Surround sound.

This is a longer pair of reviews than usual, and amounts to another of my critiques of DVD-A and DD music recordings in general (with the conclusions also easily applying to DTS and SACD releases). What I am proselytizing here results from what I have learned from auditioning quite a number of 5.1 releases and not just the impressive-sounding ones reviewed below.

The big question for me has involved whether or not surround-sound releases that attempt to simulate a live-music space can do the job any better than what one can get from using modern DSP technology with an existing two-channel CD or LP collection. Note that I am not here dealing with certain pop releases that entertainingly put performers in all five channels or spread audience sounds beside and behind you; no DSP technology can generate those kinds of artifacts from a two-channel CD. I am referring to the simulation of live-music space with an ensemble located up front. The recordings reviewed below are good hooks to hang my summaries on, because neither of them is just one recording.

Big Phat Band XXL, with Gordon Goodwin, Michael Brecker, Johnny Mathis, Brian McKnight, Take 6, and a number of other fine performers. Recorded at Capitol Records and Conway Studios, Hollywood, with several other studios also involved. Mixed at Conway Studios, Hollywood, and O'Henry Studios, Burbank. Recording (and mixing) engineer for CD version: Tommy Vicari. Recording (and mixing) engineers for DVD-Audio version: Tommy Vicari, Gary Lux, Ken Ramos, and quite a few others. 73+ minutes, although DVD-A version has extras that add up to quite a bit more time. Both discs are independently available as Silverline CD 281206 and Silverline DVD-A 288206.

The DVD-A release also includes alternate Dolby Digital tracks (for some reason done at a lower than usual 384 kbps), and both discs have exactly the same 12 tracks of music. No alternate DTS tracks are offered.

The DVD release, needless to say, has other features: a running commentary option by Goodwin, multi-angle music videos of several tracks (which in the DD versions mysteriously have 448 kbps data rates), a nifty feature that lets you listen to solo instruments on some tracks (possible with a multi-microphone release like this one that is digitally mixed), a photo gallery, and on-screen liner notes that go beyond what is included in the printed booklet.

The music here is mostly big-band jazz, mostly written by Goodwin, and the overall musical quality varies from really punchy, lively, and terrific to background quality OK. Big band freaks will mostly like the musical content of both discs. Let me say right now that I recommend both of them to jazz lovers.

How's the sound? Well the CD reflects what you get with modern, multi-microphone recording work. The sound is up front and each instrument is etched in close-up space to an extent that goes beyond what you could ever get at even the best seats at a live concert. This is not to say that the disc is not technically great. It is technically great (plenty of bass punch, too), but it tends to sound more impressive on smaller scale systems than it does on larger packages that have widely spaced main speakers.

It may also sound superficially more impressive on systems that have casually positioned speakers than it does on super-duper systems, set up super-duper style, in super-duper rooms. (This is conjecture on my part, because none of my systems are set up "casually" in sub-par rooms.) There is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

The DVD-A release is superior sounding to the CD, by virtue of the two additional channels. I say "two," because the center feed is nearly non existent and is probably there mainly to make those who have center-channel speakers think they are getting something significant. Fact is, the center image is mostly a phantom item, which of course at least keeps the center sound from being massacred by a pint-sized center speaker placed up too high on some huge RPTV monitor. Most modern engineers are more than justified in being paranoid when it comes to a seriously independent center channel. This is pretty much a 4.1-channel disc, the low levels from the center channel notwithstanding.

The surround channels are well fed and the DVD-A and DD tracks on the disc are superior sounding compared to what you get with the two-channel CD--provided that those surround speakers are properly located and their levels not goosed. Note that if your DVD-A player or processor does not include distance compensation and bass management, the DD tracks (regardless of their 384 kbps data rate) may actually sound better than the DVD-A tracks. (At least this is the case if your surround speakers are not the same distance from you as the L/R mains, they and the mains are not big enough to handle low bass decently, and you do not have a subwoofer hooked to the LFE output.) Hey, bass management and distance compensation are both important.

On my main system (anchored by two wide-dispersing Allison IC-20 systems, 12 feet apart in a 3,400 cubic foot room) both of these discs tended to overwhelm. The close-up, multi-microphone-generated soundstage was just a bit too bloated. Everything was up front, and you just do not get sound like that at live performances. No amount of DSP work from my Yamaha RX-Z1 receiver could fix the situation, although Dolby Pro Logic II was at least the best of the bunch with the CD. The mix just did not work to comfortable effect on that system.

On my second system (anchored by two towed-in Dunlavy Cantatas, 8 feet apart in a newly expanded 2,900 cubic foot room) the results were a lot better. The soundstage with that system is more confined and when listening from away from the sweet spot the toe-in arrangement of the Cantatas also allowed for a more stable soundstage with either disc. The reduction in scale worked to good effect.

The same results were obtained from my living-room system (anchored by two towed-in NHT ST4 systems, 7 feet apart in a newly remodeled 2,100 cubic foot area), where the close listening distance and more direct-field detail worked better than what I got in the big room's strongly reverberant field. (The main-channel listening distance with the big system is 15 feet, whereas with both of the other systems it is 10 and 9 feet, respectively.)

Anyway, one important thing I did with these discs involved an AB comparison between the "4.1" DVD-A and the compact disc after the latter's two-channel output was run through the Yamaha processor jazz-club and other DSP modes with both my main and middle systems.

The results were interesting to say the least and overall I would have to award the prize to the DSP enhanced CD. In particular, the jazz-club simulations made for a more realistic sound, particularly with the second system. (In addition to the usual listener-flanking surround speakers, the Cantatas are themselves flanked by a pair of "effects" speakers that are mounted behind and above them in the front comers.) While the DVD-A (both DVD-A and DD tracks) opened things up nicely, at least compared to what one would get with the CD when played in straight stereo, the DSP manipulations from the Yamaha DSP-A1 in the second added a much-needed spaciousness and depth to the soundstage. They did so without usually over-inflating the image, although centered vocal soloists tended to sound a bit larger than life, thanks to all that close-up microphone work.

Said artifacts notwithstanding, the result was an enveloping "club-like sound" with the instrumental numbers that was superior to what I could get from DVD-A with only two front and two surround channels.

OK, what does this tell us--or at least tell me? It says that all one need do to get modern and usually very good surround-sound impact from an existing two-channel record collection is obtain a good surround processor or receiver. In most cases, this means not much more than getting one with something as basic as Dolby ProLogic II, provided the latter includes a parameter-adjustment feature. (Some budget receivers offer no user-adjustable options with DPL II.)

Yeah, DVD-A and SACD (and DD and DTS music) are great. (Ironically, this greatness may not prevent DVD-A and SACD becoming marketing flops.) However, so is music done on two-channel CDs that are given really, really good DSP work. I realize that some individuals believe that those DSP manipulations kind of violate the purity of the sound embedded on those discs. Be that as it may, few 5.1 discs available are themselves "pure" sonic gems. Most are manipulated as much as, and maybe more than, what you can do yourself at home with a good processor.

The multi-channel music revolution happened well before DVD-A and SACD came on the scene. Your whole CD and LP music collection is ready to be converted to surround sound that sounds as good as, and sometimes better than, what is currently available in 5.1 (or 4.1) form. All you need is a decent DSP device to prove it to yourself. Don't forget to set up all the speakers properly--in a good room.