HiRez Poll John, Elton - DIAMONDS [Blu-Ray Audio (Dolby Atmos)]

[Felix E. Martinez]

Do you two feel that some / many of these mixes are geared more for the headphones crowd rather than those of us with elaborate Atmos systems?

I haven’t listened to mine yet because it’s only 62F in the basement today. I’ve got to add heat down there!

No they are definitely discrete with key instruments in the rears, just for the first part of the collection, it does seem that the ATMOS mix sounds a bit more front heavy compared to the previous 5.1 mixes on the sacds.

I rated it an 8, but am just revisiting the second half of the collection, and the acoustic guitars and background vox in the rears on Sad Songs are bliss. I would bump the rating to 9. Can I do that?

 

[fredblue]

No they are definitely discrete with key instruments in the rears, just for the first part of the collection, it does seem that the ATMOS mix sounds a bit more front heavy compared to the previous 5.1 mixes on the sacds.

I rated it an 8, but am just revisiting the second half of the collection, and the acoustic guitars and background vox in the rears on Sad Songs are bliss. I would bump the rating to 9. Can I do that?

yes, you can now change your vote

 

[GOS]

In my humble opinion, the first 6 tunes are simply astonishing. They are well worth the price of the disc. WOW!!! I've listened to Elton for years and years...all the 5.1 discs. Those first 6 tunes are blowing me away. Fucggg

 

[bktouchstone]

I vacillated between a 9 and a 10 on this one. What pushes me to a 9 is that to my ears there is a subtle but noticeable graininess to the overall sound. Also occasional sibilance on cymbals/hi hats. The SACD sounds “smoother.” What pushes me to a 10 is the song selection is a one stop shop for whenever one needs an Elton fix. The mix to “The Bitch is Back” is tremendous, exciting, and reveals the complex interplay between the various instruments. What a great arrangement. The “post 70s” material has some real standouts, but I especially like “Nikita.” There are also more than a few “skippers” post 70s.

I don’t agree with all the inclusions or exclusions: “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” is the best sounding bad song! The Atmos mix really helps it out a lot, but I still can’t say that I love it. Better to have the Atmos version of “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me.”

There is a lot of greatness to this career spanning release. I would love to have all of the 70 albums remixed to Atmos.

Going with a 9, though I can see my SACDs getting a lot less play now that I have this.

 

[Bobby Martini]

i'd be a rich b!tch if i had a penny for every conversation about Elton's latest single/album over the last 30 or so years with both casual listeners and hardcore fans alike where they've said "ah it's alright but it's not as good as his old stuff"

I've said it before and I'll say it again.........his output was better when he was on the drugs !

 

[Bobby Martini]

BBC News - Elton John's hits album finally goes to number one - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp8kn2lr733o

I'd like to think we all had a hand in this

Bravo Elton

 

[GilWave]

The answer is simple: This is a Blu-ray Audio version of a previously released collection. Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Like Bleeding wasn't on that collection. That's why it's not on the Blu-ray.

Fair enough. And it is on the Atmos release of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, so I've got it.

 

[GilWave]

This is not a collection curated for Atmos.

It was first released in 2017 in stereo as in both two and three CD versions. The first two discs are all singles and were hits on at least one chart.

The third disc was a "bonus disc" on the deluxe version with even more hit singles with every one of them having charted at least somewhere. The only true non-singles on the set were the Piano Version of "Skyline Pigeon" (b-side to "Daniel") and "Pinball Wizard", which received as much airplay at the time as if it were a single and charted in several countries based on airplay alone.

Could Funeral/Love Lies have been on the album? Sure. But so could have so many others. And GYBR is already well represented with 4 tracks. Tumbleweed Connection isn't represented at all. Some fairly big hits were left off. "Levon" could have been on here. "Border Song" . "Grow Some Funk Of Your Own" "I Feel Like A Bullet"

We can debate forever which tracks they could or could not have chosen but how well suited any are for Atmos clearly wasn't going to be the case for an album compiled without Atmos in mind at all.

You're right, of course. You are all right.

I will now soak my body in lamp oil and flagellate myself with the power cord of an original Technics SL1200MKII

 

[Michael Marshall]

oh yeah and while it was almost a relief that everyone involved in collating Diamonds conveniently forgot all about 1986's "Leather Jackets" it is a bit of a shame that the largely excellent 1995 "Made In England" album was so under-represented on the compilation besides "Believe", at the very least i'd have expected the title track to represent a post-70's punchier tune and that 2004's "Peachtree Road" and 2006's "The Captain & The Kid" were also totally airbrushed out of the picture

it might have been fun to hear "The Bridge" or "Tinderbox", or "Answer In The Sky" or "Turn The Lights Out When You Leave" in Atmos.

ahh.. maybe not.. i better get my coat, dear, it looks like rain!

I too, was disappointed that the "Made In England" album was overlooked once again, as I felt (and still do!) that this was his most complete and musically satisfying (and sonically too...) album from the 90's onward.

 

[fredblue]

I too, was disappointed that the "Made In England" album was overlooked once again, as I felt (and still do!) that this was his most complete and musically satisfying (and sonically too...) album from the 90's onward.

hard to describe the palpable gut-wrenching i felt when Greg Penny wasn't Producer again after the mostly brilliant (was never massively keen on “Bel-faaaast") "Made In England" album and the resultant general awfulness of "The Big Picture"

 

[HomerJAU]

Most of this discussion causes mods a lot of work. Moving the off poll topic posts to a new thread is a pain.

@fredblue is our resident EJ expert I’d hate to lose some of his insight here, but it’s much easier to just delete off poll posts than move them.

 

[fetchmybeer]

Others have touched upon many of the same things already about song selection, but this album was already released and presumably sequenced in the order it is in and the Atmos experience is just a bonus for us.

I'm one of those people who looks at Elton as pre and post 1980 Elton. Basically, I love so much of the stuff before then and don't even like much of the stuff after that. And that doesn't change listening to this collection.

But it's one helluva collection for the price, and the Atmos on the old tracks (through my 5.1 system) sounds pretty great to me for the most part, and I have most of the old SACDs in 5.1. I probably prefer the 5.1 mixes, if only because they seem a bit more consistent and of course the sequencing from song to song makes more sense on those albums than it does on a hits collection.

Yes, there is variance between the Atmos tracks here, as you would expect of songs recorded over a span of about 50 years. There are some 5s in there and some 10s. But ultimately I think I have to rate this one highly in spite of its flaws. I would still recommend seeking out the SACDs in 5.1 though if you don't have them. They are-- or were at least until I bought my last one a few years ago-- readily available and at good prices.

Oh, one more minor complaint-- I wish there was something on the insert that said which albums (and years) the songs were from, especially since the order of the songs gets a bit out of whack.