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***Official "Dark Side of The Moon SACD" Review Thread*** (1 Viewer)

Robert_eb

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I'm not up to speed on SACD but had one question. Will I be able to hear this in 5.1 on a non-sacd dvd player?
 

Al B. C

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Nope.

And now..........a few comments.

First of all I think this disc sounds great. Not tumultuous, not mind blowing, certainly not reference standards, but great. The best it's ever sounded for sure.

I have not listened to the stereo mix yet only the M/C, and as far as I'm concerned they got it right, most of the time. As impressive as "Money" sounds is as lackluster as "Us And Them" comes off. I really wanted to hear them say us & them bouncing around my 5 speakers instead of a faint echo. I think the mix on this tune was a missed opportunity.

Also I kept wondering why I spent good money on a center channel speaker.

What's up with that?

All in all I like it and consider it a worthy addition to my collection, but as somebody mentioned before, it didn't knock my socks off upon the first listen in the way that "Heathen" or "Sea Change" or "Hotel California" or "Harvest" or "The Nightfly" just to name a few. Maybe there was just too much anticipation and build up before this disc came out. Extremely high expectations are hard to meet sometimes.
 

Brian L

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All in all I like it and consider it a worthy addition to my collection, but as somebody mentioned before, it didn't knock my socks off upon the first listen in the way that "Heathen" or "Sea Change" or "Hotel California" or "Harvest" or "The Nightfly" just to name a few.
Ditto that.

The first time I cued up Hotel California was like hearing if for the first time. The grin on my face was a mile wide. The kick drum and bass were just so well done on that mix. I loved the spread of the guitars...just a great mix.

As for Floyd, I truely enjoyed the mix, and did hear things that I never new were their (which is typical for me when hearing very familiar music in 5.1 for the first time). But as many seem to agree, the fidelity just is not quite top shelf. Then again, I attribute that the the original recording.

As for the center channel or lack thereof, I actually prefer a more subdued center, in that the difference in timbre between my center and my mains is much less apparent. Of course,some people would rather have the center be fully utilized.

All things considered, music of this type was made for surround. As someone else said, bring on The Wall!

BGL
 

Andrew W

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Listened last night and cued it up with The Wizard of Oz at the same time. Very cool multichannel mix and the sax sounds fantastic now. I have the stock CD and the remastered CD and this is by far better.
 

Matt Heebner

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I have a question/concerns about this SACD.
I too have given a listen about three times now. The first half of the disk, with all the surround sound effects, etc. sound great but...
Is it just me, but does the second half of the disc seem to lose definition in the mid-ranges? It seems to me that the first half of the disc, all the songs are very highly detailed and sound great, but as I get into the later half of the disc, the mids seem..how to put it...sound harsh almost. I don't know if it's just listening fatigue or what, but it just doesn't sound as good as the first 4 or 5 songs. (I really should give it another listen to try and pin-point about where this is happening).
I do not have, by any means, a high end system. Is it possible that my system just isn't up to snuff ? I also have James Taylor's Hourglass, and it sounds absolutely incredible.
My humble system consists of a Sony ce775, a Sony DB930 receiver, Paradigm Titans all around, and a Velodyne CT-150.
Anyone have any comments, suggestions, ideas?
Thanks

Matt
 

KeithH

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Rich,

As I said, I have not yet compared the stereo SACD track to other CDs, including my MFSL and 20th anniversary discs. I plan on doing that this weekend.


Brian said:

The first time I cued up Hotel California was like hearing if for the first time. The grin on my face was a mile wide. The kick drum and bass were just so well done on that mix. I loved the spread of the guitars...just a great mix.
I couldn't agree more. The 24/192 stereo track on the Hotel California DVD-Audio disc knocked me on my arse the first time I heard it. The stereo SACD track of Dark Side of the Moon did not have the same impact on me.
 

Brian L

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Is it just me, but does the second half of the disc seem to lose definition in the mid-ranges?
Not sure what actually is different, but I actually thought the sound of the bass improved on the last few tracks.

FWIW, there definitely seems to be differences in the sound quality from track to track.....which I would wager is what is on the master tapes.

