David Bowie: Five Years 1969-1973 - 2015, 13 Vinyl Box Set

Aladdin Sane

EMI Millennium 1999 pressing. - nicely balanced, natural with excellent treble extension - so smooth sounding but has lots of transparency and detail.

EMI 1990 UK pressing - Dr Toby Ryko - top end is bright, bass quite good but mid range has gone missing - sounds unatural and thin in comparison tp EMI 1999 pressing.

2015 remaster - laid back, a little recessed and cut at a lower level. Sounds good but in direct comparison the soundstage is smaller and a little congested compared to the EMI 1999. better than 1990, but not as natural and extended as the 1999 pressing.

UK original pressing - cut the loudest out of any of the pressings. bigger bolder, clearer, more dynamics, instrument attack and great bass.

AS 2015 is a good sounding reissue and much better than the Ryko 1990 pressing. However it lags quite a bit behind the EMO 1999 and original UK pressing.

 

I've so far only played Space Oddity (with a head cold a few days ago) and side 1 on RE: Call 1. My side 1 of RE: Call 1 also has the distortion in the right channel. It had it on Space Oddity and Conversation Piece. I must have played Space Oddity 10 times thinking it was my speakers, a dirty/staticy record, etc. and trying everything to correct and isolate the issue.

After all of the plays, Space Oddity seems to have played out the distortion somehow. I've only played Conversation Piece a few times now and it is still a distorted mess from start to finish in the right channel. Hope my distortion "plays out" on Conversation Piece too -- but how annoying!!

Does anyone have any return experience with Pop Market?

 

original meaning the 2008 EMI, or original meaning numerous semi-official previous releases? if the former, it's the same recording (with some stage banter edited out) but more compressed than the already compressed 2008. waveforms indicate the CD master was used for this repress. it's pretty worthless IMO. earlier editions including the clear vinyl 1994 Golden Years issue (GYLP 002) are far more dynamic. recording quality is pretty lo-fi to begin with so no audiophile options available.

 

They sent me a defective REM Unplugged 1991 LP....contacted them & they were super nice, and sent a replacement free of charge, and didn't even require the original be sent back. Got the replacement...and it had the same defect, making me think perhaps (sometimes) PopMarket gets their own run of these things?

However, you'll probably have better luck if it's just one LP out of a massive box set, as far as getting a working replacement.

 

the UK album master has always had the loud morse code Starman, so it's incorrectly labelled "original single mix" IMO. "UK mix" would be more accurate although it does appear on some other European pressings, and also on the US single but only in folded-down mono and with an edited intro. in most territories it's the softer mix on album and single.

 

I meant the 2008 EMI. I bought it a long time ago, and have been planning to listen to it, but was going to leave it sealed if this is the same. Thanks.

 

it's better than the version in the box but it's still very compressed. i'm saying this based on the EU pressing which would not have been sealed... the US (presumably?) may have been a different cut.

 

I meant "sound better" sorry for my typing error!

 

Has anyone made a direct label contact (Warner or Parlophone) for requesting replacements? I emailed Warner but nothing yet. I could try the Amazon swap/return thing but hate to do it for just one LP (Hunky Dory). I wet/vac cleaned it but the distortion, small ticks and swooshes refuse to go away so I think it's a dud. I've used the same cleaning method on pricey vintage Japanese LP's and pretty much anything else that called for serious measures, always with good quiet results but HD won't have it.
Otherwise the rest of the set is pretty solid on the whole and certainly a worthy purchase.

It's astonishing how different my copy of the original Zig soundtrack 2LP set sounds from the Visconti mix. I honestly like both but the real standout for the original is "My Death" and the natural, more throaty vocals. What I don't like in the original are the muted guitars, absent banter and the peekaboo piano that comes and goes. I think Visconti's mix does a great job of giving everyone equal time and revealing a bigger picture. To my ears the 2015 2LP set sounds nearly identical to the 30th anniv. 2CD set but with maybe a little added depth and resolution, definitely cleaner.

Based on this set I'd say the next round should be promising.

 

If all the other LP's in the set are playing fine edge to edge then it's likely you got a dud...the only alarming thing I've noticed about this set is the glue stuck to the very outer edge of some of the LP's. It appears to be from the inner sleeves where maybe they should have waited a little longer. A little alcohol gets rid of it but if any found its way into the grooves the result would definitely be distortion and/or tics.

