Surround music R.I.P.

Another reason on a long list why I haven't watched the Grammys.

 

Ever since I discovered surround music when DVD-A came out I have acquired 100s Of surround titles.
Music in surround for me gives the listeners a different perspective of music.
I also listen to stereo CDs and even enjoy music in mono when it’s done right such as the Beatles and Cream.
I believe it is a good thing to have more options to enjoy music.

 

Love your avatar!

 

Was the Surround category ever actually featured on the broadcast?

 

On screen graphic as they went to commercial.

 

I have not stopped crying from reading R.I.P. CDs thread, and now this... . Oh, horror... The worst Monday of my life.

 

It was eaten by it's father, the monosaurus.

 

I'm a big fan of the 5.1 format, but I have no illusions about its longterm commercial viability. It's largely a niche audience for audiophiles and dedicated music fans. Steven Wilson has been driving a lot of the renewed interest here, but the reality is that most music fans don't have the set-up to fully appreciate these kind of releases in surround. Sadly, convenience is king these days.

 

Too funny!

A [MAGAZINE] writer (talk about obsolete) writes about the [GRAMMY]'s (another thing that's past its prime) dropping an award that was SO MISHANDLED by the people who run the Grammy's which of course proclaims the death of surround.

Well, I don't know where to start, but all I will say is every year for the past 10 years the Grammy nominations for surround recordings has been a total joke. They have missed most of the things Steven Wilson has done, totally missed the Quadio Chicago box, the new releases by Tom Petty and others, and have hidden the award in the darkest corner of the Grammy award machine so that if you were not looking for it you would never see it.

Probably written just to get attention, as the author has been a big supporter of surround as is/was his magazine.

No big deal here. I'll be happy as heck once I can pre-order my Doobies Quadio Box!

(I wrote a response over there and posted a copy over at QQ. No need to reprint it here.)

 

I don't think it's ever going to catch on as a stand-alone format. It's not portable (even in an auto setting, as others have mentioned - the seat positioning just doesn't work). It will probably survive as it seems to be most utilized now - a nice bonus on reissue Deluxe Edition box sets. When was the last time a new album was given a 5.1 mix?

 

Not true. I just picked up a new 2019 Acura that plays 5.1 HiRez files with a 700 watt 16 speaker ELS system, and it sounds spectacular. I don't have to "move my head" anyway, besides if I cared to I could just pull up the balance/fader screen and move the balance to any point in the car with a cross hair display. Very cool.

Those who poo-poo surround in the car are really missing what could be the best place in the world to listen to surround because - you are seated in one spot and you never move!

 

All I know is eclassical. Com offers me like 2 New surround titles a week at budget prices and I buy them all the time. But they don't really seem to be slowing down. Granted homeboy seems obsessed with Scandinavian composers. I can't subsidize every budding composer in Sweden.... But they are releasing them right and left.

 

I don't know off hand, but Coldplay - A Head Full of Dreams and Tom Petty "Hypnotic Eye" come to mind

 

so my three or four hundred surround albums are a figment of my imagination?
I agree with several others, that if they would just release surround (5.1, 5.0, 4.1, 4.0 ... i don't really care) as a separate article rather than squeezing it in a box with a vinyl copy, a cd copy, an eight track copy, a digital download Mrs Mayberry's copy from when she was visited by said artist in hospital during her surgery, a bag of rune stones, some butter from the plate the singer used at the recording session, a pair of used underpants that have been laminated ....... things would be a lot better off

 

I still want someone to launch a surround streaming service as an app for Roku and AppleTV to try to reach all those Home Theater fans who have surround systems but are generally unaware that surround music even exists. (Sorry, no uncompressed option, we need to be able to have this easily available and not being available via analog outputs would reassure the record companies.) Make it easy to buy the physical discs via the app, and easy to discover all the music you don't have a chance of hearing.

 

Now you're talkin'

 

2015 and 2014 respectively. Doesn't exactly scream "this is a modern, relevant format that all the kids wanna listen to."

It's a niche market at best. The only reason it doesn't necessarily seem that way to those of us on this board is because - surprise surprise - we're the niche.

 

it used to annoy me when dvd-a and sacd came out ... i would go to the record store and ask if they had "any dvd audio" and they would point me to the concerts. If they actually knew what it even was, they would say "they're mixed in with the cd's" ... i'd say "so why don't you have a separate section. How is anyone supposed to find anything?" and then get the stunned monkey look

 

i have the alan parsons eye in the sky about to be released as a stand alone on the way. the doobie brothers are supposed to be about to release a quadio box of four surround albums ....

 

What would you pay for a service like this - basically like Tidal except surround-only? I'd like there to be a free option as an easy way to introduce all those Roku owners to surround.

 

i am old school .. I like having my copy ... i know it makes me a dinosaur, but i just can't relate to the streaming thing .... i'm happy for others that can

edit - i can stream tv and movies, because i don't care about them

 

So surround is dead. How's mono doing?

 

Oh, and while we’re at it, Rest In Peace SACD. Dying since 1999 . . .

 

It's the same as any other streaming service - instant access to far more music than anyone could possibly afford, the ability to explore artists one doesn't wish to blind-buy, the ability to hear surround music that is out of print and insanely expensive, etc.