Music For The Lexicon!

[DanTheMan]

It's now official: I have no CD's in the changer, only DVD-A's:

Marvin Gaye
Diana Krall
Elton John
Beatles
Dizzy Gillespie
David Bowie

For those that love the surround aspects of "Love", wait until you hear "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" (Elton John for you youngsters out there)! It will blow you away, and I'm not even that big a fan of his. Unbelievable.

Interesting selection/variety. Which Diana Krall album do you have? I was turned on to her by an old girlfriend of mine...got the live album recorded in Paris, I think. What music...talent....etc..... I spend a lot of time on the road...it's GREAT driving music!

Dan :>)

 

[BacktoHyundaibychoice]

Hi Dan,
This may be sacrilege, but as much as I enjoy hearing the standards with such lush instrumentation ("Look of Love"), I find myself bored out of my mind by Ms. Krall. I love jazz vocalists in general, but (IMHO) it sounds like she's 'phoning it in' as opposed to putting any real effort into creating a style of her own. Her range isn't too impressive either. Once again, my 2 cents only.
Btw, I FINALLY got my DVD-A of Roy Orbison's Black & White Nights yesterday. Listened to most this morning and I'm LOVING it! Great sound and performances.

 

[gerryb]

Btw, I FINALLY got my DVD-A of Roy Orbison's Black & White Nights yesterday. Listened to most this morning and I'm LOVING it! Great sound and performances.

Agreed, the Orbison DVD-A is good. Be aware as there are multiple versions of this disc all with very similar packaging. The box on the bottom should specificaly say DVD-A.

I'm surprised to be actually enjoying the Oliva Newton John DVD-A I bought a few weeks ago.

I will tell you that the most enjoyable way to use this system (and to show it off to friends!) is to pop-in any good DVD concert that has at least 5.1. Sitting in your car, watching Luther Vandross or the Eagles and listening to the 17 speakers around you is amazing. Wish the annoying pop-up messages could be turned-off via a setting.

 

[Eliott]

..............This may be sacrilege, but as much as I enjoy hearing the standards with such lush instrumentation ("Look of Love"), I find myself bored out of my mind by Ms. Krall. I love jazz vocalists in general, but (IMHO) it sounds like she's 'phoning it in' as opposed to putting any real effort into creating a style of her own. Her range isn't too impressive either. ................

I too am interested in the standards but I probably will skip the Dian Krall disk after seeing your mini review. She was great in the movie DeLovely performing "Just One of Those Things".

I have the Elton John disk and I don't care for the music. Anyone in Houston want to try this one? You can have it.

Also I have the Mannheim Steamroller disk. Very good surround but the music is pretty much awful.

I wish I could find more on DVD-A. Ths choices are very limited.

 

[BacktoHyundaibychoice]

"I wish I could find more on DVD-A. Ths choices are very limited."

Here's a link to over 1,400 titles at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1233258...-audio music,p_n_binding_browse-bin:387646011

 

[BacktoHyundaibychoice]

I too am interested in the standards but I probably will skip the Dian Krall disk after seeing your mini review. She was great in the movie DeLovely performing "Just One of Those Things".

I have the Elton John disk and I don't care for the music. Anyone in Houston want to try this one? You can have it.

Also I have the Mannheim Steamroller disk. Very good surround but the music is pretty much awful.

I wish I could find more on DVD-A. Ths choices are very limited.

Well, it was only my opinion. Can't wait to see Dan's counter!
As for Elton, I said elsewhere that I'm not that big a fan. But the production of this DVD-A is superb.
Agree that the Micky Mouse Music is awful. I threw it out there for the surround example only.
As for selection? See post above this one and explore EBay too.
Enjoy!

 

[gerryb]

Deleted - deleted

 

[BacktoHyundaibychoice]

Bumped to make it easier for our new Alaskan member.
And to say that the Who's Tommy is my latest DVD-A. Spectacular, especially considering the original was an 8 track mix. A great job by Peter Townshend in remixing for surround.

