BIG Blu-Ray Audio drive from Universal Music in 2013
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quattroatl
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I have a blu-ray demo called "The Sound of High Definition II" from Dolby which has The Killers "Human" music video mixed in Dolby Digital Plus 7.1. I also have several of these blu-ray demo discs from both Dolby and DTS that show off music capabilities. There was "Fireflies" by Owl City and "Airplanes" by Haley Williams, and they are both discrete studio mixes sounding great.
So maybe Dolby and DTS need to get with the music industry and push the initiative to get high definition surround music to the public.
Just a thought.....
So maybe Dolby and DTS need to get with the music industry and push the initiative to get high definition surround music to the public.
Just a thought.....
YEAY! :banana:
My Amazon Germany order just arrived!
What's Going On - Marvin Gaye,
A Night At The Opera - Queen,
Back To Black - Amy Winehouse.
So, that absolutely guarantees that if you must have these three blu-ray Audio's right now at least you can get them from Amazon Germany.
The Queen disc states on the rear inlay "Contains 2.0 and 5.1 surround sound mixes", together with "2.0 master (P) 2011 & 5.1 master (P) 2005, so I imagine this is the Bob Ludwig 2011 stereo remaster and the 2005 30th Anniversary 5.1 mix.. Oh dear, on both counts..
@:
The other 2 make no mention of 5.1, with 2006 & 2013 dates on Amy and 2012 & 2013 dates on Marvin, which would indicate original/1st CD mastering for Back To Black and 2012 Super Deluxe remaster for Marvin. Double uh-oh..!?
My Amazon Germany order just arrived!
What's Going On - Marvin Gaye,
A Night At The Opera - Queen,
Back To Black - Amy Winehouse.
So, that absolutely guarantees that if you must have these three blu-ray Audio's right now at least you can get them from Amazon Germany.
The Queen disc states on the rear inlay "Contains 2.0 and 5.1 surround sound mixes", together with "2.0 master (P) 2011 & 5.1 master (P) 2005, so I imagine this is the Bob Ludwig 2011 stereo remaster and the 2005 30th Anniversary 5.1 mix.. Oh dear, on both counts..
@:The other 2 make no mention of 5.1, with 2006 & 2013 dates on Amy and 2012 & 2013 dates on Marvin, which would indicate original/1st CD mastering for Back To Black and 2012 Super Deluxe remaster for Marvin. Double uh-oh..!?
Just to keep hysteria at acceptable levels, remember Universal isn't really introducing a new format here, it's just Blu-ray with buzzwords. Unlike DVDa and SACD that require seeking out specific hardware that most homes don't have (or don't know they have, in the case of the many c.$100 Sony Blu-ray players that'll play stereo SACD via RCA or multichannel over HDMI), the bar for entry isn't high- just buy a Blu-ray player. Anyone that wants to can release hi-def audio on Blu-ray, Universal isn't unique in that respect, but what is frustrating is to see a major player enter the fray but stumble around so cluelessly in terms of content and marketing. Once they've finished farting around and underwhelming their potential customers nineteen different ways the 'lessons' the industry learns won't be 'get your act together and people will buy hi-def, especially surround', rather 'there's no market for hi-def/surround on blu-ray'. Sorry, hysteria levels just rose again.
The target market for the 'Pure Audio', beyond people who lurk and/or post here, isn't clear to me- in an age of declining music disc sales are they hoping to siphon off some of the hi-def movie market with hi-def music? "Instead of parking yourself in front of a movie, sit and focus on how great music can sound". If it works and makes converts for better audio quality, yay. But that doesn't reflect the way music sales or listening are heading, so it would require effective marketing and intelligent decisions on content (surround, bonus video, synched pretty pictures, whatever) to appeal to the broadest possible market, create a perception that there's greater value of whatever kind to Blu-ray audio versus CDs or downloading and thus to carve out a little piece of the media market.
