I voted 10.
In the world of audio and visual this likely will be my favorite surround release (box set) for 2023.
Like most Progressive type music I come to them through QQ. I read and trust other members and the pay off has been more than I ever expected.
This release has 7 albums both in separate RBCD's and one Blu Ray that has both a 5.1 and a Dolby Atmos versions of the 7 albums.
The star of the show for me was
reading the Art Book, liner notes you would call them.
What you find out is in this "beginnings of"
The Pineapple Thief is that
Bruce Soord did it all, instruments and lyrics with some help coming in here and there.
This beautiful music, whether listening to one of the two surrounds or the stereo CD's is very calming and yet provoking for me, likely because I was able to read and hear Bruce communicate these albums and songs with his hindsight and depth. I read about, love, tremendous sadness, struggle, accomplishments and a rise of popularity. Much more, but that will be for you to read and listen.
I listened: 5 speakers on the floor, 3 subs, and 4 height speakers and less of course for the CD's and the 5.1.
Seven CD's: I have been listening to them via the rip on a USB drive in the car and continue to find them quite enjoyable. There sonic qualities in stereo sound great both in the car as in the home rig.
They play of course at 44.1Khz/16bit. The Dynamic Range across the 7 CD's hovers about 10.
The back of book calls them Hi Res Audio CD's, at first I thought are these special CD's? No they are not.
There are 3 Acoustic Bonus Tracks (12-13-14) listed for the album Little Man that are in the book track list, they are only on the Little Man CD, not the 5.1 or the ATMOS. They are not listed in the lyrics section either even though they have lyrics. As of this writing I have only heard speculation by another QQ member that was possibly due to the maxed out Blu Ray?
One Blu Ray: Many times on QQ I have heard others say, and I agree with them, this Blu Ray could have so much on it, due to the Blu Rays capacity, why didn't they add more?
This Blu Ray, puts that question to bed, seven albums with both 5.1 DTS HD MSTR and Dolby Atmos, quite an accomplishment.
The sonic qualities of the music and vocals is superb.
The 5.1 is superb for those who do not have a Atmos set up, no need to feel slighted, in fact my 5.1 rip plays like heaven in my hot rod. The 5.1 plays at 48Khz 24bit and has Dynamic Range hovering around 12.
Dolby Atmos: Wow, just wow, fully immersive, discrete with moving instrumentation, vocals always center front, a big bubble of ATMOS surround, plays well loud. The ATMOS plays at 48Khz/24bit.
The Dynamic Range for the Atmos over 7 albums probably hovers at about 13-14, pretty good for a remix.
My favorite was 8 Days and 8 Days Later, something about the feelings I was getting, reading Bruce's words and the fact he had two MIC's outside on the window sill recording street sounds overlaying his music that he was building in his apartment, I felt like I was listening to myself, brilliant.
On Screen Menu: I'll speak for myself only of course, the menu was fully functional and worked well, except the track cursor would not move with the changing tracks, so if you went out of your room or lost your place, I would not know where I was on the track list.
A QQ member remedied that for me with a suggestion, that I did, and that was to go into the settings of the BD player, and punch up the track sequence reader, problem solved. When all disc are ripped, this of course becomes a non issue.
Ripping the discs: I ripped the CD's using Windows Media Player to FLAC. The 5.1 ripped using MakeMKV to a MKV file and the used Music Media Helper and turned them from MKV to FLAC files.
The ATMOS ripped same as 5.1 but when using Music Media Helper, split the root file into MKV Chapters (Tracks).
When playing back the MKV files I have no onscreen visual, just black screen, this is not common. It is likely due to the maxed out Blu ray.
I play all using the JRiver player, and plays exceptionally well.
One small negative with JRiver is, not yet, it will not play MKV chapters gapless, FLAC it will. I am sure there working on this. I may go back and load the root file (no chapters) for 8 Days and 8 Days Later which are gapless?
Negatives: I can't spend as much time on a listening and reading project without pointing out some flaws. They do not detract from my 10 vote.
To be simple all the flaws, whether the customer perceives them as flaws is up to each customer. Does not make me right or wrong, but as customer feedback for the company producer of the product.
The only flaws of this box set are all due to putting all this music material on one Blu Ray disc.
They are, the menu and the time ripping the disc for home and car playback was a pain, the Blu Ray info on one disc actually was too big. I would have been more than happy to pay an additional $30.00 and get two Blu Ray discs and all problems, as big or as minor as the customer may feel are gone.
After failed attempts from online vendors I purchased this with tax $109.61 and it is
NOW CHEAPER AT AMAZON my copy arrived in one day after ordering.
This was a big review on the Poll Thread for me, but I spent a week of reading and listening, and fell in love with it, I hope my experience helps you.
If you would like to comment, agree or disagree we have this
QQ THREAD FOR YOU.
Please keep poll threads pure with your own listening experience only.
. Definitely voting a 10!
