Are The David Bowie Boxes Worth It?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Mirror Image, Jul 21, 2018.

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  1. PretzelLogic

    PretzelLogic Feeling duped by MoFi? You probably deserve it.

    Location:
    London, England
    Yes, entirely worth it. I've bought the boxes despite already owning every pre-Let's Dance LP, with the self-justification that I'd make sure my attention to the boxes was commensurate with the price, and as a result I've become an even bigger fan of Bowie than I was before.
     
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  2. Saul Pimon

    Saul Pimon Co-hosts Nothing Is Real Beatles Podcast (Jason!)

    Location:
    Dublin
    I’m a kid of the Ryko-era Bowie CDs, and they were all bought in the early 90s. When the first box set came out I didn’t initially intend on buying it, but then I gat a chance to pick a vinyl one up cheaply when HMV was closing down in Dublin. Really liked it. Since then I picked up the next two on vinyl too.

    Am I happy with them? Yes I am. Why have I bought them? Purely as a vinyl one-stop shop of his catalogue, it ticks the box for that. I had none of these on vinyl before. I’m not a big fan of live albums, but there’s loads of them!! I’d never owned David Live or Stage before, so they’re new to me. I noticed the dropout on Heroes, I did not notice the bass in Low. The alternate mixes of Ziggy and Lodger are great, the alt Station To Station isn’t worth it. Books are pleasant enough, but don’t expect detail nor, obviously, any new content from DB himself.

    If these boxes hadn’t existed and they had just released the albums as stand-alone vinyl reissues, I probably would’ve picked up Hunky Dory, Station and Low. If there had been smaller boxes with just the core studio albums, I’d have been happy enough with that. But they know what they’re doing and now I’ve gone from 0 to over 40 slabs of DB vinyl on my shelves in three years! Two versions of Stage over 12 sides of vinyl...ummm, okay! (There’s the extra RSD releases too, I thought they were the best of the lot.) There’ll be another 15 Records in the new box. In for a penny..! He does have one of the great immersive catalogues in rock, so I’m happy. Your mileage may vary, etc.
     
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  3. Muggles

    Muggles Forum Resident

    Location:
    Midwest
    Tweaked:

    Absolutely, and please dump your originals at the record store nearest me.
     
  4. bonjo

    bonjo Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    All three our great. I'd say buy them, enjoy them, and avoid any discussion of them on this forum unless you like to be told repeatedly how wrong your opinion is.
     
  5. jl151080

    jl151080 Senior Member

    Location:
    Bristol, UK
    I would much rather have one big box, than several overpriced smaller boxes.
     
  6. Marc Perman

    Marc Perman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    The Five Years box on CD is a great addition to my Bowie collection, which is otherwise mostly original LPs. What an astonishing early career run, supplemented by Santa Monica, Ziggy remix, etc. I did try a couple of these on vinyl and the sound was almost identical to the CDs so didn't keep them.
     
  7. drbryant

    drbryant Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    I bought the first and am happy with it. I also have the second but to be honest, it’s not my favorite period so i haven’t even listened to it yet. I love the Berlin period, and so the lukewarm reports have made me hesitant to buy the third box. May eventually break down.
     
  8. aphexj

    aphexj Sound mind & body

    Sure thing: the first album (sometimes called Space Oddity) in the first box is riddled with digital distortions. They're on almost every track, CD and vinyl (but may not be apparent unless you listen closely with headphones). The following albums, while exhibiting some slightly over-hyped mastering, are okay — with the exception of Aladdin Sane, which is far too compressed for my liking and the live albums are much the same (they weren't remastered, just duplicating the early-2000s digital mastering, which is brickwall-limited)

    If you go with the remastered Ziggy vinyl you are getting an all-analogue pressing, but be aware that the excessive bass in "Star" causes many tables to skip on that track. Most of the single edits on Re:Call 1 are basically fold-downs with the 7" edits re-created from the album mixes. So there's nothing essential there that can't be had on earlier editions with bonus tracks (Rykodiscs, 30th/40th Anniversary EMI sets, etc.)

    Five Years is a viable source, however financially painful, for Ken Scott's 30th anniversary remix of Ziggy on CD and vinyl, where it had previously only been on DVD and SACD in 5.1

    A couple of The Gouster album mixes are exclusive to Who Can I Be Now? and of course the Lodger remix is exclusive to A New Career in a New Town so if you have to have those alternates, there they are
     
    Last edited: Jul 22, 2018
  9. adm62

    adm62 Senior Member

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    Worth the US $100 I paid for ANCIANT on Amazon Prime day (vinyl)
     
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  10. Margrave

    Margrave I'll Give It 5

    Location:
    Down by the sea.
    Yes well worth it.
    The only waste of new vinyl was this
    [​IMG]
    Really awful recordings.
     
