EJ - Diamonds (DD 5.1 Atmos downmixes) & MCH SACD mixes

[kfbkfb]

Being an outlier, I listen to the DD 5.1 downmix of Atmos content.

I was wondering if anyone has compared the songs on Diamonds (in DD 5.1, not Atmos) that also appear on the EJ MCH SACDs?


Kirk Bayne

 

[LuvMyQuad]

Being an outlier, I listen to the DD 5.1 downmix of Atmos content.

I was wondering if anyone has compared the songs on Diamonds (in DD 5.1, not Atmos) that also appear on the EJ MCH SACDs?


Kirk Bayne

I cant answer your specific question about Diamonds, but i did try out a few 5.1 DD mixes of other albums before i became Atmos capable. The sample size is small, maybe 10 albums or so, but I wasnt impressed compared to the downmix of the 7.1 TrueHD to 5.1 done with my AVP.

In maybe half the cases. i found the DD 5.1 fidelity seemed a notch lower (could well have had different masterings) and in the worst cases the mixes seemed like afterthoughts. Almost like what you might hear through an upmixer. The others were somewhat better, but they were never as satisfying as the TrueHD downmix.

My son was visiting a few weeks ago, we played the Atmos Gabriel I/O album, admittedly a stellar example of the Atmos format. He commented on how it sounded so inferior to the 5.1 DD rip i had made for him, as he is also limited to 5.1. Since i keep all these rips, we did a little informal comparison. It was really no contest.

 

[kfbkfb]

AFAIK, the Atmos -> DD 5.1 downmix is required for Atmos on physical media.

I'm interested to know if any of the professionals making Atmos mixes also listen to the DD 5.1 downmix of their Atmos mix?


(the Atmos -> DD 5.1 downmixes I've heard recently - ABC - Wham - Carly Simon - Chicago - EJ have pretty good directionality, in the case of ABC, I like the DD 5.1 downmix better than the separate DTS 5.1 mix)


Kirk Bayne

 

[LuvMyQuad]

Understand that the DD 5.1 "downmix" isnt really a downmix in the strictest sense. Its "pre-downmixed" in that Its created from the 7.1 TrueHD using an algorythm authored by Dolby and is written to disc as a stand alone substream within the main 7.1 Atmos stream. When you rip the content, you can rip the 5.1 DD substream seperately from everything else. I do not know what type, if any, processing is done to the 5.1 DD substream, nor how much control the creator of the mix has over it.

 

[SeeMoreDigital]

Do you have the SACD but not the BRD-A then @kfbkfb?

 

[kfbkfb]

Actually, my situation is kinda weird, I have my Sony MCH SACD player set to downmix to (Dolby/Hafler/DynaQuad), I have several EJ MCH SACDs, but I can only listen to them w/Dolby Pro-Logic or DynaQuad, so I can't make a fair comparison between the MCH SACD surround sound mix and the Atmos -> DD 5.1 downmix.

(my Pioneer VSX-534, which decodes MCH DSD isn't currently connected)


Kirk Bayne