I got my copy of Nonsuch in the mail yesterday. This disc may never hit my Oppo player. The DVD went directly into the PC and DVD Audio Extractor was used to create stereo and multi-channel 24/96 FLAC files.
The album was originally recorded on a Mistubishi digital multi-track. Even with the new hi-rez mixes by Steven Wilson, there's no way to completely scrub away the digital zing and grain from that awful sounding 16 bit machine. The new stereo mixes mask it pretty well and come off sounding round, smooth and punchy. Definitely a worthy upgrade over the pretty good sounding original CD.
The multi-channel mixes are what I'm most interested in. Multi-channel gives the mixer the opportunity to spread out the instruments and set the songs in a bigger space. The downside in this case is the grittiness of the digital source is more prominent here than in the stereo mixes. Given my brief listen, I'd say the results are mixed. I'm not a fan of drums in the rear while the rest of the band is up front, so Peter Pumpkinhead is a fail as far as the MC mix goes. But some of the more pop & ballad-ish tunes like Humble Daisy and Rook sound very open and spacious and deliver that MC wow that I'm looking for.
That's it for now. I'll dig into it more as I have time.
Russ