Eric Clapton’s final concert, filmed in London in front of a small audience on December 8, 2023, is now available for streaming. It includes the hits “Tears In Heaven”, “Layla”, “River Of Tears”, “Got To Get Better In Little While” and a special version of George Harrison’s “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)”, featuring Dhani Harrison. The proceeds will be donated in aid of the children in Gaza.

more reviews of Eric Clapton :

Updated with CD, bluray and vinyl record.

For this review, you will find 6 versions tested: Tidal MAX Flac and Tidal Dolby Atmos, updated with CD, bluray (stereo and Atmos) and vinyl record.

Below you will find the description of the different editions, as well as the measurements of each edition in the following chapters.

The album is composed of 12 tracks:

1. Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth) (Live)
2. Voice of a Child (Live)
3. Tears in Heaven (Live)
4. Layla (Live)
5. Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out (Live)
6. Key To The Highway (Live)
7. Hoochie Coochie Man (Live)
8. River of Tears (Live)
9. Got To Get Better In A Little While (Live)
10. The Sky Is Crying (Live)
11. Crossroads (Live)
12. Prayer of a Child

Summary, scoring and Samples

Ed 1: Tidal MAX – 2024

Presentation

This is the Tidal Max presented in FLAC 24 bits 48 kHz.

Waveform and Spectrum: DR9

The waveform of the Tidal Max shows low dynamics, as the graphs below confirm, with a dynamic range of at DR9, with values between DR7 and DR13 depending on the track.

The spectrogram of the stereo version of Tidal Max shows that the signal goes down to 24 kHz (yellow arrow) and that there is no signal above this frequency (white arrow), due to the 48 kHz sampling frequency used.

Synthesis and listening

The stereo version brings the finesse of the Flac lossless version, but has less dynamic range and sound space than the Dolby Atmos version.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●ooo (2.5)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Restitution: ●●ooo (2.5)

Sample : Hoochie Coochie Man ” 24 bits 48 kHz:

Ed 2: Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2024

Presentation

This is the Tidal Dolby Atmos presented in Dolby Digital Plus or AC-4.

Below the spatialization for all tracks. Click on the images to zoom in.

Waveform and Spectrum: DR13

The waveform of the Tidal Atmos version downmixed in 2.0 shows good dynamics, as the graphs below confirm, with a dynamic range of at DR13.

The spectrogram of the Dolby Atmos track downmixed in stereo is limited to 20kHz (yellow arrow) with no signal above (white arrow). This limitation is due to Dolby Digital Plus encoding, which is a lossy encoder that limits bandwidth to optimize data size for a bit rate of 768 kbits/s.

Synthesis and listening

A beautiful Dolby Atmos mix that reproduces the concert’s soundstage, expanding from the front to the side speakers, with the hall’s ambience projected onto all channels. You’re planted in the concert hall in front of the musicians and singers, totally in the audience!

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●●o (4)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Spatialization: ●●●●●●oooo (5.8)
• Restitution: ●●●oo (3.5)

Sample : Hoochie Coochie Man ” 7.1 Dolby Atmos (Downmixed in 7.1) :

The sample is in 7.1 wav format, if you can not play the sample in your navigator, you can save it, right button menu and Save Audio As and play it with an external player.

Sample : Hoochie Coochie Man ” Dolby Atmos (Downmixed 2.0) :

Ed 3: CD – 2024

Presentation

This is the CD presented in PCM 16 bits 44.1 kHz.

Waveform and Spectrum: DR9

The waveform of the CD shows low dynamics like Tidal Max, as the graphs below confirm, with a dynamic range of at DR9, with values between DR7 and DR13 depending on the track.

The spectrogram of the CD shows that the signal goes down to 22 kHz (yellow arrow) and that there is no signal above this frequency (white arrow), due to the 44.1 kHz sampling frequency used.

Synthesis and listening

Not surprisingly, the sound quality of the CD is similar to that of the streaming version and the stereo bluray version.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●ooo (2.5)
• Bandwidth: ooooo (0)
• Restitution: ●●ooo (2.5)

Sample : Hoochie Coochie Man ” 16 bits 44.1 kHz:

Ed 4: Bluray Stereo – 2024

Presentation

This is the blu-ray stereo track presented in FLAC 24 bits 48 kHz.

Waveform and Spectrum: DR9

The waveform of the Blu-ray stereo shows low dynamics like CD, as the graphs below confirm, with a dynamic range of at DR9, with values between DR7 and DR13 depending on the track.

