King Crimson "Islands" - MLP Vs DTS

[jimfisheye]

Dull compared to what? I'm talking about the same surround master mix, in lossless or DTS encoded

The only audible difference due to encoding might be the LFE content, which might or might not have a 120 Hz bandwidth cutoff on the DTS. But, many AVRs also enforce such a filter on LFE anyway, in which case, no audible difference.

Compared to damn near everything you've ever heard and you wonder what the heck happened! You know what I mean. Bad enough that you don't need a master to compare to to hear which way the wind is blowing. I'm thinking of titles I haven't seen offered in any other format, so no way to compare and point at the mix, mastering, or delivery format.

Probably a few of them are 100% the fault of a really bad mix too. There are some really botched surround mixes done as pure novelty.

Point is, there are enough stock core dts releases with poor sound for whatever the reason was to start a stereotype for this. There are also examples with nothing wrong at all that prove that the poor ones can't just be attributed to any shortcomings of the delivery format.

Yes, of course you can find some examples where the delivery format or some novelty mastering altered a mix so badly that it really changed it and stepped on it. I still think the mix itself is the main variable no matter what other sonic destruction is employed. And novelty mastering a million times to one over any release format with that.

There's an incendiary thread idea! Post examples of novelty masters that are strikingly altered that appear to come from the same mix.

 

[ssully]

Compared to damn near everything you've ever heard and you wonder what the heck happened! You know what I mean. Bad enough that you don't need a master to compare to to hear which way the wind is blowing. I'm thinking of titles I haven't seen offered in any other format, so no way to compare and point at the mix, mastering, or delivery format.

The point was to say something about a DTS encode of a mastering versus its lossless counterpart.

Comparing the DTS encode of a particular mastering to some random other mastering -- much less an entirely different mix - tells you absolutely zero about the 'sound' of DTS encoding.

So you're agreeing with me that the 'stereotype' is based on faulty logic. That's what I have been saying for what seems like decades here. Same goes for so-called "Dullby'.

People who make such claims literally do not know what they are talking about. They only think they know. They haven't even begun to approach the question in a way that might answer it correctly. And setting up a fair comparison to do that is not easy.

So they should be writing that release X sounds bad 'for whatever reason' ....as you did.
Not assuming that lossy encoding is to blame, as is so very often done here. And they could acknowledge that 'whatever reason ' could even be....bog-standard sighted bias. IOW the audible difference is imaginary.

 

[jimfisheye]

I don't disagree with any of that ssully. I'm trying to acknowledge stereotypes mentioned but point them out as the outliers rather than the format itself in my own way. There are some extremely bad 5.1 mixes from the early days of consumer surround on a DVD. And they live in the stock dts format or the stock dolby format. (Of course they do! That was the format available.)

The fun part is anyone can prove a lot of this to themselves with a computer and free software. Convert something you think sounds good to a format you think ruins everything. Then sit there scratching your head when you can't hear any difference between them.

Lining up a bunch of different releases of the same album in tracks in a DAW app and flipping between them is also revealing.

 

[ssully]

It was noted philosophers The Osmonds who first advised listeners, "one bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch". Though I may be misremembering, it was the 70's.

 

[Degrundt]

I just ordered a Sony BD player DVD-A compliant...I Will let you know my humble opinion when it will be at home.

 

[H.A.L.]

Lossy or not, I prefer DTS to MLP most of the time. There is an "airiness" that is very pleasing to my ears. YMMV.

 

[JediJoker]

Lossy or not, I prefer DTS to MLP most of the time. There is an "airiness" that is very pleasing to my ears. YMMV.

That has nothing to do with the DTS codec.