The Beatles - Abbey Road 50th Anniversary (5.1 & Dolby Atmos mixes)

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Yet another afternoon listening to the Atmos mix of Abbey Road , it just gets better and better. Anyone know whats next for Atmos?.
Sorry Kenny Wayne The Traveler your Atmos is no where near as good as Abbey Road sounds flat had to turn it off.
 
I'm listening to Abbey Road over and over again. Yes because it sound so good. The White Album is more like a collection of short stories to me (and love them all) where Abbey seems more of a single novel where once you start, you just have to take the whole ride through the end (pun not really intended). It goes by so quick too. Still need to sample the 5.1 but just can't stop the ATMOS version.
 
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Now that much of the action on this title has moved over to the poll threads, I'll take the risk of boring people with my not-as-old-as-you-old-guys-but-old-enough-to-reminisce memories. (Actually, I mainly just want to get this down for myself, while the taste of the Proustian madeleine of my first listen [to the 5.1 mix] is still fresh.)

For me, Abbey Road was the album that taught me the pleasure of getting lost in a soundscape in the dark. It took a while to show up at our house--I think because my college-aged brother (in whose dorm room I'd first heard bits of the White Album) was out of the picture, and my next older brother wasn't yet buying albums. But when he started, about a year and a half later, he started with a vengeance, coming home from a trip to East Lansing with not one but four discs in an LP-sized bag from Marshall Music: a pair of Elton Johns (EJ and 11-17-70), Tapestry, and Abbey Road. In my memory, I just appropriated all of them, and wore them all out, spinning them over and over again on our family's old Motorola hi-fi, whose base unit sat on a typing table in a corner of the dining room.

(I found a picture of it on Etsy--the SH12: )

il_fullxfull.694908791_ez0i.jpg


With Abbey Road, I would lie on the floor, position the detachable speakers about eighteen inches away from either side of my head, turn out the lights, and get lost (the Motorola had a little indicator lamp on the front, under the handle, that acted as a beacon). The sudden end of "I Want You" would startle me out of my reverie long enough to get up and flip the record, but by halfway through the second side I'd be back in a trance.

The surround mix just brings back for me the details of that record that I used to know by heart from such close (literally and figuratively) listening. I'm convinced, by the way, that the detail and intricacy of that Side 2 suite was what prepped me to become a prog fan...
 
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Listening to this over and over again. Disclosure: I'm at 5.1 only.

This is, to me, the perfect Beatles album. The show is about to end forever, and somehow they're firing on all cylinders. the White Album is a touch too long for me and has some filler. Sgt. Peppers is great, but almost too cocky. "oh hey, we're the Beatles, and you're not." Let it Be is slathered in Phil Spector and reeks of divorce and contempt.

It's as if they knew this was the very end of The Beatles, so they channeled all their love and power into this short hot package. It cooks. It soars. It roars. I love it.

I also realized how many of these songs are part of my family's soundtrack. I sing to my children constantly, which annoys the bejeezus out of them*. "Oh! Darling" has been a staple, with rewritten lyrics to be about my oldest daughter. My youngest daughter loves "Here Comes the Sun". The children believe that "Something" was written about their mother. (I did not tell them that fib, they leaped to it on their own). They know "Golden Slumbers" from the movie Sing, and we belt it out as a family.

I've been cranking this all weekend, and for once my family asks me to play it again. and again. and again. Maybe one day, they'll love King Crimson to the same degree.

*I am a very weak singer, but they tolerate me. They are better than I deserve.
 
I heard a radio ad for the deluxe set and they mentioned that it was mixed for Dolby Atmos. No mention of 5.1 or 7.1 surround. I ordered my copy yesterday, but I won't get to hear It in surround until I get my blu ray player back from Oppo service.
Such horrible suffering.
@The Quadfather you need to make them an offer they can’t refuse! 😂
 
For those who like this sort of thing, I did a comparison between the new 5.1 mix of "Something" and the prior version from the Anthology DVD set.

Both start off with the lead vocal and lead guitar in the center channel, though on the old mix you can hear some bleed of both to the front left and right channels. On the new mix, not so much - if mute the center, you can only hear a faint glimpse of the vocal and you can't hear the guitar at all! (I noticed this a lot throughout the album - most of the center channel stuff is really only audible in that speaker. Makes for some fun karaoke opportunities...)

The Anthology mix has the strings mostly in the rears and the organ upfront. On the new mix, the organ is clearly isolated in the rears and the strings are more towards the fronts. I would say the new version is the winner.

Though of course, the biggest problem with the Anthology version is that the narration continues over the iconic drum intro :mad:

"Something" (2019 Abbey Road 5.1):
Something (Abbey Road 5.1).jpg


"Something" (2003 Anthology 5.1):
Something (Anthology 5.1).jpg
 
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The Life in Surround Review is up, featuring a quick Atmos system tour and a demonstration on accessing the easter egg video:

Really great job on the review, thanks much. FWIW, it was almost like I was right there listening to the music.
I actually haven't heard anything since mine isn't here yet! .....so, like a lot of folks, I got nothing! I'm sitting here rubbing 2 sticks together waiting for it.
 
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Really great job on the review, thanks much.
Mine isn't here yet & I got I'm sitting here rubbing 2 sticks together waiting for my super deluxe. was almost like I was right there listening to the music.
I haven't heard anythin

Join the club ...... probably stuck somewhere in the midwest awaiting delivery.
 
Anyone here having issues playing this disc? I had to do a workaround to get to play it, only for it to stop playing at on Golden Slumbers
Mine arrived today - I get the Apple Corps Screen on my oppo udp 203 but nothing else (well...an error message...). Currently playing the disc on my $150 AUD (not USD) sony player - so far so good...
 
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