Customer Reviews

Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos Nos. 2&3 - Acoustic Reality Experience [7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio Disc] with DTS-HD Music Downloads Access [Audiophile][Blu-ray]Experimental Multimedia Project courtesy of Sony/BMG strategic research and development

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Just look at some of the reviews for this or any of their other blu ray discs: about half are raves about how nice they sound....and the other half are from users complaining that the disc does not play in X player!

I've now tested several discs with the latest firmware, and they are indeed garbage. Amazon should pull all of the product from this company. Why would anyone want to deal with a company whose product only works in about 50% of players? I've never seen something so ridiculous or shoddy in my 10+ years of purchasing discs from hundreds of manufacturers.

BEWARE: DO NOT PURCHASE ANY PRODUCT FROM THIS COMPANY!

Update August 25, 2011

My First Opinion of This Disc Stands!

I was unaware of the tempest that was developing by reviewers who felt this disc and its performances were markedly inferior and those reviewers who had given it five stars were all fraudulent; I was unaware, that is, until it was brought to my attention by a comment on my review by EricR who referred to my review as fraudulent.

It is too bad that EricR has had such a bad experience with this disc, but his bad experience doesn't mean everyone else has had that same experience and just chose to conceal that fact. I can say with complete certainty that EricR was not in the room on April 17, 2010 when I played this disc on my system and could not possibly have any idea at all how it sounded at that time.

I can understand various individuals preferring different performances of well-know works as beauty of this sort is in the ear of the beholder; I just happened to find both performances musically and sonically satisfying, they were both dramatic and exciting.

All of my reviews are written based on my experience with the product in my home. I have no association with any industry groups and have no interest in promoting any industry causes. I am most specifically not associated with any "cabal of 10-20 people from blu ray dot com."

I have just replayed the disc and found it to be as sonically and musically rewarding as I reported in my original review.

Original review follows

I have just replayed this disc in order to provide my latest and freshest impression of this recording; my conclusions are this disc features both technical and musical superiority and should be in the collections of anyone who appreciates well recorded and well performed classical music.

First the music; the orchestra, conducted by Dmitry Yablonsky, gives an outstanding reading under Mr. Yablonsky's baton. The performance demonstrates a love for the music of Rachmaninov that gives full due to the beauty and drama of these two concertos. The pianist, Konstantin Scherbakov, plays the piano with confidence and yet demonstrates a sensitivity that brings out the subtle nuances of the music. Everything sounds right; the music flows as it should. It is a recording that invites you to sit back, relax and enjoy the music.

On the technical side the recording is also remarkable in many regards. I played the disc back using a 5.1 channel setup which took full advantage of the DTS-HD Master Audio technology. One of the first things one might notice is the wide dynamic range; I'm not sure how many decibels are involved but it is truly impressive. Another notable characteristic is the smooth hall ambience; one gets the impression of being in another place.

One of the outstanding characteristics of this recording is the complete absence of the scratchy, hissing sound that can accompany electronic audio. By this I mean a sound that accompanies both analog and digital music reproduction, and most often occurs when string instruments or soprano voices are performing in unison and has, in my experience, occurred in live performances of music electronically amplified and reproduced in strictly the analog domain.

I have experienced this on analog LaserDisc's, CD's, some SACD's, and some DVD's. It is most annoying and a constant reminder one is listening to an electronic reproduction of either a recorded or live performance. The total absence of this phenomenon on this recording contributes mightily to the feeling that one is listening to the actual performance rather than a recording.

By way of summary, my hat's off to the musicians and technicians who made this recording possible. In all regards it is a joy to hear!

You most likely will never find greater sounding performances of these works in these respects: Scherbakov delivers a meltingly poignant and lyrically beautiful reading, while delivering all the power and virtuosity you could possibly want. This combination of poetic renderings and long musically endearing lines with blazing fire and drama comes around only rarely. DTS-HD Master Audio produce a wonderfully full, integrated sonic experience with the reality of acoustic presents that hard to believe.
Yes, the third concerto is the piece featured as the "musical villain" in the movie "Shine," but don't be fooled. This piece is nothing to fear; rather, it is one of the most astounding, emotional, and moving masterpieces of piano literature ever. And the famous, beautiful, and unforgettable melodies of the second concerto will take you back to a time when composers and performers alike treasured all that was romantic, gorgeous, and heart-warming.

I bought three of this company's Blu-rays ... save your money and get the CD. Better yet, get an SACD version for real high-quality sound. I have "Tchaikovsky Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 3," "Bach Orchestral Suites No. 1, 2 & 3," and "Vivaldi Four Seasons" in these discs. None will play in my Samsung Blu-ray player with the latest firmware. All play in my Panasonic. The sound quality is no better than standard quality 5.1 surround; in fact, I suspect they just copied the material from a standard 5.1 version. There's very little sound in the rear channels and virtually no separation. Sounds like stereo. Save your money, these are a rip-off.

