The Oppo has landed

That's too bad. There again, it really makes no difference in my world. Yourmusic didn't ship outside of the United States.

I got an email today from Amazon telling me that Couldn't Stand the Weather has been delayed and now has an estimated ship date of June 13 to June 17. I didn't expect it to ship on time.

Interesting. Mine shipped yesterday. What is up with .ca? You keep getting screwed.

Perhaps the cause is simple economics (a much lower population results in less demand and perhaps supply was already less than expected in the United States) or delay related to across-border trade restrictions (the release date in Canada might have been pushed back for a number of reasons). It would be curious to see if the release was delayed elsewhere outside of the United States, but I can't be bothered investigating.

I even got an email from Amazon today saying that I saved $1.05 with their pre-order guarantee!


Really looking forward to giving that disc a listen. The recording and production values of Weather were a definite improvement over Flood.


My Blu-Ray copies of Barry Lyndon, Lolita and Once Upon a Time in the West also shipped. Talk about a red-letter week catalogue favorites.

My week has consisted of too much to do, putting out fires at work, and dealing with mini-disasters at home. Oh well, keeps things interesting!

That was your week? Sounds like a typical DAY for me! (Hope it gets better . . . )

If it helps, karma is a bitch. I just got an email that there was a screwup with shipping all three of my orders, and they went out later than they were supposed to. So I am not going to have them for this weekend. Pits.

That's a pity.

Have you picked up Portal 2 yet? Or did you not care for the first Portal?

(Incidentally, it is not just my past week that has been like that. Seems like it has been the past year.)

Nope, I really enjoyed the first one. I have just not yet got around to the sequel. I just finished the new Spiderweb RPG Avadon, which was flawed but fun, and my next purchase will likely be The Witcher 2. The hitch with that one is that it is the first time that my laptop barely meets the minimum requirements. It is supposed to be one of the best-looking RPGs yet. I may have to wait for an upgrade. I did play Portal on the PS3, so I suppose I will be content with the PS3 version of that one.

For first-person games, I do generally prefer playing on a PC so that I can use a keyboard and mouse. However, I've also played the Orange Box on the PS3 and I didn't find the control scheme too bad. I think I will give Portal 2 a go on the PS3. Portal 2 was apparently designed with consoles in mind, so the control scheme is supposed to be more forgiving of a controller when compared with the control scheme of the original.

Out of curiosity: What is your take on Johnson Junior's opinion that there is no audible difference between the 93 and 95?

That is how I played Portal -- via the Orange Box for PS3. I had already played Half Life 2 and its episodes on the PC, so I figured I had nothing to lose trying them on the PS3. You are right; the control scheme is not too bad. That is why I kept plugging ahead and played Portal as well.

As far as the 93 vs. the 95, without hearing them it is hard to have a take. Others have said there is a difference, but without truly scientific double-blind testing it is impossible to separate the subjective from the objective. I was pretty impressed by the DVDbeaver review, but that was still not truly double blind. I would probably get the 95, but it fits my needs pretty precisely. Your mileage may vary.

True. I have been following the AVS thread on the 95. Ironically, while some in the 95 thread claim the 95 is superior to the 93, there are others in the $20,000+ forum who claim to have tried both and noticed no difference. I guess there really is no way to know for sure without testing both myself.

Well, get the one that you think will work and stick with it. You will likely be perfectly happy.


I just received my Couldn't Stand the Weather, Barry Lyndon, Once Upon a Time in the West, Lolita and True Grit. Got me some listenin' and viewin' to do!

That is cause for celebration. Do you have a free couple of evenings this week in which you can indulge?

I am not sure when I will receive Couldn't Stand the Weather. I did receive notification from Amazon that it had shipped, but the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) have gone on partial, rotational strike, meaning they pick a major centre each day and do not pick up or deliver mail in that centre. And they are threatening a full-on strike as negotiations are not going well (at least from the union's point of view). With any luck, I will get my disc before it gets too serious. Otherwise, it could be a long wait.

I have another exam this Friday (with a bit more luck, I will have another course under my belt and out of the way). It would be nice to have the new disc to spin while I cram on Thursday.

I had already taken tomorrow and Friday off, though Friday we are travelling so that I can attend a workshop for new Wisconsin municipal officers. Plus, we have poker on Saturday -- in theory, at least. I may do some serious vegging tomorrow.

I did give Weather as spin, and it starts off relatively weakly from a sonic standpoint with "Scuttle Buttin'", which really sounds no better than anything on the first album. However, that changes quickly with the intro to "Couldn't Stand the Weather", where the decay on the cymbals is much superior to the CD version -- it nearly sounds like cymbals on good vinyl. Needless to say, "Tin Pan Alley" sounded spectacular.

"Tin Pan Alley" always sounds spectacular!

So while I am cramming, you will be vegging? That hardly seems fair.

"Fair" is a relative term.

Fair one.

My copy of Couldn't Stand the Weather arrived yesterday. Amazon sent via UPS. Never have I been so happy to have received a parcel via UPS!

I listened to the CD layer today and I enjoyed. Even the CD layer demonstrates superior mastering over that done for the Sony release under the Epic/Legacy label. I will check out the SACD layer this weekend at my dad's.

(Perhaps my receiving Stevie early is a happy omen for my upcoming exam?!!!)

Let me know what you think. And yes, we will consider that a good omen!

The exam did not go as well as I had planned. I thought I was more prepared than I was. At this point, I am hoping I did well enough . . . .

I did listen to the SACD layer and, to be honest, I couldn't detect much of a difference between it and the CD layer. As I said, there is a definite improvement in the mastering, but I didn't notice much difference between the two formats on this MoFi release. Although I am not that familiar with my dad's system, I had thought the differences between the two formats would be easy to spot. Have you had a chace to compare the two layers?

Well, comparing the two seperate layers on two seperate systems makes any really meaningful comparison difficult -- or did you listen to the CD layer on your dad's system?

I have only tried the SACD layer. I will play around with switching when I get home tonight.

I played both layers on my dad's system.

I could make generalizations against what I heard on my own system, but the two listening sessions were so far apart that any comparison is meaningless.

Well, my system is probably a trifle more revealing than your dad's, so I will check it out. There are skeptics, of course, who feel that there is no audible difference between CD and SACD if they come from the same master. I disagree.

I did consider how resolving my dad's system may or may not be. It is actually not a bad a little system. He replaced it earlier this year with a model from Denon's reference series, which he was able to get on clearance.

However, I think the bigger problem with my dad's set up is how he has it set up. Room treatments and speaker placement are not ideal (despite my protests) and that can drastically alter performance. I am not writing off SACD; I guess I was just hoping to have heard an obvious difference even under sub-optimal conditions. Probably what I should have done was brought over my headphones. I am intimately familiar with their sonic signature and that would have allowed me to eliminate room conditions. Perhaps I will give that a go next time.

Good call. Your familiarity with your headphones will make it easier to judge. I was not dismissing your dad's system, which I know is fine. I just meant that $9000 worth of Krell electronics and $9500 worth of Vandersteen speakers (not counting the center or surrounds!) is not exactly apples-to-apples with his system.

I may not have a chance to listen tonight or tomorrow, but I will get it done Wednesday.

He is happy with his system, but I would not, for one moment, expect it to compare with yours!