Dolby Surround CD's - What's Your Latest?

[ssully]

I had already tried that, but it seems that my newest receiver (a Yamaha A780) doesn't do Prologic. The good news is that I bought it for a different system (I have 3 ) and I will hook the old one (a Yamaha V673) back up as soon as I'm done hiding out from the virus. The manual for it says it will do prologic.

Your RX- A780 has a suite of Dolby processors, including the 'Dolby Surround' upmixer (DSU) (not to be confused with the old Dolby Surround tech being discussed here). DSU is Dolby's replacement for all of its Dolby Pro Logic flavors, and as such it should work OK with your old Dolby Surround disc.

 

[riskylogic]

Your RX- A780 has a suite of Dolby processors, including the 'Dolby Surround' upmixer (DSU) (not to be confused with the old Dolby Surround tech being discussed here). DSU is Dolby's replacement for all of its Dolby Pro Logic flavors, and as such it should work OK with your old Dolby Surround disc.

Do you think I'll get 4 channels out of 2? My RX-A3080 (I have one of those too) gave me more than that, which seemed like too many - but I didn't try to select a particular processor.

 

[ssully]

Do you think I'll get 4 channels out of 2? My RX-A3080 (I have one of those too) gave me more than that, which seemed like too many - but I didn't try to select a particular processor.

I doubt it. DPLII and later upmixers just upmix to whatever your configuration is. If you want to enforce 4.0, tell your AVR that you only have 4 speakers.

 

[riskylogic]

I doubt it. DPLII and later upmixers just upmix to whatever your configuration is. If you want to enforce 4.0, tell your AVR that you only have 4 speakers.

I think I'll stick with my current plan A, which is to hook up an old receiver. It's been 15 years or so since I've heard it played "properly". Once I have that under my belt, maybe I'll experiment with newfangled options.

 

[jaybird100]

Your RX- A780 has a suite of Dolby processors, including the 'Dolby Surround' upmixer (DSU) (not to be confused with the old Dolby Surround tech being discussed here). DSU is Dolby's replacement for all of its Dolby Pro Logic flavors, and as such it should work OK with your old Dolby Surround disc.

Not so. The "new" Dolby Surround has nothing in common with the original Dolby Surround, which was matrix-based. The new system is more of a digital enhancement, but will not give accurate results from CD's, videotapes, laserdiscs, etc. that are encoded with Dolby Surround. Pro Logic II will deliver excellent results with sources encoded with the original system, and can also provide enhancement to stereo recordings. DPL II will also deliver excellent decoding of records encoded in QS or EV-4.

 

[riskylogic]

I think I'll stick with my current plan A, which is to hook up an old receiver. It's been 15 years or so since I've heard it played "properly". Once I have that under my belt, maybe I'll experiment with newfangled options.

OK, I finally got around to playing Symphonic Music of Yes through a Yamaha RX-V673 (I think I bought it in 2013 or so) and selecting Dolby Prologic processing, It does sound much better than my newer receiver, but it still uses the center channel which makes me think it's not totally legit.

 

[ssully]

Not so. The "new" Dolby Surround has nothing in common with the original Dolby Surround, which was matrix-based. The new system is more of a digital enhancement, but will not give accurate results from CD's, videotapes, laserdiscs, etc. that are encoded with Dolby Surround. Pro Logic II will deliver excellent results with sources encoded with the original system, and can also provide enhancement to stereo recordings. DPL II will also deliver excellent decoding of records encoded in QS or EV-4.

I said 'ok', not 'great'. I'm no fan of DSU, I prefer DPLII and am well aware of its capabilities, but you can't get it any more on most new AVRs. And I'm reading that going forward, Dolby is disabling 'Center Spread' in DSU!! Making it even worse.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Anyone heard these:
https://www.discogs.com/Various-Surround-Fascination-CD/release/15615614
https://www.discogs.com/DJ-Paul-Elstak-The-World-Of-Gabber/release/165361
https://www.discogs.com/The-Memphis...drew-Love-With-Special-Guests/release/4666931

 

[fredblue]

Anyone heard these:
https://www.discogs.com/Various-Surround-Fascination-CD/release/15615614
https://www.discogs.com/DJ-Paul-Elstak-The-World-Of-Gabber/release/165361
https://www.discogs.com/The-Memphis...drew-Love-With-Special-Guests/release/4666931

only the last one J.P (Memphis Horns) very horny

 

[J. PUPSTER]

only the last one J.P (Memphis Horns) very horny

And another one to hunt up! I figured this thread needed a wake up call “”☎“”
Freddie’s always good for a little ringy ding ding.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

STONES - sorta

https://www.discogs.com/The-London-...c-Music-Of-The-Rolling-Stones/release/1627871

 

[J. PUPSTER]

SCHILLER

https://www.discogs.com/Schiller-Weltreise/master/46256

 

[J. PUPSTER]

JOHN CARPENTER

https://www.discogs.com/John-Carpen...arpenter-Film-Music-Collection/release/227398

 

[surround.sound.enthusiast]

I stumbled across the Casablanca Dolby Surround disc on the Bullmoose website, looked at the "other titles" portion of the insert, and recognized many of the sound tracks from Dutton-Vocalion's reissue effort. One thing lead to another, and between two Bullmoose Music stores, I amassed this pile (I think I'm only missing three now from the entire series):



I have three of these as the Dutton-Vocalion SACD's as well, so it will be interesting to comparison listen between the original quad mixes and whatever was done with these 5.1 discs from the early 1990's.

