WHO’S NEXT/LIFEHOUSE Box set coming in September 2023 (STEVEN WILSON DOLBY ATMOS & 5.1 MIXES CONFIRMED!!)

[lukpac]

Note that when ripping, any possible advantages of SHM discs go out the window. The ripped files will be identical.

 

[marpow]

Awesome, 10 discs ripped, tagged, beautiful. Now to rip Blu Ray, and then to listen.
SHM CD's will get listened to via Luxman D-03X CD player>McIntosh C1100 Tube Pre Amp>McIntosh MC452 stereo Amp, and my two B&W 804 something I forget.
Not the smartest tool in the shed, but I know a tiny bit.

 

[Clement]

Awesome, 10 discs ripped, tagged, beautiful. Now to rip Blu Ray, and then to listen.
SHM CD's will get listened to via Luxman D-03X CD player>McIntosh C1100 Tube Pre Amp>McIntosh MC452 stereo Amp, and my two B&W 804 something I forget.
Not the smartest tool in the shed, but I know a tiny bit.

Man! I would LOVE to hear your setup!! Turn that McIntosh UP!

 

[Scott65]

it's at this point i'd have put on Dolly Parton's D-I-V-O-R-C-E

I prefer the Billy Connolly version....

 

[Sal1950]

Note that when ripping, any possible advantages of SHM discs go out the window. The ripped files will be identical.

Well, if the master used for the Japanese release wasn't different than the one used for comparison. Otherwise if pressed from the same master, any difference would most likely disappear under bias controlled DBT listening. What possible difference can the material make in the sound of an identical data stream?

 

[Dynamic Editor]

What possible difference can the material make in the sound of an identical data stream?

What often frustrates me with talk of audiophile stuff is that people don't seem to realize they're extremely prone to confirmation bias when it comes to audiophile media. There's a reason why people point to the limits of human hearing and whatnot as well as blind studies on which media sounds better.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

I streamed the Atmos on AM yesterday. I really hope the disc based version is somehow better than what I heard. I don't want to be a Debbie Downer here, but my opinion is that the mix is pretty lackluster for the main studio tracks. It reminds me of the underwhelming mix from the 5.1 Beatles sgt Pepper release from a few years back. It has that same kind of disappointment for me. It's not that it's an underwhelming Atmos mix like lots of Atmos mixes are, it's just an underwhelming surround mix in general. I resorted to playing other Atmos stuff on Apple just to make sure there wasn't something out of whack with my system. The high number of 10 votes in the official poll have to be based on the nostalgia content, which, like Pepper, is as good as it gets. There is no arguing that it's a top 5 classic rock album.

Also like Pepper, the best mixes show up on the extra tracks.

Unlike Pepper, unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be the big leap in audio quality that Giles realized. Who's Next has always been pretty average sonically, like almost any Stones or Zeppelin album. Just mostly meh sound quality. Maybe the audio quality is indeed better, but it just didn't stand out.

If they release a standalone Blu-ray, I'll probably get it. Mostly for those extra tracks. If I didn't know it, it would surprise me that it's a Wilson mix. He had to be very limited with the tapes.

If you do enjoy this I'm happy for you. But it just seems like such a letdown, especially at the price.of the set.

Am I the only one who feels like this?

edit: I have to add that my system is 5.1.4. Those with 7.1.4 systems often say there is a major difference in how things get positioned. Maybe so. But most often if members are raving about a given mix on their 7.1.4 system, it's also a good mix on my system.

 

[sjcorne]

Also like Pepper, the best mixes show up on the extra tracks.

The extra tracks are streaming on AM?

 

[LuvMyQuad]

The extra tracks are streaming on AM?

No, I was referring to the 5.1 physical release. Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields, specifically.

 

[sjcorne]

No, I was referring to the 5.1 physical release. Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields, specifically.

I meant the 14 bonus tracks in Atmos from Who's Next - last I checked, these are not available to stream on Apple Music.

 

[marpow]

Finished ripping the entire Who's Next box set.
Having started ripping discs (CD's) about 30 years ago and then advanced to all the formats that are out today, I must say the available software to do so sure is nice.
One thing that I have noticed and I certainly don't know the truth or the answer, but it seems to me that, some authors of tagging the data imbedded in the disc, (not sure I am saying this correct) do a better job than others.
All these discs (Who's Next) had there imbedded data, perfect, just makes ripping work so easy.
Other discs, not always, but sometimes, are a pain to get to the final result, especially some Japanese discs where the imbedded tagging is in Japanese.
I have all the software, my end result is always perfect and I am not questioning my process, just the tagging/authoring of the discs themselves.
So my post does not go sideways with opinions I'll be more direct.
How does a disc get the written data imbedded into the disc itself?
Who does it, a special assigned person, mixing or mastering person?

 

[jimfisheye]

Finished ripping the entire Who's Next box set.
Having started ripping discs (CD's) about 30 years ago and then advanced to all the formats that are out today, I must say the available software to do so sure is nice.
One thing that I have noticed and I certainly don't know the truth or the answer, but it seems to me that, some authors of tagging the data imbedded in the disc, (not sure I am saying this correct) do a better job than others.
All these discs (Who's Next) had there imbedded data, perfect, just makes ripping work so easy.
Other discs, not always, but sometimes, are a pain to get to the final result, especially some Japanese discs where the imbedded tagging is in Japanese.
I have all the software, my end result is always perfect and I am not questioning my process, just the tagging/authoring of the discs themselves.
So my post does not go sideways with opinions I'll be more direct.
How does a disc get the written data imbedded into the disc itself?
Who does it, a special assigned person, mixing or mastering person?

