First Listen To "The Haunting" Special Edition

As our "Essential Subwoofer Buyer's Guide" Special Edition was drawing to a close, i.e., the print deadline was hanging over all our heads, an early check-disc DVD of the DTS-ES™ Discrete 6.1 version of DreamWorks The Haunting arrived along with a prototype of Denon's new flagship receiver, the AVR-5800. Since the initial DVD release of The Haunting had featured an earth shaking, system threatening bass experience, we decided to include a review of the latest incarnation of the heavyweight champion of "shake and rattle" soundtracks, presented in DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 surround.

The prototype Denon AVR-5800 receiver used for this review features a DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 decoder as well as the other decoding options of the DTS-ES program, DTS-ES Matrix 6.1and DTS Neo:6, a matrix decoding algorithm that derives up to six channels of sound from two-channel material and operates with analog or digital signals. The AVR-5800 carries seven channels of on-board amplification allowing one or two speakers to be deployed to reproduce the back surround channel. Each of these seven channels is rated at a whopping 170 watts per channel into 8 ohms, over the full frequency spectrum of 20Hz-20kHz. The AVR-5800 employs dual Analog Devices' SHARC-based 32-bit floating point DSP processors for DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 decoding as well as all other decoding and post processing functionality. Digital to analog conversion is supplied by 16 Analog Devices' reference AD-1853 24 bit/192 kHz DACs operating in differential mode to provide two DACs per channel to each of the AVR-5800's eight channels.

Picture And Sound - P5/S5+ Presentation

The video on the DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 DVD is the same transfer with the exact same video compression stream (and therefore video data rate) as the previous DVD release. In other words, the video transfers on the two DVDs are literally identical. As Film Review Editor Suzanne Hodges reported in Issue 36, "viewed through the component video output, the anamorphically enhanced DVD exhibits breathtaking shadow delineation and contrast. Colors are rich and fully saturated, with accurate fleshtones and deep, pure blacks. View the film in a completely darkened room to fully appreciate the dark rich qualities of this DVD. Images are sharp and finely detailed, with exquisite background definition and superb resolution. There is no distracting pixelization for a DVD that looks so good, its scarier than the movie. The DVD is framed at 2.32:1, anamorphic and letterbox."

Before I relay my impressions of the new DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 soundtrack of The Haunting and how it compares to the previous DVD release, I must point out that this soundtrack is not sourced from the same master as the Dolby® Digital Surround EX™ 5.1-encoded DVD previously reviewed. The Dolby Digital version was sourced from a 16-bit matrix encoded Dolby Digital Surround EX 5.1 channel master while the DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 is from a newly created discrete 6.1 channel master at 24-bit depth. This is not meant to be an apples to apples comparison of the two codecs involved, but instead an observation of the differences between two soundtracks available on two different DVDs, one of which is on the market now, the other to be available for purchase in August of 2000. This information is meant to figure into your purchasing decision when the DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 DVD becomes available.

The Haunting, played back in DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 via the Denon AVR-5800, is an absolutely stunning experience that stands among the very best achievements in movie sound. The acoustic spaces of Hill House, itself a central character in the film, are created convincingly and effectively in three-dimensional space. Directional sound effects are aggressively placed at all three surround channel positions consistently, and imaging among those channels is outstanding. The discrete back surround channel is used to great effect, expanding the soundfield into a 360° holosonic™ assault. Phantom and sidewall imaging between all channels is extraordinary, placing sound effects far beyond the boundaries of the speaker positions.

In all of the above respects, the DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 soundtrack, encoded at 754 kilobits per second (kbps), improves upon the previous Dolby Digital Surround EX release, offering greater clarity, fidelity, inner detail and with overall resolution that is superior by a substantial margin. The discrete back surround channel is noticeably more prominent in the DTS-ES Discrete 6.1soundtrack, especially adding impact to the sound effects that are intended to be coming from directly behind the listener. The left and right surround channels image much wider as well, creating a surround sound experience that is much more expansive than the previous release and at the same time more spatially defined.

Dynamics and transient impact are improved with the DTS-ES Discrete, increasing the "jump" factor of soundtrack significantly. Chapter Eight "A Bedtime Story," provides a terrific example of this as the crackle effect from the fireplace and the breaking piano wire are much more visceral and realistic on the DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 soundtrack. Jerry Goldsmith's terrific music score is even more haunting as well, always maintaining the rich fidelity and soundstage width and depth of the score even when this incredibly dynamic soundtrack is full scale in all channels with sound effects and other soundtrack elements competing for bandwidth.

While the ghost of Hugh Crane is not seen until the third act of The Haunting, his presence is heard and even felt throughout the film as a subterranean deep bass rumble that thrashes through the walls and all about Hill House. The DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 soundtrack imparts all of Hugh Crane's fury and then some, improving on the previous Dolby Digital release's efforts with a bass presence that is consistently tighter with superior pitch definition and texture. While the previous release was system threatening, the DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 soundtrack is house threatening, offering perhaps the deepest and tightest bass I've heard yet from a motion picture soundtrack. At times I literally feared for the integrity of my listening room!

Prime examples of all of the previously noted strengths of this incredible soundtrack are evident in Chapter 10, "Creaking Pipes," and again in Chapter 17, "Bump In The Night." The menace of Hugh Crane is imparted almost entirely through the creative use of the discrete 6.1 channel palette in these scenes, placing his terrorizing sonic image all round the characters of the film and the viewer alike. While the Dolby Digital version is very impressive, the DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 track creates a much more convincing spatial rendering of Hill House, especially in the surrounds, and hits low frequencies so deep and tight that impact is felt as much as heard. While the Dolby Digital soundtrack matches and perhaps even exceeds the DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 soundtrack in overall bass output and level, it sounds almost bloated in comparison to the punchy and defined character of the DTS' bass response. The impression I was left with was that the Dolby Digital version had more bass energy in the 25Hz-50Hz region, while the DTS version was just as loud while hitting lower in the bass registers. This deep bass is not confined to the LFE channel either; just as Hugh Crane rumbles through the walls of Hill House and all around the characters in the film, the deep bass in this soundtrack moves with him all around the soundfield providing a holosonic deep bass experience to all channels, and an extra thrill to those with full range capability in all channels, including back surround!

Needless to say I preferred the deeper and tighter low frequency presence of the DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 soundtrack, which re-defines the term "Deep Bass Challenging." An important point to make here is that only the most robust full range speakers and dedicated subwoofers will be able to resolve the intense but articulate low frequency energy at 25Hz and below that's found in all channels of this exciting, reference quality DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 soundtrack. Interesting to note is that when the original theatrical printmaster for The Haunting was created there was some concern about the prodigious amount of deep bass energy present in all (three) surround channels throughout this aggressively mixed film. The filmmakers worried that the movie theatres out there did not have surround channel amplifiers, speakers and bass management systems that could handle the deep bass extension at the high volume levels that The Haunting's soundtrack demanded in the surround channels. So great was this concern that a special software program was developed to act as a multi-band dynamic bass processor for the surrounds. I'm grossly over-simplifying here, but essentially what this means is that when bass frequencies hit certain low frequency registers at certain volume levels the processing software moved those elements from the surrounds to the LFE channel to prevent overload and clipping in the surround channels. This step was employed during the creation of the original matrix-encoded Surround EX 5.1 channel printmaster and was repeated during the creation of the new DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 soundtrack.

Conclusion

Overall, the DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 soundtrack for The Haunting, mastered and encoded at 24-bit depth, does a superior job of recreating the uncompressed discrete 6.1 channel master that I heard during the printmastering session at Skywalker Sound, and is the reference presentation of this magnificent soundtrack.