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

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GOS

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First off, this is about as perfect a "box set" physically as you can get. It's LP sized, the box is sturdy and well constructed. The book slides out easily and is beautifully constructed with a strong binding and the photos and text are on quality paper that will not deteriorate after reading, or repeated reading. The 4 discs are secure in the inside covers of the book and in their own sleeves with original and alternate Abbey Road cover glossy photos, and the discs themselves have the classic green apple label on the two album discs, and the cut apple on the 2 extra tracks discs. And to top it all off, no marbles or scarves!

Overall, I don't think there's a better configuration out there that they could have used for this release. It's a shame that the Sgt. Pepper and White Album boxes were not like this one.

Onto the 5.1 mix. Well, if the past Beatles releases other than "Love" left us frustrated and annoyed at what could have been (1+, Sgt. Pepper), you could not help think about just how they would treat this final Beatles album, the one that was made on the most modern (at the time) equipment with the most audio tracks available in the studio. Would we get the cringe worthy "homage to the stereo mix" or would we possibly get something special?

When I first fired it up in my big room (and figured out that it was playing in stereo), I got it to DTS-Master Audio and listened and wasn't quite sure if my back speakers were working! Not a good sign. I then turned up the volume. NICE! As I went through the album song by song, an album that I loved and played to death in the past but haven't played in years due to burn-out, I started hearing stuff clearer and cleaner than I had remembered. Instruments and voices were more defined and detailed and exposed to the point at times when I did not expect to hear what I heard. Instead of every vocal being in the front, backgrounds were in the back, and things like the moog was in the back when it made sense "he sneaks up from behind...". Someone who made the mix GOT IT! It's a no brainer to put Sun King's crickets in the backs, but in this mix, there is important stuff back there. To me, that's the sign of a good mix. If you can kill the rears and miss stuff, then it's a good mix. If you kill the rears and everything's still there in the fronts, what's the point? And we all know there are surround mixes that do just that.

The "Surround is a gimmick" folks will point to the "Her Majesty" walk around the room, but if you recall the original stereo mix went across the front speakers, so this is merely an extension of that walk. So fuck them! :)

Needless to say, this is a 10. I am not going to get into the mix on each song, that's something others can do. All I will say is that I am glad I lived long enough to hear this, but I am saddened that other fans did not. I think of Ed Bishop, who I never met but knew from SHF and was made an honorary Mod here. He wanted so badly to hear the 5.1 White Album but apparently his bout with cancer did not allow that to happen, but I know he would have loved to hear Abbey Road as well. I think of Cai Campbell and the many other quad guys that are no longer here. One day I won't be here, and one day you won't either, but that's all part of the plan, so it goes. The main thing is that when things like this finally come out, no matter how great they are, I always think to myself "It's about time". Where has this been?

This music is part of my memory storage and like many other albums I've heard too many times, I really can't listen to some of it the same way I listened in 1970 or even 1980/90. I was listening to the bonus cuts and tracks and at one time I would have cherished them but today I just sorta cruised through them, jumping around listening to bits here and there because I did not want to increase the burn out as I wanted to save the listening time to the surround mix.

Oh well. Maybe the surround folks will start issuing new albums that we haven't heard so many times and we can really enjoy them.

So, yes, it's a 10. Get it if you can afford it. It's worth it. It's great. It's a winner. And "That's all Folks!"


Ed passed away?????? Did I know that????
 
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Enjoying the third listen now and enjoying it more each time! I enjoyed both Sgt Peppers and TWA, but the fidelity is better on this. And the mx feels more discreet than TWA. Too bad they've run out of albums because Giles is getting better at this! And the material is, no doubt, better quality with the additional tracks to work with. Great to read all the comments here even if I don't always agree with some. Sharing it with my 19 year old twins right now. One of the first albums they've stayed in the room with me all the way through ... so far.
Run out of albums?
Hardly. Many of my favorites, in fact all of favorites are yet to be done!

Oh, 1 last rant never to be repeated & please don't make things worse by replying. Ignore.
Can we all just shitcan the Giles Martin slams?
NO ONE on this forum has the remotest idea of what he has had to deal with both technically & politically in touching the most valuable music archives in modern history.
Did you think I or any logical mind would rather have you at the helm?
Keep wishing for Steven Wilson & while you're at it, the Tooth Fairy.
 
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Run out of albums?
Hardly. Many of my favorites, in fact all of favorites are yet to be done!
Ha ha! Was hoping to get a response. These three are my personal favorites. And I have REAL free of Let It Be and what that might end up like. Also, earlier albums were done with less tracks and might be really challenging for discrete components.
 
Run out of albums?
Hardly. Many of my favorites, in fact all of favorites are yet to be done!

Oh, 1 last rant never to be repeated & please don't make things worse by replying. Ignore.
Can we all just shitcan the Giles Martin slams?
NO ONE on this forum has the remotest idea of what he has had to deal with both technically & politically in touching the most valuable music archives in modern history.
Did you think I or any logical mind would rather have you at the helm?
Keep wishing for Steven Wilson & while you're at it, the Tooth Fairy.

I'll reply anyway because I agree with you. What we were given in 5.1 for Sgt. Pepper, TWA and Abbey Road is way better than what we had before. So I will take it. Heck, I'll even take 1+ because we got hi-res stereo of quite a number of songs which kick ass when given the Surround Master treatment. And the 5.1 of Let It Be (the song) on 1+ is one of favorites when I crank up the surrounds by about 5 to 6dB.

(As for the Tooth Fairy...I'm not wishing for her/him anymore because any teeth that I may lose are worth way more than what the Fairy is paying out these days. :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:)
 
"Mean Mr. Mustard" actually does have some unique stuff in the rears - there's a guitar note that repeats in right rear and some tambourine in the left rear. The tambourine is audible in the fronts, but not the guitar. You can also hear isolated backing vocals ("such a mean old man", etc), but those are also fairly present in the front left and right as well. I think raising the rears (or dropping the fronts) around 3 dB really improves this track. This is the only instance on the album where I felt compelled to tweak the levels.
I don't have AR yet, but this seemed to be a common thread with the last two Beatles MC releases, Pepper seemed to benefit from a larger boost than TWA for me 5dB vs 3dB. And I expected the trend to continue with AR needing even less.
 
Before I give my review, I have to say about some of the reviews here that some people like a delicate blend of seasonings on their food, and others just pour on the salt. I think this thread makes it pretty obvious who is who.
 
Thanks.
Stepped through all the songs and then was able to select. Never had a disc I had to do that with before.

It's a pain in the neck, for sure. Slightly easier: navigate down to "Something," then right to the Easter Egg video, then select the audio from there. (Then navigate back to the main menu.) Slightly less repetitive motion.

If they'd just authored it using "Pure Audio" protocols, we could use the colored buttons on our remotes to select the audio...
 
Lastly, there should not be a space between the h and the exclamation point in "Oh! Darling" and the "H" in "Heavy" should be capitalized.
It may not be correct, but it reproduces the original LP sleeve:

R-2498807-1425279320-1842.jpeg.jpg
 
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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.
What is smearing? (I truly don't know :) )
 
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