It was back in 2003 when I heard my first surround sound disc at a neighbor's home and was instantly hooked. As a former sound engineer, I have always sought out high quality recordings, and multi-channel releases obviously added depth to the high-resolution dimension. Naturally Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" SACD was one of the albums we listened to that day, and I was completely enthralled with the immersive mix that ran around the room.
Unfortunately, it took a few more years before I was able to purchase my own surround sound system. Still during this time, I had already started to collect a few discs. I had even purchased a Universal disc player in advance of an amplifier and all of the speakers that are needed for surround sound. The high quality of the stereo SACD and DVD-Audio discs was already evident, offering a vast improvement over the standard compact disc. When the Genesis SACD box sets were released, I went full in and installed the speakers and amplifiers to complete the surround sound system.
As immersive listeners like me already know, this was an incredible step forward in home audio, and my enjoyment of the classic progressive rock albums was magnified by the spacious room filling sound of the multi-channel mixes. As I continued to collect surround sound discs, I found it somewhat difficult to obtain detailed reviews about the audio quality and recognized the need to provide these reviews for fellow high-resolution audio and surround sound enthusiasts. Thus, Mediaversal was launched in early 2011 as a Music and Video review site for high-resolution audio and high-definition video focused on music releases.
Initially I reviewed Blu-ray, DVD-Audio (+ DVD-Video), SACD, and occasionally some Compact Disc releases. Subsequently I started to review download files, including FLAC, MP4, and MKV albums available in both stereo and surround sound. I rebranded the review site as Hi-Res Edition at the end of 2017 to clearly describe the focus of the reviews available here.
As ATMOS seemingly spread like wildfire through streaming sites, specifically Apple Music, I immersed myself in a world of object based three-dimensional listening. The onslaught of mixes was massive, way too many to write reviews. Instead, a new section called “Immersive Streaming” was created to provide a showcase of releases I have enjoyed. On the other hand, as ATMOS has become the new preferred mixing format, I started writing reviews for albums featuring these mixes in 2022.
I am glad you visited, please check out the various reviews, and you are welcome to offer your comments too.
In Tune,
Wesley Derbyshire
Native support for MQA, DSD 64 - 512, and PCM file formats
