Good to know they are not identical, because I already have the DG Symphony box. Perhaps not so good for my wallet and am running out of shelving spaces...
Thanks for the welcome. I have been following this thread for more than a year now and have since accumulated about 9 mega boxes so far... not good.. lol. because it has not stopped me from buying smaller sets or individual albums, I just like to hoard :0 And too true, the lure of cheap $ per disc and individual covers...
I was torn on that but it looked a bit higher than I wanted to spend (at least where I was looking). In fact I'm sorry I was late to the party with so many of these...a lot of the boxes are OOP and command high prices, understandably so. What I ended up doing was buying the first two Decca Sound boxes (which I was able to haggle down for about $85 each, the original and the Analogue Years) and the 24 HOURS OF CLASSICAL MUSIC DG box (nabbed a new one for $30), which I thought were good deals. For just about $200 total on those three I was happy given the higher-priced alternatives! After scouring over this thread, that first Living Stereo (Collection 1) box-set looks appealing too...do you think it would add good selection/performance to those three? Especially with the ImportCD sale, would end up in the $80 range which isn't bad. (And again thanks to all for the welcome and suggestions, much appreciated)
Maybe it's just rationalization, but I tend to think of it like this: if the sets go out of print, I have them. At that point, I've got the music to digest at my leisure as long as there are working speakers and CD players. Seems a win-win from my perspective, even if none of us have infinite time.
Though the 100-CD set is tempting (especially at the current ImportCDs price with 10% off), I likely will get the 24-CD version. It will nicely complement my 20-CD Harmonia Mundi classical music overview sets (Century 1 & 2). I will compare it to my Archiv 1947-2013 box and assess the overlap.
I don’t know how good a deal this is but there are some third party sellers offering Evgeny Kissin - Complete RCA & Sony Classical Collection for €22 plus postage on amazon.de: Amazon.de: Einkaufsangebote: Evgeny Kissin - Complete RCA & Sony Classical Collection
This one has possibly been mentioned previously. I wonder what type of reshuffling DG is doing this time around? DG 120 - The Anniversary Edition 122 discs (CD+Blu-ray) Sept. 21, 2018 ~300 euros!!!! https://www.amazon.de/Dg-120-Anniversary-Ltd-Edt-Karajan/dp/B07C5M3FT3
Looks like a beautiful set, but you're right about reshuffling ... I know I recognize many of those covers from earlier sets I've got, so the price (currently $415 at Amazon US) will need to drop quite a bit to offset the inevitable duplication. Speaking of duplication, have any of you created a document/spreadsheet/database detailing the specific contents of the mega sets you own to make it easier to spot-check for duplicates in sets you're considering buying?
Having picked up a few of those DG sets, I have to admit, they're not terribly easy to shelve or peruse. By comparison, a lot of the Sony classical sets have sleeves with spines that can easily be identified (provided you can read the type), which takes a lot of the guesswork out of finding specific titles.
When I started this box buying binge in 2015, I had already burned 500 or so CDs to iTunes so that I could travel with my music. At the time I knew nothing of FLAC or other forms of lossless recording. As I've bought several thousand more CDs I've continued with iTunes, although I'm a couple of hundred discs behind right now. While it's a lot more work than a spreadsheet, the result gives me instant access to my collection. The iTunes search function is a good one, and each box (or sometimes artist or conductor) is its own "playlist." I can search for a work, see how many copies I may have, and by whom they're performed. Each disc is numbered and referenced to its particular box. I can quickly find any piece I'd like to hear. By checking playlists I can compare the contents of a box I own with a similar one offered under new wrapping (just from the pictures, the DG 120 looks a lot like the DG 110 -- not necessarily a bad thing with the latter out of print and overpriced).
I've done that with some big band music prior to buying, but I don't think I've done that with classical. Today I printed out a list of what's on the DG History of Music in 24 and will be comparing that against my Archiv 1947-2013 box.
UPDATE - I'm up to 37 CDs, and I don't feel as though I'm even half-way yet. It's almost entirely Harmonia Mundi. There might a couple of DHM included. I cannot imagine what I'd be in for if I didn't limit this to baroque and earlier. If I can average two or three a week, I might be done by the end of the year. The I can start on post-baroque!
First image of the box. I wish the Bernstein boxes used actual art or original covers rather than an endless stream of shots of Bernstein himself. Sure - it is a tribute to a great conductor, but it is a little bit "too much".....
Strangely enough the one CD cover that I can read (CD 55 bottom right) is not vocal, but what I suspect is orchestral leftovers that for whatever reason did not make it into the earlier two boxes, perhaps mono recordings of works that were in stereo in the earlier boxes. The only thing I can decipher from the CDs inside the box is the name J. S.Bach on CD 1, which seems more like it. Anyway, I'm eager to add this box to my two others, thereby getting the complete Bernstein on Columbia. I'm especially looking forward to the Haydn masses and the Mahler song cycles (both orchestral and piano versions hopefully).
Thanks for the info on the new Bernstein box. Since I already have the other two Sony boxes, I think this one is a no-brainer. Will wait a bit before placing the order, but the current price on Amazon.de is appealing.
Furtwangler Legacy 107-CD set: Not sure why... but Amazon Spain opened the ordering of this box-set again, despites of informing it is "temporarily out of stock". The point is that this box-set had been available only through 3th party sellers for more than 1 year in ALL Amazon´s, with price over 99 Euro. This time the ordering is directly from Amazon Spain with the price 74 Euro, which goes to 61 Euro after excluding the VAT. Would this order opening means that the box-set is about to be re-released soon? Or was it just a mistake made by an Amazon trainee? Well regardless of that I placed an order now, since this is one of the box in my "regret not buying while available" list. https://www.amazon.es/Legacy-Furtwä...=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B004JC16LC I should add the information that despites 61 Euro being an excellent price, probably the best price for this box-set since 2015 in all Amazon´s, the best price ever for this box-set was in November 2014 when during 1 day it was 17 Euro in the same Amazon Spain.