The spectrogram of the stereo track of blu-ray shows that the signal goes down to 24 kHz (yellow arrow) and that there is no signal above this frequency (white arrow), due to the 48 kHz sampling frequency used.

Synthesis and listening

Not surprisingly, the sound quality of the blu-ray stereo is similar to that of the CD version.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●ooo (2.5)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●● (44)
• Restitution: ●●ooo (2.5)

Sample : Hoochie Coochie Man ” 24 bits 48 kHz:

Ed 5: Bluray Dolby Atmos – 2024

Presentation

This is the blu-ray Dolby Atmos track presented in Dolby Digital TrueHD in 24 bits 48 kHz.

Below the spatialization for all tracks. Click on the images to zoom in.

Waveform and Spectrum: DR13

The waveform of the blu-ray Dolby Atmos version downmixed in 7.1 shows good dynamics, as the graphs below confirm, with a dynamic range of at DR13.

he spectrogram of the Atmos downmixed in 7,1 version of blu-ray shows that the signal goes down to 24 kHz (yellow arrow) and that there is no signal above this frequency (white arrow), due to the 48 kHz sampling frequency used.

Synthesis and listening

The Dolby Atmos version of the blu-ray presents Dolby Digital TrueHD, with lossless compression. This makes all the difference with Tidal’s Dolby Atmos Plus version: we find the same spatialization, but more precise, with finer sound rendering. This is the best version for listening to this album;

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●●o (4)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Spatialization: ●●●●●●oooo (6.3)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4)

Sample : Hoochie Coochie Man ” 7.1 Dolby Atmos (Downmixed in 7.1) :

The sample is in 7.1 wav format, if you can not play the sample in your navigator, you can save it, right button menu and Save Audio As and play it with an external player.

Sample : Hoochie Coochie Man ” Dolby Atmos (Downmixed 2.0) :

Ed 6: Vinyl record – 2024

Presentation

The vinyl record is composed of 2 LP vinyl records in 33.33 rpm (ref:).

Waveform and Spectrum: DR11

The waveform of the vinyl record shows medium dynamics , as the graphs below confirm, with a dynamic range of at DR11, with values between DR9 and DR14 depending on the track.

The graph of the spectrogram of the vinyl record show that the frequencies of the audio signal rise above 20 kHz (yellow arrow). The signal above 20 kHz (white arrow) is due to the signal present above 20 kHz and to the distortion caused by the vinyl playback principle.

The comparison below between the spectra of the vinyl record and CD versions shows a beautiful superposition of curves, demonstrating the mastery of the lacquer cutting phase!

Synthesis and listening

The vinyl offers a quality pressing with an average level of engraving. There’s a nice impact and a softer sound than the digital versions, which is very pleasant to listen to.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●oo (3.5)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●● (5)
• Surface noise: ●●●●o (4)
• Restitution: ●●●oo (3)

Sample : Hoochie Coochie Man ” 24 bits 96 kHz:

As is often the case, the stereo version brings more finesse with the flac lossless format, but without the dynamics and 3D rendering of the Dolby Atmos version. We hope that the blu-ray version, due out on July 17, will bring Dolby Atmos to the Dolby Digital TrueHD format for Atmos Lossless. A double vinyl record is also planned for that date.

Update: The Dolby Atmos TrueHD version of the bluray brings a precise, dynamic sound rendering with a beautiful sound space of the concert, far superior to the Dolby Atmos streaming version. The vinyl record brings a completely different listening experience, softer and warmer than the digital versions, which remain more detailed.

Dynamic Range measurements and spectra are shown below.

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Measurements

Dynamic Range comparaisons

Dynamic represents the ability to reproduce a wide range of sounds from the softest to the loudest. The target is to compare the dynamics of the music and not of the media (CD, digital files or vinyl).

Dynamic represents the ability to reproduce a wide range of sounds from the softest to the loudest. The target is to compare the dynamics of the music and not of the media (CD, digital files or vinyl).

