Orchestra.
- "Classic Quadrophenia" Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
* A studio album that has the effect.
These are just the albums that quickly come to mind. I have many others.
Somehow these albums create an acoustic environment that surrounds me with a convincing space with no holes in it.
Perhaps we should have a thread wherein willing list members post the recordings/source materials that have the best or your favorite multichannel sound. Since many of these have been issued and reissued several times the specific version ought to be mentioned.
I’m glad others in this thread have paved the way for what I’m about to say: I’m no longer overly impressed by Love. The White Album and Abbey Road 5.1 mixes are significantly superior to my ears, and I think (maybe in a roundabout way) they’ve tired me of the Love mashup concept — in other words, with two such stellar mixes of actual Beatles albums on my shelf, the experimental aspect of Love just kinda falls flat for me now. I prefer the band’s own experiments, if that makes sense.
I know what you mean, but I still need Love because of the following four tracks:
- I Am The Walrus (The mix on the MMT Bluray pales by comparison)
- Revolution (Fully intact and the only MC mix out there)
- Hey Jude (Not fully intact, but the only MC mix)
- All You Need Is Love (A lot of garbage during the ending, but miles ahead of the MMT Bluray mix)
Otherwise, I don't listen to any of the tracks anymore except for Help and Yesterday.
I've also warmed up to the 5.1 of SPLHCB after messing with it a bit.
Care to elaborate on what you did?
The furthest I ever got with it was to juice the rears 4-5dB or so. Not needed on Strawberry Fields or Penny Lane, for whatever reason. I think raising the rear levels is a common need across all the Beatles and Fab solo releases except Abbey Road.
Sure. Remember YMMV:
Surrounds in all tracks juiced up by +3dB except for:
Within You, Without You: +2dB
When I'm Sixty Four: +4dB
Strawberry Fields Forever: +1dB
Penny Lane: +4dB
I only went +3dB generally because I didn't want to over do it. However, if I have listened to a quad recording before playing Pepper, my ears are conditioned to hearing more from the surrounds and I juice Pepper up by another dB.
It is interesting that I feel a need to juice up the surrounds on Penny Lane by +4dB while you found no need to juice it up at all.
I agree WYWY did not require as large an adjustment. As I recall, that was the best mix on the album. I'll have to revisit Penny Lane.
Let's not forget some of the other Beatles in 5.1.(BTW "LOVE" is a DVDA album , not just dvd)
The songs on HELP the movie , are amazing in DTS surround. I play the movie for the sole purpose of listening to these 6 or 7 music tracks.
I'm also a fan of Beatles- Anthology DVD'S , with 3 full surround versions of "Day In The Life" and "The Walrus", and "Blackbird".
And then there's entertainment via the animated movie of Yellow Submarine , DD , and "Hey Bulldog" is the 5.1 standout track IMHO.
The question originally was "Are The Beatles Box Sets worth it ?"
My answer is ;
YES !
The songs on HELP the movie , are amazing in DTS surround. I play the movie for the sole purpose of listening to these 6 or 7 music tracks.
I'm also a fan of Beatles- Anthology DVD'S , with 3 full surround versions of "Day In The Life" and "The Walrus", and "Blackbird".
And then there's entertainment via the animated movie of Yellow Submarine , DD , and "Hey Bulldog" is the 5.1 standout track IMHO.
The question originally was "Are The Beatles Box Sets worth it ?"
My answer is ;
YES !
markshan
1K Club - QQ Shooting Star
Love is it's own animal. You can't simply critique the surround mix, you have to judge the mashups and that will be a very personal matter of taste. That said, I don't know how anyone could possibly fault the work from a technical perspective.
I am a huge fan of the music of Love. It's a regular feature when I am in a Beatles mood.
Yes, it is excellent in its own right and the fidelity is prodigious for recordings from that time period. I remember when it came out, I played the entire album start to finish for ten nights straight. I was so enamored with it that I bought an extra back-up copy. I find the mashups fascinating, but I don't listen to them anymore.
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