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Not sure how many folks know about this (not seen it mentioned here yet) series of immersive 24/192kHz high-res reissues that Rhino is releasing quarterly now as of this past summer. I'm so completely in stoked about these "Quadio" discs finally coming out now - four at a time every three months or so. Originally mixed to quad in the 70's and issued on various formats back then including LPs, 8-Track tapes, and sometimes Reel-to-Reel tapes. These are of course all-analog "period" mixes, and often with the original album producers and engineers involved. These Blu-Ray discs feature not only the 4.0 Quadraphonic 70's mixes in 24/192kHz, but new Hi-Resolution remastering of the stereo mixes as well. They come in SACD style "Super Jewel" cases which I think is pretty cool. And in my opinion the previous releases have been very high-quality, and solid musical choices, with no duds in any way. Great music - and all with very fine sounding 4.0 quad mixes that hold up well next to the more modern 5.1 surround things we've seen over the past decade plus. A great thing here is the series has been (since June '23) releasing 4 titles every three months with the next four Quadio BRs coming up for us on Jan. 19th 2024. Not only that, but look at the strong artist/album titles that they have issued below. It's all about the music for me really regardless if it is in immersive surround or just high-res stereo. These titles really do hit the spot imo. In fact I think that Rhino's "Quadio" series qualifies as the finest reissue series of 70's original quad masters ever undertaken by any label. Title for title the quality of the 4.0 mixes, mastering and choice titles from Warner, Reprise, Atlantic labels is pretty stellar. Randy Newman – Good Old Boys (coming Jan. 19th 2023) Reprise – MS4 2193 Quadraphonic 1974 Rhino BA2 2193 War – The World Is A Ghetto (coming Jan. 19th 2023) United Artists – UA-DA178-H Quadraphonic 1973 Rhino BA2 726002 Average White Band – AWB (coming Jan. 19th 2023) Atlantic – QD 7308 Quadraphonic 1974 Rhino BA2 7308 Gil Evans – Svengali (coming Jan. 19th 2023) Atlantic – QD-1643 Quadraphonic 1973 Rhino BA2 1643 America – Holiday Warner Bros. Records – W4 2808 Quadraphonic 1974 Rhino BA2 2808 Spinners – Spinners Atlantic – QD 7256 Quadraphonic 1973 Rhino BA2 7256 Gordon Lightfoot – Sundown Reprise Records – MS4 2177 Quadraphonic 1974 Rhino BA2 2177 Charles Mingus – Mingus Moves Atlantic – QD 1653 Quadraphonic 1974 Rhino BA2 1653 Black Sabbath - Paranoid Warner Bros. Records – WS4 1887 Quadraphonic 1974 Rhino BA2 3104 Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies Warner Bros. Records - BS4 2685 Quadraphonic 1974 Rhino BA2 2685 J. Geils Band - Nightmares and other tales from the vinyl jungle Atlantic – QD-18107 Quadraphonic 1975 Rhino BA2 18107 Jefferson Starship - Red Octopus Grunt - BFD1-0999 Quadraphonic 1975 Rhino BA2 585303 Aretha Franklin – The Best Of Aretha Franklin (now a long out of print title) Atlantic – QD 8305 Quadraphonic 1973 Rhino Handmade - RHM2 8305 Chicago – Chicago Transit Authority (now a long out of print title) Columbia - GQ 33255 Quadraphonic 1974 Rhino Handmade – RHM2 520771

Oppo has announced a few more details on their upcoming UDP-205 disc player.... Lossless High-resolution Audio Audio format support has been expanded to multi-channel DSD64/128, as well as 192kHz/24-bit PCM used in high-resolution lossless formats such AIFF, ALAC, APE, FLAC and WAV. (DSD64 is played back in native mode or converted to PCM, DSD128 converted to PCM.) http://oppodigital.com/blu-ray-udp-205/

I'll start with this both sonically and visually stunning classic : Talking Heads 'Stop Making Sense' (1984) [video=youtube;HFS2oz-i3Ik] (I'm pretty sure there are many audiophiles here who are videophiles too)

Here's my dilemma: Our local community theater stages mostly plays and musicals. They have a small theater with what amounts to a 5.1 surround system (L,R,C,RR,LR,LFE) permanently installed. They use this primarily for sound effects and music cues in plays and sound reinforcement in musicals. They have a desktop PC to run their SFX cues and a Focusrite 18i20 USB interface to route the sound to their console which then routes the audio to their 6 active speakers through balanced +4 Db lines. All this works fine and sounds lovely. Now, they have decided to fill in some gaps in their schedule with "Family Movie Nights." They have contracted with Swank for the public performance rights of the "films" and Swank will provide the media in the form of a blu-ray DVD. I want to help them make the right choices in terms of playing that media from their current system. They have, as of yet, not purchased a blu-ray player and they have essentially three choices: 1.) A stand-alone DVD player 2.) Add a USB DVD player 3.) Add an internal player I have found no stand-alone DVD players with professional output levels and interfacing consumer gear into this console is somewhat problematic so this is not my first choice. An external USB DVD would be the best solution because it would mean zero downtime for their computer. An internal player is possible, but properly interfacing the drive with the motherboard is always a challenge. (FWIW--MoBo is MSI -7693) Regarding playback from a PC, what I am most unclear about is the middleware that will allow us to route the audio from the DVD to the 18i20 to get the audio to the console (SFAIK--there is no "surround decoder" in the 18i20. It will need discrete channels.). What software is best to use to play the show? We, of course, would also like the drive to be reliable (and rugged) so your thoughts on brand and model would be greatly appreciated. I am also wondering if there are any DRM compatibility issues that are distinct to audio that I should worry about or if that is all handled in the DVD device. So what say ye? Am I doomed or is there an easy answer?

Firstly, apologies if this is in the wrong section. I have a great home cinema system which I use for watching movies and listening to 5.1 albums (Blu-ray and DVD). Seeing as this set up is located in the living room of my home I only really get to listen to my 5.1 albums now and then, I'm usually relegated to a bedroom upstairs where I have another BD player and some headphones (Sony wireless). The problem I have is that the BD player doesn't allow me to change the EQ settings, so everything sounds as though it has too much bass through the headphones (which aren't the problem, I checked). Basically, some of my DVDs/BDs contain high-res stereo which is why I'm using a BD player and not just a CD player. Can anyone help me find a BD player which has EQ control and left/right (the red and white) output sockets? It doesn't need to be 5.1 capable and I'm not interested in its picture output quality, only the audio.

Not sure if anyone has posted this already, but it looks like Acoustic Sounds just listed a bunch of their Blu-Ray Audio discs that they will be selling. A lot of stuff we've already seen before on SACD but you can count me in for Beck's Sea Change & Queen's Bohemiam Rhapsody in 5.1 Surround, that will be pretty sweet! Here is the link: Vinyl Records, SACDs, DVD Audio, Audiophile Equipment | Acoustic Sounds

Please post your favourites, and ones you feel are 'must haves' in a collection. Any genre. Video is well edited (doesn't excessively chop and change camera view). Audio is very well done for a live event and is worthy of 24/96. The guest list is extensive; Sting, Josh Groban, Yo-Yo Ma to name a few.