Richard Strauss, "Also Sprach Zarathustra", one of my VERY favorites. Performed by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, love them. And directed by Andris Nelsons, WOW this has to be a great blu-ray!!!! Bought it, carried it across oceans to listen to it. DAMN!!!!!
It is in DTS HD-MA sound, GREAT? Not, only 5.0. There is no LFE channel and NO BASS!!!!!
Mid bass, but the opening pedal notes of the organ which lays the groundwork for the horns and tympani, is just almost non-existent!

Great picture, good performance, but the sound was just lacking, badly lacking.
NOT RECOMMENDED!!!!
Am I the only one who catches these things? Crazy pills?
God Bless,
Wayne

Glad you and your family made it back home safely! I bet you really missed your set up while you were away. Even if your new material isn't as good as you'd hoped, at least your listening to it on an amazing system! Maybe it's time to indulge with one of your all time favorites...

Cheers,

T Cobe

Thanks T Cobe,
I just put on another new one and WOW, world of difference!!!! Will report on it after I have time to enjoy it.
You are really right, for going on 5 weeks now, when TRYING to watch a movie with my grand daughters (Dolphin Tale 1 & 2, Princess Bride, Mars Needs Moms--we took these to them, but had to watch Frozen with them too) the screen was too small and the sound SUCKED big time!!!!! TV speakers. My daughter and son-in-law never turn on the receiver I gave them, gave away or packed away the speakers I gave them, does not fit their lifestyle or decorating ideal to have such in the living room with the TV.
MERCY!!!!!
Why did God give us eyes and ears then??????
YES, I have missed my system!!!!!!
Happy listening,
God Bless,
Wayne

OK lil Sister, here is a tale of two cities, er, ah, DVDs and Blu-ray.
Since we were in NYC a coupla weeks ago, and went up the Empire State Bldg. we had lots of talk about King Kong. Now I love this movie, well not Fay Wray original, but the sexy one with Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange, and then the latest one with Jack Black and Naomi Watts was pretty good too, just went too long with too much CGI bugs and dinosaurs.
Well the girlie said she had never seen the movie, so we cued it up last evening. She did it, I did not see, but when I started watching I was shocked at how rubbish the picture was, and the soundtrack was equally horrible. The LFE was all off, WAY over the top, all the time, just terrible sound. Turns out, it was a cheap Region 9 DVD, not a blu-ray at all.
OK, fair enough. Watch the Blu-ray.
Did I mention Naomi Watts? or Jessica Lange when she was young?
Beauty killed the Beast, WOW!
Now to the SUBLIME:
After a big disappointment (see above posts) with the Strauss Blu-ray, I played this: "6 / Bruckner the Mature Symphonies" Daniel Barenboim conducting the Staatskapelle Berlin. Accentus Music has a series of these, I don't know why I started at number 6, it was recommended highly I guess.
Well, for whatever reason I got to hear an AWESOME performance of a wonderful symphony. WOW, the sound on this Blu-ray is fantastic in DTS HD MA 5.1
Picture quality is amazing too. Barenboim is a master musician IMHO. His work is all done in the rehearsals, he has already gotten the crew to know exactly how he wants this to sound, so when he conducts it is with NO FLAIR or FLOURISH that draws attention to himself away from the music and musicians. Small, controlled movements and looks convey what he wants to the orchestra, I love it!
I am not familiar enough with classical music, Bruckner or otherwise, so I cannot say anything intelligent about the music, but to say that this is great! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, this is like classical ear candy. If you like classical and great sound, like to hear the power and weight of a full symphony orchestra, like to hear the individual instruments shine and whole sections shine, this will fill the bill.
The Blu-rays in this series are around $40 on Amazon, some cheaper. But I think I will buy more of these symphonies, perhaps waiting until the prices come down some.
Happy listening, God Bless,
Wayne

Tried to watch "BIRDMAN" tonight. Virtually all dialogue was missing, totally weird sound. Messed up.
Checked and checked and my center channel is not working at all. Pushed on interconnects, powered off and back on, tried the amp, nothing. Then my Harmony 1100 univ. remote control flipped the screen upside down, making it unusable. Had to pull out the battery and reboot it.
First world problems I know.
I look at the news from Nepal and realize how totally blessed I am!!!!! Praying for them.
Things go to heck when you are not around to take care of them. Well, they go to heck even when you are there.
God Bless,
Wayne

Ladies and Gentlemen, last night we watched the last Hobbit film, but I will not report on it yet, as I had to take one amp from rear surround duties and hook up the center channel SC-X with it so we could hear dialogue.
We have several 7.1 movies to watch now, HORRAY!!!!!! But I will not watch them in 7.1 until we get the tube replaced in my amp for it.
We will watch in Thai for the wife and girlie, and I will go back later and watch in 7.1 and report.
Did put in a fluff movie to watch after the gals went to sleep.
"Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power" had good PQ and the SQ in DTS-HD MA 5.1 was OK really.
I was not familiar with the lead muscle man, nor his "we fuss and fight a while then fall in love"-interest, the lovely Ellen Hollman. Both did a good job, this is formulaic stuff done by the same people who did the MUMMY, but this one was much funnier than I have seen in this genre before. There are LOTS of extras on the disc, some good acting.
And did I mention Ellen Hollman????? If you do not know who she is, you should stalk her, I mean Google her.
I was impressed with her "body of work". Recommended for B+ movie entertainment.
Off to watch Mockingjay now, but again, will not report on it yet.
God Bless,
Wayne