Eagles: Hell Freezes Over. DVD music video. Originally recorded in 1994; DTS remastering ca. 1998.99 minutes. Geffen 5479.

Eagles: Hell Freezes Over. DVD music video. Originally recorded in 1994; DTS remastering ca. 1998.99 minutes. Geffen 5479.

An interesting thing about this release is that if you do not have a DTS decoder in your system, but you do have a DVD player, you can still access the menu and at least listen to it in two-channel, PCM digital form. Another interesting thing is that it first appeared as a compact disc (Geffen 24725), although the CD is shorter than the DVD. (The latter has an extra track that was not on the CD version.) A third interesting thing is that I happen to have that CD version, and so I was in a position to do an experimental series of quick-switch comparisons between it and the DVD video.

Doing a rapid-comparison with the PCM two-channel tracks and the 5-channel tracks on the same disc would be impossible, because to switch from track to track you have to access the disc menu and make the switchover the slow way. Doing it with a separate compact disc was made even easier thanks to the DSP-A1's quick-switch input feature, which allowed me to switch from the DVD to the CD extremely fast.

I should also re-emphasize that this is a DTS DVD-video disc, and not a DTS CD. Consequently, in order to access the above-noted menu you actually need more than a DVD player. You also need a TV monitor hooked up to your audio system. Without said TV monitor, you are up the creek if you want to get this disc rolling properly, no matter what kind of audio hardware you might happen to have.

When you first do access the program material (after selecting either PCM or DTS to listen to from the disc menu) you will find that the first few tracks deal with the details of the reunion and do not have any music at all. You can skip through these sections if you want and a few tracks into the production things get rolling along quite nicely. I should also note here that the compact-disc version has more printed information in its accompanying booklet than what was available printed on the DVD version's container. The various tracks on the CD are also in a different order from those on the DVD, which I found odd.

Anyway, I cued up this disc, scanned and then skipped the intro sections, and began to listen to the DTS music tracks. Initially, I was struck by the soundstaging refinement, clarity, and detail this version delivers. It comes across as a terrific effort. The audience sounds come mainly from the surround channels, there is some nice hall reverb out there, too (putting you into a live-music environment), and even some instrumentation comes from out in that area.

Now, I have to admit that I do not particularly like performers in the surround channels (unless we are talking about works by Berlioz), because it definitely does not help with the live-performance simulation. However, in some situations it is at least interesting and attention getting. Since rock music is kind of fabricated to begin with (with many recordings--not this one--I would imagine that the recording engineers are probably more talented than the performers), the effect will certainly be enjoyed by some listeners. In any case, the surround instrumentation on this release was not overdone, and so I can live with it.

As I noted above, one interesting thing I did was to cue up that two-channel CD that I have and compare it to the DTS version. In straight stereo, there really is no comparison. The CD has no discrete center, of course (although the DTS version does not have a particularly strong center feed, and the disc could almost be classed as a borderline 4.1-channel mix, at least on some tracks), and no surround, either. However, oddly enough, the bass line of the CD is considerably more potent than what I heard with the DTS version. The CD was sometimes maybe a bit too bass-potent, as a matter of fact.

The DSP-A1 has a bass-management feature for DTS (as well as for Dolby Digital, of course) and you can access that and either attenuate or boost the DTS low-frequency effects channel by up to 10 dB. (You can only attenuate the LFE with Dolby Digital, and full blast is the normal setting.) After a bit of diddling, I ended up boosting the DTS LFE the full +10 dB limit with this release, and when I did so the bass was quite well balanced and it actually was cleaner, sometimes deeper, and often more realistic sounding than the bass on the CD, which was sometimes bloated and a bit heavy.

After listening to the compact disc version in straight stereo, I then engaged some of the DSP-A1's surround-synthesis functions to see if I could make the quality of the two-channel CD approach that of the 5.1 channel DTS version. I had the best luck with the Yamaha's "Classical/Opera" mode, which combines Dolby-like steering up front with DSP ambiance synthesis in all four of the surround channels that this processor offers. To get that mode to work to best effect with the CD, I had to attenuate the center level by -3 dB. Otherwise, the sound-stage spread was compromised by the steering. I find that this is a good idea when using the Yamaha's Classical/Opera mode to deal with nearly any two-channel-music program material.

The result was excellent, and except for audience noises and instrumentation not showing up in the surround channels, the CD sounded pretty much as good as the DVD. Note that I did not say "the same." I said "as good." I think that the DTS version would have had a distinct edge flit had exhibited a better focused center channel, but as I noted, this was not the case with this disc.

Some commentators have said that they consider the Hell Freezes Over disc to be the current "definitive" pop-music presentation in 5-channel sound. However, I do really believe that the Dolby Digital, James Taylor Live disc that I reviewed in issue 75 is technically superior. The latter has well-deEmed and discrete center channel (a factor that I consider very important), and it has better bass than the Eagles disc, too. I think that this advantage is the result of better mixing and mastering, and not the digital technology involved. -- HF