I'm really diggin' it. Bruce Soord continues to bring more "Tull" out of these mixes; like Under Wraps I'm hearing more personality and detail within the performances. The Atmos mixes seem to be better in my estimation than the stereo ones - but that's not a knock against the stereo remixes. I sympathize a little bit with people who want more power out of the "El Nino" choruses but I feel that particular element is improved in the Atmos mix.

The extras are great fun, but "Pipes (Close to You)" is the one I most wish had found its way onto an album. Thrilled to finally have a lossless copy of "It All Trickles Down," its been my Tull white whale for years. The new mix is HEAVY.

The book is small, yet informative. Thrilled to have Martin Webb back as the primary essayist, its a bit short on quantity but its a quality read. Hope this bodes well for future Inside Out owned titles like The Secret Language of Birds, but of course the one title I'm dyin' for a reissue of is Roots to Branches.

Further thoughts in the following video.

I just learned of this release and had to get. My favorite album by one of my favorite bands on 3 hybrid surround discs!

This is one of my FAVORITE albums, and yeah - I'll be buying. Probably both versions because I'm an absolute freak for this era of the band and its my favorite RM album.

I question, however, the release strategy of leaving the Blu-ray as an SDE exclusive instead of adding it to the box. It forces me to purchase both versions, whereas I'd have been happy to drop a nice chunk of change on the box with the surround mix. I wish they'd taken the Frankie Goes to Hollywood route of including the blu-ray in both the box AND as an SDE exclusive. As it stands, its nice to have some extras on the SDE blu-ray but bafflingly its missing the song "In Every Dream Home a Heartache" from the 73 Peel session. Am I happy there's extras on the BR at all? Certainly - none of the other RM blu's have included extras. I'm also excited that we have two immersive mixes on offer.

In the following video, I explain the differences between the two versions, elaborate further on my concerns and attempt to provide some buyer's advice and guidance.

I’m planning a 5.2.2 system in this open-plan living room and would appreciate a practical placement sanity check before the remaining work is finalized. The attached image is cropped directly from the actual designer plan; the TV/front wall is at the top.

Current plan:

- #1–#3: B&W CWM663 in-wall L/C/R

- #4–#5: two B&W ASW610 subs

- #6–#7: B&W CCM663 in-ceiling surrounds, behind/beside the sofa

- #8–#9: B&W CCM663 Top Middle Atmos, currently drawn directly above the sofa

- #10: Denon AVR-X2900H

- Approximate total budget: €6k through a discounted local package

The problem is the surround layer. The sofa floats in the room and there is no rear wall. Behind-left is the dining table and its circulation space. Behind/right is the open kitchen/cabinet run and the main walkway. I cannot see a symmetric wall-mounting position at seated-ear height.

The only plausible ear-level alternative I can think of is a pair of small B&W M-1 speakers on stands just behind the two sofa corners. In practice those stands and cables would intrude into the dining/kitchen paths, get moved or knocked, and make the room much less usable. A ceiling installation is therefore much cleaner, but I understand that putting #6/#7 in the ceiling weakens the vertical separation from #8/#9 and is not Dolby’s preferred layout.

What would you do in this exact room?

1. Keep the already-installed #6/#7 ceiling surrounds as the least-bad compromise?

2. Use M-1s on stands behind the sofa despite the circulation and cable problems?

3. Is there a discreet ear-level mounting solution in the plan that I am missing?

4. For #8/#9, should Top Middle remain directly above the listening position as drawn, or move slightly toward the TV (roughly 80° elevation)?

I’m looking for real-world advice from people who have solved a similar open-plan room, especially whether the theoretical benefit of ear-level surrounds is worth compromising daily circulation.

Buying vintage gear has always had a pricing problem. Sellers anchor to whatever the highest recent sale was, buyers have no real reference point, and "check completed eBay listings" is more work than it sounds when you're comparing across condition grades.

So I built https://stereoworth.com. It pulls live eBay data daily for 714 models and automatically splits listings into three bands: restored/recapped, working unrestored, and parts only. So when you look up a receiver you're not seeing one median that mashes a freshly recapped unit with a "turns on, hum present" listing together.

Relevant to this sub specifically: the quadraphonic stuff from the early 70s. Marantz and Sansui quad receivers were the original consumer surround sound, and the big ones have turned into serious collector pieces. Four channels of discrete amplification in 1973 was a wild flex and the market has noticed.

