Tommy 5.1 review; Hits and Diamonds

[Marcus Surrealius <bushchoked@xxxxxxxxx>]

OK, so after a few listens to the 5.1 version of
Tommy, I'm now ready to complete my review of the
release. To quickly cover what I've already said: I am
not impressed with the stereo SACD, as it's the
original mix and not cleaned up very well. It's the
least of my SACDs, in stereo. I prefer the remix over
it, and wish that had been the one included here
(making it the ultimate Tommy).
And I will stay with that opinion in regard to the 5.1
mix as well, although it IS much more interesting. For
one thing, there are "new" things in it. I suppose, at
least I never heard them before on ANY mix. I'm not
going to list them all, but an example would be
pinball sounds in the rear channels at the end of
Pinball Wizard.
I'll leave the rest for you to discover and delight in
for yourselves. There are many more.
The 5.1 version is most interesting in that you can
hear a lot more of what was always there, too. Just
the separation of the instruments is enough to do
that, and if you're like me it's a lot of fun to hear
music I like in other forms. This one, at times, is
majestic.
So while it's not what I'd call the "ultimate" version
of Tommy, it's worth getting (but only if you have a
SACD and 5.1 capability on your receiver. A side note
on that: I've found that (for some reason) even though
using a DVD 5.1 will come through via a optical cable,
for an SACD you have to have it connected through 6
RCA cables from the player to the receiver. And I will
recend my endorsement of the Philips DVD 7635A in
favor of the Pioneer DV-563A, because it plays not
only SACD's but DVD-A's as well. That way if the SACD
format fails (and there are indications), you're
covered.

And...for the record...Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The
Moon is a better example of a Rock album being remixed
into 5.1. I hope Quad will be as well done.

> Yes, daily.  It's sickening.

Jon:

I wouldn't go THAT far, but it's a long way from Who
music. There are good things like Jane's Addiction
(best album of 2003 IMHO), Echo 7, Jet (not very
original but pretty good nonetheless).


"There is no such thing necessarily in a dictatorial
regime of iron-clad absolutely solid evidence. The
evidence I had was the best possible evidence that he
had a weapon."
    George "squirmin' like vermin' Bush

=====
Cheers         ML

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