Beach Boys: Pet Sounds....my new favorite DVD-A (1 Viewer)

[Justin Lane]

After listening to this disc yesterday and today, I can prodly say the wait was worth it. This disc is what Hi-res on DVD Audio is all about: Hi-res mono, stereo, and surround, and lots of bonus features.

The actual mixing is quite like DSOTM on SACD, where the multi-channel improves on the original stereo. As they go from the original mono to the newer stereo and surrounds mixes made from the original multi-tracks, the fidelity of the recording increases. The surround track is a bit different then some others recently as the rears are used extensively for vocals (along with front L,R) and the center channel is rarely used. Still, sitting in the sweet spot makes this mix shine, bringing out a three dimensionality that made me fell as if the Beach Boys were performing in my living room.

Turn on your system, fire up this disc, close your eyes and be swept away.




(Note: I am starting this new thread since the other thread discussing this disc here, contains some review comments but does not directly address the quality of the disc in its topic, but instead notes a delay)

J

 

[Lee Scoggins]

Thanks for the review Justin. I will be picking this up.

 

[John Kotches]

Justin,

Very nice.... Unfortunately the place I ordered from cancelled my order, as it was a duplicate.

Except I only placed one order :-(

Glad to hear you're enjoying it.

Regards,

 

[pitchman]

I picked this up on Tuesday, and although I can see why some may be slightly put off by the mix, I am incredibly pleased with this purchase!

In terms of content, this disc is a blueprint for "how to do" DVD-A. It wreaks of quality and each side is chock full of audio, video (extensive video segments, at that!) photos and insightful liner notes. From start to finish, this is a carefully constructed, well-crafted disc that every Beach Boys fan should experience. There are some interesting easter eggs, too, like the Beach Boys discography section which features 60 seconds or so of an audio track from each album as the cover is displayed, or the extra audio bits tucked away after the conclusion of "Summer Means New Love."

Is it a perfect disc? Well, I guess that depends on your own personal sonic sensibilities.

Is it worth the $16 I paid for it? ABSOLUTELY!

 

[Ken Stuart]

One feature of this disk which should be in all DVD-A's is that there is an option to automatically display the lyrics for the section of the song being played. In other words, you can select that option, put away the remote, and the TV monitor will automatically advance the lyrics display as needed so that you can read (or sing) along.

Is it worth the $16 I paid for it? ABSOLUTELY!

Where on earth did you get it for that price? I have not seen it for less than $21...

 

[Rich Malloy]

My first impression: disappointment.

IMO, this is a very poor surround mix, the worst of all my DVD-A discs, but more importantly the original mix sounds terrible.

I want to live with this disc for awhile and hear the various mixes a few more times before coming to final conclusions, but right now I really agree with this review: http://www.highfidelityreview.com/re...umber=19059725

Oddly enough, there are audio playback options on the DVD-Video side for both ‘Advanced Resolution Stereo’ and ‘Advanced Resolution Mono’ tracks, but a couple of our machines used to check DVD-Video compatibility (including Meridian’s 596), refused to output any S/P-DIF even with their digital output’s sample rate set to 48kHz. A Windows XP software player also failed to produce any audio whatsoever from either option. You might be lucky, but it seems likely that in most cases the only way to hear these tracks at their native resolution will be via a stand-alone player’s analogue terminals.

Oddly, my Pioneer 414 will pass the so-called "advanced resolution" original mono mix to my receiver via the digital connection, and my receiver illuminates as "PCM 96K" and plays it back without a problem. However, just as with the reviewer's equipment which could not playback some of these tracks (a frickin' Meridian!), for some reason my player/receiver won't playback the 96kH stereo mix via digital link unless I go into my player's internal menu and change the setting so that 96kH is "downsampled" to 48kH. Very peculiar. I don't know why I can play the one, but not the other. Seems like a possible encoding error.

Speaking of encoding issues, I can't use the "audio" button on my remote to toggle between soundtracks. Instead, I have to turn on a monitor (I have to have a monitor to begin with) in order to access the DTS track, the stereo track, or the mono track. Of course, this is a continuing problem on DVD-A discs.