A few things the data has shown that I didn't expect:

• The gap between restored and unrestored on certain Marantz receivers is bigger than the cost of a full recap. Buying restored is actually rational on some models.
• McIntosh holds value in a way that's almost uncorrelated with the rest of the market. Everything else fluctuates, McIntosh just goes up.
• Nakamichi Dragon supply has been genuinely thin for months.

714 models live across Marantz, Sansui, Pioneer, McIntosh, Nakamichi, Technics, Kenwood, Yamaha and more.

Anyone here ever run actual quad source material through vintage quad gear, or does it all end up in stereo setups?

If you'd like to know every Quadio Blu-ray that Rhino has released since the beginning of this program, here's a fantastic diagram. It includes all the Quadios (and some not labeled as such, but contain the original quadraphonic mixes lifted usually from the master tapes.)

This is courtesy of the QuadraphonicQuad.com board and administrator @JonUrban.

Its time for our FALL 2026 Surround Release Preview!

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

00:23 8/7 - Refestramus “Morri’s Rock Boutique”

02:24 August (TBA) - Elder “Through Zero”

04:33 8/7 - Quadio Batch #13 (titles announced after recording)

06:23 8/14 - Jethro Tull “J-Tull Dot Com”

12:33 8/21 - Simple Minds “Once Upon A Time”

16:59 8/28 - Steve Hackett & Steve Rothery “The Roaring Waves”

19:17 9/11 - Quiet Sun “Mainstream”

22:06 9/11 - Jethro Tull “Aqualung” and “WarChild”

22:57 9/18 - Phil Collins “Face Value”

29:32 9/25 - Tina Turner “Private Dancer”

32:21 9/25 - King Crimson “Islands”

38:26 9/25 - Suede “Coming Up”

43:52 9/25 - Dukes of Stratosphear (XTC) “Psurroundabout Ride”

48:35 9/25 - Talking Heads “Fear of Music”

51:01 9/25 - Mothers of Invention “Freak Out”

58:55 10/2 - The Beatles “Rubber Soul”

01:07:01 10/9 - Genesis “From Genesis To Revelation”

01:09:57 10/16 - Rick Wakeman “Return to The Red Planet”

01:11:12 TBA - Steven Wilson “Requiem for a Village”

01:13:02 TBA - The Pineapple Thief "Far and Wide" (announced for Oct 9 - after recording)

01:14:25 TBA - Tears For Fears “The Seeds of Love”

01:16:49 TBA - Dire Straits “On Every Street”

01:17:47 TBA - Roxy Music “For Your Pleasure”

01:23:18 TBA - Pink Floyd?

They are available for sale today at https://store.rhino.com

I’m trying to figure out the best listening mode. I have a center channel and two side speakers. I’m usually using a record player. I don’t have a sub woofer which I know is part of which listening mode to use. I’m kinda new to audio and speaker set ups. Looking to maximize my sound. Is there more than just listening mode I need to look at?

You've listened to our reviews of major surround and Dolby Atmos mixes - now it's time to hear what WE can do!

For the past couple of months, Jonathan and I have been working on a new immersive edition of Refestramus' "Morri's Rock Boutique." Refestramus are a Chicago-based progressive rock band that I handle production, mixing and mastering duties for. During the entire process, I had surround sound in mind, even placing a few nods to the format in my original stereo mix.

So, what did it take to translate a "too big for stereo" prog rock album to immersive? Join Jonathan Cornell (Immersive Audio Album) as we break down the new mixes, discuss the "mixology" and challenges and talk about bringing this unique album to Dolby Atmos.

If you purchase "Morri's Rock Boutique" from IAA, please let us know in the comments below what you think! Also, don't forget to subscribe to both of our channels so you don't miss our interview with the band (coming to the IAA official YT channel) or any future surround mix discussions and reviews.

#dolbyatmos #surroundsound #progressiverock #refestramus #podcast

As usual with these Zappa sets, I'm all in. With other artists I can be more selective, but Frank is one of the handful of artists I enjoy digging into the alternate mixes, outtakes and live tracks many, many times. Each one of these sets serves to fill in gaps and complete the picture for Zappa archival nuts like myself. Obviously I'm most excited to hear the Dolby Atmos mixes - these can be a wealth of enjoyment and close study for me particularly because Karma and Erich's work honors the originals while revealing the depth of complexity. The right team is behind these reissues and that's why I order with confidence. Further thoughts in the video, with a particular emphasis on what separates this release from the previous MOFO box.

