HiRez Poll Clapton, Eric & King, B.B. - RIDING WITH THE KING [DVD-A]

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Rate the DVD-A of Eric Clapton/B.B. King - RIDING WITH THE KING


  • Total voters
    55

JonUrban

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Please post your comments, thoughts and observations.......(y) (n)

Riding with the King Front.jpgRiding with the King Back.jpg
 
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I don't have a lot of BB King experiance, but this is one disk that I really enjoy. In fact my wifes not even a big music lover and everytime she listens to this she really enjoys it. Music wise as I said this is a great disk, although personaly I could do with out the song "Riding with a King" as its a bit too commercial for a disk like this.

Surround wise if like the mix, it doesnt overwhelm you with too gimicks but it is a nice mix.

I rated it an 8.
 
After owning the redbook cd for some time, this DVD-A was a revelation.

Highly recommended!

Eric
 
Favorite Cuts ... "When my Heart Beats Like a Hammer" and "Three O'Clock Blues"

BB King's & Eric Clapton's guitars sound incredible! Blew me away.

Listened to on Naim DVD5 with multichannel DVD-A board
Martin Logan speakers with Classé amplification.
 
I am listening to this in 2-channel mode and find the bass of this recording excellent.
 
I have had this one on CD for a few years now, and it is one of my favorites (BTW it processes well with PLII). And I might add that I have been quite happy with the sound of the CD, so for some time I thought getting it again on DVD-A would be somewhat redundant. Anyway, while at the local Best Buy, I picked this one up (out of the pathetically neglected SACD, DVD-A bin) thinking it may disappear soon. I'm very pleased that I did! The most noticable difference, compared to the CD was the clarity. The sharp detail of the acoustic guitar, the bass guitar became discernable, not muddied, and the vocals from the center channel were suddenly natural and clear. The surround mix is not aggressive, however it is very nice and opens up the sound stage, along with a few discreet highlights such as backup singers, and some light cymbals here and there. The mix is tastefully done and suits the music well. I'm gonna give this one an eight. So if anyone is hesitant or reluctant, as I was, wait no more and give Eric and the King a spin!
 
I bought this when it came out, and pretty much forgot about it.

When I was on vacation, I was sitting in a Margaritaville and the title track came on as a video, and my wife said "I like this song". I said that we had it on DVD-Audio, and when we got home, I dusted it off and took it for a spin.

Not sure if it's because there are so few new releases, but upon relisten I was blown away. The title track, although being "commercial", as indicated by Foxman above, is actually a pretty good surround demo track.

The audio starts in the rears, very discretely, and fills to the front. There are vocal passages (spoken word) that come from the rears, and then from the center channel. Although these may seem to "cheapen" the experience to some, at this point I have to give the mix credit for shaking something up.

If you like the blues, or either of these artists, you should track this one down.

I gave it an 8 back when, now I would move it to a strong 9.
 
I just found this disc at the local second hand record shop. They usually have a few SACD classical titles and a Humble Pie disc that has been there forever. While trying to play it, I got only stereo, even when I chose the surround menu. I had to play in PLII to get surround, which is wide open, but I suspect wrong. There is a whole lot of breathing and instruments jumping around. I love the music and am wondering if the problem might be a bad run of the disc, or time for a newer player. Currently I have a Panasonic DVD-F87 that plays most stuff okay except it laughs at SACD's like DSOTM. Yes I know it doesn't have SACD capability, but I should get the stereo layer anyways.
 
I just found this disc at the local second hand record shop. They usually have a few SACD classical titles and a Humble Pie disc that has been there forever. While trying to play it, I got only stereo, even when I chose the surround menu. I had to play in PLII to get surround, which is wide open, but I suspect wrong. There is a whole lot of breathing and instruments jumping around. I love the music and am wondering if the problem might be a bad run of the disc, or time for a newer player. Currently I have a Panasonic DVD-F87 that plays most stuff okay except it laughs at SACD's like DSOTM. Yes I know it doesn't have SACD capability, but I should get the stereo layer anyways.

Which did you pick up, the DVD-A or SACD? I believe the SACD is stereo only.
 
That post is something like 4 years old, so the SACD wasn't out yet.
 
I thought I would "quite like" this disc but I enjoyed it much more than that. Musically, there's quite a lot of variety considering that they are all basically simple blues and Clapton's voice is good. Goes without saying that the guitars are great.

Most importantly, the mix: I found you have to turn up the rears quite a lot but then it works really well. There's quite a lot of discrete stuff in the back, such as piano, Hammond(?) and backing vocals. They also play around with the front stereo imaging quite a lot. Sometimes Clapton and BB (vox + gtr) are hard right and left, at other times the vocals are from the centre and their guitars are halfway between the front and back speakers. So there is quite a lot of variety and sometimes it feels like a modern mix and at others like an old-fashioned quad mix, which suits me fine.

And call me sentimental, but it's great to see the picture of the two mature gentlemen on the front sleeve and inside a picture from more than 30 years earlier with a young Clapton with perm sitting next to a young(ish) BB. It's nice to think that the two bonded over their love of guitar even when their fanbases were of a different generation.
 
I recently bought this disc from a local used CD/DVD store, my first DVD-Audio disc. I was not not familiar with this album or any of the tracks but I like the artists so I grabbed it. I am blown away by the sonics and fidelity of the music on this. Maybe this isn't the type of music you typically "crank", but turn the title track up to 11 and it just sings. Bass is perfectly weighted on my system with no need to adjust, something I usually have to do to suit my taste. I voted 9, took off one point because other than the title track there is not a ton of surround activity, but that's OK. A must have if you like blues.
 
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