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What CD's do you recommend for home theater listening?
- Thread starter amcdonald
- Start date
Eh?
CD's are 2 channel stereo, they will get NO benefit from 5.1.
Plus Redbook audio is garbage in the first place.
If you want 5.1 music get yourself a SACD or DVD-A player. The Pioneer DV-663A plays both & is available for ~$170. Get that + 3 pairs of good quality RCA interconnects & you'll have something to show off.
[EDIT]Lateralus is HDCD, there is a release of DSOTM that is hybrid SACD. Again, you need players that specifically support these formats to take advantage of them. Otherwise you'll just play the redbook layer (DSOTM) or 16 of the 20 available bits (Lateralus).[/EDIT]
Viper GTS
Redbook audio is STEREO, you should not be using anything to artificially create extra channels (with the possible exception of duplicating the front L/R channels to the rear, and obviously a crossover to the sub). The only audio that should be played in 5.1 is true discreet multi-channel audio (SACD, DVD-A). Using any of the artificial surround features of receivers seriously hoses the sound quality.
Viper GTS
Thegonagle
Diamond Member
What's SACD mean? My CD changer says it plays HDCD and the manual mentions that it stands for High Definition CD.
My DVD player will handle DVD audio, of course. But the DVD player manual specifically mentions that SACD is "non-playable." What is it, why's it so great, and can't I play an SACD without specific support of the player?
My DVD player will handle DVD audio, of course. But the DVD player manual specifically mentions that SACD is "non-playable." What is it, why's it so great, and can't I play an SACD without specific support of the player?
HDCD
Your DVD player has to have explicit support for DVD-A, most don't. DVD-A has a video portion that can be read by any DVD player, but it is regular 16/44.1 PCM, NOT DVD-A.
SACD is another digital audio format, but it provides quality MUCH closer to analog than DVD-A is capable of.
SACD
Viper GTS
There are test CD's out there that are recorded really well and can really show off a system.
http://www.referencerecordings.com/SAMPLE.HTML
I think Stereophile or maybe Sound and Vision have some CD's available. AFAIK anything produced my Telarc (sp?) is supposed to be excellent quality.
Everyone always recommends Hell Freezes Over by the Eagles. I used to have a link that gave a list of "reference quality" material.
http://www.referencerecordings.com/SAMPLE.HTML
I think Stereophile or maybe Sound and Vision have some CD's available. AFAIK anything produced my Telarc (sp?) is supposed to be excellent quality.
Everyone always recommends Hell Freezes Over by the Eagles. I used to have a link that gave a list of "reference quality" material.
Thegonagle
Diamond Member
Thanks for the lazy-links, ViperGTS.
So, an SACD disc will play in my CD changer, but without the SACD enhancements, because SACDs have a Redbook audio layer.
So that means I'll find them mixed right in with all the regular music CDs at the store, right?
Looks pretty good to me, but damn, I just bought this DVD player in December and the CD changer and receiver last spring. Darn. More stuff that I'm eventually going to buy.
I guess that's what I get for buying all last year's models (2 model years at the time in the case of my HT receiver, and it's fine--a wonderful $700 unit that I nabbed for $215 with the full 2 year factory warranty). But I was just getting into HT audio at the time, so I wasn't about to spend the big bucks when I didn't know what I was doing yet.
So, an SACD disc will play in my CD changer, but without the SACD enhancements, because SACDs have a Redbook audio layer.
So that means I'll find them mixed right in with all the regular music CDs at the store, right?
Looks pretty good to me, but damn, I just bought this DVD player in December and the CD changer and receiver last spring. Darn. More stuff that I'm eventually going to buy.
I guess that's what I get for buying all last year's models (2 model years at the time in the case of my HT receiver, and it's fine--a wonderful $700 unit that I nabbed for $215 with the full 2 year factory warranty). But I was just getting into HT audio at the time, so I wasn't about to spend the big bucks when I didn't know what I was doing yet.
Anubis
No Lifer
you just want music?
Classicial:
Bach - 10 - Tocata & Fugue in D Minor
Holst - The planets
Any John Williams Stuff
Beethoven's 5th and 9th
Mozart Symphony No. 41
Rock:
Chevelle - Comfortable Liar - amazing bass
Linkin Park - Numb - bass again
Apocalyptica - anything by them
Pink Floyd - Wall, Meddle, DSOTM, Pulse
DVDs
U-571
Matrix
LOTR
Gone in 60 Secs
Heat
Classicial:
Bach - 10 - Tocata & Fugue in D Minor
Holst - The planets
Any John Williams Stuff
Beethoven's 5th and 9th
Mozart Symphony No. 41
Rock:
Chevelle - Comfortable Liar - amazing bass
Linkin Park - Numb - bass again
Apocalyptica - anything by them
Pink Floyd - Wall, Meddle, DSOTM, Pulse
DVDs
U-571
Matrix
LOTR
Gone in 60 Secs
Heat
You mean actually playing it in 5.1? Or just playing it in 5-channel stereo?
It really depends on the tastes of the listener -- you want something that will show the proper range and quality of the speakers, but it won't sound amazing unless the music itself sounds amazing to you. Many people I know would recommend Carmina Burana; I would probably add a lot of acoustic music to that, but I know that mostly test mid-range qualities. That being said, I know that Kind of Blue comes highly recommended. For my personal tastes, I generally like to test how well speakers replicate female vocals -- I recommend Joss Stone, Diana Krall, Eva Cassidy.
Rob
It really depends on the tastes of the listener -- you want something that will show the proper range and quality of the speakers, but it won't sound amazing unless the music itself sounds amazing to you. Many people I know would recommend Carmina Burana; I would probably add a lot of acoustic music to that, but I know that mostly test mid-range qualities. That being said, I know that Kind of Blue comes highly recommended. For my personal tastes, I generally like to test how well speakers replicate female vocals -- I recommend Joss Stone, Diana Krall, Eva Cassidy.
Rob
Some very aggressive 5.1 audio mixes are Beck's "Sea Change" SACD, Pink Floyd's "DSOTM" SACD, Flaming Lips "Yoshimi Versus the Pink Robots" DVD-A and Roxy Music's "Avalon" SACD.
A lot of "kids" movies have great mixes. "Finding Nemo" has some very intensive bass passages if you have a sub that play them. Most notably the scene with the sub crashing and Darla tapping on the fish tank.
A lot of "kids" movies have great mixes. "Finding Nemo" has some very intensive bass passages if you have a sub that play them. Most notably the scene with the sub crashing and Darla tapping on the fish tank.
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