BGL
 

Justin Lane

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Any thoughts on the final product Lee? I think you have set a world record on DSOTM threads and posts, yet your silence on this release is unnerving. Are you sure you own a SACD player? ;)

J
 

Al B. C

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Right now, as we speak, Lee is locked in his Super Secret-Super Audio Cave, pouring over every inch of his eagerly awaited copy of DSOTM.

Only when every imaginable comparison is made to all the earlier realeases of DSOTM, will Lee step out of his Super Secret-Super Audio Cave and give us his full report.

You just can't rush to judgement on Super important-Super reviews like these. :D
 

Phil A

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Actually Al, Lee is multi-tasking. While listening the SACD he has this mock-up of a DVD-Audio case that he is sticking voodoo pins into. Seems to working fairly well as there have been few releases.;)
 

Lee Scoggins

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While listening the SACD he has this mock-up of a DVD-Audio case that he is sticking voodoo pins into.
:laugh: I have a redbook case I stick pins into as well. ;)

Actually, I have been negotiating several new contracts for my software company.

I have still not had a chance to sit down and listen - I am swamped.

I will post a detailed review hopefully by this weekend including a run-off versus my Dutch Harvest CD.

Believe me, I wish I could contribute more than I have.

Thanks for your patience. :)
 

Jordan_E

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In a word: WOW!
Sure, it didn't have the almost-gasp-inducing reaction I had when I first spun the HOTEL CALIFORNIA high rez disc, but being fully immersed in the Floyd left me in Audio Heaven during the entire run of the disc. I heard things drowned out before and as I listen to ANIMALS right now I realize that DSOTM has absolutely ruined listening to other Floyd discs!
 

Jordan_E

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Our newborn enjoys DSOTM!
Actually, my mother-in-law said that loud music tends to quiet an otherwise fussy baby at night, so the wife and I took the baby downstairs and spun DSOTM. It worked! Talk about a proud pappa! My new daughter has terrific taste in music. :D She especially enjoyed the beginning of MONEY, with the moving sounds.
 

Rich Malloy

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I think Guthrie deserves a lot of credit here for this remix... sure, it's not to everyone's taste, particularly those who might prefer the reportedly more "aggressive" mix of the quad LP (never heard it, unfortunately).

At any rate, I'd been gearing up for this with mucho Pink Floyd... the Guthrie/Sax 20th Anniversary edition and MFSL remasters of "Dark Side", the Guthrie/Sax remaster of "ummagumma", and the Guthrie/Sax SACD of Roger Water's "In the Flesh". It's this latter title that I'd like to venture some opinion on among this group...

As most of you know, "In the Flesh" was fairly well maligned by many, including a devastatingly negative review in High Fidelity Review... http://www.highfidelityreview.com/re...wnumber=670449 Indeed, I don't think they've ever rated a disc so low.

For my part, I always thought the worst anyone could say about it was that it sounded like a big arena rock show... which, of course, is exactly what it is. But upon listening to it again over the past week, I've come to really like a great deal of this SACD, particularly enjoying the multichannel mix which sounds to my ears like an attempt to mimic the live show exactly (I didn't see this tour, but I saw "Pros and Cons" many years back, and it also featured a "surround" P.A. system).

So, I'd now have to say that this release comes closer to mimicking the live arena experience than any other disc I've heard. And while the surrounds are used judiciously, it seems that they were used to preserve the live mix as close as possible, rather than remixing in the studio (a practice I'm not at all fond of, though not as bad as overdubs, etc.). On occasions, however, the surround activity gets really intense. In particular, I think "Dogs", "Welcome to the Machine", and "Perfect Sense" have extraordinarily effective, even aggressive 5.1 mixes...

And so I'm sorta at a loss to explain the HFR review. Has anyone else found gold amidst the "arena dross" of this release? Or am I really the only one who likes it?
 

Jordan_E

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Rich,
thanks for the thoughts about IN THE FLESH on SACD. I've read so many negative reviews that I've resisted getting it, as I have the DVD. But I love the DVD and keep leaning toward buying the SACD. This is another request to those who have it for a quick review.
 

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