HiRez Poll Beatles, The - ABBEY ROAD (5.1 Surround Mix) [Blu-Ray Audio]

[MrSmithers]

That's two songs, "Here comes the Sun/Sun King" hee hee, I know what you mean though, Sun King is ethereal, I really whacked the volume for that one.

I agree this song sounds amazing in the new Abbey Road! And Deek57 you might have actually heard chicka ferdy before?!

I was recently reading this article about how Sun King came about, where John Lennon mentions the lyrics...

“We just started joking,” John explained in 1969 about the session on that day. “You know, singing 'Quando para mucho.' So we just made it up. Paul knew a few Spanish words from school, you know. So we just strung any Spanish words that sounded vaguely like something. And of course we got 'Chicka ferdy' in. That's a Liverpool expression. Just like sort of – it doesn't mean anything to me but (childish taunting) 'Na-na, na-na-na!' The one we missed, we should have had, was 'Paranoia.' We forgot all about it. We used to call ourselves 'Los Paranoias.' 'Cake and eat it' is another nice line too, because they have that in Spanish – 'Que,' or something, can eat it.”

I'm still running through the 5.1 vs the Atmos version... I have to say they are both superb, but so far I prefer the Atmos. Anyway - both a 10 in my book...

 

[Deek57]

I agree this song sounds amazing in the new Abbey Road! And Deek57 you might have actually heard chicka ferdy before?!

I was recently reading this article about how Sun King came about, where John Lennon mentions the lyrics...

“We just started joking,” John explained in 1969 about the session on that day. “You know, singing 'Quando para mucho.' So we just made it up. Paul knew a few Spanish words from school, you know. So we just strung any Spanish words that sounded vaguely like something. And of course we got 'Chicka ferdy' in. That's a Liverpool expression. Just like sort of – it doesn't mean anything to me but (childish taunting) 'Na-na, na-na-na!' The one we missed, we should have had, was 'Paranoia.' We forgot all about it. We used to call ourselves 'Los Paranoias.' 'Cake and eat it' is another nice line too, because they have that in Spanish – 'Que,' or something, can eat it.”

I'm still running through the 5.1 vs the Atmos version... I have to say they are both superb, but so far I prefer the Atmos. Anyway - both a 10 in my book...

It's pretty much died out now but many Liverpudlians sort of had their own language, it was called "back slang", lots of made up words. It's quite hard to understand unless you are brought up around it. I used to hear it around the "Wholesale Fruit Exchange" when I was a kid in the days of the family green grocery buisness.

 

[GOS]

Oh this 5.1 just begs to played louder and louder and louder! That is a sure sign of a clean recording with a lot of dynamic range. Absolutely stunning. Hey @GOS did you manage to check the DR levels of this mix?

NO!!! Because work is madness these days. I only listened the day I got it..been on the road ever since!! Great idea though. I’ll check things out this weekend...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[himey]

This is my new reference disc! I have been mentally compiling a list of better mixes of albums I truly think are great content wise, and I can't think of anything that is better. This release truly checks every box. The full range surround channels have zero smear. And when I say full range, I specifically mean the low end. As others have mentioned, the bass here is so great! This mix rewards those of us that have large rears and don't rely on routing bass to other areas of the room. The rear soundstage is so large and extended from top to bottom. The instruments are so focused because of the lack of smearing.

 

[JonUrban]

I have been living with this music in my car all week. Let me just say that I grew up a huge Beatles fan, even into the 2000's I bought everything they did solo and reissued and through the 70s and 80s still played them a lot. Lately I haven't given them much playtime as I've heard this stuff too too much. Excepting the Love DVD-A, the reissues of Sgt Pepper and TWA got some play from me just to hear the mix and all, but honestly I pretty much stashed them away a few weeks after they were released. They're great and all, but I just can't listen to the music and enjoy it because I've already done it too many times over the past 50 years.

