I don't listen to STEREO anymore, do you???

QuadraphonicQuad

Help Support QuadraphonicQuad:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I've been collecting the DCC stereo discs lately. Most excellent versions of classic albums remastered by Steve Hoffman.

Almost a shame he didn't do a multichannel mix while he had access to the master tapes.

George
 
I've been collecting the DCC stereo discs lately. Most excellent versions of classic albums remastered by Steve Hoffman.

Almost a shame he didn't do a multichannel mix while he had access to the master tapes.

George

Usually he only has access to the original 2 track master tapes and not the multitracks. And he doesn't really like MCH anyway.
 
Steve has occasionally remixed from the multis; "Let's Live For Today" by the Grass Roots is a great example from the old VINTAGE MUSIC series. He also remixed '60s Chuck Berry tracks, and a lot of Chris Montez Monogram hits and a few from A&M would never have been in stereo without his going to the session tapes. But no, he's not big on MC, but then I doubt he's been asked to do anything that radical.

ED :)
 
ALL sources are listened to this way here. fm, cd, sacd, vinyl, open reel, cassette, and video. nobody knows its on until i turn it off.

we used to LOVE nypd blue in dq. outside scenes sounded like youre out there with them.

my only gripe is when a surround recording is locked into the 5ch mode and a center channel is mandatory to get at the main program content. yes, that happens. to hear what belongs in the middle channel, i have to turn up the sound so that when i inadvertently change sources, i get knocked over by the sound level.

i sidestepped the format wars and use stereo to derive surround with dynaquad. keeping the rears channels down to near inaudibility in conventional stereo rewards you with tremendous surround when a LIVE album like dire straits 'on the night' is played or any of tomita's excellent pieces (now THERES a guy that knew we were out here).

...regards...tr
 
I have a cheap Yamaha 6.1 receiver that has a feature called "six channel stereo" that I love. I have trouble with bass response and in this mode it evens the sound out well. I would much rather listen to any recording in this mode.
 
to date, there is nothing stereo in my music library that doesnt benefit from being replayed in surround.
 
to date, there is nothing stereo in my music library that doesnt benefit from being replayed in surround.
hmmm . . . I'm not sure I would go that far, but I don't believe I've found anything that suffers because of it. I do know that I haven't found anything that sounded bad and I "had" to go to stereo to listen to it.
 
I listen to quite a bit of stereo and recently upgraded my turntable and amp/pre-amp. No fake surround in this setup. I still enjoy my real surround setup in the home theater.
 
I cannot think of the last time I listened to 2 channel stereo. I just can't get into it whatsoever.
It's been years......

If I have a CD, I usually listen to it in 5 channel stereo (fake...I know)
 
I very much prefer to hear any mix in its native form and still greatly enjoy good stereo and mono mixes.
 
I have a Yamaha receiver that has a "7 Channel Stereo" setting which sounds pretty neat. I used to listen to it all the time when it I first got the receiver but quickly got sick of it and now listen to music in whatever the native format is on the disc via the Yamaha's "Straight" setting (with a smidge of extra treble and bass).

So, my mono jazz SACDs get the 2 channel output, stereo gets stereo out and 5.1 gets the whole she-bang.

Movies are a different story though. If it's non-5.1 audio, it gets a faux 5.1 treatment via the Yamaha's "Standard Movie" processing.

There's also a pretty neat "Mono Movie" setting which creates a 5.1 environment from a mono soundtrack. You can get it sounding pretty good too once you fiddle with the delay to remove the echo from the surrounds so it doesn't sound like you're in a gigantic sewer pipe.

Hate it when I get a BD movie that only has a mono soundtrack. Criterion are the main offenders. Sound is such a huge part of the movie experience, I don't know why they ignore it and focus only on the picture. Money I guess. Oh well.
 
Hate it when I get a BD movie that only has a mono soundtrack. Criterion are the main offenders. Sound is such a huge part of the movie experience, I don't know why they ignore it and focus only on the picture. Money I guess. Oh well.

Criterion has never been big on changing the original source material. "A Hard Day's Night" is a pretty big exception, but for the most part if the original movie was mono, they're not going to create a fake stereo track.

Audio-wise, the most confusing Criterion title for me is "The Man Who Fell to Earth". It's just two-channel stereo with no indication of whether it should be Dolby decoded or not. I'd expect something of its vintage to either be mono or four-track. I think it's a bit old for Dolby encoding and it would have been very unusual to do a magnetic mix using just right and left.
 
Criterion has never been big on changing the original source material. "A Hard Day's Night" is a pretty big exception, but for the most part if the original movie was mono, they're not going to create a fake stereo track.

Audio-wise, the most confusing Criterion title for me is "The Man Who Fell to Earth". It's just two-channel stereo with no indication of whether it should be Dolby decoded or not. I'd expect something of its vintage to either be mono or four-track. I think it's a bit old for Dolby encoding and it would have been very unusual to do a magnetic mix using just right and left.
According to IMDb it was released in 4-track stereo. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074851/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Just watched it recently on cable. I've always liked the film.
 
I gave up on most of my CD's due to compression loss. I'll take anything lossless-2.0- 5.1-7.1 if only 2.0 then I'll add the all channel to it. To me though, the DSP processing affects it too much. Not that it's bad. I just don't care for it. I like straight HR.
 
Any "new" music (e.g. Metric's "Synthetica") I discover , I try to see if there's a vinyl version.....and, yes, there is!!!!

Yeah. I eschew CDs too , and if I play them I have to EQ the hell out of it...
 
My four amplifiers automatically get turned on (by me) anytime my system does.

Any other way is boring to me.

Doug
 
I very much prefer to hear any mix in its native form and still greatly enjoy good stereo and mono mixes.
I can't say that I "very much prefer" it. But with a lot of my old classical and jazz recordings, I tend to listen to the native form. Other more recent recordings are most often given the surround treatment. Most definitely with ambient music, such as AF's SACD - Blade Runner soundtrack. How I do wish they would have remixed that one into 5.1!

I just can't bear to hear that in plain stereo. :fly:
 
Last edited:
So, after all I've said about not liking much of anything in stereo - I was messing around with my DVD-Audio of Andy Jackson's solo release (Signal to Noise).....I was having troubles with the multi channel high resolution tracks......(which, by the way, ended up being a setting on my Denon I didn't realize had been activated)...so I had tossed on the stereo high resolution tracks. And...very nice! Excellent sounding music. Now if all CD's sounded that great - I'd be very happy to listen to 2 channel music.
 
So, after all I've said about not liking much of anything in stereo - I was messing around with my DVD-Audio of Andy Jackson's solo release (Signal to Noise).....I was having troubles with the multi channel high resolution tracks......(which, by the way, ended up being a setting on my Denon I didn't realize had been activated)...so I had tossed on the stereo high resolution tracks. And...very nice! Excellent sounding music. Now if all CD's sounded that great - I'd be very happy to listen to 2 channel music.

I always want surround..BUT..in the last few months I have opened up my comfort zone to allow some great content on stereo SACD's and I love them...some of these titles are probably never going to see a surround mix and quite candidly some never should...they just wouldn't sound right..discs like Cream's Disraeli Gears(stereo and mono)...Steely Dan Countdown To Ecstasy...Rod Stewart Every Picture Tells A Story.. The Carpenters....I love all of them...they are all SHM SACD's...and even Aja..which I bought a year ago sounds great...you need to expand that comfort zone and make some moves on the Denon...

BTW...the Carpenters I mentioned is the Singles 1969-1973 SHM-SACD
 
Back
Top