5/5 gaucho is fantastic
  by Terry B. Carter (near Charlotte, NC)
5.1 surround sound cd is great, met or exceeded my expactations. Wish I could find some more Steely Dan of the 5.1 surround sound quality!

5/5 Stunning.
  by P. Lamborne
A must have for any Steely Dan fan with a home theater speaker setup.

The skill with which this was mixed into 5 channels is bar-setting. Sitting in my listening room and hearing background horn sections and vocal harmonies textured into the surround speakers is an amazing experience. It makes a huge difference as compared to the wall of sound that comes from 2 speakers. What's really cool is that if a vocalist or horn player has a part among the background texture that is meant to stand out a little (maybe just a vocalist throwing in a quick diva lick), that part is mixed into the mains so that it stands out a little more. You've got to hear it on a good system to believe.

I jumped through some hoops to get my HTPC to work with DVD-Audio, which has become a bit of an obscure format. It was WELL worth the effort.


4/5 Not a DVD-Audio disc
  by TekGeek
From DETAILS: "Please Note: This is a DVD-Audio disc which is playable on most DVD players as well as all DVD-Audio players."

No, its a DTS disc. It is fine for what it is, but it is not what is in the item description. It is DTS encoded CD, not DVD. It will play on any DVD player that supports DTS or that has a optical output to a "receiver that can decode DTS. It does not need a DVD-Audio player at all.

"The crucial difference is that DVD-Audio uses a lossless compression scheme while DTS uses a lossy compression scheme. This means that data will be lost when DTS is decoded while DVD-Audio will preserve the original data structure.
In practice DTS can be found in 4 sound qualities, most using 20bit/48kHz (a qualified guess):

754 kb/s: Used on DVD.
ca 1200 kb/s: Used on DTS CD.
1509 kb/s: Used on DVD
24bit/96khz, unknown bitrate.
In comparison, full DVD-Audio in 6 channels use a bit rate of 13824 kb/s. Despite this, DTS can sound pretty close to DVD-A using the max. bit rate of DTS of course."

The DVD-Audio disc is http://www.amazon.com/Gaucho-Steely-Dan/dp/B0001JXQDI/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1205588993&sr=8-2

So now I'll have to buy the DVD-A disc. For $2 more you would have the DVD-Audio disc which would have the DD tracks as well.

From the net:
"However, the DVD-A sounds seriously better than the DTS disc, plus it has a great hi-rez stereo track to boot! Get the DVD-A!"
"the 2004 release is a regular DVD-Audio disc. In addition to the high-res DVD-A tracks, it does contain a 5.1 DD track playable on any DVD player.

"You are correct that it does not have a DTS track. However, I would still recommend you get the DVD-A (2004) version. You can play it in multichannel, and when you upgrade to a DVD-A compatible player you will have access to the high-res tracks. With the older DTS disc you're stuck with the lower-res DTS mix."
"So to summarize what has been said, DTS-CD cannot be listened to in stereo. The DTS-CD is not as good of a mix as the DVD-A, plus you may listen in stereo if you wish."


5/5 SEMINAL
  by Third World Man (Paris)
Steely Dan's masterwork, tainted over the years by fickle music critics and fan's of the bands earlier material. Aja's gorgeous, grown-up sister. Stunning!

5/5 DTS Sound is Fantastic
  by j. (NY)
To date, I own three DTS discs - Steely Dan - Gaucho; and Sting - Brand New Day - Nothing Like the Sun.

Since there are plenty of reviews, I will get to the bottom line. All three of these DTS discs have an excellent transfer to 5.1 DTS sound. There is the obvious separation of sound/music and back up vocals through the surround speakers and nice bass.

The only drawback is the listener has to be in the central position ("Sweet Spot") to fully enjoy the 5.1 sound. So, if you have the time to relax and enjoy the music, definitely buy all three.