DVD/DTS Poll Mayer, John - Room For Squares [DD DualDisc]

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Rate the DualDisc of John Mayer - ROOM FOR SQUARES

  • 10 Great mix, Great Sonics, Great Content

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 9

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 6

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 4

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 3

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 2

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    10

Bob Romano

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Please post your comments, thoughts and observations about this title...(y) (n)
 
The songs are great but the sound quality and mix of the 5.1 is horrible. Stick with the stereo@!
 
Just received this. My second dual disc, first one in 5.1 surround. Haven't cranked it up, first impressions, enjoyable music, but not much sense of any seperation in the rears, or in any of the speakers, to be honest ! Worth buying though, because i don't have the redbook cd. ( I guess most surround dual discs are like this ?? )
 
Just received this. My second dual disc, first one in 5.1 surround. Haven't cranked it up, first impressions, enjoyable music, but not much sense of any seperation in the rears, or in any of the speakers, to be honest ! Worth buying though, because i don't have the redbook cd. ( I guess most surround dual discs are like this ?? )
There are some very good sounding dualdiscs - e.g. The Talking Heads DVD-A Dualdiscs... Eric Clapton - Back Home, Townshend/Lane - Rough Mix...

FYI - There is a SACD version of Room for Squares also....
 
Just received this. My second dual disc, first one in 5.1 surround. Haven't cranked it up, first impressions, enjoyable music, but not much sense of any seperation in the rears, or in any of the speakers, to be honest ! Worth buying though, because i don't have the redbook cd. ( I guess most surround dual discs are like this ?? )

I've recently got the SACD but haven't got round to listening to it properly.

Initial impressions based on a very quick whizz through were not great.. fidelity suffered in places from what sounded like "Up-Rez-ing" (for want of a better term!?) artefacts and distortion.. and it didn't sound like the rears were doing very much, though they were discrete from what little I could detect coming out of them. the redbook CD I have sounds excellent, so I don't know what happened with this one.. ah well..! :eek:
 
There are some very good sounding dualdiscs - e.g. The Talking Heads DVD-A Dualdiscs... Eric Clapton - Back Home, Townshend/Lane - Rough Mix...

FYI - There is a SACD version of Room for Squares also....

Well said, LK! (y)

There are lots of great-sounding "Advanced Resolution" 5.1 DVD-Audio DualDiscs!

I have the Talking Heads "Brick" with all the DualDiscs and they are all terrific, "must-have's" imho.. the Clapton "Back Home" I agree with too, one of my absolute faves in 5.1.

I'd add to that the Lalo Schifrin "Letters From Argentina",
Josh One "Narrow Path"
and Yellow Note "We Love Everybody You're Next".

other true DVD-Audio DualDiscs worth checking out..
Lee Ann Womack "Greatest Hits" (also an SACD),
Grateful Dead "American Beauty" (also a DVDA),
Donald Fagen "The Nightfly" (also a DVDA, much easier to find on that format too),
the 2 x '3 Doors Down' albums are great DualDisc Hi-Rez DVDA's (one of them also available as SACD and DVD-A)..
plus there's the Keane "Hopes & Fears" (much cheaper/easier to get than the SACD and not nearly as bad in surround as its reputation suggests!)
and Snow Patrol's "Final Straw" (also on SACD and just as easy to find, not the last word in surround or fidelity but a no-brainer getting while its cheap).

As for Dolby Digital DualDiscs, I'd seek out..
Pink's "I'm Not Dead"
and Destiny's Child "Destiny Fulfilled"
(both excellent surround mixes by Thom Cadley/QQ member "Thom C".)..

Indigo Girls' "All That We Let In"
(also an SACD but the DualDisc is typically cheaper & easier to get, plus the DualDisc sounds excellent for Dolby Digital)..

and the Bill Withers' "Just As I Am" album,
which has nice surround mixes, with some slightly less desirable Dolby Digital sonic anomalies in places (!) if only it had been an SACD..!!
 
There are some very good sounding dualdiscs - e.g. The Talking Heads DVD-A Dualdiscs... Eric Clapton - Back Home, Townshend/Lane - Rough Mix...

FYI - There is a SACD version of Room for Squares also....

Yes, i'll check those out....aware of the SACD....finding it is another matter ! ( probably very pricey too ? )

I've ordered the other John Mayer release - Heavier Things on dualdisc....also ordered Keane & Bruce Springstein on dualdisc.
 
Yes, i'll check those out....aware of the SACD....finding it is another matter ! ( probably very pricey too ? )

I've ordered the other John Mayer release - Heavier Things on dualdisc....also ordered Keane & Bruce Springstein on dualdisc.

please Rob don't waste your money on the Room For Squares SACD, on the one quick listen through I've had so far I'd go so far as to say its rubbish..!!! sadly the DualDisc is also pricey/hard to find now, or I'd have gone down that route myself!

