Bruce Springsteen - The Album Collection Vol.2 1987-1996

I like both box sets so far, but I do certainly like the first one better than the second (personal verdict on Vol. One: 9/10, Vol. Two: 7/10). Both sets do improve on the originals in terms of sound quality and presentation imho. They're quite expensive, yes, but look at it this way: Pink Floyd's Pulse with 4 LPs cost me 125 euros, while Springsteen's Vol. 1 with 8 LPs was the exact same price, and Vol. 2 with 10 records is "only" 175 euros...

 

How is the new pressing of Human Touch? Is it worth waiting for the new individual pressing over the original?

 

The double record treatment has definitely improved the sound quality of this one hour long album. With my original single record pressing, I really had to turn the volume up to get some good sound from this album, but that of course made the surface noise louder too...

 

so is there no digital lossless version of the Spare Parts collection of EPs? i thought they were doing that?

 

Cool, i quite like some of this album so will probably pick that up and Tom Joad...

 

The "Live Collection EP" is in lossless available here:
Live Collection (1987) | Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band | High Quality Music Downloads | 7digital United Kingdom
Live Collection | Bruce Springsteen

These websites also have the other current dowload releases.

 

I’d buy all of these albums if they came out separately but the price of the box and the extra EPs which I have no interest in are putting me off

 

Me neither. Plus it has a couple of really weak albums. They will release them individually imo...

 

Definitely - you can get the albums from the first box set individually now, so I don't see why they would do something differently with this set...however, that's just my opinion - I have no knowledge of the label's plans.

 

Oh man. I really wanted to justify spending 150£ on this box, but it's geting harder and harder to put my mind through it.

 

I pre-ordered - probably payed too much. I haven’t played any of them yet but reading this thread I take away two things. First, in my case I own none of these on vinyl. Second, the general consensus is that they are an improvement on the originals (maybe not TOL) but not by much. Oh and they come in a box with a book!

 

How come we don't get the option of CD or LP this time? The Vol.1 box set was available on both formats.

 

CD is available to preorder on Amazon UK, but costs £180........ Out in July apparently.

 

Available from Amazon.es (Spain) for $147 which includes shipping to the USA right now. About $60 less than most US dealers.

 

Now down on Amazon Spain to €115 or about £110 shipped to the UK.

 

That is a far more reasonable price for the relatively slim pickings in this set compared to the first box than the £154 charged on the U.K. site.

 

Had a chance to dig into this set the past few days, so here goes...

The box is nice and heavy, with "textured" outer paper and a lift-off lid. The booklet is a similar scrapbook styled affair, much like that in Vol. 1 but not as large. The vinyl is mastered by Chris Bellman (CB in the deadwax), which is a good thing in my experience, but in the case of this box I never really got a chance for much of a detailed listen because of the many pressing issues I encountered.

I decided to listen to The Ghost of Tom Joad first. Severely dished and full of surface noise--took it off after 3 songs. Tunnel... (LP One) was also dished and noisy. Human Touch--better but a scratch on "57 Channels..." caused a constant pop for at least a full minute. Off that one went. Lucky Town was flat and looked nice but, again, too much surface noise for a new LP. Don't really care about continuing; I'm going to try to contact Amazon France tomorrow and "work something out."

Shame that that they decided not to use MPO on this set as they did such a fine job on the first one.

Hope others have better luck.

 

I finally had a chance to listen to the whole box set and here are my thoughts for anyone wondering whether to get it:
I bought it from amazon.ca and shipped to the usa for $203. I listened on a rega planar 3 with a hana sh cartridge into a music hall 15.3 amp and grado 80 headphones.
Box is really nice and so is the booklet. Record sleeves are annoying and my first box they sent had sleeves damaged which led to the vinyl having marks all over it, so i returned it and my second set is perfect.
Overall the sound quality is great. I know everyone loved how much clearer the albums on vol 1 sounded, and i heard stuff on that i'd never heard before due to the remastering, but those records (to me) had a problem that i find with most non-all-analog vinyl these days: they sound like everything has a thin film over them when listening through headphones...like something is holding the music back.
Surprisingly, i didn't find that with these records. maybe because they were recorded more digitally on the first run through, but they sound like i imagine they sounded when they first came out (apart from Tunnel of Love and Blood Brothers, which i'll get to below), though i only have originals of Tunnel of Love and Chimes of Freedom to compare to. Very full, clear, and with the "warmth" of vinyl we buy lps for.
Tunnel of Love - the first record is bright as people have reported, but the second vinyl didn't sound that way to me (i find most records of that era have a brightness already). This is one i'll probably listen to my original of more.
Human Touch/Lucky Town/Live - these all sound great! So good that i even like most of Human Touch now, though the Side 4 is still pretty awful songwise.
Maybe cause i'm now 41 i can appreciate it more, but i could never listen to Human Touch record before all the way through. The production here on vinyl sounds less cheesy and the songs feel more alive. This was the biggest revelation to me. Lucky Town sounds equally great and the live record I thought i'd not listen to much, but think it may be the one i go to most on this set.
Tom Joad - vinyl sounds great and there are a couple of light pops that a good clean will likely get rid of. This was the one i wanted the set most for and it does not disappoint.
Chimes of Freedom - this sounds good and the same as my original
Blood Brothers - this one does sound sourced from digital and probably the one i won't go to much on this.
Yes this set is expensive and yes they could've put NYC Live and the Rising on here, but it actually works really well thematically as his "solo" years, with Blood Brothers as a cliffhanger on the next set to come.

 

Nice review! I've been enjoying my set as well. Plus, they just look so cool all together:

 

...and even better when you put them in with the rest of the collection (minus the three that I'm still on the hunt for - The Rising, Live In NYC and Devils & Dust):

 

I have roughly the same issues with my box set (some dished and noisy records and some damaged sleeves), and I fully agree with you that they should have used MPO, which did a wonderful job on the first set! Overall, I'm still happy with Vol. 2 though, so I'm probably going to keep it (since the odds are that there will be issues with a replacement set too, judging from what I read in this thread...)

 

Is anyone planning on buying the Vol.2 Japanese CD box coming out in July?

The Album Collection [Cardboard Sleeve (mini LP)] Vol.2 1987-1996 [Limited Release] Bruce Springsteen CD Album

 

I pre-ordered from Import CDs when they had a 10% off coupon. Came to around $115 or so, which is pretty good for Japanese releases. The Japanese Vol. 1 set is quite nice.

 

I might order it as well because I'm not sure if there will be a U.S. Vol.2 CD box...no one seems to know yet?

 

Yes. It will be good to get the recent remastering on cd as I kind of play cds more than vinyl.
I probably would buy the release from Japan even it there was a forthcoming USA/Canada/Europe rest of the world release on cd.