Quick Tommy heads up!

Chris Elm · 11-20-2003, 01:31 PM

Turns out these are from Crest as well. One guy over at the Asylum is already reporting cracking.

Maybe all we will ever get from Crest is lip service.
I've heard it sounds great, but this is ridiculous.

Kevin C Brown · 11-20-2003, 09:54 PM

I have mine but haven't opened it yet to listen to it. I swear to y'all, if mine cracks, I'm driving down there to return it to the plant myself.

I just checked mine. In really small letters along the inside ring, it does say, Manufactured by National Crest in CA, or something. And ... there are "bubble" like defects already around the inner ring (like there's a non-uniform amount of air or something trapped in between the layers). Great.

Funny one. A buddy of mine just bought a new 2900. Another buddy loaned him Dark Side. Without even having to guess, I opened up the jewel case, took out the disc, and showed both of them the cracks it had. Both guys were extremely pissed. I said, luckily, yours isn't that bad. Some discs crack so bad they leave flakes behind in the player. They were not as amused as I was. I can't figure that!

Kevin C Brown · 11-24-2003, 10:26 PM

Listened to mine. So far so good, no cracks (although the "air bubbles" are still there).

I like the surround mix, although I think DSOTM is preferrable. (More "bizarre" stuff in the mix to throw into the surrounds in the latter.)

One thing I am finding. You take a std stereo mix, and essentially spread it out into the room from 2 to 5 speakers. Seems to add "clarity" in that you have more or less the same amount of music, but spread among more speakers. Because the info per speaker decreases, the detail per speaker goes up. Can't quite explain it. Maybe it makes a little bit of sense.

LanceJ · 11-24-2003, 10:58 PM

Quote:

One thing I am finding. You take a std stereo mix, and essentially spread it out into the room from 2 to 5 speakers. Seems to add "clarity" in that you have more or less the same amount of music, but spread among more speakers. Because the info per speaker decreases, the detail per speaker goes up. Can't quite explain it. Maybe it makes a little bit of sense.

I know what you mean Kevin, especially the "clarity" comment.

I've read many times now where mixing engineers have said they have had to reduce the volume of a particular instrument in a (stereo) song just to make it "fit" only to find it could barely be heard. And sometimes it had to be taken out altogether. It happens even with bass-oriented sounds: certain drums can drown out parts of the bass guitar or even lower portions of male voices. All this has to be carefully listened for while assembling the track.

But with multichannel, they say things like this are much easier to deal with because they have--literally--much more room to work with. So just about any instrument can have its own space where it can be heard properly. And this is one of my favorite aspects of surround music, along with the fact of being immersed in it.

LJ

Rachael B · 11-25-2003, 11:21 AM

Guys, that's an intresting observation but it makes sense.

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Doug_B · 11-25-2003, 11:54 AM

Just received my Tommy yesterday. Didn't realize this was a Crest kid. I think I'll move these discs out of the provided storage, as I think taking it out of this tight center hub stresses the disc.

BTW, listened to most but not all of the surround mix first. I was generally pleased with the "everywhere" sound of it. It didn't seem like there was much experimentation with what might be called "gimmicky" surround use. In the proper dosage, such gimmicky use can be quite appropriate and enjoyable. I agree with previous post that DSOTM probably presented more of these opportunities.

Haven't listened to the stereo tracks yet.

Doug

Chris Elm · 11-25-2003, 12:55 PM

Does this mean that Elton's YBR will be from Crest as well?
I'd like to know before throwing $30 down the drain for this set.

Chris_Eff · 11-25-2003, 02:52 PM

I have had this disk for about three weeks now without any cracks showing. Since I have a single disk player it requires me to take them in and out of those dang tight hubs which I dread each time. So far no problems but I did notice a slight discolorization around the hub from the possible layer seal mentioned previously.

Even though some of my disk have cracked I have not had a single disk become unplayable. I plan on picking up GYBR tonight and I will post if any problems develop.

Doug_B · 12-01-2003, 04:02 PM

Has anyone noticed with Tommy that it appears the surrounds are getting more vocals than the mains for a lot of the songs? The center also gets strong vocals. I was even checking out my cabling and running my player's test tones to make sure something wasn't set up wrong.

Doug

Lee Scoggins · 12-01-2003, 05:17 PM

Quote:

So just about any instrument can have its own space where it can be heard properly.

Lance, just for the record...you also get this from stereo if you record it well. The audiophile labels can do amazing things with "air" around the instruments that create a very lifelike soundstage of instruments coming from different areas of the soundfield.