And there always seems to be at least one unnecessary step with every action I try to take on this disc: (1) I want to change tracks, so I go to the "Setup" menu where I select the track of my choice; (2) instead of immediately playing that track, it returns me to the main menu; (3) instead of there being a "Play" selection on the main menu, I have to select "Tracklist"; (4) instead of beginning play on song 1 while displaying the tracklist, I then have to arrow down to the track of my choice (say, track one) and hit "enter". Finally, if I'm lucky, I'll hear some music. Unless of course I'm trying to play the stereo track at it's hyped "advanced resolution". Arrgghhh!

So, my first impressions are disappointment. I'm going to give the multichannel mix another shot tonight after I listen to the (downsampled to 48kH) stereo track. FWIW, the folks on the Steve Hoffman forums have reached something of a consensus that if you turn your surrounds down by at least 3db, this provides a better balance between front and rear. I'll try that tonight, as well. But, thusfar, this is nowhere near the top of my list of favorite DVD-As. Indeed, thusfar, it doesn't even make that list. :frowning:

 

[Tomoko Noguchi]

Rich,

I agree with you. This is perhaps one of the worst surround sounds I have ever heard. I have played both the DVD-A side and the DVD-V side mixes and they are terrible. The mono and stereo versions are good, though.

 

[Rich Malloy]

Tomoko, I can playback the original mono mix on my setup in full 96kH resolution (the best this disc offers on either side), and it simply doesn't sound as good as previous issues. But I'm not quite so dismissive of it than the HFR reviewer.

I don't have and have unfortunately never heard the DCC Gold disc, but those who have heard it claim it's almost infinitely superior. Of course, you tend to find a bit of hyperbole about Steve Hoffman masterings on the Steve Hoffman forum, but I've known for awhile that his is considered to be, far and away, the best mastering of "Pet Sounds" ever (including vinyl masterings, apparently).

As for this disc... it surprisingly lacks a full-resolution, MLP-encoded track of the original mix, but, more than that, it just doesn't seem mastered very well in straight-up linear PCM. It almost seems like a tack-on, as though no-one really cared about it. For me, this is more disappointing than the surround remix.

 

[Jesper]

Thanks for the info Justin. Now I'm only waiting for my mail.....

 

[pitchman]

Where on earth did you get it for that price? I have not seen it for less than $21...

I found a shop locally that sells it for $18.99, plus I received a 15% off discount. In the end, it cost me a little over $16 plus tax.

 

[Tomoko Noguchi]

Rich, I can also play it back in 96 Khz. I don't have the Gold disc to compare it to either.

John,

When you get it let us know what you think please.

 

[John Wes]

Don't matter how it sounds.....

It's "Pet Sounds", and IMHO...a collectable.....good, bad or indifferent...

My wife is suppose to pick it up for me tommorow. I'm jacked.

And while I have the soapbox.....

Center channel? IMHO, that too can be omited on most surround mixes.....My reasoning is that most setups use a center that is suited only somewhat for movies. Why would anyone want to use it for music if its substandard compared to the fronts?

 

[John Kotches]

Tomoko,

I'm not playing this back until I get the Meridian 861 upgraded to v4 and the room treatments done....

Sadly that means 3-4 more weeks :-(

Regards,

 

[Felix Martinez]

I agree with you. This is perhaps one of the worst surround sounds I have ever heard. I have played both the DVD-A side and the DVD-V side mixes and they are terrible. The mono and stereo versions are good, though.

While not one of the worst surround mixes I've heard, the lead vox sure sound peculiar mixed into the rears, and the vox overall have a harsh quality that is disconcerting.

Another distracting element is the large number of static "click" noises throughout the 5.1 mix. Did not notice these noises in the mono or stereo mix; perhaps they are in the master tapes and are more difficult to hear in mono and stereo. However, they sound like notorious digital anomalies...

Still, this is a worthwhile addition to any library (3 different mixes of the album!).

Cheers,

 

[Patrick Larkin]

Don't matter how it sounds.....

It's "Pet Sounds"

I concur.

 

[Dan B]

Speaking of encoding issues, I can't use the "audio" button on my remote to toggle between soundtracks. Instead, I have to turn on a monitor (I have to have a monitor to begin with) in order to access the DTS track, the stereo track, or the mono track. Of course, this is a continuing problem on DVD-A discs.

