@EricKalet can you give us a review of the streaming Atmos tracks, if you've had a good listen?
My listening is from a 7.1 perspective, do not have overheads, yet.
I can say for certain that Tom Sawyer and Limelight play louder, much louder, +8 to +10db in my estimation, than the other 5 tracks! We do know these two tracks were part of the initial rollout of Atmos on Apple Music and I'm not sure what technical issues are causing the volume differences. ~OR~ since TS and LL were developed into Atmos mixes well before the rest, perhaps, and this would seem a major error, the engineer simply mismatched the volume levels when they completed the other 5 tracks. A 3rd guess would be that TS and LL were mixed and mastered by someone other than Rich Chycki for the initial Apple rollout. But even still, to roll all tracks together without volume level consistency seems kinda sloppy. Hopefully that isn't the case with the Blu Ray.
The mixes themselves on this album aren't overly aggressive, but certainly aren't what I would classify as "big stereo." There is heavy use of ambiance and reflection in the surrounds from the front instruments on most songs. Bass is actually decent and does connect with me as far as punchiness, and could be a bit more chest thumping, but it works. I think it might be a tad boomy or maybe there was too much compression used while mixing. Just seems to be some over compensation of some sort as to not clip for some of the drum kit on some songs. I'll skip TS and LL because they have been around to listen to for several months.
I really enjoyed YYZ, the percussion encircles you right at the start, keyboards and guitar are prominent in the surrounds, bass guitar switches between front/back and drum kit is mainly centered but it does feel like they tried to put the listener in Peart's seat for this one. The glass breaking sound effect is awesome, and prominent in the surrounds.
Red Barchetta - the keyboards are definitely in the surrounds, Geddy's vocals front and center. Lifeson's guitar varies from front to back and percussion, especially the cymbals are mainly front. Most of the sound effects like the car tires screeching are located in surrounds.
The Camera Eye - sound effects in the surrounds, percussion starts in surrounds and keyboards are in surrounds. Peart's drums hit here with the deep bass, the bass drum is close to perfect but I feel like the tom-tom drums are compressed. Cymbals sound clean and it seems they are most prominent in the surrounds.
Witch Hunt - the bells/tubes start off bouncing all around the room, and then the keyboards whirl around while the guitars fade in. Guitars start heavy in rear and move to the front. Another song, seemingly where they wanted us to be in Peart's seat or just in front of him. Peart's drums seem subdued again on this song.
Vital Signs - starts off with keyboards bouncing back left and right in surrounds as they fade in. Bass guitar is crisp, and bass drum does hit hard. Lifeson's guitar bounces between front and back, for a cool effect.
Bottom line for me, $300 for the SDE is just over the top. I don't need drumsticks, posters, and most importantly for me, I certainly don't need the vinyl, as I do not have a record player and have no players to ever have one. If they had this set without the vinyl and priced around $125-150, I would not have hesitated to purchase. $300 just prices me out to just get the Blu ray and the YYZ concert, which is really all I want from this release. With it all being made available on Apple Music, I don't even have to buy the CD digipak, but probably will anyway to have the physical copy.
For the record, I am doing a "little" hand wringing about my pre-order. It's my nature....
