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Best 5.1 surround recordings?

I gave up on developing a 'hi-fi" 5.1 system quite awhile ago, and settled on my 2 channel system, which I'm very happy with. I do have a couple of 5.1 surround sound SACD's that I recently stuck in my home theatre system through the Oppo just for kicks. It was kind of fun to listen to, even through the smaller surround speakers and subwoofer. So, what does anyone recommend. I'm thinking along the lines of rock music as, in my mind, it lends itself to tweaking more than classical. I suppose, as I've got the Oppo universal player, that DVD audio surround recommendations would be okay too, though I've only gone with the 5.1 SACD recordings so far.
I remember reading, someplace in the past, that many recordings are poorly remastered in the surround format, so to help me avoid wasted purchases I'm throwing the question out on the list.

Thanks,

Rolloff
rolloff
6 responses Add your response
rlwainwright
1,904 posts
 
Best Surround Album, 2005 - Porcupine Tree's "In Absentia" - this one sounds TERRIFIC. Also, their latest, "Fear of a Blank Planet" is receiving well-deserved accolades.

Other great surround albums:

Grateful Dead - "American Beauty" and 'Workingman's Dead"
Pat Metheny - "Imaginary Day" - reference quality.
Genesis - "Trick of the Tail" and "Wind & Wuthering"
The Doors - "Perception" box set
Pink Floyd - "DSOTM" - get the bootlegged Alan Parson's mix, unbelievably good.
Mark Konpfler - "Sailing to Philadelphia" and "Shangri-La"
Bonnie Raitt - Live (DTS).

I know of MANY more. Surround sound, done properly, crushes 2 channel.

-RW-
cleaneduphippy
323 posts
 
Ahhh, the operative words "done properly". It's difficult enough setting up a 5.1 system "properly" in one's home. Add to that the difficulty of an audio engineer going back to the orginal master tape of a recording (if hopefully, that's available), and re-doing it for a 5.1 channel mix, especially to an older recording that people know well in a two-channel mode. Certainly it can and has been done, but quite often it's not done well. The biggest problem seems to be, that quite often you don't have the orginal engineer/producer to oversee the new mix and mastering process. Just my .02 cents.
gibson58
32 posts
 
if you like jazz, the concord samplers (there are 2 volumes) are both excellent multi-channel recordings. The soundstage on these is HUGE. The musicians are in the room. Check these out, they are a real bargain on the web for about $10 each.
rolloff OP
130 posts
 
Thanks all for the replies.
I'll hop on over to Amazon and see which of the recommendeds are available. Used is fine too...

R-
sandman012
50 posts
 
Bjork, Vespertine.
muncybob
50 posts
 
Elton John........ Madman Across the Water. Maybe it's that I have not listened to it in awhile in good ole stereo but the 5.1 mix does it for me! ...and I'm not a big EJ fan but I do like a lot of his early work.
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