Huh, all remixes are Steven Wilson's, but they were mastered by Peter Mew on the 2011 Blu-Ray. They are presented as flat transfers (no mastering) on the 2016 reissue.
That right. I was confused. Doesn't the 2011 Blu-ray also have some strange digital noise or dropouts in places on the 5.1 mix too?
And especially on the flat transfer of the original stereo mix (all corrected on the new flat transfer in the 2016 reissue).
I never bought the first release because it was far too expensive. I have not (yet) bought the new one because I've got sick of the Tull being lossy whilst Yes and King Crimson and more is all now on blu-ray/DVD-Audio.
We have compared the fully decoded 96/24 DTS lossy stream to the lossless masters and they are very close. I'd prefer lossless as well but the authoring (for DVD-Audio) and pressing (for Blu-Ray) are much more expensive, so the Tull camp prefered to offer the big booksets instead... I guess that in a few years' time, maybe when the series are finished, they'll reissue them on BR without the books.
On my equipment with my ears it isn't close at all. There is a real presence with the hi-rez lossless which makes the lossy seem second rate. Perhaps the equipment you used made the lossy sound much better (or perhaps the lossless not as good). Perhaps you didn't sit down, turn it up, and listen to the whole recording. But I much rather the Yes and King Crimson releases that put money into quality sound than great looking booklets (most of which I've not yet read). And whilst I like to support artists. There is a point where they are ripping us off so badly that we can't ignore it. Surely Aqualung is an example of this. A future blu-ray release would be great. But for those who have got one or both boxes, having to pay for it yet again (as if buying it for the first time) is far too much. Yes. I don't have to buy if I are not happy. But I can vent my frustration
To be forced to buy new hardware and waste (not endless) recources of the earth only to play some tracks are ripp of to me, not these fantastic sets at this low prices...
I'm not saying that the content should not be available on DVD. But I find it hard to believe that there would be many people into surround music that don't have a blu ray player.
I don't dispute there is a difference. The lossy DTS stream has blurred transients and imaging, but it's minimal next to the lossy Dolby stream (especially if you have a DTS 96/24 decoder and not an old one)! We actually compared both lossy and lossless masters with Steven Wilson, which you can't directly do if the lossless 5.1 masters haven't been released commercially, as is the case with the Tull reissues (except for Aqualung, but of course there's the Mew mastering on top, so it's not the exact same masters). We felt the harm done to the sound wasn't that significant, relatively speaking. Steven didn't feel his mixes were betrayed by the lossy compression. Still, as I said, we'd all prefer lossless sound for sure.
Although I wish the Tull releases were all on blu ray, I'm glad I get to rip the original mixes for portable listening, just for completist's sake. I still haven't figured out which blu ray drive to get for my iMac. I don't notice a huge drop off in quality between my SW Yes blu rays and Crimson and ELP DVD-As, and the DTS 24/96 Tull and Hackett DVDs. However, the lossy DD 5.1 of In The Land Of Grey And Pink was not as robust when cranked. Purely unscientific observation...
Blu-Ray players are cheap and have the distinct advantage of being able to play DVD. Given that Life is a Long Song of Upgrading Hardware, it's not really much of a pain.
I would have to disagree with your assessment that lossy is second rate to lossless. On my system which I feel is a decent one lossy surround on some of my favorite titles sounds excellent. I'm listening to the Division Bell DVD in DTS 5.1 with the volume cranked as I type and it is awesome ! Bill
I agree with this too. DTS-CD not so much. But 24 bit hires recordings compressed to 24/96 or 48k sound excellent. The origional recording, remaster, and mix is much more important in the end. However, I always hope for max bitrate and resolution. The de-mew'd dts dvd will sound better than the mew'd uncompressed bluray, not even taking the glitches into account. That is my guess...
Surprisingly, while I've never seen anybody write they prefer the Mew-mastered stereo remix, some have expressed preference for the Mew-mastered 5.1 mix over the 2016 unmastered surround...
Aqualung or Thick as a Brick? I plan on getting the new Aqualung dvd-v, and I only care about multichannel when it comes to SW mixes...
Perhaps you expect lossy to sound much worse...and lo and behold, it does. That sort of thing has been known to happen, in audio.