The Hi-Res audio on this disc sounds fantastic.
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Latest second-hand buys:
Rush: Snakes and Arrows triple DVD
Rush: Counterparts SACD
Elton John: 2 x SACD & DV
Queen: Hi Res 24 bit and 5.1 audio DVD
Still working through them, but the Rush SACD is very nice indeed.
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I have DSOTM on DVD with a 4.1 soundtrack, aka “the quadraphonic mix from the ISO posted on the internet.
It’s very good, if you have a Home Cinema setup with the rear speakers.
I then went on to create a 2-channel down mix of this, in dBPowertools, to 24/96 FLAC files.
This is my “go to” version on the server, after comparing to the CD, SACD, 2011 remaster and 50th Anniversary remaster.
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I have ripped a number of these PureAudio BluRay discs.
You need to extract the .iso, then extract the audio, in FLAC, with eac3to, then Audacity with the index file to separate the tracks.
Can take a while, but you end with the HiRes FLAC tracks you can play on a streamer.
I commented here from 2019
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Thanks for the info on ripping, however, I dont have a computer at home, only a tablet, so no disc ripping capability, plus I dont have a NAS, music server or hard drive with stored music files to locally stream music.
Far easier to just pop a disc in my CD transport or blu-ray player and just push the play button on the remote, job done, straight away listening to music.
I certainly dont want to use my spare time ripping and catalogging cd’s or dvd’s or blu-rays and I dont have the patience to do it either, Ive got far better things to do in my spare time. Maybe when Im retired, with nothing better to do with my time, I might consider ripping, but I dont have a use case and thus any motivation to do it.
Oh, I might give this a go if I can work it out. I’ve only a stereo setup, so would need to do a conversion and put it in my Core. My go to of DSOTM is the 2019 Analogue Productions SACD, which is in my top 5 reference discs.
Yes, but once ripped and on my server, I can listen on the move, while away or in the car. I’m not limited to the physical playback device “to press play” on.
I have enough physical space taken up with my 1,000 or so records, don’t want any further taken with my 8,000 or so albums in my digital library, of which 70% or so, are HiRes
It must of taken you a very long time in front of a computer to rip, or download and catalogue 8000 albums. I pretty much spend all day at work on a computer, so the absolute last thing I want to do is spend more time on a computer in my personal life.
I can play CDs or listen to Tidal in my car and listen to Tidal on the move, so no problem for me to get excellent access to music, away from the home.
We have different use cases, and choose to spend our free time doing different things with respect to music, its as simple as that, your happy and Im happy 
Haha, yes - but I started early, ripping CDs into iTunes back 2008, so nearly 20 years ago.
I consider it different to work on the computer.
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I have both Snakes and Arrows and Night at the Opera. I agree the Rush set is great - not quite as good as their Clockwork Angels set but well worth watching.
NATO is another matter! I wasn’t impressed by this at all and I’m not sure how much the band were involved. The 2011 remixes (and remixes by other artists) are not fondly remembered!
Following the re-release of Queen II, Brian May said they were likely to look at Sheer Heart Attack next but he didn’t sound keen to go near NATO! He almost seemed to suggest it was untouchable - we shall see!
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I’ve just watched the first half of Snakes and Arrows and thought it was superb, both visually and sonically.
I did play NATO today and thought that was very good. It’s the 2005 30th anniversary that I have just bought. I think I have the 2011 remaster as a download and didn’t get on with it and bought the record instead. But the 2005 DVD hi-res PCM layer is really top notch I thought. It has video that plays with the audio, but I switched to “pure audio” mode on my player so it plays just the audio. There is a CD in the package as well, but I haven’t played that, just ripped it to the Core. Which version would you rate @By-Tor?
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Hi Mike
I will have to dig my version of the 30th Anniversary edition out and try playing it again. System has changed a lot since last time so I will give it a try.
I occasionally play my 1975 original album when I am not streaming the original. Obviously it has a lot of surface issues that the 15 year old me caused on a very basic player. I refuse to remember that the 2011 version exists!
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I also have NATO 30th Anniversary Edition Hi-Res DVD and I agree it sounds excellent.
Mine’s a double DVD set, with the other DVD being a doco on how NATO was made.
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Update - have a new tool for ‘Lossless file Extraction’ from .iso files, MKV files etc.
‘LosslessExtract’ which I am using on MacOS on my MacBook Air M4
Much easier to use on a Bluray orginating ISO file, and splits the ‘Chapter’ into FLAC tracks and even looks up metadata.
Very useful, and runs quickly on on the source file.
Further update: MakeMKV can also be used on a Bluray ISO file, to get to the individual Chapters with the LPCM content, on which the LosslessExtract app can then be used.
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Hi @Mike_S
Thanks again for the propt to dig out the 30th anniversary edition of Night at the Opera. Now had a chance to have a proper listen and consider your question above.
I think my favourite version is my ripped FLAC copy of my original CD, closely followed by both the Deluxe version on Qobuz (which says it is ‘CD quality’) and Hi Res version on the anniversary disc. The ‘Remastered 2011’ on Qobuz which states it is Hi Res / 96kHz is my least favourite, sounding quite closed in with bass / percussion overlapping too much, similar issues with Brian’s guitar underneath the lead solo in Bo Rap. The variable here is my Blu Ray player which is fine, but not tuned for Hi Fi.
The DTS 5.1 versions are entertaining but it sounds like the higher frequencies have been boosted with hi hat being prominent and Brian’s guitar lacking in tonality and quite ‘choppy’.
Will be interesting to hear if they get to revisit NATO in the way they have just done the first two albums. I suspect that a lot more care was put into these than was evident on either the 30th edition or the 2011 remaster.
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I suspect the reason that Brian May could be reluctant to revisit ANATO is because they put far more into the surround mix than they did Queen and Queen II. The main issue I have with the latter is I’m fairly certain the original multi-track tapes are lost. So to remix and create the surround versions they’ve used sound splitting technology to create what they call stems from the stereo source. The problem (for me) that this creates is it’s a heavily processed sound, and to compound that, it appears to have been fed through auto-tune as well, possibly to correct some of the odd things that may come out of the splitting.
With ANATO, they have the full original multi-track tapes, as I believe they do for Sheer Heart Attack. Many of these were used for the DVD’s of their greatest hits where you get DTS 96/24 versions of all the big hits, all done from original multi-track masters. The only downside apart from not being lossless audio, is that Brian and the production team decided not to use the centre channel much as they believed many people didn’t have one… a mistake I think.
I don’t know if links work here, but this is worth a read on what took place for ANATO.
They also then did The Game, with a similar level of care (it sounds epic) but after that the DVD-A/SACD thing started to fade so no more were done. If they do revisit Sheer Heart Attack, they should have the full multi-tracks and as a result it should be much easier to do and sound better as long as they (IMO) stop using auto-tune. Queen’s music really doesn’t need it and it robs Freddie’s voice of his character.
In terms of stereo copies of ANATO, my favourite is the gold CD MFSL version, it retains good dynamics. The 2011 remasters were just loud everywhere and for me just really fatiguing.
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Bit late on a reply but I’ve managed to find a way to make it work now… Instead of sending the DTS bitstream to the amp, I changed the Oppo to send a 5.1 LPCM stream instead which worked perfectly. The disc now sounds as it should and I have to say I was really impressed with it. Definitely my favourite version of La Grange by a long way, it sounds so big!!
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I have this DVD Audio, and can confirm it is brilliant. Elliot Scheiner is the best there is (IMO) at 5.1 surround mixing.
There is a video to go with Bohemian Rhapsody too.
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