Originally posted by Remy:[..]
No. And I almost always listen to IEM when it comes to bootlegs, love that stuff. But it's all subjective anyway, I'll have @BigGirL do a second opinion of the rating
In general when it comes to U2 I personally prefer a 4-star audience recording over a 4,5 star iem-matrix. Mainly because the U2 iem's have a lot of extra sounds like metronome ("shakers"!) and/or count-in's. So when it comes to rating iem's and iem-aud matrices, I usually look at it from a more technical point of view.
But the very idea of an audience-iem matrix is that both sources run at the same time. From that perspective I hear that the Empress Valley matrix is a bit loose on the time alignment. Which means, in short, that the audience source isn't matched exactly to the iem source. While Hoserama's matrix, in contrast, is matched perfectly.
0-1 for @hoserama (yes, you'll be the visiting team today
)When it comes to distracting noises, the Empress Valley does little (if at all) to hide the metronome shaker and the count-in's (compare ASOH). But while the @hoserama matrix is virtually void of count-in's (0-2!), removing the shaker came with a price, most notably in the 12-14kHz range. And, honestly, I think in this particular case I would prefer the EV shaker to the resudial noise of hoserama's mix (1-2...). But this may be down to personal preference (and some of you might not even hear that resudial noise...)
What I think is down to personal preference is the mix itself. Like I said, the Empress Valley has Bono much louder than @hoserama's matrix. Therefore one might preserve the EV has having a more clear sound (2-2). But it is also a somewhat thinner sound. Hoserama's mix has a richer bass (imho) and a more balanced mix of the band. But maybe you need good speakers or a headphone to appreciate that (2-3!).
So I say @hoserama wins on technical points, but still I would rate both mixes as 4-star bootlegs. But knowing how fond most of you are of iem-matrices, I would add a 0.5 bonus point to both... simply for being an iem-aud matrix*
Final @BigGiRL verdict: 4.5 stars for both
*note under spoiler tag
).
...I love this one man!) 
