Quote Originally Posted by garyoke
Greetings - Thanks for the reply -

First off, let me say that I admit being a bit old school, but I'm not necessarily a 2 channel guy. 20 years ago (gasp!) I ticked all my friends off by stating what was obvious to most audiophiles - CDs were vastly inferior to vinyl. Yet I invested in a sizable music library because CDs offered some strong advantages to vinyl. But the sound issues remained.

When DVD 5.1 came along I was stunned by the improvement that the incrased sampling rate had on the quality of the sound - I invested in a Nakamichi 5.1 amp (which I still run - it's musicality is tremendous) and became convinced that 5.1 was the future. (The most recent evidence of this was the extraordinary 5.1 remix of The Beatles Love DVD - a mediocre mash, but a stunning soundscape.

The Nak doesn't let me lose 20% of the audio information - when set for no center it mixes the information, incrementally in - phase to the left and right speakers. Sure dialogue gets sent there, but so does ambient sound. And I do run surround rears - so maybe, I'm a 4.0 guy!

By the way - if you want to hearing an amazing live DVD, (and you enjoy good 70s music) check out Boz Scaggs' Greatest Hits Live. The sound, and mix is absolutely state of the art. And its a high-def disc to boot. Showing off your system? I suggest you cue up the song Harbor Lights. Crank it up to a "live" level, and watch you friends drop their jaws.

Enjoy!
I read Absolute sound , a turntabe and tube sanctuary, in fact they just had a "vinyl lives" issue.
A few years ago they interviewed a famous record producer and engineer, this guy had a hand in a lot of famous records, and they asked him what he preferred.
He said he preffered CD of course, couldnt remember the last time he listened to a record.
Said most didnt understand what they had to cut out to get an album on one record, like
cutting the dynamic range as much as 50%.
Not only that but there is no "analog" sound anymore, you cant buy an album that hasnt
had some sort of digital processing in its creation.
But dont feel too bad, Aquafina and desani bottled water come from the tap (the news just came out)