DVD/DTS Poll Moody Blues, The - IN SEARCH OF THE LOST CHORD [DTS DVD]

[ar surround]

Qn: is it better to have a surround mix of a chershed album, even if the surround mix is not upto snuff, than no surround mix at all?

Now you have really gotten me wound up, Pups! The answer is no...Not when a faux surround presentation derived from the high resolution stereo is better than the surround mix (Which in this case is also faked) itself. Despite my rating of 2, I would still buy this set because the 2-channel hi-res remix heard in faux surround is so darn good.

[Edit: This is not a glass-half full issue. This 5.1 is like getting an empty glass subsequently filled with...well, you know what! ]

 

[edisonbaggins]

I found this set for a few bucks and it helped me finally "get" this album. The 5.1 is a dud, but the set is an overall win.

 

[Larry Geller]

Still no explanation for why Visions Of Paradise is now in mono.

 

[Beefalo]

Didn’t you hear; everything’s supposed to be remixed into glorious ATMOS ........ .............................. ........ any day now ..... .............. any day now ;( ;( ;(

You can't polish mud.....

 

[tezzalavell]

Hi all , first post its been along time coming . basically upgraded from old kit (2003) .
From a fidelity point of view better than the red book super deluxe package of a few years ago. A-B’d using Dolby surround on my new Sony RX ( I know poor show) the new hodge podged DTS surround is better (bloody better be!!). The songs of course are pure Moodies and are great but overall although I enjoyed the listen and will again, I think releasing such a poor sounding muddy bag of tricks in the current climate where we are now eulogising over Dolby Atmos was probably just the record company trying to capitalise on us mugs !! . I will give it a 5

 

[Simon A]

Hi all , first post its been along time coming . basically upgraded from old kit (2003) .
From a fidelity point of view better than the red book super deluxe package of a few years ago. A-B’d using Dolby surround on my new Sony RX ( I know poor show) the new hodge podged DTS surround is better (bloody better be!!). The songs of course are pure Moodies and are great but overall although I enjoyed the listen and will again, I think releasing such a poor sounding muddy bag of tricks in the current climate where we are now eulogising over Dolby Atmos was probably just the record company trying to capitalise on us mugs !! . I will give it a 5

Welcome to QQ Tez!

 

[ar surround]

Hi all , first post its been along time coming . basically upgraded from old kit (2003) .
From a fidelity point of view better than the red book super deluxe package of a few years ago. A-B’d using Dolby surround on my new Sony RX ( I know poor show) the new hodge podged DTS surround is better (bloody better be!!). The songs of course are pure Moodies and are great but overall although I enjoyed the listen and will again, I think releasing such a poor sounding muddy bag of tricks in the current climate where we are now eulogising over Dolby Atmos was probably just the record company trying to capitalise on us mugs !! . I will give it a 5

Welcome to the forum and thanks for your first review, too. Hope to hear more from you, tezzalavell.

 

[tezzalavell]

Next post will be in a few days ........ Doobies quadio just arrived today !!

 

[H.A.L.]

Yet again, this is the _only_ box where I prefer Dolby over DTS. Go figure. <eh, what's that you say? speak up, please, I can't hear you! >

 

[Clint Eastwood]

Hi all , first post its been along time coming . basically upgraded from old kit (2003) .
From a fidelity point of view better than the red book super deluxe package of a few years ago. A-B’d using Dolby surround on my new Sony RX ( I know poor show) the new hodge podged DTS surround is better (bloody better be!!). The songs of course are pure Moodies and are great but overall although I enjoyed the listen and will again, I think releasing such a poor sounding muddy bag of tricks in the current climate where we are now eulogising over Dolby Atmos was probably just the record company trying to capitalise on us mugs !! . I will give it a 5

Welcome to the forum

 

[califcab]

Rating this for the first time and I would give it a 7. One of my favorite Moody Blues albums, I was always disappointed that it was not included with the fabulous surround sound releases of the other six Pinder era Moodies albums because of missing tapes. When this was released a couple of years ago I knew it would probably not be the same sound quality as the others, but I was still excited. Departure starts out with awesome sound that completely fills the room - but then Ride My See-Saw somehow falls flat when it should totally rock. The rest of the album is has moments but never rises again to the sound of the opening Departure cut. Still, I am happy to have a surround sound version of this one and overall it is a nice box set of a good album at a fair price.

 

[JohnA]

Probably my favourite Moodies album and Jakko did his magic again

Muddy as hell, like someone used a low-pass filter at 3K
surround mix is so mediocre, I want to cry. House of 4 frikin doors, only using front channels. If you miss that hint, it's a lost chord, keep looking..

A reluctant 6 from me. just in case the tapes had been demagnetised (devil's advocate)

 

[ar surround]

Probably my favourite Moodies album and Jakko did his magic again

Muddy as hell, like someone used a low-pass filter at 3K
surround mix is so mediocre, I want to cry. House of 4 frikin doors, only using front channels. If you miss that hint, it's a lost chord, keep looking..

A reluctant 6 from me. just in case the tapes had been demagnetised (devil's advocate)

As I've said earlier, play the high resolution stereo layer through the Surround Master if you have one. The results are infinitely superior to the 5.1 mess.

 

[jimfisheye]

I pulled this out again to check if the DD stream held any secrets. Thinking of that Lennon bluray scenario. Didn't find anything like that again of course but comparing the dts vs dolby did reveal some anomalies.

Going over all the content including the remastered stereo version...
They use the word "remix" for both one of the stereo programs and the 5.1 program. Except there are no longer multitracks and these are a remaster and an upmix.

The flat transfer of the original stereo mix reveals significant damage to the tape. There are many HD needle drops being shared online from a first pressing that preserve this album significantly better. This set should have absolutely gone for presenting the best needle drop from a mint original copy.

The remastered version of the stereo mix actually tries to chase the sound of the original. It doesn't quite get there of course. The master tape is obviously too badly degraded. I think they made a noble effort though. It genuinely sounds closer to the needle drop of a first pressing than the flat transfer does at this point in time. The mistake was in not accepting the loss and missing the opportunity to present an actual better preserved copy from an original vinyl.

The 5.1 upmix of their remastered stereo program...
I think the upmix tinkering produced phase anomalies here. (As subtracting and phase coercing manipulation can do.) I think something happened between that and the lossy dts and dolby encoding that then skewed everything further. (Both dts and dolby I think but especially the dolby copy.) The dolby copy especially collapses to nearly mono in a weird way vs the dts when you put the two copies up, level match them, and A/B between them. Comparing the dts copy to the remastered stereo copy - it has the same reach for the fidelity of the undamaged stereo from vinyl. But something still collapsed from whatever phase tinkering the upmix relied on. There may be something to hear that makes sense from the upmix were we to have a lossless copy of it but we can only speculate.

Ultimately a good copy of the first pressing vinyl betters everything here significantly.
However, the bonus tracks seem to be the best copies in this set vs older CD releases with those bonus tracks. Those are worth keeping! The BBC videos seem to be definitive copies as well. (Although I don't have a definitive collection of that stuff to compare to. Best I've seen/heard FWIW.) Even more awkward photos of them in the book! What's up with that shirt Justin is modeling on the back cover?