Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band – Live In Barcelona Review

[Phil Hinton]

Mark Haywood reviews the recent release of Bruce Springsteen's live concert in Barcelona. Catch the review by clicking here

[steve1056]

I'm surprised you thought so highly of the audio quality of this disc. I bought it, but sent it back as I thought that the quality was very poor compared to the Live In New York set. On my system, it sounded at times like it was recorded in a tunnel with very poor separation of individual instruments!

Have you heard the Live In New York set and if so, how would you compare the two discs?

[Phil Hinton]

Mark will have to answer this one for you as I only quickly had a look at the DVD before sending it off for him to review, however i noticed it defaulted to PCM. I had to enter the menu to switch to DD5.1 which sounded ok for the five minutes i listened to it.

[Mark Haywood]

steve1056 - Hi.

I've just re-checked and Phil's right - it does default to the PCM track.

To me individual instruments had very good separation. In fact I thought that aspect of the audio was at times phenomenally good!

It didn't sound to me like it was recorded in a tunnel! I thought it captured perfectly the live atmosphere in the Palau Sant Jordi stadium.

I haven't seen the New York City performance, but having enjoyed this Bruce Springsteen live concert it is on my wants list! I'd happily review that DVD also!

Mark

[steve1056]

Mark,

The poor sound track I described on the Barcelona disc was the DD5.1 track. I really thought it was awful! If you liked the Barcelona discs, I think you will really like the New York discs. To me, it's a much better performance from The Boss and band, as well as better sound. The picture is also very good.

BTW, I don't seem to be alone in thinking the sound of the Barcelona discs was poor. Check out the reviews on Amazon.com. Seems like quite a few people also found it disappointing.

When you do get the Live In New York discs and compare them, please let us know what you think.

Cheers,

Steve

[Mark Haywood]

Hey Steve.

I've had a quick read through some of those customer reviews and they seem to be a mixed bunch with some praising the sound quality whilst others seem to think it's not all that! I have read elsewhere that quite a few people complained of problems with disc 2 (in the American market, I believe) and I wonder if the DVD that has been released over here may be different in some way?

The DVD I have has fantastic audio quality!

I'll investigate some more.

Cheers,

Mark

EDIT: Just had a look at some more cusomer reviews on the .co.uk site - 18 out of 20 people scored the DVD 5 stars out of 5 with the other 2 giving it 4 out of 5, totally different to the American site! Interesting!!

[steve1056]

Hi Mark,

As you say, the reviews on Amazon are mixed.

I seem to recall that my copy was one of those that's all regions except R1. Maybe I just had a bad copy, but I actually found that the 2nd disc sounded slightly better than the 1st. Anyway, I'll wait to hear how you find the New York disc.


Steve

[Mark Haywood]

I'm on a quest, now, to get that New York concert!

Also, see my edit in my previous post

Mark

[steve1056]

Hi Mark,

Very interesting edit! Now I'm starting to think I might have had a bad disc. Might be worth buying at the local Asda and seeing if there's an improvement. If not, I can always take it back for a refund.

FYI, I think CD-WOW are selling the New York discs at under a tenner.

Steve


EDIT: Just checked the CD-WOW site and the NYC discs seem to have disappeared - maybe out of stock. Play.com have it for £10.99 though.

[Mark Haywood]

Cheers Steve.

I will have to chuckle if we both get the DVDs and you find the audio great on Barcelona and I'm not all that fussed on the New York one

I'll have a look on MovieTyme's site for the New York show - I've got Nochex to burn!

Please lmk what you think of the audio if you do buy that Barcelona DVD from Asda

Cheers,

Mark

[steve1056]

Hi Mark,

Now I'm getting obsessed!! Just checked the brucespringsteen.net site and there's a thread on there discussing the Barcelona DVD. Almost all say the sound is very disappointing, especially the DD5.1 track. Seems the PCM track is slightly better. These do all probably relate to the R1 version, but it makes me wonder with so many varying reviews whether there is batch problem.

Like you say, this is gonna get wierd if you find the NYC DVD not to your liking.

Wonder if anyone else has the Barcelona DVD's? Anyone like to comment?

Cheers,

Steve

[Mark Haywood]

There's definitely something strange going on - the PCM track is thoroughly dull in comparson to the Dolby Digital 5.1 track on the DVD I have!

Strangerer and strangerer!

[Phil Hinton]

I'll get onto our PR contact at Sony and see if they can shed any light on this. BTW the review disc is R0.

[Stuart Wright]

It's worth checking the source of the discs. Even though our review disc is R0, it may well be a different pressing.
And if it's generally found that the UK (PAL?) version has better sound than the US version then this is something which should be entered into the comparison info box of our comparison database.

[david.2081]

The 5.1 track sounds superb on my system! Probably the best-sounding concert DVD i've watched. I also think it's a better show than the New York one - but I like the Rising album which is more prominent in Barcelona.