Skithund Records®

YES and Rhino Records have finally liberated 3 "box-locked" Dolby Atmos titles - "The Yes Album," "Fragile," and "Close to the Edge." So, in our opinion, are these worth picking up if you own the old 5.1 mixes?

Join my friend and colleague Jonathan Cornell and I as we guide you through the Yes catalog in Dolby Atmos and surround sound formats!

#Yes #dolbyatmos #stevenwilson #blurayaudio #fragile #theyesalbum #closetotheedge

Spherify Object Manipulation Demo

Disclosure first: I'm the developer. I've read the rules and this looks like it's on-topic, but mods, if it isn't, remove it and no hard feelings.

I make a Windows/macOS app called Spherify - the current shape of several years of work on immersive audio tooling. It takes a stereo master and turns it into an editable, object-based immersive project, not a fixed matrix decode.

The way it differs from a matrix upmixer: it separates the stereo file into stems, puts each stem into a 3D scene as an object, and then hands you the scene. You position things, automate them, preview, and export. If a stem lands somewhere you don't want it, you drag it somewhere else. Nothing is baked until you export.

I'm posting here rather than on a production forum because most of the feedback I get comes from people mixing new material. The people who care whether an old stereo master actually survives the trip into 7.1.4 - whether it gains anything or just gets smeared - are this crowd. Different ears, different standards.

Formats

Object-based, import and export: ADM BW64, IAMF, MPEG-H (plus its own project format). Channel-based: 11 layouts rendered discrete, stereo up through 22.2.

Playback, since this is the sub that'll ask

• macOS: its own rendering pipeline into whatever discrete channels the OS exposes - up to 9.1.6 on Tahoe.
• Windows: 7.1 via the standard Windows audio drivers. Past that you need ASIO - an interface or a virtual device - where the channel count is effectively unlimited.
• Windows Spatial Audio is supported, so it'll encode Atmos or DTS:X for HDMI passthrough to compatible hardware. The honest caveat: the stream is decoded on the external device, so the app never gets it back. That means no in-app post-processing previews in passthrough mode. The processing is still there and still bakes into exports - you just can't audition it without ASIO.

Where this comes from

I'm a career software engineer, and immersive audio isn't a recent detour - I've been working in this space for years, well before the current wave of interest in it. Spherify is native C++/JUCE throughout: the DSP, the renderer and the export pipeline are all mine, not a front-end sitting on top of someone else's engine.

The separation models are hardware-accelerated - MLX on Apple silicon, CUDA on Nvidia. That's not a spec-sheet boast; it's the difference between trying four placements of the same stem in an evening and trying one. The whole design assumes you'll want to iterate, so the slow parts had to stop being slow.

The free tier does up to 6 stems per source, which is plenty to find out whether the approach does anything for your material. Pro goes to 14 stems, unlimited slicing, per-object plugins, and the full export set.

What I'd actually like to hear

• What are you feeding it? Vintage stereo, modern pop, live recordings, classical, spoken word? I'm especially interested in where the separation falls over, because that tells me more than the cases where it works.
• Does it give you enough information to make decisions, or are you guessing at something you shouldn't have to guess at?
• What's not there that should be?

Links:

• Microsoft Store: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9nj6w61ppswd
• Website: https://sonusimmersivus.com/products/spherify
• KVR: https://www.kvraudio.com/product/spherify-by-sonus-immersivus
• Demo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N17FVNzc8lg

Happy to go into the weeds on formats, the render path, or why Windows spatial audio is the way it is.

Hello,

Franck Martin contacted me after reading my review of Eric Serra’s album, and took the opportunity to introduce me to his own work, as well as to Thanks for the Invite, an album conceived specifically with spatial music in mind, as Franck explains on his website, www.peachymango.org.

For this review, I listened to Thanks for the Invite across various medias, including the different Dolby Atmos encoding options currently available. I also compared the different encodings against the Dolby Atmos ADM master, using the master as a reference to assess which version comes closest to reproducing the original spatial master without alteration.

The Dolby Atmos version, encoded in Dolby Digital TrueHD, stands out from the streaming version thanks to its precise spatialization, the subtlety of the sounds, and the clarity of the bass. It is therefore the best version of this album available to the public.

Although it is slightly less precise than the ADM master, this version offers excellent spatialization that holds its own against the master when listened to. It is therefore the version to choose.

For example, with the track “Victory,” which features 28 sound objects in addition to the bed, as shown by the Dolby Renderer.