When I saw this and other titles from the same seal at amazon, I just wanted to buy them all, but first I decided to give it a try with the Rachmaninoff concertos. When I received it I was surprised by the bad quality of the cover, like if it was scanned from the original and printed or copied in (very) low resolution. The booklet inside was just a single page with no more information than the one shown in the editorial review. The BR disc didn't seem original to me, it really looked like a cheap copy (even the pirate copies you find in some country look better).
When I tried to watch it with my Sony BR disc player (which plays almost everything) I could hear only the sound (in stereo, no 5.1 or 7.1), an a message indicating this is a AVCHD MPEG format, not a blu ray original. I tried everything but I couldn't get any video images, and for good sound, it's not worth it. I have enough good original CDs from those concertos.
So I sent the item back to amazon and asked for a refund. Maybe other copies work but mine didn't. I wonder why would amazon sell these bad copies instead of originals.

I have received two copies of this recording and both were missing the same short (20 sec) section of the Concerto #3. Amazon would not replace it a second time, so I kept it since my main interest is the Concerto #2. There may be a flaw in one batch of discs - BUYER BEWARE. Listen to it all the way through before you keep it if you want more than the Concerto #2. In all fairness, I must say the sound of the recordings was outstanding. However, I consider an incomplete recording, none at all.

I bought this and another Acoustic Reality Experience disc, both supposedly Bluray, at the same time. I had bought one other previously -- the Grieg Piano Concerto (along with other Grieg works); it was a great disc, and included visuals along with the music.

I was surprised, puzzled and disappointed when I finally got these in the mail and discovered a sticker on the Wagner disc which said, "This is not bluray; this is a DVD-R and will not play in bluray players, only in regular DVD players." WTF?!? I called customer support and they didn't even understand the issue (I called both customer support of Amazon and of the third party who actually sold the disc, which by the way was used and they had not specified that in the listing)

Anyway, they said I should try the disc to see if it worked and assured me I could return it if unhappy even though I had opened it, so I did. The Wagner worked fine (no nice visuals this time); the Rachmaninoff disc, also a DVD-R, but without that same warning sticker on the outer wrapper, was badly marred on the playing side and neither of my two Bluray players even recognized it as a disc, so I am returning it.

I was unaware that it was possible to encode DTS HD Master Audio on to a DVD rather than a Bluray, but I guess it is, since the Wagner worked. My issue with this is threefold: 1. Bluray discs are allegedly more impervious to damage and we're missing out on that feature. 2. I paid a good price for what was advertised as Bluray, so this is false advertising, and I feel ripped off. 3. Putting this on DVD-R seems to mean there isn't enough memory on the disc to handle the nice pictures which came with the one I bought which was actually Bluray.

I love the sound (when the disc works), but you buy these forewarned. I'm a fan of this format, and unlike DVD-audio and SACD, hope the industry gets behind these and makes them successful, but doing cheap and dishonest things like substituting cheap DVD-R's for actual Bluray discs could end up hurting the industry.

I have bought 3 titles from this company; 1 HDDVD and 2 blu ray. The HD DVD and one of the BD were awful. Though they are 7.1 surround, it seems that original "master" could have easily been from an 8 track. The second BD was not even recorded correctly thus it was unusable, the audio was like a 45 RPM disc playing at 33RPM and the video portion did not even work. From the many different music BD's (>20) ranging in genre from opera to rock and roll that I have purchased this is the only label that I would rate as utter trash. Again DO NOT BUY ANY RECORDINGS FROM ACOUSTIC REALITY EXPIRIENCE, they are a complete and utter rip-off. Avoid this label like the plague. Caveat Emptor.

This disk wasn't really what I expected. The performance itself was good, not outstanding, I've heard better recordings, but it's still very good. There are enough other reviews on that.

The disc surprised me though in that it's not a professional pressing. What you get is a BD-R, a recordable disc just the same as you could produce in your own PC, with a printed paper label stuck to it. I'd guess that is responsible for some of the compatibility problems reported, I know sometimes I have to insert it multiple times in my own player before it will recognize the disc although after that I don't have problems playing it.

As for the audio quality and the surround effect: mediocre at best. The audio is just a bit muddy; I've got many CDs with better range and definition. The surround effects don't come near the admittedly hard to find but very impressive DTS Surround CDs. You don't really get a sense of presence here; I get more of a feeling of space with a 2-channel recording and the "Concert Hall" effect of my receiver than with this recording.

In short, there are so many variations of these pieces, you're better off going with a recording of a truly great performance even if it's only stereo; the "7.1 surround" isn't worth it in this case.

1) This DVD has no video.
2) The 3rd concerto stops dead in the 2nd movement
3) The performance --what there is of it-- is adequate but unexceptional
4) Being a video-less blu-ray DVD, it cannot be played on a decent sound system with a CD player

In short, this is shovel-ware, and a complete rip-off.