And there always seems to be at least one unnecessary step with every action I try to take on this disc: (1) I want to change tracks, so I go to the "Setup" menu where I select the track of my choice; (2) instead of immediately playing that track, it returns me to the main menu; (3) instead of there being a "Play" selection on the main menu, I have to select "Tracklist"; (4) instead of beginning play on song 1 while displaying the tracklist, I then have to arrow down to the track of my choice (say, track one) and hit "enter". Finally, if I'm lucky, I'll hear some music. Unless of course I'm trying to play the stereo track at it's hyped "advanced resolution". Arrgghhh!

As someone who's recently purchased a DVD-A player, I can relate to your frustration. I don't know if it's my player (Denon DVD-1600) or the DVD-A format, or the discs I own, but changing audio tracks is absurdly unintuitive & inconvenient.


-Dan

 

[pitchman]

A lack of standards, perhaps?

I don't know if it's my player (Denon DVD-1600) or the DVD-A format, or the discs I own, but changing audio tracks is absurdly unintuitive & inconvenient.

I think back to the early days of DVD, and how difficult it was to navigate through the menues of some discs, especially DVD's that came from 'special edition' laserdisc source material.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

I found the mono mix to be a bit more palatable with a little judicious eq. Taking it down a couple dB around 8kHz seems to help.

Unless the DTS track is very different than the MLP 96kHz 5.1 track, there is plenty of LFE activity in the surround mix. I don't know where that comment came from in the HFR review.

Regards,

 

[Rich Malloy]

Rich, I can also play it back in 96 Khz.

Just the mono mix, or both the stereo and mono mixes (via digital connnection), Tomoko?

For some yet unknown reason, I can playback the mono mix in 96kH, but I have to set my DVD player to "downsample" the stereo 96kH signal to 48kH, or my receiver won't lock onto the signal. Someone on the Hoffman forums suggested it might be a copy protection issue, and that the mono mix might not be flagged. That would surprise me just a little... I wonder if it's simply a compatibility problem with some hardware (the Pioneer for me, Meridian for the HFR reviewer)?

And I don't know why the stereo track would be copy-protected. It's not 24-bit, MLP-encoded, but either 16 or 20 bit/96kH linear PCM.

I listened to the surround mix again last night in DTS, and found that reducing the rear channels by 3db did NOT improve the mix on my system. It gave it a more "front-centric" focus, which isn't bad as much of the time the listener feels more "weight" from the rears than the fronts, but it also diminished my perception of some important musical activity happening in the rear channels.

Most often, the lead vocal is solidly in the front left channel (with not much more than vocal bleed/fill in the right front channel), with the supporting vocals in the front left and both rear channels, though often the right rear channel seems to get less information. At moments, one can simply turn one's chair to face the left wall, and it almost seems as though that's the proper orientation.

I tried rebalancing the channels, shifting the soundstage to the right side of the room, and reducing the left rear channel while raising the right rear. That didn't work either, and so I simply reset everything back to the properly calibrated, level-matched norm and listened through.

While it's very often a frustrating listening experience, I tried to accept the mixing decisions and enjoy it for what it is. "Sloop John B." and "God Only Knows" got me singing along (though I had an urge to stand in the front right of the room to balance out the vocals!).

I didn't get around to listening to the stereo mix, as I'm still hoping I can find a way around the "downsample to 48kH" issue. Unfortunately, using the analog outputs isn't really an option for me, as my Outlaw 1050 redigitizes all analog signals save those fed to the 6-channel "direct-ins", which are occupied by my SACD player's feeds. This is doubly unfortunate as most listeners (including the HFR reviewer) find the stereo 16 or 20 bit/96kH track to be the best on the disc. Indeed, even the best surround experience is said to be derived from the stereo mix, using DP-II or other DSP.

I wonder if I can get a little help on this issue... can I ask you folks to check if you can playback the stereo track via a digital connection to your receiver or pre/pro? And what kind of player/receiver are you using?

Thanks!

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

BTW, on the DVD-Video side, if you want to go directly to a specific mix/codec, you can skip the menus and use direct title access. Here's the cheat sheet:

DD 5.1 mix - Title 1
24/96 PCM 2.0 Stereo mix - Title 2
DTS 5.1 mix - Title 6
24/96 PCM 2.0 Mono mix - Title 7

I wish they would just make the DD and DTS tracks the same title. They are from the same source mix, and should be exactly time aligned including matching fades, etc., so there's no reason we shouldn't be able to toggle between those two "on the fly".

Regards,