Over on SH.tv, Gardo had some interesting comments on the 5.1 mix:
The multichannel mix was not what I was expecting. I'm still working my way through it--I'm only up to "Sally Simpson"--but right now I'm not sure it is what I was hoping for, either. The mix is very dry (very little reverb, in fact) and sonically aggressive. It's undeniably powerful and involving. Most of the time it sounds as if the band is right there in your living room. Aside from the bass, which is a little woofy truth to tell, the sound is smooth, even liquid, in the treble, frighteningly realistic in the midrange, and very dynamic. So what's wrong? Well, the multichannel mix doesn't sound much like Tommy anymore. There's a spiritual, ethereal, pearly quality to this album that the multichannel mix pretty much obliterates. The band themselves said that Tommy was an unusual sound for them, and that they never played like that in concert. The multichannel mix apparently tries to remedy that, and in the process it removes a certain quality of hushed expectancy that I love about the music and the performances...
[stuff about Broadway Tommy snipped]
Again, there are moments in the multichannel mix that are just extraordinary. The placement of the voices as the dramatic dialogues take place. The power of Moon's drums in all their glory. The sudden surge in dynamics at the end of "Underture" (that's a stunner all right). The beautiful strummed guitar at the beginning of "Pinball Wizard," now present and full-bodied in a way I'd not heard before in any version. All this is great and I'm thrilled to have it.
But I was hoping for more. I was hoping for what happened with Dark Side of the Moon, where the original spookiness was opened up and made even spookier for being so enveloping. Or take Toys In The Attic, where the feel of the original album is very much preserved in the multichannel mix, even as the mix is broadened and the surround channels used to enhance the instrumental interplay. With Tommy, by contrast, the feel is very different, even to the point of very different tonalities for some of the instruments--I'm thinking of the electric guitar in "Pinball Wizard" here, which just sounds musically wrong to me.
I did listen to the SACD two-channel mix and found it pretty bright and a bit compressed, though smooth and with good soundstaging. Haven't had a chance to A/B it with any of my redbook versions yet. The redbook layer on the SACD sounds pretty good but not as dimensional or smooth as the SACD two-channel layer. Both sounded pretty in-your-face at a quick first listen.
I'll have to spend some time with this release and see what it has to teach me.
Sounds pretty much in line with what's been discussed here. I agree with his comment on the vocal placement during the "dialog" sections -- that works amazingly well. Also interesting that we both picked out "Underture" as a high point dynamically.
Ryan