Listening to now (In Surround!) - Volume 1

[The Bushmaster]

The Fantastic Philadelphians...Eugene Ormandy CD-4

 

[Scott M4]

I'd say that Elliot Scheiner's decision to mix the choir on Black & White Night into the Surround Channels is an artistic decision. Ditto for the Organ solo in the Right Surround Channel. I like the results he comes up with. So I'd rate that ahead of the Surround Master. But again, everyone's musical tastes may vary......

I love that the Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense DVD offers a "stage" mix and a "studio" mix. I always go for the "studio" mix myself. I've really enjoyed the B&W surround mix. Must pull it out now that it's on my mind.

 

[DennisMabry]

I thought I would revisit a favorite today.

* Led Zeppelin - Celebration Day, BD

(and....since I hadn't had enough Jimmy Page yet)

* It Might Get Loud, BD

Neither has much going on in the rear speakers, but the sound quality on both are great. The performance on Celebration Day is outstanding! Like spending time with old friends.

On IMGL Jimmy talks about how he loves the dynamics in music. I hope the rumors about the Zep catalog being remixed in 5.1 on a hi-res format come to fruition, and brings those dynamics to life.

 

[bossfan]

Nakai, Fourth World..DTS surround. New Age Native American Flute with full orchestral accompaniment. I've only listened to the first 7 songs and so far, outstanding. Great use of surround..But I like this music... Anyone else have this DTS.

 

[IMachine]

Steve Lukather - Candyman
Yessssssssss!

 

[Disclord]

Listening to Paul Simon SQ There Goes rhymin Simon and Mother and Child Reunion on the SM. And using the Smart EX decoder to create a center channel. I don't hear phantom center all that well - its a learned response that I never really learned.

 

[Disclord]

A lot of people are seeing the Surround Master as a replacement for a Tate, not an add on. I have no vintage quad kit and wouldn't know how to start getting it refurbished in the UK. Is the Tate plus Surround Master combination really that much better than either unit on its own? If I had a Tate and it was working fine, why would I want a Surround Master as well? (excrpt for QS decoding).

PS. Welcome back, nice to see your informative posts again.

The Fosgate Tate has the CBS 270 degree wraparound stereo to quad synthesizer. Full left and right front are sent to the rear speakers and sounds that are between center and L/R are sent to the L/R fronts with center appearing there - it creates a truly spectacular 4channel effect that sounds like real quad. Well, the Fosgate lets you turn off the Tate DES by putting the switch in Mono and you put the surround setting in the surround mode, adjust the balance to full front and hook up the L/R front to the Surround Master in its SQ mode and it produces the full 270 surround mode. When you want to listen to real SQ and bypass the Fosgate you switch the Fosgate to Bypass and it send the signal through with no processing. I have an article on how to make the surround synthesizer from the CBS/Motorola SQ IC, which are easily available on eBay. Sansui had a similar mode on most of their Vario-Matrix receivers and the QS-D1. The wrap around stereo is fantastic.

one thing I would add to the SM is a L/R input balance control since many albums and CD's have unequal levels which throws off the decoding.

thanks for the welcome back - although I really don't think I add much to the forums - nevertheless, its nice to be appreciated. Especially after being released from the hospital last week after a diabetic coma and then having my partner of 18 years telling me he's breaking up with me the same day I was released. I'm trying to distract myself with other things like the forums.

 

[fredblue]

Bilham Cobly - R'spectUm (Diva'd Do U?)

(I jest! )

Billy Cobham - Spectrum (Dvd Audio)

Sounds a bit tame til you turn up the wick but crank your rig and this baby soars..!!!

Ok so there's not quite enough rear pyrotechnics going on for my liking.. :flame ..but I do like a lot of rear activity so maybe I'm just being greedy!

...but (and its a big butt!) there's still loads of little effects and things happening back there, including some lovely big drum reverbs that kick in every now and again..