I bought the HF/PA Blu-ray Rolling Stones 'Grrr' collection (had to go to AmazonUK to do it) because I knew their catalog had been redone on SACD years ago and I'd never heard or bought any of it. The price of...$30 with shipping? I forget the exact figure, not too high but what pushed me over the sales resistance threshold was the fact that out of 50 'greatest hits' (mostly) I was pretty sure I'd enjoy more than half, no matter how badly recorded the material was in the first place. Still no regrets, the sound is great but the onscreen menu is a grid of microfiche-sized numbers that I can't read from across the room keyed to a list on the back of the case. The 'grrr' title and front cover graphic of a gorilla with Mick lips suggest a company not really trying. For my money, I got exactly as little as they could get away with. I have an old Fleetwood Mac at the BBC DVD-a where someone at least took the trouble to find band photos from the era it was recorded and have them change for each song - for a new adopter of surround/hi-res music, which one would give you a sense someone cared about your user experience? Remember Universal's potential market is going to play 'Grrr' and its ilk on what is primarily a video system, 'cause that's what blu-ray players get connected to. Pretty often there are surround speakers too...
One last little rant, as posted to Music Direct when I finished complaining about the Nick Drake 5LL ridiculous shipping charge:
Universal's whole 'no compression Blu-ray audio' sales pitch isn't as clear as it could be. Maybe 'no data compression' would be clearer, since any commercial release that's been 'mastered' at all has had audio compression applied to some degree, with varying amounts of taste. Since 'loudness wars' in mastering are the bane of many audiophiles, it seems like Universal and/or you are straddling the two meanings of 'compression' hoping for a double-buzz-word score. Red-book CD's aren't 'compressed' in the data sense either, so to me their whole blurb smells of shill. I love hi-def music, especially 5.1, so I'm pissed off when a 'major label' drops the ball on surround and discredits hi-res in general with dubious-sounding sales pitches. Rant out.
Back to lurking, pardon my purging.
The target market for the 'Pure Audio', beyond people who lurk and/or post here, isn't clear to me- in an age of declining music disc sales are they hoping to siphon off some of the hi-def movie market with hi-def music? "Instead of parking yourself in front of a movie, sit and focus on how great music can sound". If it works and makes converts for better audio quality, yay. But that doesn't reflect the way music sales or listening are heading, so it would require effective marketing and intelligent decisions on content (surround, bonus video, synched pretty pictures, whatever) to appeal to the broadest possible market, create a perception that there's greater value of whatever kind to Blu-ray audio versus CDs or downloading and thus to carve out a little piece of the media market.
I bought the HF/PA Blu-ray Rolling Stones 'Grrr' collection (had to go to AmazonUK to do it) because I knew their catalog had been redone on SACD years ago and I'd never heard or bought any of it. The price of...$30 with shipping? I forget the exact figure, not too high but what pushed me over the sales resistance threshold was the fact that out of 50 'greatest hits' (mostly) I was pretty sure I'd enjoy more than half, no matter how badly recorded the material was in the first place. Still no regrets, the sound is great but the onscreen menu is a grid of microfiche-sized numbers that I can't read from across the room keyed to a list on the back of the case. The 'grrr' title and front cover graphic of a gorilla with Mick lips suggest a company not really trying. For my money, I got exactly as little as they could get away with. I have an old Fleetwood Mac at the BBC DVD-a where someone at least took the trouble to find band photos from the era it was recorded and have them change for each song - for a new adopter of surround/hi-res music, which one would give you a sense someone cared about your user experience? Remember Universal's potential market is going to play 'Grrr' and its ilk on what is primarily a video system, 'cause that's what blu-ray players get connected to. Pretty often there are surround speakers too...
One last little rant, as posted to Music Direct when I finished complaining about the Nick Drake 5LL ridiculous shipping charge:
Universal's whole 'no compression Blu-ray audio' sales pitch isn't as clear as it could be. Maybe 'no data compression' would be clearer, since any commercial release that's been 'mastered' at all has had audio compression applied to some degree, with varying amounts of taste. Since 'loudness wars' in mastering are the bane of many audiophiles, it seems like Universal and/or you are straddling the two meanings of 'compression' hoping for a double-buzz-word score. Red-book CD's aren't 'compressed' in the data sense either, so to me their whole blurb smells of shill. I love hi-def music, especially 5.1, so I'm pissed off when a 'major label' drops the ball on surround and discredits hi-res in general with dubious-sounding sales pitches. Rant out.
