The Who - Who’s Next SDE series no. 30 (January 17th, 2025)

[newslane]

Hi everyone....I just got the new SDE Blu-Ray of Who's Next, and I'm open to trading it for a jazz surround disk. If you're interested, please PM with things you might want to trade for Who's Next. Thanks.

 

[Victor Bisio]

Sorry for question I should know.
I have the Who's Next Box Set and now SDE #30 has arrived.
Is the ONLY difference in SDE#30 the addition to having SW Remix Instrumental tracks?

I don't believe that Steve Wilson remixed the instrumental tracks; someone else did.

 

[marpow]

Listening now to the new (Standalone) Instrumental stereo only mix. SDE#30.
Steven Wilson Mixes; Dolby Atmos - DTS-HD Master Audio - PCM Stereo - Instrumental Mix Plus Glyn John's Original Mix In PCM Stereo.
Ripped from Blu Ray. Stereo FLAC file, 24bit/96Khz. Dr's are 11's, 12's, 13's, 14, 15.
22 tracks-Track 2 Bargain, not included.
Cool way of listening to this classic rock album.

 

[Uncle Obscure]

So, after reading through all of this, since I already had the big box set, I passed on the the stand-alone SDE Blu-ray. For me personally, I think I made the right decision. As far as I can tell, aside from some new instrumental versions that I would rarely (if ever) listen to, there is nothing to see here. If, however, you don't have the box, then this is a must buy, especially if you are a fan of the album, which IMO, is one of The Who's best.

 

[Owen Smith]

I've never owned any The Who albums before, so I bought this SDE and it's a great album. I listened to the 5.1 mix and thought it was very good given for a lot of the album they only had 8 tracks to work with. I did notice on briefly trying the Atmos mix on my 5.0 system that it is considerably quieter. I didn't notice any volume issues track to track on the 5.1 mix but then I'm not familiar with the material.

 

[jamoke]

I don't believe that Steve Wilson remixed the instrumental tracks; someone else did.

Steven Wilson did mix the instrumental tracks.

 

[Owen Smith]

I've just had a look, the 5.1 is different too! The limiting is applied as it was in the box set except on My Wife! I'll have to do a proper side-by-side mix comparison, but it could potentially mean a tweaked mix for My Wife only!

Further, the 5.1 mixes of Baba O'Reilly through to the "new" My Wife have all been normalised to 0dB, whilst the remainder of the material has been normalised to -6dB to match the Atmos levels, making for a very uneven listen at the halfway point.

So are you saying the Atmos mix is the one to listen to, even on a 5.0 system?

 

[LennonCobain]

Having said all of this, I did receive my copy of the standalone Blu-Ray the other day, still sealed. But I remember noticing how 2025 was printed on it to make it different from the box set and relevant. I had no clue there were actual changes made to the actual content.

I am fairly certain that if the standalone BD-A was 100% identical to the one from the box set that it would be proper to have a 2025 copyright date. What you might see if an additional disclaimer along the lines of “contains previously released content.”

 

[inspclouseau]

I received the SDE standalone Blu-ray a few days ago, and listened for the first time tonight (I never bought the ridiculously overpriced big box). I have a 5.1 system, and I enjoyed the 5.1 mix, although it's a notch or three below much of Wilson's other work - Fragile (from the big box that I recently bought during Rhino's 40% off sale) comes to mind, since the 5.1 mix on that sounds amazing to me on my system.

What I'm very disappointed in though from the Who's Next Blu-ray is how crunched the stereo mixes are, with way too much limiting. I ripped them all, to put them on my phone for car and headphone listening, and it looks like Wilson didn't have control over the mastering, since I know he favors putting his mixes out flat. These are very compressed, especially the original mix of the main album. I would have hoped for better from a SDE release, frankly. I'll probably stick to the 1995 remix/remaster CD release for stereo listening.

https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=the who

https://dr.loudness-war.info/?artist=the+who&album=who's+next

 

[ssully]

https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=the who

https://dr.loudness-war.info/?artist=the+who&album=who's+next

https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/205200

 

[inspclouseau]

https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/205200

stereo

 

[ssully]

Yup. He was complaining about the stereo mastering

What I'm very disappointed in though from the Who's Next Blu-ray is how crunched the stereo mixes are, with way too much limiting. I ripped them all, to put them on my phone for car and headphone listening, and it looks like Wilson didn't have control over the mastering, since I know he favors putting his mixes out flat. These are very compressed, especially the original mix of the main album. I would have hoped for better from a SDE release, frankly. I'll probably stick to the 1995 remix/remaster CD release for stereo listening.

