OK, remember commercial DTS CDs? Well...........

[Kal Rubinson]

Well, I've seen a number of classical DTS titles come out recently. If this is any indication, it would seem that DTS CDs can be added to other formats like SACD and DVD-A (excluding DualDisc... at least for now) that have essentially been relegated to virtual sole service of the classical music market.

Good news if your music of choice is classical! But for me...

Really? Can you point me to some?

Kal

 

[Cai Campbell]

Really? Can you point me to some?

Kal

Kal, if you would kindly review the date stamp of that post you will see that it is almost two years old!

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Kal, if you would kindly review the date stamp of that post you will see that it is almost two years old!

Ah, yes. The thread that came back from the dead.

Kal

 

[halothane]

I realise that detailed discussion of life on torrent sites is not encouraged round here, but over the past few weeks since I worked out how to track these things down, i've got hold of an awful lot of either quad LP/tape to DTS or DVDA to DTS rips (the SACD to DTS rips I don't bother with as I have SACD multichannel playback and happily buy the SACDs), all of them excellent quality. Even if I had DVDA playback, getting hold of these titles new is getting tricky now.

The point i'm making is that if DTS were marketing even limited runs of some of these albums, i'd be out there buying them. I don't buy the argument that DTS-CDs would dent a future Hi Res release in an as yet unidentified new format. The number of people willing to buy new equipment for a new format will always be small.

The number of people who already have home cinema kit and speakers and could play a DTS-CD is massive; it's not about persuading people to buy quad gear, it's about persuading the vast number of people already with the kit that they can listen to music on it too. I bet half of them will listen to their CDs in pseudo 5.1 via Dolby Pro Logic 2 when they could be listening to the real thing...

Then again, the same group of people could be buying Dualdisc versions, andthey're hardly flying off the shelves.

Whether they're the proper ones (I only have On Air and Abraxas as proper DTS CDs, and the less said about Abraxas the better) or the dodgy ones, I do love my DTS CDs...

 

[Kal Rubinson]

I wonder about the compatibility with current equipment because I recall that some DVD players would play DTS tracks on DVDs but would not recognize DTS CDs. Has that situation/problem disappeared?

(I guess I could test it myself with one of my dts CDs and the 6-7 players I have around but I am not that convinced that more than 1-2 people in the world care that much about it. And I ain't one of them.)

Kal

 

[Bob Romano]

I wonder about the compatibility with current equipment because I recall that some DVD players would play DTS tracks on DVDs but would not recognize DTS CDs. Has that situation/problem disappeared?

(I guess I could test it myself with one of my dts CDs and the 6-7 players I have around but I am not that convinced that more than 1-2 people in the world care that much about it. And I ain't one of them.)

Kal

The only player I ever had that would not play a DTS cd was a first generation Panasonic player. Not only that but it would not recognize cd-r discs either. All other players I have had (maybe 10 or so over the years) has played the with no problems.

 

[halothane]

It may well be that only a handful of enthusiasts will ever get into multichannel music. After all, quad, DTS CDs, SACDs, DVDAs have all only ever attracted a small band of devoted followers, whereas the number of people who have bought into the Home Cinema boom is much bigger.

You could argue that promoting Dualdisc and DTS-CD at Home Cinema enthusiasts who have the gear but don't realise that there's a world of decent music out there might raise the profile of things. Sadly, it may be that today's 128K mp3 generation are happy enough with compressed stereo music in their pocket and don't want surround unless there's a nice HD picture with it.

I'm just happy to have found this website and the increasing enthusiasm for archiving old quad recordings as DTS CDs. If liking multichannel music remains a minority hobby, i'll stay with the minority.

 

[bmoura]

It may well be that only a handful of enthusiasts will ever get into multichannel music. After all, quad, DTS CDs, SACDs, DVDAs have all only ever attracted a small band of devoted followers, whereas the number of people who have bought into the Home Cinema boom is much bigger.

