HiRez Poll Styx - THE MISSION [Blu-Ray Audio]

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Rate the BDA of Styx - THE MISSION


  • Total voters
    43
Oh boy...

Listened twice yesterday, and once just now. I don't need to hear any more to know I'm voting 10. I already had the vinyl since it was released last year...so I knew I loved the fidelity and content.

Now I have the 5.1 blu-ray. Wow! I'm honestly pretty blown away. I love everything about the way this sounds. It's big, full and the 5.1 is just so tastefully done. What a fun listen....

I think STYX have returned with an absolute gem...so hard for me to believe they pulled off this sort of release...which certainly sounds much more like it could have been somewhere in the Grand Illusion era....and oh does it make me happy. YES!!!!!!!!!

Liner notes say Jim Scott mixed the 5.1 and mastering by Richard Dodd....bravo whoever you are... :)
 
Big sound, clear recordings, active use of rear channels. Add a great concept with excellent musical execution and you earn a 10!

My only quibble Is a personal preference to have drums stay in the front sound stage. Iā€™ll take it though....Mixing drums to both front and rear was an artistic choice I can live with.

Now letā€™s have the legacy Styx albums in 5.1! Use the same product marketing strategy. The no-nonsense CD/BluRay is the Goldilocks product of music publishing.
 
Disappointed, voted 7. Too much immersive, not enough discrete for what I heard last year in the stereo. They could have made this really fun and crazy with instruments, space sounds, rockets, but they didnā€™t. Stereo plus mix plus is stereo in the front vs stereo in the back doing different things, not a discrete 5.1.
 
I am with marpow on this one. I didn't get much of a soundstage at all with what sounded like big stereo surrounding the listener. Certainly, there is some discrete content also mixed into the rears as well. Kudos to Styx and their record label for taking this one on. While at times you do get a feel of classic Styx, I found myself getting a bit bored and wincing a bit at some of the lyrics. Still, this was well worth my purchase and my time to listen. Probably a 7 or maybe an 8 for me. I'll listen again and then vote.
 
Ooh is this becoming a bit marmite!!
Well for my two penneth/ or cents, I like it.
Yes its different.
Yes there are things going on that are not quite the accepted norm.
Yes its challenging to get them speakers at the right volume.
But like all works of art it will generate so many varying opinions, that in itself, is a good thing.
Better to be talked about, than ignored.
So I've given it a 9.
 
Stereo plus mix plus is stereo in the front vs stereo in the back doing different things, not a discrete 5.1.
This is a good assessment. When I listen to how they mixed this, it sounds like they took the final stereo stems/tracks, put some of them discretely in front, some discretely in back, some equally front and back ("big stereo"), and others nudged towards the front or back. The "Plus" you refer to, for me, is the added discrete bits moving around the room. My feeling, though, is that the overall effect really works and I'm enjoying it... it really does "stay true" to the stereo version while still providing a big, full, immersive and FUN sound :)
 
I made this post in a different thread, but decided it may be better suited for the poll thread. :)

I'm listening to Locomotive from The Mission BDA. On this particular song, it does seem in the first quarter (maybe first eighth) that Tommy's vocals are louder in the 2 rears at first.....but man. I think it was on purpose because this piece is so atmospheric, and then as the song evolves, his vocals simply grow louder and sneak from the rears...sort of over your head and to the front. I LOVE that!! I don't think they were going for reproducing what you traditionally think a band or surround mix should sound like......I think they are going for a particular effect/mood/space.

I'm glad they didn't go for a Steven Wilson style mix. (vocals locked and loud in the center)
And...don't get me wrong....I Love SW mixing obviously...but I'm not going to lie...sometimes the vocals locked and loud in the center are jarring for me. That's probably why I prefer Quad type mixes where the vocals create more of a ghost center....for me...that is much more enjoyable.


Again....this is just my preference. If all surround mixes simply followed a standard.....I would begin to find it all rather boring. I enjoy these different ways of listening to music.

Long story short, I still absolutely dig the way this whole album/surround adventure sounds. I must...because I keep playing it. My vote of 10 was not knee jerk voting...I still think it's a 10. It's everything I want a surround experience to be... That says something for me... :rocks
 
For some reason this was a tough one to call, but voting an 8. Strong material, and a decent surround mix that I will listen to again. Will probably check out the stereo a little more too, as the stereo seems well done for the tracks I have sampled. Menus are also great, pretty much offering up front all the selections you may want in one spot, plus I like that they tried to put some artwork up for each song, even though I darken the screen when listening to music most of the time. It was thoughtful that they give you the option on the menu to disable the visuals. The songs overall are pretty strong, and it doesn't really sound like voices have aged that much! But I weighted the surround experience the most heavily when scoring and between the "OK" surround treatment and the feeling that there was a low rez link in the chain somewhere, I didn't rank it higher. To me, the percussion was somehow tamed to the point where cymbal work had no impact. My only memory of the bass is that occasionally a bass drum showed up in the subwoofer. Other than that I honestly don't remember anything about the bass, which is odd. I will go back and listen again. I like Styx and I like that they gave us a surround offering such as this. I will definitely buy any additional surround mixes they produce.
 
Alright, ready to vote after several listens... generally a really good, immersive mix with lots of discrete activity throughout. I absolutely agree with others' assessment of the rears being too hot... but I love that there is so much activity going on back there. The lead vocals kind of bounce back and forth between the rears and the front, which was a little jarring at first since I'm not used to that, but ultimately I like it. The fidelity is great to me. And the music is classic Styx (which means I love it!). I also love all the active elements moving around the room (lots o' love 'round here!). Voting on the mix as it is, I'm going 8, but I'd give it a 9 based on the mix with the rear channels lowered 3dB (I definitely prefer this disc to the Cyclorama disc, which I also enjoy). I'd be happy if this team did more Styx mixes like this for the older albums.
 