HOWEVER, this Abbey Road 5.1 mix is just so good that I keep playing it. I mean, "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" is so freaking good I keep playing it over in the car. And "Sun King", wow, a throw away tune now is a go to tune. I mean sure, I still pretty much skip over "Maxwell" and "Octopus" because how many times can you listen to those, but "Come Together" in the car is sublime. And has there ever been a better ending volley to a record album? From the build up to "The End", then after silence "Her Majesty". Wow. Hard to top that.

I think that the mix and the music on this BluRay might be my favorite 5.1 mix of all time. With regard to classic album re-releases, this one is almost certainly it.

Pardon me while I cue up "Sun King" again..............

 

[ar surround]

Excepting the Love DVD-A, the reissues of Sgt Pepper and TWA got some play from me just to hear the mix and all, but honestly I pretty much stashed them away a few weeks after they were released. They're great and all, but I just can't listen to the music and enjoy it because I've already done it too many times over the past 50 years.

Me too. I know what you mean.

HOWEVER, this Abbey Road 5.1 mix is just so good that I keep playing it. I mean, "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" is so freaking good I keep playing it over in the car. And "Sun King", wow, a throw away tune now is a go to tune. I mean sure, I still pretty much skip over "Maxwell" and "Octopus" because how many times can you listen to those, but "Come Together" in the car is sublime. And has there ever been a better ending volley to a record album? From the build up to "The End", then after silence "Her Majesty". Wow. Hard to top that.

I think that the mix and the music on this BluRay might be my favorite 5.1 mix of all time. With regard to classic album re-releases, this one is almost certainly it.

Ditto, except I don't skip over "Maxwell" and "Octopus."

I think that side 2 of Abbey Road is arguably my favorite album side of all time...especially now with this new 5.1.

 

[perzon57]

Played it 3 times.At first I thought the surround was a little weak at times,but I choose the Atmos track and got True HD 7.1 on my setup,and it was much better.Was never a fan back in the days,but I've learned to like their music in later years.
Abbey Road are for me their best album.For value I think the TD box is better.3 albums in 5.1 and lots of CD's .
Gave it a 9 based on the True HD 7.1 mix.

 

[Marko]

I agree with JonUrban that "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" is awesome along with "Sun King". And then the last songs start to build and flow and by the time "The End" rolls around I'm jumping up doing my best air-drumming! This whole new presentation really puts me through kind of an emotional reflection of so many memories associated with this music as a background to the last 50 years of my life. It's a definite 10 for me.

 

[the tree 3]

I voted 9. While I admit that the remixes are getting better as Giles progresses through, I still can't give full marks on the surround aspects of the mix.
I know this is a contrarian view, I just never feel at any point the adventurousness of the Love mix, and ponder what could have been.
"Because" is a classic example of this. This song screams experimentation with the vocals and the lack of surround usage leaves me a little underwhelmed.
Absolutely thrilled to have this, and overall sounds great, I will certainly want to show this off. However, if I am demoing classic era discs for friends, Floyd, Yes Album, Fragile, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, would still be my go to discs. Surround design on these discs are on another level..IMHO

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Quando para mucho mi amore de felice corazón!

How many albums can you remember: where you were when you first heard it, who you were with, what you were doing, and how it affected you 50 years ago?

Well there's only one for me and it's Abbey Road. I was in high school, and on one weekend I was helping a friend build a fence around their house. We took a break at one point and he put Abbey Road on a small stereo system (the first time hearing it.) I just remember being transfixed sitting there, and ended up listening to the whole album with my mind blown. Of course I'd heard plenty of Beatles beforehand, but this was something different. My buddies had left a couple songs in to go finish work on the fence; I stayed back playing hooky to the task at hand. This one album gave me a whole new appreciation for music that still lasts to this day. In the film "The Agony and the Ecstasy" when Pope Julius II kept asking Michelangelo about his painting of the Sistine Chapel, "when will you make an end?" and Michelangelo would respond "when I'm finished!" With these new mixes- I'm thinking it's finished. And I don't remember if that fence ever got finished.