You could argue that promoting Dualdisc and DTS-CD at Home Cinema enthusiasts who have the gear but don't realise that there's a world of decent music out there might raise the profile of things. Sadly, it may be that today's 128K mp3 generation are happy enough with compressed stereo music in their pocket and don't want surround unless there's a nice HD picture with it.

I'm just happy to have found this website and the increasing enthusiasm for archiving old quad recordings as DTS CDs. If liking multichannel music remains a minority hobby, i'll stay with the minority.

Don't forget some of the new Surround Sound SACD titles like the Ray Charles & Count Basie disc from Telarc. Definitely worth picking up !

 

[BananaSlug]

Pete Namlook continues to release DTS cds. They are available from http://www.ear-rational.com/ - search on 'Namlook' and then click on the titles that come up as '2CD' under format, they are cd/dts-cd packages.

I bought a bunch of them awhile back. They fall into the ambient category. They are all interesting and the mixes are excellent, but not the kind of music I reach for very often.

 

[halothane]

I'll be buying the final batch of Genesis SACD/DVDs when they come out too. I've got all of them so far. One thing that is striking is how good the DTS mixes on the DVD sound. My system is pretty basic (Sony home cinema system), and my ears even more so, but the DTS mixes sound good even if you compare them to the SACD. Obviously, a good SACD system should blow DTS out of the water, but there must an awful lot of Genesis fans out there with Home Cinema rigs who will buy these. At least some of them will be tempted further into the world of surround music as a result.

Genesis have really gone for it with these remixes and pretty much anybody with surround sound and a DVD player can experience their multichannel mixes due to the 2 disc format they've used. If only Pink Floyd would do a similar thing with DSOTM and maybe some other albums they'd clean up. You only need to look at the number of times the SACD-DTS CD rips of the 30th anniversary SACD get downloaded on the torrent sites to realise that there are people intrigued enough to want to listen to the surround mix who don't necessarily have SACD. The home brew DTS CD scene is thriving and SACD-DTS rips or DVDA-DTS CD rips are driving it on.

 

[BananaSlug]

You only need to look at the number of times the SACD-DTS CD rips of the 30th anniversary SACD get downloaded on the torrent sites to realise that there are people intrigued enough to want to listen to the surround mix who don't necessarily have SACD. The home brew DTS CD scene is thriving and SACD-DTS rips or DVDA-DTS CD rips are driving it on.

Don't have a SACD player or are too cheap to pay for it? If everyone who downloaded these discs bought them maybe the record corporations would have made enough money on surround sound to continue producing them. That's a little bit of a sore spot around here, I wouldn't bring it up too often.

 

[JonUrban]

Why don't these "companies" sell 5.1 DTS downloads on their own? That would be cool.

 

[halothane]

Don't have a SACD player or are too cheap to pay for it? ..... That's a little bit of a sore spot around here, I wouldn't bring it up too often.

You could try reading the first half of the post before criticising me for being "too cheap" for not having an SACD player as it should be pretty obvious that I have. We could pretend that the illegal download trading of DTS CDs doesn't exist, but it does, and the active trade in surround recordings suggests that the interest in surround music is definitely out there.

For the record; I have had multichannel SACD since 2003 and have loads of SACDs. If they keep releasing them, i'll keep buying them. I don't download stuff that I can buy, and the quad-DTS CD recordings i've downloaded are ALL of albums i've already got on stereo CD, often in more than one version. The point i'm making is that far more people have surround systems with DTS decoders than have SACD but there isn't the legal software out there for them to buy. There are so many great quad recordings that really deserve to be dusted off and given a proper, legal, release on formats that allow as many people as possible to be able to play them, and DTS is a decent enough quality format IMHO. I love my DTS copy of "On Air" by Alan Parsons; it sounds wonderful.

The SACD-DTS conversions of albums i've already got on SACD seem decent enough quality even though they've been digital-analogue-digital. Why did I download them? Well, partly interest, and partly so i've got a surround version to play on my non SACD system.