 

[The Rang]

Yup. He was complaining about the stereo mastering

Hmmm, that doesn’t bode well for me as someone who listens predominantly in stereo

 

[scooob]

Yup. He was complaining about the stereo mastering

Correct. I looked at those DR numbers before I posted, which just reinforced what I was hearing, and seeing in the waveforms of the ripped stereo tracks. An album DR of 8 certainly isn't the worst offender out there (for example, Tears For Fears' The Tipping Point on the SDE Blu-ray is DR 5 overall for the stereo mix), but it's firmly in the ear-fatigue category, at least for me. I can see why the "punch" of these compressed tracks appeals to some, but I'll take a dynamic mastering any day, with all the peaks preserved faithfully.

 

[srbjab]

Received my copy yesterday and about to give it a listen. This will complete my collection of The Who's albums, the others being Tommy, the 2003 2 SACD 5.1 Deluxe Edition, and Quadrophenia, the 2014 5.1 BD. Was never a huge fan of The Who but liked it when they pushed the envelope.

 

[mediumwave13]

So are you saying the Atmos mix is the one to listen to, even on a 5.0 system?

On a 5.1 system, the dedicated 5.1 mix is definitely preferable as a listening experience. Unfortunately with the standalone disc, you'll need to increase the volume from "The Song Is Over" onwards. The boxset version doesn't have this issue and is uniform throughout.

 

[Owen Smith]

On a 5.1 system, the dedicated 5.1 mix is definitely preferable as a listening experience. Unfortunately with the standalone disc, you'll need to increase the volume from "The Song Is Over" onwards. The boxset version doesn't have this issue and is uniform throughout.

I get to choose whether I just play the True HD 7.1 or actually decode the Atmos and render it to 5.0. The results are not always the same, though I'd argue they should be.

 

[scooob]

I received the SDE standalone Blu-ray a few days ago, and listened for the first time tonight (I never bought the ridiculously overpriced big box). I have a 5.1 system, and I enjoyed the 5.1 mix, although it's a notch or three below much of Wilson's other work - Fragile (from the big box that I recently bought during Rhino's 40% off sale) comes to mind, since the 5.1 mix on that sounds amazing to me on my system.

What I'm very disappointed in though from the Who's Next Blu-ray is how crunched the stereo mixes are, with way too much limiting. I ripped them all, to put them on my phone for car and headphone listening, and it looks like Wilson didn't have control over the mastering, since I know he favors putting his mixes out flat. These are very compressed, especially the original mix of the main album. I would have hoped for better from a SDE release, frankly. I'll probably stick to the 1995 remix/remaster CD release for stereo listening.

As I've delved further into the stereo tracks, I found that the instrumentals are much more dynamic! If only all the stereo mixes had been mastered this way. This is pure conjecture, but I wonder if SW had more say over the mastering of the instrumental tracks, since they weren't on the big box and are newly released on the SDE standalone disk. Maybe it wasn't practical / affordable to go back and remaster the previously released stereo Blu-ray tracks, for this very limited edition. But as enjoyable as these instrumental mixes are sonically, after a couple listens I just want to hear some vocals!

And if it sounds like I'm just spewing sour grapes, let me say that I'm very glad I bought the standalone Blu-ray, and that Paul & company are continuing to make these releases happen. I hope they're making enough money from them to keep the series going for a long time.

 

[JulesRules]

Who's Next has always had a bit of a dynamic limiting going on. The Wilson stereo mixes are between DR8 and DR10, CD masterings from 1986 (!) are at that level or slightly higher, but not as high as you'd expect from an album mastered prior to the loudness wars:

https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/153632

https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/178160

https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/163865

 

[scooob]

Who's Next has always had a bit of a dynamic limiting going on. The Wilson stereo mixes are between DR8 and DR10, CD masterings from 1986 (!) are at that level or slightly higher, but not as high as you'd expect from an album mastered prior to the loudness wars:

https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/153632

https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/178160

https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/163865

The versions in your second and third links seem to contradict each other... both are listed as coming from the Steve Hoffman remaster, but the second is more dynamic, 11 compared to 9. That site is crowd sourced, right? Maybe the date and/or origin on some entries aren't fully accurate?

In any case, these SDE releases have the opportunity to call a truce in the loudness wars, and use flat or near-flat masterings of new mixes. It seems to be what Michael Dutton does in the stereo layers of his quad SACDs, at least in the small pile of Dutton Vocalion discs I own.