HiRez Poll Foreigner - FOUR [DVD-A/SACD-JAPAN]

[MyCuff]

An 8 from me too. It sounds good, surroud mix is well ballanced, almost too much on "safe" side.
Definively not worth the original price - I think that kind of pricing "killed" surround sound for many. I am really curious to hear the SACD version now...

I never paid more than 20 bucks for a DVD-A at a retail store. Seems worth it to me, especially now, but even back then. How much is the SACD going for that you would like to hear? Now that is a rip-off! As a side note, the panning in juke box hero at high volumes with four big speakers wowed all my friends.

 

[fredblue]

Finally getting around to rating some of these old DVDA's..

This sounds absolutely AMAZING! (I'm not sure if that's partly because I'd just sat through the ear-bleeding Bon Jovi Have A Nice Day DVDA DualDisc!?).. anyway, the surround mix works beautifully (often understated but when it gets discrete, it really goes wild!) the 5.1 livens up the now seriously dated material so much!

Oh and the sound quality is just gorgeously scrumptious! So good you could eat it!

A true demo-worthy DVDA - up there with the very best the format has to offer.

A very nearly perfect "9".

 

[Spock]

Great album, outstanding sound quality and surround mix - a solid 10 from me. And I love Luanne

 

[JanBakker]

Great album, outstanding sound quality and surround mix - a solid 10 from me. And I love Luanne

Juke Box Hero is my favourite song music wise and Waiting for a Girl Like You for sound, not that this comment is of any importance though .

 

[Spock]

Juke Box Hero is my favourite song music wise and Waiting for a Girl Like You for sound, not that this comment is of any importance though .

It was just someting to mention - after Kapn Krunch comment above about Luanne

The Juke Box Hero mix is awesome - in my 7.1.4 speaker setup the bass/synt wander around in all the 7 speakers - so cool

 

[JanBakker]

It was just someting to mention - after Kapn Krunch comment above about Luanne

The Juke Box Hero mix is awesome - in my 7.1.4 speaker setup the bass/synt wander around in all the 7 speakers - so cool

I meant that my comment was not important not yours :couch

 

[svengaleekie]

I gave this a 10, just getting to the last track on my 2nd listen and I've really enjoyed it, a bit weird hearing the different vocals and things compared to the original that I'm used to, or is it just my ears? yea very good.

 

[marpow]

I have owned this for a long time and I gave it a solid 9.

 

[sjcorne]

Thanks to a kind fellow member, I've finally managed to add this one to my collection. Incredible disc! I gave it a 9.

First off, I have to give a shoutout to the old-school single DVD-A package. Now that we live in the age of “Super Deluxe Editions”, it’s easy to forget how great these were. You get the lossless surround disc minus all the extra junk (to think that was once the norm), the booklet is dense and informative, the disc has some cool additional features such as the photo gallery and lyrics, and it comes in a super jewel case. Man, I wish these things caught on...

The surround mix is fantastic! Quite a bit more aggressive than the Foreigner debut album. Even the "nearly unplugged" bonus tracks are pretty discrete. You usually get the main guitars, drums, and vocals upfront, with synth, backing vocals, and some additional guitars in the rears. There's also a fair amount of active panning: the intro line to "Juke Box Hero" rotates around the room and the synth in the chorus of "Urgent" quickly flies from front to back.

Speaking of "Urgent", I love how it starts only in the fronts and then the second guitar line kicks in from the rears. Really starts off the track with a bang.

John Kellogg and Paul Klingberg did this? Admittedly, their past surround work has left me somewhat unimpressed. They've done a number of 5.1 mixes I didn't like at all (Machine Head, Chicago II & V, Tapestry) and a few I thought were okay but unspectacular (Foreigner, Gratitude, Brain Salad Surgery). This is the best surround mix I've heard from them by far.

