HiRez Poll Doors - Doors [DVD-A/SACD]

[ar surround]

I decided to rethink my vote and comments here. So, regarding the bass, it's just fine. Typical of early Doors. It's adequate. I lowered my vote to a 7. I mean, for a fact, the SACD (which is what I own) is super front heavy, with just not much going on in the rear speakers. To be specific, there is nothing discrete in the rears, at all. It's low level reverb. To prove it, I took Backdoor Man, slapped it in Audacity and raised the rear channels by 10db, played it in Foobar and it totally made it sound like I were listening in a deep cave. Basically, terrible.

Content (do we even have to say it?) 10
Fidelity 8
Surround mix 3

There are some mixes that have significant content in the surrounds yet require a significant boost to create a more satisfying mix. This particular 5.1 mix is not one of them. I don’t know why they could not have done better. The mixes of the two songs from this album which appear on the greatest hits quad are not great, but they are much better than these.

[Edit: I need to try routing the high res stereo layer through the Surround Master to see how it handles it.]

 

[Quad Linda]

Reiteration/clarification:

My 9 was based on the keyhole DVD-A box. 9 was primarily because it is one of their best albums. 11 for the music. Bass level and surround mix/rears are adequate at best, but not bad considering what they had to work with. I'll echo another poignant comment: enjoy it for what it is, rather than panning it for what it isn't.

More recently, I reviewed Santana III Japan Quad SACD. A stunning Quad mix, that's been lacking bass on most, if not every pressing. Surround SACD has best bass of any Quad version of it. Might even be on a par with some of the 2ch mixes of III. My rating was based on 11 for the music and mix, and 8 for the fidelity, especially low end. Again, judge it for what it is: the best Quad release ever of that album.

As I hadn't heard the Doors SACD, I'd guess it's the same mix, but with the rears down a number of db's. Wouldn't be the first time that mastering, pressing, etc. was vastly different from release to release.

Even in light of the limited number of tracks on the session tapes, they did a good/very good job on The Doors. Yes, they could have broken individual instruments out using some computer program(s) and some fancy engineering for a better surround mix. Might have grossly exceeded the budget...

 

[stoopid]

Gave this a 7 (SACD 5.1), only because the rear speakers are effectively non-existent. As a standalone 3.1 or stereo mix, it's the best version of this album I've heard. There's good clarity in the instruments and Jim's voice. While a bit lacking in bass, it's true to the original mix in that regard. I find most music from this era, when listening to the originals, were lacking lower end. Especially compared to subsequent remixes and modern releases.

I'm glad to have this as it's the definitive version in my collection, but the other Doors SACDs with more discrete material to work with from the master tapes are leaps and bounds better in terms of surround experience.