Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Best 5.1 recording of Holst 'Planets'

Now that I have both DVD-A and SACD, I'd love to pick up a REALLY great 5.1 recording of Holst's "The Planets".

Anyone have any suggestions?

i got a buddy who has it on vinyl.. really wierd stuff.. i couldnt get into it.

sorry, i am no help, just rambling.

bigjohn

How many 5.1 recordings of "The Planets" exist? I have a DTS recording from Telarc that's pretty good, but not as good as my 2-channel Dutoit recording.

Yeah, I have the 2 channel Dutoit recording as well. I was hoping to find something of that similar quality but in 5.1.

Craig, there are seven Planets available on DVD-A/SACD. In my view the best of those is this Previn remaster. One problem is that it costs too much(nevertheless, it's also in stock now at your Borders in Westwood). You may have noticed that my enthusiasm for DVD-A/SACD is quite modest, and this is especially true on classical material. Very little classical music is written with the players to be positioned to the side of or behind the listener, so multi-channel recordings only put ambience into the surround channels rather than a discrete positioning of the instruments there. The point is that the better ambience extraction processes(e.g. DPLII, Logic 7)can often do just about as good a job of that with regular CDs.

Incidentally, we were discussing the Mehta performance of the Planets on Decca Eloquence a while ago, which is my favorite of the several I own(I like it even slightly better than the Dutoit)and a great bargain at around $8. Hope you got it(if not, you should be spanked...Roger?). Additionally impressive played in DPLII.

Does the quality of PLII vary from reciever to reciever? I have not been impressed at all by any of the PLII jobs. It just seems to send everything to the center channel and use the mains as ambience. Using the same setup and speakers, SACD sounds WAY better. I don't even know how someone can make a comparison, which is the reason I'm asking if the quality of PLII varies from reciever to reciever.

Someone's being a naughty boy!

Matt, I don't know quite what to make of what you report. DPLII doesn't send any ambience to either the center channel or mains; ambience(out-of-phase material recorded in the two stereo channels)is sent to the surrounds. What is sent to the center channel is direct sound that's about equal in level in both stereo channels. If the center channel is too prominent, most if not all receivers with DPLII have a center width adjustment which at one extreme sends all direct sound to the mains and none to the center.

With recordings that aren't too close up and have a considerable amount of out-of-phase concert hall ambience on the CD, the effect can be excellent.

I agree....DPL II pretty much sucks. I've tweaked the settings, and played numerous recordings, and it never really sounds any better than good old 2 channel.

A 5.1 mix from SACD or DVD-A sounds much, much better.