My one complaint would be the loud mastering. It's true that this is common on these early-2000s DVD-As, and it's a rock album, but the DVD-A of the Foreigner debut album has a much quieter mastering. I wonder why they left that one alone, but jacked up the levels on this one?

"Juke Box Hero" (you can "see" the intro moving around):


"Urgent":


"Long, Long Way From Home" (from the Foreigner DVD-A, just to show the quieter mastering):

 

[WBP]

solid 9 - its a great sounding mix , and a classic rock album

 

[Egghaus]

I finally got my hands on this disc for a reasonable price. I've always liked the big hits from this album, and this disc takes them to another level. The sonics and clarity are excellent, as mentioned by others Juke Box Hero and Urgent are demo worthy tracks, it was worth just for these two. It seems like they spiced up some of the lesser songs with a more active surround mix which was nice I also enjoyed the "nearly unplugged" bonus tracks which I have not heard before. If only every disc was as good as this one. Overall I rate it a 9, one point deducted for content as some of the songs are a bit outdated.

 

[Mackspower]

Thanks to a kind fellow member, I've finally managed to add this one to my collection. Incredible disc! I gave it a 9.

First off, I have to give a shoutout to the old-school single DVD-A package. Now that we live in the age of “Super Deluxe Editions”, it’s easy to forget how great these were. You get the lossless surround disc minus all the extra junk (to think that was once the norm), the booklet is dense and informative, the disc has some cool additional features such as the photo gallery and lyrics, and it comes in a super jewel case. Man, I wish these things caught on...

The surround mix is fantastic! Quite a bit more aggressive than the Foreigner debut album. Even the "nearly unplugged" bonus tracks are pretty discrete. You usually get the main guitars, drums, and vocals upfront, with synth, backing vocals, and some additional guitars in the rears. There's also a fair amount of active panning: the intro line to "Juke Box Hero" rotates around the room and the synth in the chorus of "Urgent" quickly flies from front to back.

Speaking of "Urgent", I love how it starts only in the fronts and then the second guitar line kicks in from the rears. Really starts off the track with a bang.

John Kellogg and Paul Klingberg did this? Admittedly, their past surround work has left me somewhat unimpressed. They've done a number of 5.1 mixes I didn't like at all (Machine Head, Chicago II & V, Tapestry) and a few I thought were okay but unspectacular (Foreigner, Gratitude, Brain Salad Surgery). This is the best surround mix I've heard from them by far.

My one complaint would be the loud mastering. It's true that this is common on these early-2000s DVD-As, and it's a rock album, but the DVD-A of the Foreigner debut album has a much quieter mastering. I wonder why they left that one alone, but jacked up the levels on this one?

"Juke Box Hero" (you can "see" the intro moving around):
View attachment 38809

"Urgent":
View attachment 38810

"Long, Long Way From Home" (from the Foreigner DVD-A, just to show the quieter mastering):
View attachment 38812

Great write-up. I'd say that just about covers it. Inspired me to go back and listen to this when the work day is over today.

 

[Titch]

Outstanding surround mix. I never was into Foreigner, I had the two singles from the album but never purchased the album. Listening to the SACD, it's easy to hear that the Mutt Lange production is top-notch - the album sounds amazing. Mutt Lange had just come off Back In Black with AC/CD, when he did this - can you imagine what Back In Black would sound like with dynamics like this Foreigner SACD? I gave it a ten, to my surprise. Didn't expect to enjoy it so much.

 

[Oldschoolsoundengineer]

The best mixes on this album are just great. I particularly like the sound of Waiting for a girl like you, Urgent and Girl on the moon. This were also the tracks that I liked the sound of on the original LP stereo mix back in the 80s. I think it is due to the quality of the original recordings variying a bit from song to song with these three standing out. In this 5.1 mix you can really hear that the engineers have spend a lot of time polishing all the details. (Much better than the newly released Atmos mix). Surround wise it is also very well done. Love the synth panning on Waiting for a girl. Very cool.