..providing you haven't jacked up your centre (as I had last time I gave this a spin, it's better balanced now) the spread of Billy's drums across the front 3 channels is incredible and fidelity is just drop dead superb.

oh oh and the teensy bit of piano in "To The Women In My Life" is sooooo gorgeous.. it's almost worth getting this drummer supremo's album just for that! kidding.. its amazeballs, get it now!

and.. there's even a lovely nod to old school crazy round the room 360-degree panning in Snoopy's Search.. Scrumdiddlyawesome! :ugham:

 

[Owen Smith]

The Fosgate Tate has the CBS 270 degree wraparound stereo to quad synthesizer. Full left and right front are sent to the rear speakers and sounds that are between center and L/R are sent to the L/R fronts with center appearing there - it creates a truly spectacular 4channel effect that sounds like real quad. Well, the Fosgate lets you turn off the Tate DES by putting the switch in Mono and you put the surround setting in the surround mode, adjust the balance to full front and hook up the L/R front to the Surround Master in its SQ mode and it produces the full 270 surround mode. When you want to listen to real SQ and bypass the Fosgate you switch the Fosgate to Bypass and it send the signal through with no processing. I have an article on how to make the surround synthesizer from the CBS/Motorola SQ IC, which are easily available on eBay. Sansui had a similar mode on most of their Vario-Matrix receivers and the QS-D1. The wrap around stereo is fantastic.

one thing I would add to the SM is a L/R input balance control since many albums and CD's have unequal levels which throws off the decoding.

thanks for the welcome back - although I really don't think I add much to the forums - nevertheless, its nice to be appreciated. Especially after being released from the hospital last week after a diabetic coma and then having my partner of 18 years telling me he's breaking up with me the same day I was released. I'm trying to distract myself with other things like the forums.

Ah thanks for the clarification, it hadn't realised the Tate 270 mode was something it derived from a plain stereo signal. I assumed it was another processing mode for SQ encoded material. Yeah I can image quite a lot of stereo tracks sounding good with the signal spread wider across all 4 speakers.

Sorry to hear about your partner of 18 years leaving you, and it really sucks to do it the day you are released from hospital.

I hope to see you occupying some of that time on the Blog That Dare Not Speak It's Name (OD's place).

EDIT: sorry for large quote, hard to edit on iPad. And this is rather off topic for this thread I realise.

 

[bmoura]

Two 5.1 SACD Surround Sound favorites from the U.K. -

• Pete Cater Big Band - Upswing! (Vocalion CDSA 4801)
• Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Rage Hard: The Sonic Collection (ZTT 177SACD)

New sealed copies of the Pete Cater Big Band Surround SACD are still available at reasonable prices on Amazon.Com and eBay.

 

[kap'n krunch]

Bilham Cobly - R'spectUm (Diva'd Do U?)

(I jest! )

Billy Cobham - Spectrum (Dvd Audio)

Sounds a bit tame til you turn up the wick but crank your rig and this baby soars..!!!

Ok so there's not quite enough rear pyrotechnics going on for my liking.. :flame ..but I do like a lot of rear activity so maybe I'm just being greedy!

...but (and its a big butt!) there's still loads of little effects and things happening back there, including some lovely big drum reverbs that kick in every now and again..

..providing you haven't jacked up your centre (as I had last time I gave this a spin, it's better balanced now) the spread of Billy's drums across the front 3 channels is incredible and fidelity is just drop dead superb.

oh oh and the teensy bit of piano in "To The Women In My Life" is sooooo gorgeous.. it's almost worth getting this drummer supremo's album just for that! kidding.. its amazeballs, get it now!

and.. there's even a lovely nod to old school crazy round the room 360-degree panning in Snoopy's Search.. Scrumdiddlyawesome! :ugham:

Well, I LOVE this and remember when I had to place a "special order" in the San Juan Sears' for this LP...still have it.
Obviously was one of the first DVD-As I got, but what put me off was Billy's drumkit sound quality...well, lack thereof...it sounds flat as a pancake and with no bass nor sheen, it's all mids.
I know that the deal was to "keep it as close to the original as possible", but man...ugh!!! (same as with the whole mix on George Benson's "Breezin" :=P )
If it weren't for the spectacular performances by all involved , and being a Tommy Bolin fan, this being only one of the two Quad mixes featuring his playing (the other one, James Gang's "Miami", which surprisingly NOBODY has done a conversion of...anyone there? I have a Minty pressing..anybody willing???); I'd have rated this lower...
anyway , I'll try to crank it today now that the wife is off to work and I still have a few days off from my spinal surgery...

Cheers....