The only releases i've seen recently in the UK that allow pretty much anyone with a surround system and either a DVD or SACD player to get at the surround soundtrack are the Genesis ones or Dualdiscs. I'm less convinced by the Dualdisc (bought Colleidoscope by Living Colour) as the CD layer won't play in all my players and I don't want the only surround mix to be in Dolby Digital, though that last issue's more a reflection of record company laziness than an inherent problem with the format. I have similar feelings about the MVI (Snakes and Arrows by Rush; Hi Res stereo mix great, Dolby Digital surround mix below par).

If DTS or someone like Mobile Fidelity could only take the lead and get some of these quad mixes out in a better format than Dolby Digital, even if they can only do limited runs, it would be a start.

 

[BananaSlug]

You could try reading the first half of the post before criticising me for being "too cheap" for not having an SACD player

Sorry for any confusion, I knew you were talking about other people, not yourself, downloading - I too was talking about other people. We all realize that there are people sharing these conversions, we just don't condone it (or talk about it).

 

[bmoura]

For the record; I have had multichannel SACD since 2003 and have loads of SACDs. If they keep releasing them, i'll keep buying them.

I agree, same here. Best way to encourage the release of more Surround Sound SACDs is to buy the ones that keep appearing!

 

[halothane]

The sad thing is that i've got the stereo CDs of a whole lot of Talking Heads and REM albums and having heard the surround versions (as dodgy conversions) I want to buy the DVDAs. None of my local retailers stock them any more, and availability on e.g. Amazon gets patchier every day. I'm NOT getting into silly eBay prices for these, but if I can round up some of the originals at a sensible price before stocks dry up I will. Sorry if i've dragged the thread off topic, but if people can't get original, legal releases at sensible prices then it's the illegal DTS CD they'll go looking for.

 

[BananaSlug]

The sad thing is that i've got the stereo CDs of a whole lot of Talking Heads and REM albums and having heard the surround versions (as dodgy conversions) I want to buy the DVDAs. None of my local retailers stock them any more, and availability on e.g. Amazon gets patchier every day. I'm NOT getting into silly eBay prices for these, but if I can round up some of the originals at a sensible price before stocks dry up I will. Sorry if i've dragged the thread off topic, but if people can't get original, legal releases at sensible prices then it's the illegal DTS CD they'll go looking for.

Yeah, it's a bummer that these great titles are getting harder to find. The Talking Heads and REM titles, at least here in the States, are still pretty easily scooped up on eBay for their original list price or less. There are good deals to be found on eBay, patience is required. Many discs are getting scarce though, I've been picking up discs on eBay all year trying to fill holes before prices rise. I've yet to buy a disc for more than the original new price with the exception of Eric Johnson's Ah Via Musicom. With the dollar setting record lows on a daily basis you might try U.S. eBay, even with shipping you might save a bit of money.

 

[Bob Romano]

The sad thing is that i've got the stereo CDs of a whole lot of Talking Heads and REM albums and having heard the surround versions (as dodgy conversions) I want to buy the DVDAs. None of my local retailers stock them any more, and availability on e.g. Amazon gets patchier every day. I'm NOT getting into silly eBay prices for these, but if I can round up some of the originals at a sensible price before stocks dry up I will. Sorry if i've dragged the thread off topic, but if people can't get original, legal releases at sensible prices then it's the illegal DTS CD they'll go looking for.

All the REM discs are available at www.becausesoundmatters.com for $24.98 each( http://becausesoundmatters.com/artist_list?apage=R )

All the Talking Heads are available as dualdiscs at Best Buy... at least they are by me.

 

[BananaSlug]

All the REM discs are available at www.becausesoundmatters.com for $24.98 each( http://becausesoundmatters.com/artist_list?apage=R )

All the Talking Heads are available as dualdiscs at Best Buy... at least they are by me.

He's in the U.K.

 

[halothane]

Thanks for the hints; i'll do a bit of snooping around. With a house move coming up i've managed to convince my wife that a new system is just what's needed so i'll be making sure I add DVDA playback to SACD.