Back to lurking, pardon my purging.
Here they are...
Caspersozza
Active Member
A short, neutral BD-A launch piece in What Hi-Fi today, with some (occasionally) remarkably stupid reader comments afterwards.
http://www.whathifi.com/news/high-f... (09.10.2013)&utm_content=article4_headerline
http://www.whathifi.com/news/high-f... (09.10.2013)&utm_content=article4_headerline
First impressions of "A Night At The Opera"..
Stereo is fairly crankable and very listenable.. there's lots of detail but it's not over-bright (as has been my general experience of these HFPA's) and it's not heavy-handed on the bass.. I rather like it.
the 5.1 is the 30th Anniversary mix complete with hideous compressed-to-death mastering.. sorry folks, some may like the 30th Anniversary DTS DVD-V but for me it's horrible, the old DVD-A wipes the floor with this.
I think stereo listeners (the majority of people buying this I suspect, let's face it) will be pleased.
for us Quaddies there's no way to gloss this, its a disaster. those DVD-Audio's you've had the last 10 years are still the best way to hear this in surround.
Stereo is fairly crankable and very listenable.. there's lots of detail but it's not over-bright (as has been my general experience of these HFPA's) and it's not heavy-handed on the bass.. I rather like it.
the 5.1 is the 30th Anniversary mix complete with hideous compressed-to-death mastering.. sorry folks, some may like the 30th Anniversary DTS DVD-V but for me it's horrible, the old DVD-A wipes the floor with this.
I think stereo listeners (the majority of people buying this I suspect, let's face it) will be pleased.
for us Quaddies there's no way to gloss this, its a disaster. those DVD-Audio's you've had the last 10 years are still the best way to hear this in surround.
ANATO liner notes:
I've no reason to doubt this - as far as the stereo is concerned.. there's even very evident tape saturation all over the place - authentic as we know from the well-worn anecdote that you can hold the master up to the light and see right through it in places it's literally worn through and shed its oxide in the recording and endless overdubbing/editing process!
Where else has this "meticulous.. blah blah.." blurb been used? The 2011 Universal remasters? The Japanese SACDs? The 30th Anniversary set?
I've no reason to doubt this - as far as the stereo is concerned.. there's even very evident tape saturation all over the place - authentic as we know from the well-worn anecdote that you can hold the master up to the light and see right through it in places it's literally worn through and shed its oxide in the recording and endless overdubbing/editing process!
Where else has this "meticulous.. blah blah.." blurb been used? The 2011 Universal remasters? The Japanese SACDs? The 30th Anniversary set?
I found Grrrr on Amazon like new for $21 (shipping included) to the US. Hopefully I'll get it late next week. Am I missing a site that is pushing these from Universal? Seems like the only real info is from sites like Acoustic Sounds and Elusive Disc.
fredblue, that Queen menu looks a lot like the DVD-Audio version.
fredblue, that Queen menu looks a lot like the DVD-Audio version.
my Marley Legend is on the way from the Uk. $21.06 US. anybody who has it- give me your comments, impressions, etc.
Amazon UK
do you think so? for me that's where the similarity begins and ends.
if you want a decent Hi-Rez stereo version of "A Night At The Opera" the new blu-ray is worthwhile.
if you want the best sounding 5.1 version and have DVD-Audio playback capability, you're better off with the DVD-Audio if you don't have it already it still comes up for ok money.
that said, I'm sure some people will love the 5.1 on the blu-ray. either because they've never heard any other version of it, or maybe there's something up with their hearing..
(just sayin'.. :spot)
I can't find my posts on here about it from the past, my bullet points:
- get ready for lots of bass (I mean lots! QQ Member Caspersozza hasn't had the same experience so it may just be my system),
- very open, airy, detailed sound,
- volume levels vary from track to track (which is in itself a good sign, as they've not been tampered with but really a compilation should be mastered so you don't have to keep reaching for the volume control.. still its a minor niggle).
overall the "Legend" BD-A is nice and worth getting. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
Thank You Mr. Fred, I cant wait to hear it. I'm still hoping the blu rays come out in the states.
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