 

[fredblue]

Two 5.1 SACD Surround Sound favorites from the U.K. -

• Pete Cater Big Band - Upswing! (Vocalion CDSA 4801)
• Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Rage Hard: The Sonic Collection (ZTT 177SACD)

New sealed copies of the Pete Cater Big Band Surround SACD are still available at reasonable prices on Amazon.Com and eBay.

View attachment 11538 View attachment 11539

Pete Cater's common still but same can't be said for FGTH! I haven't seen a new sealed reasonable Frankie (Hollywood not Sinatra) SACD for a few years.. ..but it is worth all the fuss made over it!

The Pete Cater didn't set my skirt on fire but I've only played it once since I bought it, need to play it again Sam!

 

[fredblue]

Well, I LOVE this and remember when I had to place a "special order" in the San Juan Sears' for this LP...still have it.
Obviously was one of the first DVD-As I got, but what put me off was Billy's drumkit sound quality...well, lack thereof...it sounds flat as a pancake and with no bass nor sheen, it's all mids.
I know that the deal was to "keep it as close to the original as possible", but man...ugh!!! (same as with the whole mix on George Benson's "Breezin" :=P )
If it weren't for the spectacular performances by all involved , and being a Tommy Bolin fan, this being only one of the two Quad mixes featuring his playing (the other one, James Gang's "Miami", which surprisingly NOBODY has done a conversion of...anyone there? I have a Minty pressing..anybody willing???); I'd have rated this lower...
anyway , I'll try to crank it today now that the wife is off to work and I still have a few days off from my spinal surgery...

Cheers....

ps. if your mains and centre go below 80hz, lower your crossover for this DVDA and it helps with the bass no end.

I set my L/R to Large to get the LFE through them too, set Centre to 60hz and whizz bang thud you're away, bass a-plenty! (and yes, I know I'm technically going awry by doubling up on the LFE/sub bass but some discs need the boost, this is one of them, imho and my mains go to 30hz so they're almost shifting as much low end as my 25hz REL sub.) all depends on your sprachers!

 

[wavelength]

Lizard; Red; In the Court; Islands - while watching the Bucs and Cards game. I was hoping for the Pirates but it was not to be. Nevertheless what a great bunch of albums taken from an even greater collection - the King Crimson 40th Anniversary Editions. We are so lucky to have this.

 

[bmoura]

Two Billy Joel classics in 5.1 SACD Surround Sound:

• Billy Joel - 52nd Street (Columbia CS 69385)
• Billy Joel - The Stranger (Columbia CS 69384)

 

[ctc4001]

IMachine, I can say I have never heard of this artist Steve Lukather. I did a search on utube and found some music...pretty good stuff there... I liked it.

 

[IMachine]

IMachine, I can say I have never heard of this artist Steve Lukather. I did a search on utube and found some music...pretty good stuff there... I liked it.

Well, Steve Lukather is the guitar man from Toto.
You don't know them?

 

[ctc4001]

Yes, sure I have I just didn't recognize the guitarist name...been a long time since I've listened to Toto..who were studio musicians.

 

[timbre4]

They were essentially the band on Boz Scaggs huge hit album Silk Degrees in 1976 among other things. They scored a deal with Columbia in 1979 and Hold The Line hit the radio. They also have the soundtrack to DUNE in their credits. In the liner notes it is mentioned that Billy Idol says it's his favorite Toto album!

 

[bigbillquad]

In between rests from sitting down and standing up...
Santana- Festivál (sic) DVD-A from Q8 (quite good SQ in spite of being Columbia)
(Professor k. krunch sez: you know, it's curious that for someone who's from Tijuana, MEXICO, Carlos does not really know how to speak Spanish ...a LOT of wrong accents and grammar in his stuff..here for example, the word "Festival" does NOT have an accent and neither does the word "caracoles"....¡muy mal, vato, a ver si aprendemos, güey!)

View attachment 11289

Joe Walsh- The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get DVD-A from Q8 (one of the best sounding Q8s I've ever heard)
View attachment 11290

Hi. All
Last night I sat down with some bears listened to Santana Lotus Concert , I have not listened to this 3 Lp Concert since I got the album. I have cleaned the 3 lp`s and recorded and lightly de clicked them onto my computer and onto CD and played them with my new SQ Surround Master, I was transported to that Concert it was fantastic there were good surround mixes of guitar and drums right through the entire time GRATE listen... Bill..