 

Agreed, the dynaflex Pin Ups is balls

 

I thought all the 2008 EMI Santa Monica's were EU, mine certainly came sealed (shrinkwrap) with a Made in Holland sticker on the back, Printed in EU sleeve & Made in EU on labels.
In the next fews days I was going to compare this with the boxset issue, I was hoping they were the same as my 2008 EMI has a pressing fault and these days they appear for silly money on ebay. From memory the EMI sounds better than the bootleg I bought in the 70's (it's certainly a lot quieter).

 

There was no official U.S. issue of Santa Monica on vinyl, either by EMI or Golden Years.

Good point here regarding the rarity of Santa Monica on vinyl. This is an LP that in its EMI version was fetching $80 and up, so it's funny to me to see Bowie fans and collectors complaining that it and Ziggy The Motion Picture were included in the box set.

 

thanks for confirmation. well the one in the boxset is less dynamic than the already compressed 2008 standalone, they are not the same. the new one looks more like the CD and i'd put money on it being cut from the CD master. with little happening over 15kHz, there's no risk of seeing a 22kHz cut-off to be 100% sure. waveforms for side one only.

the vast majority of Bowie fans and collectors will already have them, hence they complain about being expected to buy them again with, at least on paper, the same mastering. the inferior master of SM'72 in this box should, once noted, keep the price of the standalone relatively high. it sounds like crap at any price.

 

I can see both sides really. I mean I myself would have compiled just the albums released at the time, not live albums released many years later. It seems a way to pad out the box, and imo neither of those are that essential. And I don't listen to live albums much anyway. But on the opposite side I guess it gives a better ovearll picture of the era.

 

I think that was a no-win situation. Had they not been included, people would have complained about it.

 

I have no interest in any set besides the studio albums (for even my favourite artists).
The win-win situation is to at least announce that studio albums will be released individually
at a later date, my only real complaint is there is no word on if they're going to sell them separately.

If they aren't going to do the studio albums individually, another way to package these sets would
have been for them to put the studio albums together, maybe in two sets for all the discography,
and a third box that gathers all the live and bonus material. Those who own the original studio albums
can get all the live and unreleased material in one box that way, (or buy it all). Just a thought.

 

That is disappointing and may be part of the reason why the other LPs seem to lack dynamics (compared to original UKs).

 

you mean the other albums in the box? Aladdin Sane is the most compressed of the studio albums, using the 2013 remaster. the others generally retain their dynamics but there is some compression to beef up the bass here and there. Santa Monica is by far the worst, it really should have been redone or at least match the 2008.

 

Im getting replacement box next monday, so I can then assemble one pristine set.

 

It's an inconsistent policy, though, because on Re:Call 1 they left off individual outtakes that were released later, such as All the Young Dudes, that would have very nice to have.

 

My hunch is that the label is being somewhat secretive--I say this because when I e-mailed Ray Staff (who clearly knows how this was mastered) and asked if the vinyl box was AAA, he said the information would be posted on the David Bowie website. That e-mail exchange was a couple of weeks ago. Just checked the website--it's not there. When I e-mailed the official website a few weeks ago, they said they had no idea how it was mastered. I gather they must know now. And I suspect Ray Staff is probably contractually not allowed to reveal that information (is that why Kevin Gray never said anything about the Kinks vinyl remasters?) Of course we're all speculating when we say "hiding" but there is some evidence to suggest that here, albeit initially it was probably something they just didn't consider when the box was first released. But I think the frustration is that, regardless of what you think about AAA mastering vs cutting from hi-res digital files, I think consumers should have the right to know before they plunk down $200 plus on records.

 

So like in a restaurant, you want to know if the chicken is free range or not. May or may not affect the taste. A

 

Its pretty obvious to me from listening, that the box set is digitally mastered ( outside of Ziggy), probably using the digital files they used for the CD's.
they sound good, but could have sounded quite a bit better when you compare to original UK pressings or the EMI 100 and centenary analog pressings.

Unfortunately not all reissue mastering is analog like Neil Young or Beatles mono, which is a pity.

cheers

 

In fact, very little of it is, unfortunately. There is a thread on here keeping track of new AAA releases, and it doesn't amount to a whole lot. More indy stuff than major label, I think. Which is valuable in itself, too, but I wish there was a thread like it for reissued material, and that AAA for reissues was more of a trend.