Neil Young Reissues, 1st 4 albums, 180G

[vintage_tube]

Just received the following notice on release date:

"Dear Neil Young fan,

We are writing to inform you that the release/arrival date for the "Official Release Series Discs 1-4" Box Set has been changed to December 1, 2009. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you and thank you for your pre-order.

Please note that if you are a US resident and pre-ordered the box set(s), your order will ARRIVE on or around December 1st. International fans please allow 4-5 weeks for delivery.

Should you have further questions regarding your order, please contact our customer service department at WBR@b3custserv.com.

Thank you for shopping with us."


Typical when it comes to Neil Young releases. Wasn't surprised.

[vintage_tube]

Received a shipping notice from becausesoundmatters.com that the box set is enroute 11/24. Cool.

[vintage_tube]

Received the 180g 4 album box set just this evening via UPS and cracked it open to visually inspect each album, label, gatefold, etc.

Well, just to get the goodies was a nice surprise -- tripple boxed. Inside the boxset, each album was outside the gatefold, in it's sleeve (as it should be). All 8 sides were perfect, pristine, super black & very shiney. Labels were centered as if a laser slapped them on.

What's also cool, is the rear of the box has the embossed gold serial number and it is also stamped on the rear of each cover. Nice attention to detail. All gatefolds are 100%copied from the originals -- down to the type paper to print the seperate lyrics sheets or inserts that came with several of the albums.

So, with headphones in hand, had to start with Everybody Knows This is Nowhere -- I've never heard the guitars sound so good on this album (I have originals). Down by the River just keeps going and going -- it's great. Vocals are crisp and sharpe.

Wow, I'm impressed needless to say & it's a big relief that the albums arrived safely, free of defects & a scratch(es) -- those anoying things that have you shipping the whole box set back for replacement.

I've paid more for other specialized prints and these albums are dead quiet during passages and inbetween. Pallas did a good job on stamping these.

Great job Pallas & Neil Young Archives/Warner Brothers.

Gotta go & listen another album before the day falls.

P.S. This set is also sold as a Gold CD set.

[vintage_tube]

Just an update on the quality of these (or the set I received as some have reported issues with individual 180g's and more regarding the single 140g's).

Played all 4 today back-to-back, sat in my listening chair and just took it all in. It was great.

Not one pop, click, on the lot. I love it when that is the case.

[vintage_tube]

Just a sidenote -- the gold CD versions are available from becausesoundmatters.com at $84 and some change (limited to 2500 copies).

Ordered a boxset because I'm crazy.

Bob

[chessman]

Originally Posted by vintage_tube

Just a sidenote -- the gold CD versions are available from becausesoundmatters.com at $84 and some change (limited to 2500 copies).

Ordered a boxset because I'm crazy.

Bob

Are these merely pretty Redbook disks? The web site was uninformative (or I failed to find the information).

[MC352]

I just ordered myself a copy of the LP box set.

Cinnamon Girl, and Cowgirl In The Sand, will be playing on my TT again!

This should be fun!

[vintage_tube]

Originally Posted by chessman

Are these merely pretty Redbook disks? The web site was uninformative (or I failed to find the information).

I understand these are remastered from the original analog tapes according to Warner Brothers/becausesoundmatters web site(s):

"The gold CDs an the Vinyl are both newly remastered from the original master tapes." Furthermore, it states "The audio tape restoration and analog-to-HDCD 24-bit 176 kHz digital transfers by John Nowland."

Also, noticed the web site now states 3,500 available worldwide (they increased the availability by 1K).

I will caviat the above with saying some believe these sound similiar to the recent remasters that were put out on silver CD not too long ago.

Since I don't have those silver remasters, personally went for the gold box set. Since I have the vinyl box set, I may not open these and set them aside for now.

Bob

[chessman]

Thanks Bob, guess I am blind.

[Rilands]

Thanks Bob for all this info.

Mike