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I have listened to this 4 times now and will comment.
What to like. First off the album itself and its real good 40ish minute listen, time goes by in a flash.
I like the dynamics as they are miles better than the cd so thats a big plus as well.
The 5.1 mix is average to me. I think Tommy Shaw's comment that he loved listening to stuff(Alan Parsons,Pink Floyd) on headphones applies to the surround mix, it feels like a headphone mix with vocals right there in the center of your listening sphere with instruments around you, it is like big stereo to me as well and I don't always consider that a negative, the music still shines so I am still happy to have this 5.1 bluray.
I listened to it twice in DTS 5.1 and twice to Dolby TrueHD 5.1, the dolby truehd 5.1 sounds slightly better to my ears through my system at home.

I give this one a 9.
 
Does anyone know: when you use the DR meter on a multichannel recording, does it take into account all the channels, or just the front left and right?

All the channels. SteelyDave posted somewhere on QQ about it. Itā€™s the DR for each channel added together and divided by no. of channels. So the average DR of all channels.
 
Well I posted this on another thread so here goes again:

Ok let me start by saying - WOW :eek:

This is my review on Amazon and I plugged QQ - hope it makes it on............:SGI have to add, this was mainly to counter a scathing review by another Amazon member

First off - Let me say what a GREAT concept album this is - This is NEW Styx, but with a few touches of old STYX and QUEEN even \o/

OK secondly, Please try to temper or temper the review of the 5.1 before mine from some other person (have no idea what kind of hearing problems, sound system problems or digestive impaction he or she might be experiencing that is causing problems with their hearing ) . Yes, I am also mega familiar with the great 5.1 mixers Steven Wilson, Elliot Scheiner, Bob Clearmountain. That being said, I am very familiar with surround sound, the effects, whether they be Quad or 5.1.

If your sound system is positioned correctly ahem ......this is definitely a great surround experience. I walked up to each speaker and re-winded mega numerous times......yes you might hear a lil bit of say a guitar or piano piece up front while it is majorly more prominent in the rears, but this is definitely NOT - I REPEAT NOT, big stereo.....THIS IS A SURROUND TRIP - the special effects also go from one speaker to the other and other and so on...........

Some of the more rock songs might be a less surroundy, but OMG this as a whole is AWESOME - Maybe not on par with the DARK SIDE OF THE MOON SACD, but daaaaaaaaaaaamn - Major Kudos to STYX for making this a very very very enjoyable rocket ride to MARS!!

Pick this up now if you are a STYX fan and have a surround sound system/bluray player that is 5.1 sound - TURN IT UP and sit in the sweet spot - Take that Rocket Ride to Mars and save EARTH!! \o/

The graphics with each song are nice and you can turn on lyrics if you want.

3 choices of Surround and Hi res Stereo tooo at 24/96 on both........holy crap!!! Pick this up now if you are into Surround.

So inexpensive and so AWESOME......

Back to Snooooood...........voting :unsure:

Easy 8 and almost a 9 - went with the 8.4 - go pick this up :love:
 
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Well I posted this on another thread so here goes again:

Ok let me start by saying - WOW :eek:

This is my review on Amazon and I plugged QQ - hope it makes it on............:SG

First off - Let me say what a GREAT concept album this is - This is NEW Styx, but with a few touches of old STYX and QUEEN even \o/

OK secondly, Please try to temper or temper the review of the 5.1 before mine from some other person (have no idea what kind of hearing problems, sound system problems or digestive impaction he or she might be experiencing that is causing problems with their hearing ) . Yes, I am also mega familiar with the great 5.1 mixers Steven Wilson, Elliot Scheiner, Bob Clearmountain. That being said, I am very familiar with surround sound, the effects, whether they be Quad or 5.1.

If your sound system is positioned correctly ahem ......this is definitely a great surround experience. I walked up to each speaker and re-winded mega numerous times......yes you might hear a lil bit of say a guitar or piano piece up front while it is majorly more prominent in the rears, but this is definitely NOT - I REPEAT NOT, big stereo.....THIS IS A SURROUND TRIP - the special effects also go from one speaker to the other and other and so on...........

Some of the more rock songs might be a less surroundy, but OMG this as a whole is AWESOME - Maybe not on par with the DARK SIDE OF THE MOON SACD, but daaaaaaaaaaaamn - Major Kudos to STYX for making this a very very very enjoyable rocket ride to MARS!!

Pick this up now if you are a STYX fan and have a surround sound system/bluray player that is 5.1 sound - TURN IT UP and sit in the sweet spot - Take that Rocket Ride to Mars and save EARTH!! \o/

The graphics with each song are nice and you can turn on lyrics if you want.

3 choices of Surround and Hi res Stereo tooo at 24/96 on both........holy crap!!! Pick this up now if you are into Surround.

So inexpensive and so AWESOME......

Back to Snooooood...........voting :unsure:

Easy 8 and almost a 9 - went with the 8.4 - go pick this up :love:

And IF SNOOD says it's GREAT........you can bet your bottom dollar.......he ain't exaggerating!

8 1/2 Bananas: :LB:LB:LB:LB:LB:LB:LB:LBhttps://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/half-banana-cross-section-isolated-white-background-35377533.jpg:ROFLMAO:and a half ripe kumquat for variety
 
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