It's external to the disc. The ripping software queries an online database like MusicBrainz or Gracenote for the metadata. Goes by song count and lengths. This is entirely at the mercy of who cares to upload it first! If the artist/label takes care of it up front, it usually looks perfect. If it gets left to the first consumer that feels the urge, things can get weird.

There is a CD redbook+text format extension that could be read by select automobile CD players for song titles and album name. Not widely supported. All the ripping software uses the online databases. Things are more 'wild wild west' than they seem!

 

[marpow]

It's external to the disc. The ripping software queries an online database like MusicBrainz or Gracenote for the metadata. Goes by song count and lengths. This is entirely at the mercy of who cares to upload it first! If the artist/label takes care of it up front, it usually looks perfect. If it gets left to the first consumer that feels the urge, things can get weird.

There is a CD redbook+text format extension that could be read by select automobile CD players for song titles and album name. Not widely supported. All the ripping software uses the online databases. Things are more 'wild wild west' than they seem!

Great, I understand better now.
It makes sense in the fact that sometimes, rarely it feels to me like, what, am I the first person to rip this, the tagging is horrible.
I even notice when going to Discogs for artwork an unpopular new release will have barely any and crappy artwork, unlike this new Who's Next on Discogs has stellar artwork of all slipcovers and discs.

I have also noticed, in my previous car with CD player, some CD's just read, track 1, Track, 2, etc and other times read a different disc with track names.

My experience with ripping Steven Wilson discs is they are always tagged very well, maybe he the artist does it first?

Everything you say makes perfect sense with my own experience, thank you.
Moral of story, don't be first one in line to rip.

 

[jimfisheye]

The weird one to me is the lack of interest in artwork nowadays! Missing physical items aside... We can include a whole encyclopedia length pdf file with an album now. "Digital booklet" has even been coined the term. What do people include? A 12kb thumbnail size image of the front cover only! (Often labeled "folder" for some reason.) What's wrong with people with this anyway?!

 

[LuvMyQuad]

The weird one to me is the lack of interest in artwork nowadays! Missing physical items aside... We can include a whole encyclopedia length pdf file with an album now. "Digital booklet" has even been coined the term. What do people include? A 12kb thumbnail size image of the front cover only! (Often labeled "folder" for some reason.) What's wrong with people with this anyway?!

I use kodi for playback. There is no way to display a PDF. I look at the album notes once or twice and then store the disc.

 

[marpow]

The weird one to me is the lack of interest in artwork nowadays! Missing physical items aside... We can include a whole encyclopedia length pdf file with an album now. "Digital booklet" has even been coined the term. What do people include? A 12kb thumbnail size image of the front cover only! (Often labeled "folder" for some reason.) What's wrong with people with this anyway?!

Native DSD, a surround download site is the most exceptional with having available PDF file booklet and ease of downloads.
Mostly classical, jazz and some blues, no mainstream rock.

 

[mrcond]

It's external to the disc. The ripping software queries an online database like MusicBrainz or Gracenote for the metadata. Goes by song count and lengths. This is entirely at the mercy of who cares to upload it first! If the artist/label takes care of it up front, it usually looks perfect. If it gets left to the first consumer that feels the urge, things can get weird.

There is a CD redbook+text format extension that could be read by select automobile CD players for song titles and album name. Not widely supported. All the ripping software uses the online databases. Things are more 'wild wild west' than they seem!

I am almost certain (though I can’t think of any specific examples at the moment) that I have some CDs that have embedded data (song titles etc.) on the disc itself. When I play these on my Oppo player, which is not connected to the internet in any way, I see these titles on-screen. Maybe it is only SACDs that do this? Not sure.

 

[dabl]

I meant the 14 bonus tracks in Atmos from Who's Next - last I checked, these are not available to stream on Apple Music.

How weird, as they are/were on Tidal. The rare case where Tidal has something Apple does not.

 

[Sal1950]

The weird one to me is the lack of interest in artwork nowadays! Missing physical items aside... We can include a whole encyclopedia length pdf file with an album now. "Digital booklet" has even been coined the term. What do people include? A 12kb thumbnail size image of the front cover only! (Often labeled "folder" for some reason.) What's wrong with people with this anyway?!

Fully agreed, I try to mention this every time a new download gets discussed with hope the distributor (IAA, etc) will take notice. Often the download doesn't even include the album cover for display by the media player and I have to go searching for a copy on the internet somewhere to put in the file.

I look at the album notes once or twice and then store the disc.

Same here but the same is true for the artwork-booklets that come with the hard media, looked at/read once or twice when new but that's about it.
But then we always have them for reference, to go back to for any reason. The artist/label went to the work of putting this together for release with the media. I see no reason why we shouldn't get it all with downloads or whatever.

 

[lukpac]

I am almost certain (though I can’t think of any specific examples at the moment) that I have some CDs that have embedded data (song titles etc.) on the disc itself. When I play these on my Oppo player, which is not connected to the internet in any way, I see these titles on-screen. Maybe it is only SACDs that do this? Not sure.

That’s CD-TEXT. Common on SACDs.