Most of the comments on the SM v2 have been regarding the stereo to surround decoding for music, including mine. I’ve found some movies that sound so good through the SM I wanted to pass it on. And I mean so good you might even want to use it in preference to an original 5.1 mix.
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First up is
Interstella 5555. A Japanese 2003 feature film set inspired by Daft Punk’s second album, Discovery. It’s a story about blueish alien musicians abducted by a power crazy music mogul to perform on Earth as the Crescendolls. Brainwashed, white washed, controlled like robots they have no choice but to perform. Don’t worry, it has a happy ending.
This has a 5.1 mix that is so lame so unbefitting the wonderful music that I preferred DPL II to 5.1. BUT! Listening to it through the SM really made the soundtrack wonderful again. There is no dialogue just the occasional sound effect & the 4.0 Involve mode is like magic.
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Prince
Sign “O” the Times is a 1987 live concert film presented in Dobly True HD 5.1 that sounds quite lack luster. It isn’t like I expect a really wild all around surround mix from a live but even the ambience & crowd noises fail to meld into a satisfying soundfield. Surround Master to the rescue! The front stage widens and the rear ambience becomes believable. The bass picks up a bit of impact without actually become more bass. Music, performance & vid quality is top notch.
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Razorback is an Australian 1984 feature film that is just bat s**t crazy. At its simplest it’s about a giant razorback hog the size of an Escalade terrorizing a small Australian town in the outback. It’s also a revenge story as after the films horrific beginning it jumps 10 years forward as someone decides to revisit the town for obvious reasons. You might say it’s a Jaw’s rip off but really, did I say it’s bat s**t crazy?
This was a time when lower budget films did not use ADR or even on body mics. There would be a boom mic that picked up the dialogue but also room echoes. Where the SM excels at this is using the 5.1 mode it really cleans up the dialogue & puts ambience around you. Picture quality on BR is pretty good considering, music score is adequate quality & fidelity & I love how all the women in the film look like Olivia Newton John.
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Oh yes, that epic 1995 anime series
Neon Genesis Evangelion. I have the series on the Platinum DVD release & a legally purchased Japanese Blu-Rei which I ripped & put in fansub subtitles. But I want to comment on the re-release of this on Netflix. This version is absolutely the highest quality picture & sound I have seen of this. Much about the content & Netflix alterations is controversial but I won’t get into that. The 5.1 mix as I said is excellent but the SM amps it up a notch. It’s common practice to keep all dialogue in center front. Playing through Involve 4.1 it somehow knows if a character is to the left or right in a scene. An example is when two people are talking in an elevator and it’s a two head shot, one on the left, one on the right. The SM seems to pan the voices appropriately just to between center/left front or center/right front. Magic!! I have no explanation. I have double checked this both with and without a few cans of Yebisu beer & it remains the same.
In general there’s a lot of anime out there with only 2.0 chs or a badly done English 5.1 tracks. The SM is perfect for this.
When y’all feel full and satisfied listening to your favorite music I bet there’s a bunch of stuff you have on LD/DVD/BR that have only stereo or marginal surround sound tracks on them. The SM will work its wonders on these just as much as music.
and the sound quality is excellent. So 10/10 for Involve's analogue circuit design (and I'm an aging electronic engineer with quite a lot of analogue experience). Thanks folks, this is going to give my boring old stereo album collection a new lease of life - how did I survive without an SM1, and now how can anybody not have an SM2!
