Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions CD sound better than DVD! How come?

Hello folks! Today I was watching a Limp Bizkit DVD on my new receiver and I realized that the singer voice was fading away through the stage sound, how come? I also realized that the Japanese Cd's I have are better sounding than the ones imported. I never realized that whilst listening to music on my computer. How come the Japanese Cd sound is better than a imported DVD? Please someone give me some explanation. Thanks

Is your DVD recorded using DTS or DD or is it uncompressed LPCM?

It could be your Japanese CDs are better recorded or mastered than the imports. A lot of Audiophile Albums came out of Japan in the '70s.

Probably the amount of bottles that hit him in the head, because Fred Durst is a jerk.

Was that during the recording?

The bottles were probably for mixing and re-mixing...

Well I gotta go check that to be able to answer you, but wasn't the dvd supposed to have a better sound than a cd anyway?

I'm wondering if your receiver settings / levels for your center channel are correct....

That's exactly what I was wondering since I am using it for 2 channels only, that could be the reason couldn't it?

Not usually. I can have even "better" sound (it can support 2-ch 96/24), but in general it is compressed audio with video. With discrete 5.1 channel, it can support a more realistic ambience recording. In general, unless you find the CD and the DVD to have been produced with the exact same mix, it is not appropriate to judge the value of either format based on a single recording (as it was already said in this thread already, mixing has a huge impact on the final product).

Good point, Mr. Mark!

Is your DVD player set to output a 2-channel stereo-only signal? You want to make sure the vocals (usually mixed into the center channel almost entirely) are being re-distributed correctly to your L-R speakers.

I was listening/watching 2001: A Space Odyssey yesterday on Blu-ray and the audio sucked big time. Was the original audio so bad back when this movie was made (1960's)? You would expect much more from a blu-ray disc.

Blu-ray transfers of classic films, can only offer the best possible reproduction of what they have to work with. Film has always been able to capture quite a bit of information. Can't say the same for the odd analog tape mixes.

That's too bad. It was on a top 10 list of remastered classics I saw in an HT mag last month and was gonna go get it, for the 3rd time. Now, maybe not.

I was speaking generally about classic restorations. I didn't remember being offended by how 2001 sounded when I watched, but also nothing stood out.

High-Def Digest seems to think the soundtrack on this specific title is OK:
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/453/2001aspaceodyssey.html

My copy doesn't say it was remastered. The audio is PCM 5.1. I noticed the bad sound as soon as the music starts up. There was absolutely zero dynamic range. If the have one that has better audio, it makes absolutely no sense to sell one with bad audio tracks also.

It is pretty common with re-issues of old shows in that they can do quite a bit with the video but not a lot with the audio. Back several months ago I purchased the Blu-Ray box set of the original 60s Star Trek series that was actually remastered with some updated special effects. They did an excellent job of the update with out doing too much to disrupt the original video effects plus enabled you to compare the new with the old.

The sound "allegedly" is DTS Master Audo 7.1, however, even though the sound is coming out of more than one speaker(it was mono back then)despite a slightly enhanced bass, the sound really isn't much better than it was back when the show was first on the air and that is pretty much what I expected anyway.

I guess it is that old saying, "you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear".

Although it may not be the specific reason in this particular case I’m with Fred on this one. I listen mostly to Asian an European bands/music these days and almost always find the mastering of the Asian and European (usually Japanese and German) imports are superior enough to the American ones to justify the price.

I guess that this could be one of the reasons too. Usually when I buy an imported CD I would pay around $17, but when I get the CD from the same artist that was made for Japanese market, it usually comes with a couple of extras and a lot of extra price. LOL When is cheap it is around $25 sometimes depending on the artist the price could rise to up $30.

I suspect it is/was a cultural thing. The Japanese market places a value on quality recordings. In the days when recordings were more often pressed in the market they were sold in you would see differences from market to market. The reason they started showing up in North America is that a small percentage of the population also valued that quality and someone could sell enough to make some money from the transaciton.

These days everything comes from a giant factory somewhere, so the same disc is just put into a localized jewel case.

That’s not the case with all recordings especially for artists local to the country. None of my German or Japanese CD are the same as similar titles I purchased in the U.S. The U.S. versions are almost always Anglicized with some or many of the native language tracks replaced by English versions or different tracks altogether. In most cases the mastering on the foreign (to the U.S.) CDs are “mastered” (I realize not the same specs.) on par with a comparable U.S. SACD. Though many (local to the U.S.) bands do produce high quality CD masters for the U.S. market too.

Now I'm curious. I wonder if the big labels do things differently from smaller labels.

I never checked to see if the they were recessed by the same labels here in the U.S. as overseas. Got called into work so no time to check right now.