 

[jefe1]

Great post and story Pupster.
There is an emotional resonance with this music that takes you back to your memories of first hearing it.
For me its hearing rocky raccoon and Blackbyrd on the car radio before TWA came out when a friends mom was driving us somewhere on Pacific coast highway
I remember seeing AR everywhere and hearing it when it came out.
I do wish I had my original copy of TWA I got as a birthday present so i could give it to my son but it dissapeared somewhere thru the years though I still have the 4 photos from it.
I did buy a white vinyl pressing in 1978 I'm keeping.

When Paul toured in 1989 he played the side 2 suite from AR and it just gave you chills listening to it. You felt the ghost of the Beatles was present.

 

[marpow]

I voted 10. This new surround release is pure bliss. I listened to a ripped Japanese Blu Ray in 5.1 DTS HD at 75db. Software for ripping was MKV and MMH, both worked flawlessly. PC Intel NUC, Player JRiver with lyrics, HDMI out to ExaSound38 MCH DAC, analog separates out to AV receiver. Poweramps are 400 watts FL and FR, 300 watts Rears and center. No distractions.
To think that Giles Martin did not add anything, but took what was there buried and opened the sound completely up. So cool to hear things better and in a different way. Someone above me said I wish Ringo's drums would go on, I agree, never really realized it before but Ringo is quite the star of the show.
3 albums now in Surround by The Beatles is more than I hoped for a few years ago. I voted 10 on all.

 

[Scott65]

It's great content and mix and worthy of a 10+... but I deducted one point for the disc playback issues. So a 9 from me.

 

[milt]

Well, still only 1 vote for a 7.
Perhaps it may convince the voter to actually listen to the album

 

[Stupy]

This is an amazing 5.1 surround mix. As nice as the previous Beatles 5.1 mixes were, the fidelity, separation and clarity here is extraordinary. This is a recording to demonstrate surround to the non believers. Not surprised it's highly popular here!

 

[LennonCobain]

I have been listening to this 5.1 mix consistently since release, which I can’t say I did for Sgt. Pepper or The White Album. I love it!

It’s so good that I doubt Elliott Scheiner could have done a better job.

By the way, the mastering is fantastic too.

 

[ar surround]

Sounded to me like the guy IS a Beatles fan, just disappointed. I gave it a 10 but I get it... Something, for example, sounds much better on Love. So does Because, with a lot more separation of the vocals and playfulness in the mix. This could have been much more adventurous... So the question I think is do you rate it relatively to, say, Love, or do you rate it based on the specific experience on its own, which is what I chose to do. Because this is an amazing release

Impossible to please everybody with everything in a surround mix. For example I think that the instrumental mix of Something on Love sounds a tad disjointed compared to that on Abbey Road which sounds a more "integrated." But the vocals of that song on Love sound more integrated than they do on Abbey Road. Both are excellent, regardless.

 

[JerseyEd]

A 10 in every way.

 

[Imbobman]

I gave this a '10', this one is the Bo Derek of 5.1 Hi-Rez surround. Outstanding overall sound; the bass, drums, sound mix are truly something to behold. I did turn the rears up a few dBs. This is the only title I have ever given a 10. It is well deserved.
My complaints are minor: 1. I wished the authoring of the blu-ray would have been a bit different, so it didn't start up in stereo, etc. (...as others mentioned).
2. Rice paper-type sleeves inside the individual cardboard disc holders would have been nice also (....though I cut out some small facsimiles from audiophile lp sleeves I had). These two things I can live with so I didn't deduct anything for them.
Hard too believe it was 50 years ago this was released. Let's count our blessings we all lived this long to enjoy it, thank you.

 

[Plan9]

I'm the guy who voted 8, lol.
It sounds appropriately great and all (I mean considering the stature of that album), but I don't find the 5.1 mix particularly imaginative and there are little balance things that I think could have been handled better (compared with the original mix).
I think I prefered the White Album 5.1 remix, but will have to listen more. However this beats the Sgt Pepper remix for me.