The Blast never reached Riva Arena levels of audio fidelity — it didn't resolve 320
Kbps tracks with as much fidelity — but it sounds seriously good compared to most similar speakers.
Not exact matches
The difference in the sound isn't exactly night and day, either, but the BD's DD 5.1 (640
kbps) and Dolby TrueHD
tracks boast superior dynamic range.
The disc has an English 5.1
track in TrueHD, and French and Spanish
tracks in 640
kbps Dolby Digital 5.1.
The DVD carries a Dolby Digital 5.1 (192
kbps) audio
track.
The DVD features a Dolby Digital 5.1 (192
kbps) audio
track which provides clear dialogue and shows no indication of hissing or distortion.
The UTB delivered four audio
tracks: Dolby Digital 5.1 EX
tracks in English, French, and Sound Effects - only (each 384
kbps) plus a two - channel audio commentary (192
kbps).
The DTS audio of the standard - def DVD is again supplanted by a 24 - bit, 5.1 PCM uncompressed option inaccessible by yours truly, while the DD 5.1 mix returns at a higher bitrate of 640
kbps and sounds a lot like the aforementioned DTS
track.
The discrete
track also benefits from lossless DTS MA compression, the mono lossy Dolby Digital running at 224
kbps.
Audio is fine as far as it goes, with some ambient noise and a few directional sound effects livening up the 640
kbps, 5.1 Dolby Digital
tracks.
It would be a nice touch to provide a mono soundtrack for movies like this that was unrestored, preserving more of the flavour that an optical
track might have had on release, but it sounds as if all three mixes on the disc (a Dolby Digital Surround EX option running at 640
kbps splits the difference between the DTS and the mono) come from the same scrubbed and remastered source.
The differences between a
track compressed to 256
kbps variable bit rate and the same
track at 320
kbps were noticeable.
For this review, associated equipment included the Oppo BDP - 95 Universal Blu - ray player, Oppo HA - 1 preamp / headphone amplifier, Peachtree Audio Nova 220SE, an Asus Zenbook Prime loaded with high - resolution audio
tracks, CD - quality
tracks and Spotify (320
kbps MP3), an iPhone 4S via Bluetooth and hardwire connection, and a Pioneer PL - 61 turntable with Ortofon OM - 5E cartridge, Bowers & Wilkins CM8 floorstanding speakers, and Aperion Verus Forte speakers.
The playlist consisted of 358 unique audio
tracks, a combination of content imported from CDs using iTunes (128 -
Kbps AAC encoding) and content purchased from the iTunes Store (128 -
Kbps AAC encoding).