Mozart's Die Zauberflöte on HD-DVD (Opus Arte)

[allargon]

So, in another thread I mentioned the famous Magic Flute opera.

Here's the thread for it.

My only non TV speaker sound system right now consists of a Sony speaker with only digital audio (coax), two channel RCA and toslink connections. As a result, I can't listen to multichannel high res audio. However, even with this system I was able to notice the quality of this recording. The sound has two options Dolby True-HD surround (5.1) and Dolby True-HD two channel. My player sends converts the 5.1 to DTS 5.1 over optical but sends out two channel out via optical or via RCA analog. I definitely prefer the two channel since I get lossless. The sound is phenomenal. The video is just okay, but this is musical goodness, so I will talk about that.

With the DTS surround my system simply played. It sounded like I was listening to a CD in my car. However, with the two channel, I noticed a better range, unfortunately the speakers popped (not clipped) in a few cases when the female singing got stronger. (Brightness, perhaps?) I would totally love to listen to this in a listening room with a Lexicon pre/pro and some nice Wilson speakers. (No, I'm not selling my car and/or getting a second mortgage on my house to do it.)

Simply put, this disc sounds beautiful.

 

[TLS Guy]

So, in another thread I mentioned the famous Magic Flute opera.

Here's the thread for it.

My only non TV speaker sound system right now consists of a Sony speaker with only digital audio (coax), two channel RCA and toslink connections. As a result, I can't listen to multichannel high res audio. However, even with this system I was able to notice the quality of this recording. The sound has two options Dolby True-HD surround (5.1) and Dolby True-HD two channel. My player sends converts the 5.1 to DTS 5.1 over optical but sends out two channel out via optical or via RCA analog. I definitely prefer the two channel since I get lossless. The sound is phenomenal. The video is just okay, but this is musical goodness, so I will talk about that.

With the DTS surround my system simply played. It sounded like I was listening to a CD in my car. However, with the two channel, I noticed a better range, unfortunately the speakers popped (not clipped) in a few cases when the female singing got stronger. (Brightness, perhaps?) I would totally love to listen to this in a listening room with a Lexicon pre/pro and some nice Wilson speakers. (No, I'm not selling my car and/or getting a second mortgage on my house to do it.)

Simply put, this disc sounds beautiful.

Opera is a wonderful experience in a good home theater. I'm building my collection. This is what I built this space for among other things. But opera puts it to the best use.

http://mdcarter.smugmug.com/gallery/2424008#127077317

 

[allargon]

Started to post this in the steam vent, but I will just re-post this here.

When I first posted this, I was listening to it on a Sony HTtiB. Now, I have a slightly better system of a HK-247 and Infinity Primus. I don't have an Arcam pre-pro with Wilson Alexandria's. However, I can still say this sounds stunning.

Yesterday I was painting my kitchen (See, I do other things than post on Audioholics) and I listened to this plus several CD's in the background. Wow... Dynamic range will always be there with opera. However, I was in another room and thought, "Oh yeah."

That said, I recommend getting the Blu-Ray (now that it's available) over the HD DVD. It's not because HD DVD is dead, blah blah. It's because the HD DVD had a screwy master. They remastered the Blu-Ray, and the video is much much better. (The higher bitrates help, too.) The sound is the same (just PCM vs. Dolby TrueHD).