 

[jpq1999]

I was in Walmart today of all places, and decided to see what they have for dts music. I picked up the Eagles Farewell in Melbourne DVD-A. It was marked at $11.88 and, when scanned at the check-out, rang through at $7.00! This is a 2 DVD audio. it is 5.1 dts surround, fyi.

 

[scsween]

I have Hell Freezes Over and Seven Bridges Road is listed as a bonus track #22. I can't seem to access it, though. The screen says that my receiver is not DTS. Where is the setting to activate DTS on the Lexicon?

The only audio selections for the disk are Stereo and 5.1. I think that I've seen DTS there before, but it is not there now.

Help appreciated.

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[QCTLG]

I'm not sure if this is appropriate or not but here goes.
I know a website where you could download some DVD-A's FOR FREE!

There are also some SACD's but I know these don't work but you can still get them and listen to them at home.
also I know there are some software to transform them to DVD-A's so they can work in the car.

The problem for me is that I STILL don't have my car (Expected date is now April 9th) so I can't test this yet. BUT I now have a pretty good selection downloaded already.

Anyways...when I know that it's ok to post it here...I will post the link.

"Mods please delete this post if not appropriate"

Looking forward to playing with all this in my Geni...

Take care...

 

[beefman]

One thing that bugs me about the Lex is that it when it sees a DVD-A it has no option to bring up the menus even when parked. Some DVD-As are authored such that they have two (or even three) entirely different sets of content!

One example (and if you like the music, it's a KILLER DVD-A) is Seal's Greatest Hits. There's the standard 5.1 'layer' that's played as normal but there's ALSO an 'unplugged' layer that you must navigate to through menus. No way to even get there. I have a Pioneer AVH-P7600DVD in another car that also does DVD-A and you can select whether to autoplay DVD-As or use the menus. 'Cause every DVD-A I've ever seen offers even a minimal amount of menu control and without that you're left with whatever's played by default. If that's the two channel layer and you were hoping for 5.1... oops.

Also, it'd be nice when playing 5.1 content if the 'surround' would be defeated. I don't want the system doing Logic7 decoding on top of the 5.1! But that's no biggie, I can turn it off. It is nice having the option to play DVD-As but I REALLY wish they would've done SACD. Far far more options. Sadly, Sony are a bunch of total boneheads and have utterly mismanaged that format.

 

[BacktoHyundaibychoice]

Beefman:
When in a Dvd-A, go to the right of whatever track is playing. Scroll down to "Group" and select it. If there are other options, bonus tracks, etc you'll find them there. For example, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road has FIVE groups, Marvin Gaye has 3.
Good luck!

 

[BacktoHyundaibychoice]

This looks interesting, will let you know how it sounds when it arrives from Amazon:

Leading new-music composer Phil Kline debuts a major work, Around the World in a Daze, on a new surround sound DVD released by Starkland (http://www.starkland.com/). The 65-minute studio composition was commissioned by Starkland specifically for high-resolution surround sound and to premiere on DVD.

This formidable project is the brainchild of Starkland founder and one-man-army Tom Steenland. He states, "I love surround sound and think it's an exhilarating format for contemporary composers," adding, "Phil is a wonderful composer, and much of his music is inherently spatial. The idea of commissioning a major work from Phil to premiere on a surround sound recording was compelling and irresistible."

Daze opens with the multi-channel ambiance near Kline's home in New York City's lower East Side, glides into an ethereal Ethel string quartet, peaks with a massive climax presenting hundreds of thousands of super-dense bells, shifts to the soaring violinistics of Todd Reynolds, and concludes with an immersive environment of 15,000 chattering, African gray parrots.


Along the way, listeners are also seduced by swirling, hypersampled Wagner, a weird madrigal about bitterness and bees, a Bach prelude eerily processed into a Zurich train station, and a mournfully multi-tracked "wailing wall."

