D
Deleted member 133
Guest
I've stumbled with these opening words, wondering how best to capture the multiplicity of things that leap to mind after spending a couple of hours in my main HT listening to Rush's Moving Pictures, stunningly remastered and remixed to 5.1 and delivered via Blu-ray.
"SACD is officially dead" comes to mind. It's been on life support but this Blu-ray disc confirms it is no longer needed.
""DSOTM is no longer THE go-to multi-channel demo" is another.
Or how about simply "WOW!"
I'm a Rush fan, but not a big fan. I only recently purchased every CD of theirs that was missing from my collection. I've seen them many times in concert, spanning their whole career; but I never bought a tee shirt. I've always liked Moving Pictures, mostly for "Tom Sawyer" and maybe a bit for "Limelight." This Blu-ray made me appreciate every single track.
First off the sound quality is superb - whether you choose the 96k 24 bit PCM Stereo (for you old-fashioned non-surround types), the PCM PCM 5.1 or the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Except to compare the three I did my listening in the latter mode.
The 5.1 mixes are completely appropriate to each song. "Tom Sawyer" comes across big, bold, concert-like. The first 5 seconds of "YYZ" set the tone for some incredible use of all channels, with the trangle spinning around the room. (And by the way, if there was ever a reason to have five identical-sounding speakers with their acoustic centres all on the same horizontal plane, this is it. It simply won't sound the same otherwise - as I proved to myself when I played it in my family room HT. Still great. Just not greatest!) And so it went for each and every track.
I played it at what I'd call "comfortably loud" levels - which in my main HT system means that nothing's working very hard. Then I went back and played "Tom Sawyer" again - at a 10dB higher setting. Still (borderline) comfortable - but quite a bit louder. What it did was to let me better "see" the mix. I'll explain. At that louder level the front L/R speaker stacks were hitting 10W peaks (each speaker) while the front centre and side surrounds were at 2W peaks. (Trust me: in that room, with those speakers, that equates to loud.) It explained visually to me what I'd heard: "concert-like" sound meant expanding the stage, filling in the centre, and avoiding any gee-whiz surround tricks. Very very satisfying. When I sampled some other tracks at the higher level I could see how the emphasis would change depending on the track. On one track (I forget which) at one point Neil was moving along the left side of the room and Alex the right. But it was not at all gimmicky.
This was my first of what will likely be many more sessions dedicated to this new (re)release. I suspect, after my initial listening experience, that it will only be more fondly appreciated each time I do. This thing has planted roots in my demo box.
Highly recommended.
Jeff Mackwood
"SACD is officially dead" comes to mind. It's been on life support but this Blu-ray disc confirms it is no longer needed.
""DSOTM is no longer THE go-to multi-channel demo" is another.
Or how about simply "WOW!"
I'm a Rush fan, but not a big fan. I only recently purchased every CD of theirs that was missing from my collection. I've seen them many times in concert, spanning their whole career; but I never bought a tee shirt. I've always liked Moving Pictures, mostly for "Tom Sawyer" and maybe a bit for "Limelight." This Blu-ray made me appreciate every single track.
First off the sound quality is superb - whether you choose the 96k 24 bit PCM Stereo (for you old-fashioned non-surround types), the PCM PCM 5.1 or the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Except to compare the three I did my listening in the latter mode.
The 5.1 mixes are completely appropriate to each song. "Tom Sawyer" comes across big, bold, concert-like. The first 5 seconds of "YYZ" set the tone for some incredible use of all channels, with the trangle spinning around the room. (And by the way, if there was ever a reason to have five identical-sounding speakers with their acoustic centres all on the same horizontal plane, this is it. It simply won't sound the same otherwise - as I proved to myself when I played it in my family room HT. Still great. Just not greatest!) And so it went for each and every track.
I played it at what I'd call "comfortably loud" levels - which in my main HT system means that nothing's working very hard. Then I went back and played "Tom Sawyer" again - at a 10dB higher setting. Still (borderline) comfortable - but quite a bit louder. What it did was to let me better "see" the mix. I'll explain. At that louder level the front L/R speaker stacks were hitting 10W peaks (each speaker) while the front centre and side surrounds were at 2W peaks. (Trust me: in that room, with those speakers, that equates to loud.) It explained visually to me what I'd heard: "concert-like" sound meant expanding the stage, filling in the centre, and avoiding any gee-whiz surround tricks. Very very satisfying. When I sampled some other tracks at the higher level I could see how the emphasis would change depending on the track. On one track (I forget which) at one point Neil was moving along the left side of the room and Alex the right. But it was not at all gimmicky.
This was my first of what will likely be many more sessions dedicated to this new (re)release. I suspect, after my initial listening experience, that it will only be more fondly appreciated each time I do. This thing has planted roots in my demo box.
Highly recommended.
Jeff Mackwood
