DTS Blue Man Group - The Complex Review

[gene]

<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><A href="http://www.audioholics.com/productreviews/avsoftware/dvd-audio/BlueManGroup.php"><IMG style="WIDTH: 108px; HEIGHT: 125px" alt=[blue] hspace=10 src="http://www.audioholics.com/news/thumbs/blue_th.jpg" align=left border=0></A>I’ve never been to a Blue Man Group performance, nor have I heard one of their recordings. I knew, however, from their Intel commercials, that their <A name=OLE_LINK1>Industrial/Tribal/</A>Techno sound would be a perfect match for the 5.1 format.</SPAN></I><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </SPAN>Enamored with the performance and sound quality of this disc, Tom best sums his review up: <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">To make a long story short – get this album.<?xml:namespace prefix = o /></I></SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">[Read the Review]</SPAN></P>

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

all the subtly and grace of a cat in a swimming pool

Gene,

Thanks for the excellent review. Very informative as usual. I've been contemplating the purchase of this one, and will most definitely give it a try. I too have a young son - two and a half, who loves music as well as adjusting daddy's amp and eq. I think he'll love it. We listen to TWC's Music Choice together. His favorites are Smooth Jazz, and Salsa and Merengue. We'll see about Blue Man.

What do you think of the sound quality of DTS audio versus SACD and DVD-A programs? Any preferences? Or are they all equally dependant on the recording engineer? DTS claims "While there is some data reduction, DTS compresses at a significantly lower ratio than Dolby Digital. Dolby Digital uses a 12:1 ratio vs 3:1 for DTS. DTS allows for the use of sampling rates beyond 100kHz plus the ability to add extra channels, making it a format open to more possibilities in the future." I wonder what SACD and DVD-A compression ratios are. How similar is DVD DTS audio to DVD-A?

The best line in your review was "all the subtly and grace of a cat in a swimming pool." LOL. I have two cats (useless persian and calico), and would love to drop kick them in the pool after yaking lunch all over the house.

Any chance we could get you to review this one? I love the Telarc stuff.
It may have that "wow effect" we so dearly need to justify this manly obsession.
www.telarc.com/dts/title.asp?sku=CD-84402-DTS&mscssid=KHCEL4U6TLMJ8JQKX4CQAED9CMJG0DN3

 

[Dan]

I too wonder about the format differences. In theory SACD>DVD-A>DTS>DD. Is the album available in DVD-A or SACD? as well as DTS. Someday I will buy or borrow the same album on SACD and DVD-A and DTS to try a blinded test. Of course, that would really only apply to that recording but a limited extrapolation to other records could be made. I have heard both the redbook and the DVD-A versions of "Audio" from BMG and there is no comparison. The DVD-A version is vastly superior. I have not found this to be true on other recordings when the master was an analog from the more distant past. There have been a few exceptions.

This style of music is ideally created for a 5.1 format as there is no need for a proper soundstage. "Audio" had some great LFE effects and those described here also sound interesing. I look forward to picking this up.

 

[Audioholics]

Gene, Thanks for the excellent review.

Just to give credit where credit is due, we have an insanely dedicated new software reviewer - Thomas Andry, who did that review and has three more coming out shortly.

 

[gene]

What do you think of the sound quality of DTS audio versus SACD and DVD-A programs?

The DVD-A vs DTS soundtracks in this disc are very close. There are times such as the Dave Mathews track where I think I prefer the DTS track as I feel it has a bit more punch in the bass and seeing the video really adds realism to the experience.

All of these formats have equal potential of sounding great or horrible. For example, I have a Diana Krall DTS CD that rivals almost all of my DVD-A discs in terms of fidelity. OTOH I have DTS discs that work better as frisbees

I personally have found recording engineers tend to focus more on the quality of the recordings of SACD compared to DVD-A discs. In reality, I feel DVD-A is actually a better format, but most of the discs coming out leave something to be desired both in fidelity and music selection.