Elton John "Madman Across The Water" 50th Anniversary Box Set (3 CDs & 5.1 Blu-Ray)

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I haven't heard it but if the mastering is better, then it should sound better, despite being lossy. The mastering on the original 5.1's were far from being perfect. Still disappointing they didn't do lossless.
I could be wrong, but my guess from looking at the waveforms is it is the exact same mastering as the SACD except someone applied a low pass filter to the LFE - and then reduced the amplitude of all 6 channels by a few dBs.

Color me skeptical this sounds “better” than the SACD.
 
the mastering may be potentially/arguably a tad better but i'm not convinced tbh, from briefly looking at the waveforms etc of a couple of rips i did, it seems like it's had little more than some lowering of the 5 main channels and filtering of the LFE going on.. but whatever has gone on, it should have been in Lossless Surround. to me its bonkers to have Lossy 5.1 on a Blu-ray in this day and age, particularly of a mix previously available in Lossless form (and i am unanimous in that, Captain Peacock!!) 😆🤪

Well hopefully someone can get past the bad choice of the lossy format and truly compare the two different mastering's. I always thought the EJ catalog had great mixes but they weren't reference. Not due to the SACD format obviously, but due to the mastering. They seemed a bit bloated in the midrange and during the complicated passages, they would sound stressed. If they smoothed things out a bit, and brought everything down a notch, there is potential to sound better than the SACD.
 
i don't find the Elton 5.1's hugely dynamic and never have, there's compression baked into the mixes by design and to me every now and again its audible, not particularly detrimental or invasive but its there. Greg Penny talked about using compression in his new mixes in interviews around the time of the EJ SACDs and i can see where he was coming from, certain tracks are just less dynamic than the original Stereo - but i don't think that's necessarily always a bad thing.

Captain Fantastic is the most obvious example among the 5.1's that saw release, the original Stereo mixes are a virtual masterclass in their use of dynamics in Pop Music but sometimes things get kinda clumped in the 5.1, mercifully the spread around the channels counteracts a lot of that but the Surround mix isn't quite as dynamic as the 70's Stereo, i would say.

this is not to condemn the 5.1 mixes for lacking dynamic range however but rather to applaud them for their use of compression because if you'll recall Gus' 1983 "Superior Sound Of.." Stereo remixes, it was then made apparent that going back to the multitracks, many of the original recordings were hugely dynamic, way beyond Gus' original 1970's renderings on LP and at casual listening levels those 80's remixes were almost quite unlistenable in places because the softest passages were just way too quiet and if you cranked the master volume to hear that lower level content you'd later get your head completely blown off when things reached a crescendo and got very very loud indeed!! 🤯

where were we? oh yeah, the Elton 5.1's are dynamic as far as Pop music goes and aren't they just groovy! totally forgotten what point i was trying to make, if any! time for a coffee ☕🤤 ✌☮🕊

Damn. You make a convincing argument why the 5.1 mix may never sound reference, especially compared to the stereo mixes. Maybe they can with a brand new Atmos mix? Time will certainly tell.
 
now, all this talk about the surround mix yada yada yada, what is even more bothersome is the lack of a toy in this Deluxe package !! What ? no little red car ?;)

Elton dressed as Donald Duck figurine?
 
Well hopefully someone can get past the bad choice of the lossy format and truly compare the two different mastering's. I always thought the EJ catalog had great mixes but they weren't reference. Not due to the SACD format obviously, but due to the mastering. They seemed a bit bloated in the midrange and during the complicated passages, they would sound stressed. If they smoothed things out a bit, and brought everything down a notch, there is potential to sound better than the SACD.

in my experience, in the case of DTS Surround with the 96/24 extension, the fact its Lossy will have very little (if any) impact on the sound, it should still sound great and more than likely many (myself absolutely included) would i feel find it indistinguishable from Lossless in a blind A-B test, its just a bit disappointing that's what they delivered the 5.1 in, considering its on Blu-ray and not DVD but its not the end of the world (that's coming in 2030 apparently! 😂 )
 
Damn. You make a convincing argument why the 5.1 mix may never sound reference, especially compared to the stereo mixes. Maybe they can with a brand new Atmos mix? Time will certainly tell.

i doubt it, since i suspect the Atmos mixes of his 70's material mostly comprise the already released and unreleased 5.1's as the bed anyway but that's probably for a different discussion 🙂
 
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Elton dressed as Donald Duck figurine?

"i got dressed up as Donald Duck,
making up for my repressed youth.."




that fun little bonus track was sadly never made available on physical media, only in the form of a 128kbps mp3 download accessible when you loaded up the Deluxe CD on your computer and connected to the internet.. but somewhere, maybe on some dusty ol' hard drive, there's said to be an unreleased 5.1 Matt Still mix of "The Captain & The Kid".. maybe it'll appear on the 20th Anniversary in a few years🤞maybe baby.. maybe 🤞
 
Elton dressed as Donald Duck figurine?
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Just got my set in, and yes, the Blu-Ray surround sound audio is DTS 96/24 (1.5 Mbps) just like it would be if it was on a DVD.
However, even despite that (and the mix-up on the MATW version with Mick Ronson) this is still a very nice set, and certainly the best set that Elton and his team have produced thus far IMHO.
No complaints from me, especially Universal are fixing the Blu-Ray to fix the bonus track.

:)
 
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Elton-John-Madman-Across-the-Water-Blu-ray/315499/
I do not have my copy yet (coming on the mail from importcds) but I'm really confused! now. The review states DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and PCM 2.0 Stereo audio on the blu-ray

So, What's going on?


Regards,

I read blu~ray.com's reviews daily and one thing I know, they're adamant against putting LOSSY codecs on blu ray discs! And they make a point of putting it in their reviews! Which does make it all the more confusing that nothing was mentioned in their 5 star audio review of Madman!!!!!!!
 
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Elton-John-Madman-Across-the-Water-Blu-ray/315499/
I do not have my copy yet (coming on the mail from importcds) but I'm really confused! now. The review states DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and PCM 2.0 Stereo audio on the blu-ray

So, What's going on?


Regards,
Getting to be a habit with Universal box sets misrepresenting the audio; remember Goats Head Soup?

I have no dog in this race however, as I had the same feelings as Gene about already having the SACDs and being satisfied with those; and didn't order this. At the end of the day, we all have to decide what seems like a reasonable purchase for our hard earned buckaroonies.
 
So, maybe there will be two mistakes that’ll be fixed with an updated disc. :unsure:

Anyway, I ended up keeping my order with Amazon. Though, not sure when the heck I’ll get the set that was supposed to be here by yesterday but still hasn’t shipped. 🤬
 
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