Al Stewart's "Year of the Cat" (Remixed in 5.1 surround by Alan Parsons!!)

[Albert Dagger]

Don't you mean limiting? Clipping (audible distortion on peak overs) on releases like these would be surprising, or it could come from the software conversion to FLAC.

I mean clipping. There's quite a lot of clipping on both the DTS and DD streams. Of course, I converted them to FLAC with DVDAudioExtractor, so that's how I found out there was clipping. I can share a sample

 

[Albert Dagger]

I mean clipping. There's quite a lot of clipping on both the DTS and DD streams. Of course, I converted them to FLAC with DVDAudioExtractor, so that's how I found out there was clipping. I can share a sample

This is a snapshot of Lord Grenville - DTS 96/24 to FLAC via DVD Audio Extractor. The DD stream is very similar, so I'm assuming it's the same mastering in two different lossy formats. I don't believe it's the conversion/extraction process that generates that, but I would be happy to be proved wrong !!

 

[ar surround]

This is a snapshot of Lord Grenville - DTS 96/24 to FLAC via DVD Audio Extractor. The DD stream is very similar, so I'm assuming it's the same mastering in two different lossy formats. I don't believe it's the conversion/extraction process that generates that, but I would be happy to be proved wrong !!

View attachment 66326

I ripped the DTS to WAV instead of FLAC and Audacity still shows clipping. If you blow up the stream in Audacity, it doesn't look as bad, but clipping is there:

So then I applied this filter, a -6dB trough at 8kHz to soften up the harshness, especially of the crashing cymbals:

The result sounds much easier on the ears:

(Note: I used the above filter on all tracks except YOTC. For YOTC, I applied a where I only a -2dB trough at 8kHz.)

 

[Plan9]

This is a snapshot of Lord Grenville - DTS 96/24 to FLAC via DVD Audio Extractor. The DD stream is very similar, so I'm assuming it's the same mastering in two different lossy formats. I don't believe it's the conversion/extraction process that generates that, but I would be happy to be proved wrong !!

View attachment 66326

I checked the files sent by @albertop and there is indeed true (as in above 0dBFS signal) clipping, not just a series of consecutive 0dBFS samples as is clipping sometimes reported.
My guess is that the source master was at 0dBFS, which doesn't leave any headroom for the lossy encoding process, resulting in clipping. Normally it's something that any mastering engineer knows. Audible clipping will certainly add to the already "crispy" or edgy feeling of the sound.