The main DVD offers Daze in several formats for various playback setups: standard-DVD Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround; higher quality DTS 5.1; highest-quality uncompressed DVD-Audio; and PCM stereo. Playback of the Daze music is accompanied by over 80 images shot by Kline.

http://www.starkland.com/s2015/index.htm

 

[slvslv]

I love the Lexicon audio system! Here are my favorite multi-channel surround discs (in no particular order):

1. Porcupine Tree (DVD-Audio & DTS) - All Releases!!! These are some of the best written, recorded, and mixed recordings I've ever heard. "In Absentia" is wonderful but so is "Stupid Dream," "Lightbulb Sun," "Deadwing," and "Fear of a Blank Planet." (I had never even heard of this group until about a month ago and I'm a musician! If you like Rush, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, and other progressive bands, don't miss out on this music!)

2. Donald Fagen (DVD-Audio) - "Morph the Cat" and "Nightfly." Mixed by Elliot Scheiner (who also helped with Porcupine Tree above).

3. Steely Dan (DVD-Audio) - "Gaucho." One of the best albums by one of the best bands in the business!

4. Beatles (DVD-Audio) - "Love." A great album of music by the greatest band ever.

5. Elton John (DVD-Audio) - "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road." Excellent surround mixes from an excellent album.

6. Mike Oldfield (DTS) - "Tubular Bells 2003." A meticulous re-recording of his classic 70's "Exorcist" album in phenomenal surround sound.

7. Alan Parsons (DTS) - "On Air." Great surround mix of this underrated concept album.

8. R.E.M. (DVD-Audio/DTS) - "Best of 1988-2003." Lots of classics in a well-mixed surround environment.

Rock on!

Brent

 

[BacktoHyundaibychoice]

"1. Porcupine Tree (DVD-Audio & DTS) - All Releases!!! These are some of the best written, recorded, and mixed recordings I've ever heard. "In Absentia" is wonderful but so is "Stupid Dream," "Lightbulb Sun," "Deadwing," and "Fear of a Blank Planet." (I had never even heard of this group until about a month ago and I'm a musician! If you like Rush, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, and other progressive bands, don't miss out on this music!)"

While most of your list would be on mine too, there is NO arguing with your #1!
For a quick intro to surround sound, I play "How's Your Life Today" from Lightbulb Sun. It never fails to impress, and at 2:46 is the perfect length for those with ADD.
Porcupine Tree is the best band nobody's heard of, producing the best multi-channel experience for the Lexicon.

(Usual disclaimer: We're talking about the Lexicon in the Tech package that plays DVD, both A and V.)

 

[SterlingDave]

Dang you guys anyway. I absolutely have to quit reading these threads. After reading this one I had to run out to Best Buy and get Hell Freezes Over and the Beatles Love.

It ends up costing me money every time I go into a new and interesting thread.


STOP IT!

 

[GripperDon]

"I wish I could find more on DVD-A. Ths choices are very limited."

Here's a link to over 1,400 titles at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1233258...-audio music,p_n_binding_browse-bin:387646011

I am even more picky I want to hear sample before I buy, I have so much junk, I hate.

 

[BacktoHyundaibychoice]

I am even more picky I want to hear sample before I buy, I have so much junk, I hate.

Good point, especially for 'remastered' audio. Not all remasterings are created equally.

Though according to your sig, you should NOT buy anything from that link. Those are DVD-Audios, not CDs.

 

[dataguy]

Great thread! I have some things on my wish list now

My recommendation is Blue Man Group "Audio" on DVD-A. It's a great instrumental/percussion showcase disc that sounds fantastic, both on the Lexicon and on a good surround home theater setup.

Amazon link: [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Man-Group-Audio/dp/B000051S65/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1251219549&sr=8-2"]Amazon.com: Blue Man Group - Audio: Blue Man Group: Music[/ame]

Review: http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/2488/blue-man-group-audio/

Review: http://www.highfidelityreview.com/reviews/review.asp?reviewnumber=238323