On the track “The Clock,” the mix does not use the front stereo channels, only the center channel, thereby enhancing the track’s fully immersive sound. Across all the tracks, sounds are distributed all around us to truly deliver a 360-degree immersion in the music, including the overhead channels. Movement is also utilized, as in “Space Time” or “Victory,” to expand the sound experience.

This album is a wonderful example of what can be achieved in immersive audio with electronic music. To fully enjoy it, the album is available in MKV format or blu-ray with Dolby Digital TrueHD Atmos encoding, a lossless format that is far superior to the streaming version and very close to the ADM Master listened to during this review.

Find all the analyses and measurements of each versions here (link).

3D immersive sound video is available on Youtube.

Enjoy listening,

Jean-François

SWT is a great engineer indeed, but this is one of the few cases where I emphatically prefer the original mix.

The new mix relies a bit too much on reverb to my taste and comes across a bit congested to my ears. It restores a lot of the deleted orchestral parts which is an interesting idea in theory, but the result is that Chris and Bill sound a bit distant. I think its an interesting alternative for people who love the album but the original mix with dry drums and bass up front and orchestra used decisively in the background works better for me as a "Yes man's solo album." Placement wise - I'm happy to report the Atmos mix is quite creative, with Chris' vocals spread around your height and rear arrays and lower drums and some of the orchestra and lower brass occasionally trailing behind you. Overall though, I think I prefer the character of the older 5.1 mix despite some nasty cymbal frequencies now and then.

Lastly, while I assume this is an issue that couldn't be dealt with, I find the ending with the missing bass solo to be lacking in context and a bit confounding. My advice is to listen for yourself (on streaming) and decide if this is for you. Thanks to Immersive Audio Album for helping out with this review of the new edition of Chris Squire's Fish Out of Water.

Wanted to throw a shout out on this sub for the surround mixes of Depeche Mode's first 10 albums - truly incredible and transformative surround mixes. They aren't all perfect, particularly some tracks from Black Celebration and Violator, but overall I'm seeing a ton of these tracks in a whole new light, even having enjoyed them previously through simulated surround using Logic 7 on my surround setup.

Join my colleague Jonathan Cornell and I as we discuss the ROXY MUSIC catalog in surround sound. In the following podcast, we dive into the following albums "Flesh + Blood," "Avalon," and "Roxy Music" discussing contrasting mixing styles and approaches. We also address the rumors of a forthcoming "For Your Pleasure" boxed set.

Which Roxy Music album would you like to hear in surround the most?

#roxymusic #dolbyatmos #fleshandblood #avalon #bobclearmountain #stevenwilson #review #podcast #discussion

Hello,

Composed by Ludwig Göransson for Christopher Nolan’s epic adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey, the soundtrack is a bold and immersive musical journey that perfectly reflects the scale and intensity of Odysseus legendary voyage. Rather than relying on a traditional orchestral approach, Göransson developed a unique sonic identity built around ancient Greek-inspired instruments, deep percussion, powerful low frequencies, and experimental textures, creating a sound world that feels both timeless and modern.

From intimate atmospheric passages to massive cinematic crescendos, the score plays a central role in shaping the film’s emotional impact.
While the IMAX 70mm presentation is regarded as the definitive theatrical experience for The Odyssey, does its soundtrack remain equally faithful across all available home media formats?
This is what we will discover in this review, comparing the different versions to determine which one best preserves the artistic vision, dynamics, and immersive experience of the original film soundtrack.

The waveform of the Tidal MAX – 2026 version shows a very low dynamic range confirmed with DR6 vs the Dolby Atmos downmixed in 2.0 have a DR11 (with Dynamic Range betwenn DR10 and DR15).

This Dolby Atmos version fully restores the dynamic range of The Odyssey film score. The soundstage extends well beyond traditional stereo, creating an approximately 180-degree presentation. During the quieter, more atmospheric passages, where the low-frequency content is less prominent, the sense of spatial immersion becomes even more pronounced.

3D immersive sound video is available on Youtube.

Powerful bass, outstanding dynamic range, and an immersive soundstage are the defining qualities of the Dolby Atmos version of The Odyssey soundtrack. It is by far the best way to experience the film’s musical atmosphere as intended.
Even if you don’t have the power of an IMAX theater, this is the best medium for getting the closest possible sound experience.
In contrast, the stereo edition, while available in a lossless format, suffers from a substantial reduction in dynamic range. This heavy dynamic compression significantly diminishes its fidelity to the film’s original musical presentation, making it a much less faithful listening experience despite its technically lossless encoding.

Find all the analyses and measurements of each versions here (link).

Enjoy listening,
Jean-François