Home Digital Drive

Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it.

RE: But the mch layer is what I'm REALLY geeked about. :) (NT)

Kal, et al,
I received the disc a few days ago and just this morning got around to listening. The only format I've listened to so far is the 24/96 5.1 DTS HD MA (lossless) one. I will comment on the stereo 24/192 layer, and it's comparison to the ripped DSD or redbook versions, later. Right now I have not had a chance to either have someone rip it for me (no BD ripper here right now) or worst case do the HDMI de-embedder to Meitner, as I shelved the Atlona box once I had native DSD capability.

Keep in mind that 1) this is a fairly small jazz ensemble, so there is not a huge amount going on to "unearth" in a 5.1 spread; and 2) the redbook and DSD versions are no slouches, with either being easily given an "audiophile pressing" kind of nomenclature. However, the DTS HD MA remastering clearly shows off a bit better timbre/tonality, and a very tight low end, and this through lesser electronics (Denon AVR as pre/pro via HDMI) than my 2 channel rig. The native 24 bit shows through. This is where the 5.1 mix ends for me, though. I am not a fan of Darcy Proper and/or Jim Anderson's surround remix here. It's both too gimmicky at times (some songs have images bouncing, with percussion in rears, with some drum hits forward) and somewhat inconsistent (aggressive mixes in some songs, ambience in others). Where is Eliot Scheiner when you need him. :)

I am reaching a fairly hasty conclusion that this album didn't really need a 5.1 mix, and hope that the 24/192 stereo one is worth the price of admission ($19 delivered). I could be wrong, too hasty, or spot on. I may bring back out my Sony TAP9000ES analog preamp and relisten via the 83SE's analog outs. We'll see...:)

P.S. it is nice to see them use the Pure Audio method of being able to pick the surround and stereo layers via the colored BluRay remote buttons (red is DTS, yellow is stereo LPCM), which makes display-less navigation very simple.



Edits: 07/05/12

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