For our 6 editions reviewed have obtained the following Dynamic Range (DR) :

	Tidal MAX – 2024	Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2024	CD – 2024	Bluray Stereo – 2024	Bluray Dolby Atmos – 2024	Vinyl – 2024
Global	DR9	DR13	DR9	DR9	DR13	DR11
Min	DR7	DR12	DR7	DR7	DR12	DR9
Max	DR13	DR15	DR13	DR13	DR15	DR14
Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth) (Live)	DR8	DR14	DR13	DR13	DR14	DR14
Voice of a Child (Live)	DR13	DR14	DR12	DR12	DR14	DR13
Tears in Heaven (Live)	DR12	DR15	DR12	DR12	DR15	DR14
Layla (Live)	DR12	DR13	DR9	DR9	DR14	DR11
Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out (Live)	DR9	DR12	DR8	DR8	DR12	DR10
Key To The Highway (Live)	DR8	DR13	DR8	DR8	DR12	DR10
Hoochie Coochie Man (Live)	DR8	DR13	DR8	DR8	DR13	DR10
River of Tears (Live)	DR8	DR12	DR7	DR7	DR12	DR10
Got To Get Better In A Little While (Live)	DR7	DR12	DR7	DR7	DR12	DR9
The Sky Is Crying (Live)	DR7	DR12	DR7	DR7	DR12	DR9
Crossroads (Live)	DR7	DR13	DR9	DR9	DR13	DR10
Prayer of a Child	DR11	DR14	DR11	DR11	DR14	DR12

As a reminder, the scale goes from 0 to more 20, but the dynamics are considered good from 12, quite good between 10 and 11, and deteriorate below 10.

Spectrum comparisons

The graph below represents the spectrum of the Tidal MAX – 2024.
The yellow arrow shows that the maximum frequency is 24 kHz, consistent with the 48 kHz sampling frequency used.

The graph below represents the spectrum of the Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2024.
The spectrum of Tidal Dolby Atmos version decoded in 7.1 shows that all channels are used. The yellow arrow indicates the high-frequency limit at 20 kHz due to Dolby Digital Plus encoding. The bass channel is filtered at 120 Hz (green arrow). The Dolby Digital Plus encoding algorithm that cuts frequencies at 20 kHz to reduce data size in order to maintain the bit rate of 768 kbits/s.

The graph below compares the spectrum of the Tidal MAX – 2024 (white curve) with the spectrum of the CD – 2024 (blue curve).The two curves are overlapping, with a difference between the CD’s maximum frequency of 22 kHz and its sampling frequency of 44.1 kHz.

The graph below compares the spectrum of the Bluray Stereo – 2024 (white curve) with the spectrum of the CD – 2024 (blue curve).The two curves overlap perfectly, with the same maximum frequency of 24 kHz (yellow arrow) and the sampling frequency of 48 kHz .

The graph below represents the spectrum of the Bluray Dolby Atmos – 2024.
The spectrum of bluray Dolby Atmos version decoded in 7.1 shows that all channels are used. The yellow arrow indicates the high-frequency limit at 24 kHz due to the sampling frequency of 48 kHz.

The graph below compares the spectrum of the Vinyle – 2024 (white curve) with the spectrum of the CD – 2024 (blue curve). The two curves overlap, with a small difference above 12 kHz. Above 24 kHz, the vinyl record presents a signal made up of noise and distortion due to the vinyl record’s binding principle (white arrow).

Detail of the ratings :

• Dynamic :
  1. Significant dynamic compression, DR less than 7
  2. Compression of the present dynamics, DR between 7 and 9.
  3. Correct piece DR >=10
  4. No dynamic compression (DR >12), dynamic rendering
  5. No dynamic compression, high DR and very dynamic sound rendering
• Spectrum :
  1. Spectrum cut and less than 15 khz
  2. Spectrum cut at 15 khz
  3. Spectrum not conforming to the original and cut (not HD) or original but limited bandwidth (but less than 20 kHz)
  4. Spectrum conforming to the original (but not HD)
  5. Spectrum conforming to the original with HD resolution (higher than 24kHz)
• Surface noise (only for vinyl):
  1. Continuous audible noise
  2. Audible surface noise except on passages with a high level of noise
  3. Reduced surface noise, barely audible on low level crossings
  4. Low surface noise, very good quality
  5. Very low surface noise, no defects, almost inaudible on the quiet passages (exceptional disc)
• Spatialization :
  • Between 0 and 5 for 5.1 or 7.1 channels configuration
  • Between 0 and 10 for Atmos configuration (7.1.4)
  • For more information on spatialization, you can read the article describing this parameter here.
• Restitution :
  1. Low quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments.
  2. Average quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments.
  3. Quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments. Good record.
  4. High quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments. Very high level disc.
  5. Maximum quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments. Exceptional disc.

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