I have the Heavier Things DualDisc and (contrary to the general consensus from reviews on sa-cd.net) I prefer it to the Room For Squares mix. its no great shakes either but it is superior.. so I'd say get that first and enjoy it for what it is and only pick up the Room SACD if you can find it cheap!

Keane will be alright but get ready, the Devils & Dust DD is the usual Nick Didia dud-ia.. i.e. a crap surround mix!
 
please Rob don't waste your money on the Room For Squares SACD, on the one quick listen through I've had so far I'd go so far as to say its rubbish..!!! sadly the DualDisc is also pricey/hard to find now, or I'd have gone down that route myself!

I have the Heavier Things DualDisc and (contrary to the general consensus from reviews on sa-cd.net) I prefer it to the Room For Squares mix. its no great shakes either but it is superior.. so I'd say get that first and enjoy it for what it is and only pick up the Room SACD if you can find it cheap!

Keane will be alright but get ready, the Devils & Dust DD is the usual Nick Didia dud-ia.. i.e. a crap surround mix!

Hi Adam, i bought the Room For Squares dual disc off Amazon. com ( market seller ) Brand new & sealed, about £10 ( and freely available, from a number of sellers )....same price as the Keane disc. I don't play the Devil & Dust redbook cd, so i think buying the dual disc will be a bit of a waste, but if so only £10 !
I wouldn't buy Room For Squares on SACD even if i could find it cheap. Strangely, playing the dualdisc washed over me a bit, ( yet i was excited listening to the 30 second music samples on Amazon ) i think i need a few more listens.
As you can gather i've ordered all JM's cd's in one form or another ( also his Where The Light Is Blu Ray ) His latest album, Born and Raised, is one of the best albums of 2012 ( imo )
 
Hi Adam, i bought the Room For Squares dual disc off Amazon. com ( market seller ) Brand new & sealed, about £10 ( and freely available, from a number of sellers )....same price as the Keane disc. I don't play the Devil & Dust redbook cd, so i think buying the dual disc will be a bit of a waste, but if so only £10 !
I wouldn't buy Room For Squares on SACD even if i could find it cheap. Strangely, playing the dualdisc washed over me a bit, ( yet i was excited listening to the 30 second music samples on Amazon ) i think i need a few more listens.
As you can gather i've ordered all JM's cd's in one form or another ( also his Where The Light Is Blu Ray ) His latest album, Born and Raised, is one of the best albums of 2012 ( imo )

..and it was the Room For Squares DualDisc that arrived and not the CD..!? wow! and good price at £10! (y)

I have the Where The Light is BD.. excellent! My other half is a massive John Mayer fan, so there's no escaping him round here! :eek:
 
..and it was the Room For Squares DualDisc that arrived and not the CD..!? wow! and good price at £10! (y)

I have the Where The Light is BD.. excellent! My other half is a massive John Mayer fan, so there's no escaping him round here! :eek:

Well i hope it is, Adam ! :D It's got dualdisc on it, in a dualcase, one side redbook cd, other side 5.1 surround & PCM Stereo....added feature docu about making of album.
Just watching Where The Light Is....again.
 
plus there's the Keane "Hopes & Fears" (much cheaper/easier to get than the SACD and not nearly as bad in surround as its reputation suggests!)

Just received Keane today. Really enjoyed it, more of a sense of surround than the JM - Room For Squares release & better mixed too.
 
Rears are about 2.5db TOO quiet compared to fronts.

Poor mix!
 
His first album is still my favorite collection of tunes by him but it sounds like a bad upmix. As someone else said above, stick with the stereo for this one.
 
I think we can infer from the fact that Mayer had Thom Cadley's original Atmos mix of Sob Rock pulled and replaced with a much tamer remix by someone else that he personally supervised that he's not a fan of discrete rear placement of elements, and the unengaging sound of all his surround material is entirely intentional.
 
More likely an intentional decision to pan some elements partly out into the room, but not 100% in the back speakers.
To be clear, from what I was able to see so far, no element of the mix is behind the listener. I can understand not wanting discrete elements completely in the back speakers, but this is a little more than that.

Also, editing the back channel audio out of the fronts would change the levels of those back channel elements in the mix as a whole. I'd have to look more at it to see which sounds more faithful to the levels of the stereo mix when folded down to stereo.
I think we can infer from the fact that Mayer had Thom Cadley's original Atmos mix of Sob Rock pulled and replaced with a much tamer remix by someone else that he personally supervised that he's not a fan of discrete rear placement of elements, and the unengaging sound of all his surround material is entirely intentional.
How tame was the remix? I know that Heavier Things's surround sound mix was rather tame, but not to the point of this mix.
 
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