Eric Clapton – Back Home Dual Disc Review

[Audioholics]

<A href="http://www.audioholics.com/productreviews/avsoftware/dvd-audio/EricClaptonBackHomereview.php"><IMG style="WIDTH: 112px; HEIGHT: 100px" alt=[EricClaptonBackHome1] hspace=10 src="http://www.audioholics.com/news/thumbs/EricClaptonBackHome1_th.jpg" align=left border=0></A>Eric Clapton’s latest release 'Back Home' is made up primarily of original material. This is his first such album in five years. The disc includes nine new tracks and three cover songs: George Harrison's "Love Comes To Everyone", the Spinners', "Love Don't Love Nobody", and Stevie Wonder &amp; Syreeta Wright's "I'm Going Left". Clapton has been intermittently working on the album for the past couple of years, stopping and starting again between the Robert Johnson cover tunes that made up last year’s 'Me and Mr. Johnson'. 'Back Home' is a thematic revelation of Clapton’s current personal life. He sings about the experiences of being a touring musician, returning home, and beginning life over with his new family. In some ways it represents his challenge with domestication, a tough thing for a man who is nearly 60 years old.

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[Johnny Canuck]

Although this is probably not a disc i would be interested in, I find it encouraging AH positivey reviewed a Dualdisc, comparing it as equal to DVD Audio. As all new released material seems to be coming out in the Dualdisc format, it gives us audio enthusiasts something to look forward to as SACD and DVD A seem all but dead.

 

[Duffinator]

Nice review. I'm not familiar with the dual disc format. Is the multi channel audio portion of this disc that was reviewed 5.1 Dolby Digital? DVD-A was mentioned but it wasn't specific enough for my thick skull.

 

[surveyor]

Thanks for the excellent review HopJohn!
I'm a long time Clapton fan.
I have this CD.
I was not blown away like I have been in the past with some of Clapton's works, but it is all the things you wrtote about.

 

[hopjohn]

Nice review. I'm not familiar with the dual disc format. Is the multi channel audio portion of this disc that was reviewed 5.1 Dolby Digital? DVD-A was mentioned but it wasn't specific enough for my thick skull.

DVD-A does not use DTS or Dolby Digital, instead it usually uses Meridian Lossless Packing or MLP (sometimes called PPCM ). The compression techniques with MLP differ from Dolby Digital and DTS which use "lossy" compression. Lossy compression discards elements of the signal which are thought to be inaudible. MLP instead preserves the entire linear PCM signal, but still compresses it (about 50%). MLP also uses data validation to ensure that the signal remains true to the master signal.

The Multi-Channel portion on 'Back Home' is MLP 48khz/24bit in all channels. I'll include this more specific information in future reviews, so thanks for asking.

Also I forgot to note that I could not use my Pioneer 563A for the review because of the unit's firmware issue. It has an inability to play many newer DVD-A discs. This had nothing to do with the Dual Disc spec, this is simply a widely known problem with the 563A. I instead used my backup player, a Toshiba SD-4800, which works equaly well for DVD-A.

 

[Duffinator]

Do dual disc include a DD sound track like DVD-A discs do? I have a few DVD-A discs that I play on my non DVD-A DVD player using the DD sound track. Or do you need a DVD-A capable player to play dual discs in multichannel mode?

 

[hopjohn]

Do dual disc include a DD sound track like DVD-A discs do? I have a few DVD-A discs that I play on my non DVD-A DVD player using the DD sound track. Or do you need a DVD-A capable player to play dual discs in multichannel mode?

Unfortunately, it is just something you have to research before you buy. Some do, and some don't. For example 'Back Home' does not include a DD mix on the audio portion, though it does have DD 5.1 on the 20 minute video portion. I recently purchased the Dire Straits - Brother in Arms Dual disc, and it does have a DD 5.1 mix.

 

[Wizrd23]

huh? lol. great review john, even if most of it was over my head. Thats why I keep my expertise firmly in the realm of video and you cover the audio. Eitherway, sounds like a good compilation to pick up!

 

[Johnny Canuck]

hopjohn:

how is the Brothers in Arms Dualdisc (BTW if DD stands for Dolby Digital, what is the abbreviation for dualdisc? )

I have the SACD of Brothers In Arms. The centre channel was way too bright on my Yamaha DVD 657. And the 2channel, which sounds amazing on my home system, is way too loud and distorted on my Ipod at any setting. I am hoping my new Yamaha DVD s1500 with bass management will correct this brightness on SACD. Haven't tried it yet.

 

[hopjohn]

Brothers in Arms didn't sound bright to me. My only gripe is that the MLP 5.1 mix is inconsistent. On some songs all lead vocals are entirely in the center channel. I favor vocals which are blended some across the center and mains, but otherwise it's pretty darn good. I expected to hear a little noise given its age, but it is impecably clean. I would have reviewed it, but given that it has been out some time now (as well as the orginal release), I thought it best to stick to something newer. At any rate I'm glad I own it.

 

[bruceh]

Other Titles

Very encouraging to hear this is a good mix on dual disc. Of the two I have purchased, one mix was terrible (Springsteen) and the other (Wallflowers new album) had almost no information in the surrounds, so my experience has been very disappointing so far.

 

[My Rantz]

Although this is probably not a disc i would be interested in, I find it encouraging AH positivey reviewed a Dualdisc, comparing it as equal to DVD Audio. As all new released material seems to be coming out in the Dualdisc format, it gives us audio enthusiasts something to look forward to as SACD and DVD A seem all but dead.

Unfortunately I have to disagree with AH's review in that I think EC's Going Home is poorly mastered in low resolution (48/24 for both 5.1 and stereo mlp mixes). On first listening in the surround mode I noticed the top end was a little muddy and thought I had a problem with my universal player. I hope low res mlp is not a sign of the times with DualDisc. Mr Ludwig has done better.