Search - Donald Fagen :: Morph the Cat (W/Dvd) (Spec)

Sounds Great ... but not all 5.1 surround sound is the same

scoots | Minneapolis, MN | 03/21/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Maybe I can shed a little bit of light on the situation regarding the "5.1 surround sound" of this DVD edition. Despite the fact that on the cover of the DVD it says "5.1 surround sound" and inside the case it says "this disc plays on all DVD players," these statements can be a bit misleading for those not familiar with DVD-Audio (DVD-A) systems.



A DVD-A system is an enhanced DVD player that has 6 separate channels of sound output going into a receiver (that has six channel capability), each output channel typically has its own cable from the DVD-A player into the receiver. The receiver then outputs the signal, usually identified as a "six channel output," to the speaker system.



Your standard DVD player (a DVD-V) does not have this capability. Even if you are able to output your DVD movies to a 5.1 system using some sort of optic connection, this is not the same as DVD-A system which needs those 6 separate channels. Yes, a DVD-V system will play the disc, but you will not hear the benefit of the 5.1 surround sound - in fact I think the sound heard on a DVD-V system with this album is inferior to that heard using the CD version on a standard CD player.



And as one of the other reviewers stated, there is really not a lot of video images associated with this disc (no MTV-type clips, no lyrics, no listing of musicians, etc.) So if you do not have a DVD-A system you are wasting your money buying this DVD, stick to the CD only.



HOWEVER, if you do have DVD-A, the sound is fabulous! Steely Dan was the reason I installed a DVD-A system initially and they never let me down."

Ten milligrams of Chronax

dusty | chicago, il | 03/21/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"i guess i'm a bit confused by some of the previous reviewers' comments. for instance, the gentleman/woman from montreal says that the dvd-a disc won't play on his/her system but says the "dvd-a is underproduced"...how one judges the production value of silence is beyond me. then someone else says it's a rip-off b/c the "v" stands for "video"...well, the "v" in dvd stands for versatile, not video and nowhere on the special addition does it say anything about the disc containing video. aside from the format wars between sacd and dvd-a, a big reason these formats will fade away is b/c many consumers are ignorant of what exactly it is but anyway...



the disc itself is a what any diehard steely dan/fagen fan would expect: tight, layered arrangements, flawless production/engineering, and darkly funny lyrics. there's a couple of tunes that don't grab me, but the rest of the material is so strong, it's more than makes up for it, i.e. h-gang, brite nitegown, and what i do particularly. like all of the dan/fagen 5.1 discs, this is one that will leave you finding little nuances in the mix for many listens to come.

"

The best sounding album ever

A. Plaia | Washington D.C. | 03/15/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Production-wise, it's flawless. It's only natural to assume that Donald Fagen would be one of the pioneers of the digital age of music reproduction. His output has always been superior in a sonic sense. Whether listening to Steely Dan albums from the 70's, or the new releases from the last 5 or 6 years, or his solo work, he and the hard working engineers (Roger Nichols, Eliot Schiener) behind the boards always make the music feel as if it's being performed fresh, right on your dash, or in your living room. Morph the Cat is no exception, in fact it snaps and pops better than any of the aforementioned. The sound quality in headphones or on a decent 5.1 setup is unparalleled. I don't even have to turn my volume knob past the halfway mark to get that good feeling with this one. The title track sets the tone right off the bat, bassline driven smooth melodic funk. "H-Gang" is the natural hit. "What I Do" is my favorite right now. The people who have complained on amazon about "underproduced sound or no video" obviously have a ways to go as far as grasping the concept of dvd-a sound. Yeah, I'm caught up in release day emotion, but I swear, this one will stay in heavy rotation for years to come, just like the rest of Fagen and Becker's stuff."