    Last edited: Jul 22, 2018
  11. joeislive

    joeislive Streets Ahead

    Damn, missed that!
     
  12. vinylontubes

    vinylontubes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Katy, TX
    I only bought the new Berlin trilogy remaster. I'm not that big of fan of Bowie to get the extra stuff.
     
  13. zither

    zither Lodger

    Location:
    UK
    Voted "Absolutely". Having grown up listening to RCA vinyl, I subsequently bought all the key albums on CD. First the 1990/91 EMI's, then ditched those for the dreaded 1999's. I think these versions are really nice and pretty close to the original sound of UK vinyl, particularly the first 2 boxes. I even like the Berlin period, and just don't hear the "bloated bass" on 'Low' , or the "poor edits and drop-outs" on 'Lodger'. Maybe I'm in the minority here. I always thought the EMI's sounded tiny and thin, so anything that improves on that is a bonus. These reissues sound much warmer and balanced, and whilst I'm no audiophile expert, I think the average listener will enjoy these without having to shell out vast sums of money for originals. I've bought most of the stand alone versions on both vinyl and CD. I have never heard the RCA CD's so can't comment on them, but many say they are the definitive digital versions. I will still keep all my originals though, as they are useful for doing A/B comparisons. As for the next box coming out, I may pass on it and then cherry pick the gems from his 90's rebirth. 'Buddha' over two LP's would be a dream come true.
     
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  14. PretzelLogic

    PretzelLogic Feeling duped by MoFi? You probably deserve it.

    Location:
    London, England
    I'm curious as to the examples I might be missing - the only one I know is the egregious edit that reduces "God's land" in 'In Memory Of A Free Festival' to "God land".
     
  15. Popmartijn

    Popmartijn Senior Member

    Location:
    The Netherlands
    Funny. I prefer that one over the Ziggy Stardust soundtrack/live album.
    To each their own, I guess. :)
     
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  16. TonyCzar

    TonyCzar Forum Resident

    Location:
    PhIladelphia, PA
    Important to know. Thanks.

    Precisely. Thanks.
     
  17. Neonbeam

    Neonbeam All Art Was Once Contemporary

    Location:
    Planet Earth
    I thought that remix was an absolute low point, totally robbing this album off all it's carefully crafted inner dynamics.
     
  18. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member

    I agree it does when you look at it as a whole but for me it was a revelation hearing some of those buried guitar arrangement parts.
     
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  19. Neonbeam

    Neonbeam All Art Was Once Contemporary

    Location:
    Planet Earth
    Are the boxsets worth it? If you don't own any DB vinyl and are not obsessive, probably.

    If you already own all the albums, I think the boxes are not especially essential. And I wouldn't say that about the EMI100 "Hunky Dory" or the "Station To Station" super deluxe set. I'm starting to buy "these boxes" with the 2019 installment though. But more because I'm interested in rediscovering Bowies later career. And having brand new back up copies of the likes of "Black Tie White Noise".
     
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  20. Neonbeam

    Neonbeam All Art Was Once Contemporary

    Location:
    Planet Earth
    Btw: What I don't get is why they are not keeping them in print. Sure, you can get the key albums individually but to send potential new boxset customers straight to the used market, doesn't really make sense to me.
     
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  21. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    Completists are going to buy the boxes.

    That said, there's a LOT of padding going on with redundant versions, etc.--especially on boxes 2 and 3.

    The amount of genuinely valuable new material on these boxes is nominal vs. the increased amount you're going to have to spend because the disc counts are padded.

    IMHO, there's a lot of old wine in new bottle action here, and while the boxes are pretty, they are for most people inessential.
     
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  22. mr_spenalzo

    mr_spenalzo Forum Resident

    I can't remember exactly where in the song it occurs, but there's distortion on Cygnet Committee.

    They're worth it though, definitely. Every one of them had something that made me get them, and I've not regretted this, although it's a bit frustrating that they could've been better.
     
  23. deredordica

    deredordica Music Freak

    Location:
    Sonoma County, CA
    Do you like "LP-style" sleeves? Do you like stuff in boxes? Do you like rarities on a bonus disc? Do you like decent remastering? Can you not afford the RCAs? Then the box sets might be for you.
     
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  24. Mirror Image

    Mirror Image 200 Years Of Anton Bruckner Thread Starter

    Location:
    United States
    Thanks again to all who have responded. Interesting commentary.
     
  25. SoundDoctor

    SoundDoctor Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    Ziggy is not AAA. Made from the same metal parts as the 2012 vinyl, it was clarified then that it was cut from a 96kHz/24bit file. Cut by in-house engineer or robot at Optimal.
     
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