Abba - The Complete Studio Recordings (How Many Versions Are Available?)

I ordered an Abba - The Complete Studio Recordings Box Set for $179.00 but I am disappointed to receive a white thin box containing just the 8 original studio albums, 1 rarities CD and a Time line booklet.

For the price that I have paid, I am expecting the original blue box set which includes DVD's aside from the original remastered albums.

Are these one and the same mastering?

I wrote the box set vendor that I am returning it and requested to replace it with the original cube-shaped blue box (if it's still available).

Is there anyone in this forum where to order the original blue box?

Thanks,
AudiophilePhil

 

Universal in Denmark issued a scaled down version of the CSR box which is the one you got. Mastering is the same between the two.

 

Yeah, there's only two to my knowledge.

$179 sounds like a lot for the white box, but not quite enough for the blue!

 

Yeah, for the longest time the white box was going for $60 or $70 (maybe even less) at hmv.co.uk. Sorry.

 

Thanks to all of you.
I have never opened the white box and I told the vendor that if they can't find the Blue Box in a short time, I will return it immediately for full refund including shipping charges.

 

I agree with other people in this forum.

$179.00 for this box set (the "white" one without the 2 DVDs) is a high price for sure! I bought it last year (www.cdon.com) and I'm sure I paid it about 50/55 Euros (surely less than 90 dollars, shipping included).

 

I see it still listed at HMV Japan:

http://www.hmv.co.jp/product/detail/1441229

The price seems a lot higher than what I paid while the set was still new. I bought it in Germany while on a trip over there, at a Saturn store in Munich for about 90 Euros, which at the time worked out to about $110 dollars.

This Japanese price looks like it would convert to the upper 100s of dollars depending on the exchange rate.

But that's the set I have - in the blue box.

Harry

 

Yes, HMV Japan's price would be approximately $170 excl. shipping at current rates.

 

I guess how the dollar has continued to tank over the past year or two could also explain the price increase.

 

For the blue set $170 would be cheap for the UK price.

 

Well, if you can wait a couple months, Universal Music is raping the ABBA catalog once again in the name of "Money Money Money" thanks to the success of the Mamma Mia! Movie and they are releasing a brand new Box Set containing all 8 studio albums (as they were) and a bonus disc containing all the B-sides and one off singles.

http://www.abbasite.com/news/index.php?id=1654

Instead of giving the fans more CD deluxe versions or the proposed LIVE album, they rehash the same thing over and over and over again. How many times do the same 8 studio albums need to released?

 

yes it is just as bad. I bought this becasue I read on here that the mastering was good. Boy was I wrong. At least I got most of my money back for it when I sold it.

 

There's only a few Abba CDs and LPs that sound GOOD... I only know of a few: Atlantic LPs and the Atlantic CD of Greatest Hits?

 

I've read a few posts where people have spoken well about them or at least favourably over the Astley ones.

 

Shooting the moon for a good Abba record/CD is mostly a miss. Mostly it's poor balanced, toppy and hard....

 

Isn't that exactly the same as the box set w/o the DVD?

 

No, the bonus tracks on each of albums have been removed.

 

...and now make the content of the bonus disc.

*Bescheuert*, as we would say in Germany

 

And, as far as I can tell, ditches the tracks from the existing CSR bonus disc.

 

Other than Greatest Hits & Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (which I have)...what other titles did Atlantic do? Do they have the same good sound as GH? Hard to find?

Dexter

 

Atlantic also issued 'Super Trouper' in the US and 'The Visitors' & 'The Singles' in Canada.

 

Do they sound as good as the Greatest Hits releases (mine are WG "targets").

Dexter

 

The Atlantic Super Trouper is just a bit mid-bass-heavy to my ears, kind of tubby-sounding. Most tracks come out thumpy - a good thing on "On and On and On", but not so much on the title cut. YMMV - I know a lot of folks on this board swear by this CD.

I personally like most of the old German Polydors (which were also issued briefly in the US with catalog numbers of 4228* ****-2). The first two albums are from muggy-sounding tapes, but the others are good to excellent. Some dropout issues here and there, and The Album has the usual deficiencies. The Visitors is the same mastering as the target, IIRC.

My opinion, which is not shared by many (one of the many apparently being Steve), is that the German Polydors top the Targets on most tracks, by virtue of being from better source tapes.

Then there are the original Swedish editions of the first 3 LPs (Catalog numbers POLCD-4*2) - apparently straight off the Swedish tapes with little to no futzing. There are some technical issues with a few tracks on the first two (audible 1K tones in the background, apparently dirty playback heads, that sort of thing), but the clean cuts trounce all takers, and the Polar S/T is by far the best sounding ABBA ever committed to digital. Grab your favorite Swedish-to-English translator site and head to www.tradera.com ... and keep your fingers crossed. I scored all three of 'em for $45, shipped.

I am told that the rest of the early Polars are clones of the German Polydors, but have no first-hand knowledge of this.

Nice masterings of many of the non-album cuts can be found on a couple of German imports - ABBA International and From ABBA With Love. They can get pricey.

FWIW, I'm not impressed with my German copy of The Singles. There are a few nice sounding cuts on disc 2 (it's the best source for "Under Attack" IMHO), but the mastering on the rest is either lifeless or overly-bright.