 

[Imbobman]

I stumbled across the Casablanca Dolby Surround disc on the Bullmoose website, looked at the "other titles" portion of the insert, and recognized many of the sound tracks from Dutton-Vocalion's reissue effort. One thing lead to another, and between two Bullmoose Music stores, I amassed this pile (I think I'm only missing three now from the entire series):

View attachment 61652

I have three of these as the Dutton-Vocalion SACD's as well, so it will be interesting to comparison listen between the original quad mixes and whatever was done with these 5.1 discs from the early 1990's.

Interesting
So these are Dolby digital surround? Never knew they existed.
Yes, DV did release many on SACD which I have.
On what label are the ones you have? I'd like to hear some of these.

 

[jaybird100]

They have several, outside of the Film Scores series, in Dolby Surround. A few from Henry Mancini. Even a pair from Tomita!

 

[surround.sound.enthusiast]

Interesting
So these are Dolby digital surround? Never knew they existed.
Yes, DV did release many on SACD which I have.
On what label are the ones you have? I'd like to hear some of these.

These were all on the RCA/Victor/BMG label. As jaybird100 points out, there's also a slew of Henry Mancini and Tomita albums on Dolby Surround CD from the same label. I've got eight Mancini's that I'm aware of so far, and four of the five Tomita's that I'm aware of. I also recently saw two Arthur Fiedler Dolby Surround CD's, but passed them by because they weren't cheap enough and I was totally unimpressed with the mix on his "Greatest Hits of the 70s" Quadradisc.

The key in quickly identifying any of these discs while perusing used CD's is the spine of the CD. Nearly all of the RCA/Victor/BMG Dolby Surround CD's that I've seen have silver spines with the inverted striped red triangle and blue circle logos to one end. But, you can see two exceptions to that "rule" right there in the photo. And many of the RCA Red Seal stereo CD's will trick you into looking at them also because they carry very similar looking indicators on the spine. The last Mancini I came across didn't fit the rule either: I think it was a full color spine instead of silver, and it was only the "double-D" logo and "DOLBY SURROUND"(**edited**) on the front that caught me. So, the spine is not a hard and fast rule, but it's a pretty good starting point.

I think it was some of fredblue's posts that alerted me to the Mancini and Tomita Dolby Surround CD's about a year ago. Before that, I was totally unaware of Dolby Surround CD's. Since then when I find one, I look at the "also by this artist/also in this series" info in the inserts, and end up walking out with a number more discs than expected!

 

[4-earredwonder]

JOHN CARPENTER

https://www.discogs.com/John-Carpen...arpenter-Film-Music-Collection/release/227398

Silva Screen [Records] has put out some fantastic re~recordings of film scores over the years in stunning HDCD encodings and DOLBY SURROUND. Although the Amazon Reviews decry the fact that they're not the original Carpenter soundtrack recordings I took a chance and ordered this.

 

[Imbobman]

These were all on the RCA/Victor/BMG label. As jaybird100 points out, there's also a slew of Henry Mancini and Tomita albums on Dolby Surround CD from the same label. I've got eight Mancini's that I'm aware of so far, and four of the five Tomita's that I'm aware of. I also recently saw two Arthur Fiedler Dolby Surround CD's, but passed them by because they weren't cheap enough and I was totally unimpressed with the mix on his "Greatest Hits of the 70s" Quadradisc.

The key in quickly identifying any of these discs while perusing used CD's is the spine of the CD. Nearly all of the RCA/Victor/BMG Dolby Surround CD's that I've seen have silver spines with the inverted striped red triangle and blue circle logos to one end. But, you can see two exceptions to that "rule" right there in the photo. And many of the RCA Red Seal stereo CD's will trick you into looking at them also because they carry very similar looking indicators on the spine. The last Mancini I came across didn't fit the rule either: I think it was a full color spine instead of silver, and it was only the "double-D" logo and "DOLBY DIGITAL" on the front that caught me. So, the spine is not a hard and fast rule, but it's a pretty good starting point.

I think it was some of fredblue's posts that alerted me to the Mancini and Tomita Dolby Surround CD's about a year ago. Before that, I was totally unaware of Dolby Surround CD's. Since then when I find one, I look at the "also by this artist/also in this series" info in the inserts, and end up walking out with a number more discs than expected!

Thanks much surround.sound.enthusiast,
..that was very helpful. I have the one in the series, Tomita Kosmos, I'll give a listen to.
I hadn't known until recently that was even Dolby surround.
I see the symbols on the spine you mentioned.
The Tomita title also says 'Dolby Surround' on the front cover of the booklet.

 

[humprof]

Here's a nice piece on Dolby Surround CDs (including some of the RCA Victor/BMG's from 1989-199x under discussion here recently) by the late John Sunier, founder of Audiophile Audition:
https://hometheaterhifi.com/volume_3_2/v3n2d.html
Interestingly, a few of those same CDs appeared again--but without Dolby encoding, I think?--in RCA's short-lived "High Performance" series a decade later:
https://positive-feedback.com/high-fidelity/rca-red-seal-high-performance-series/