New Bruce Springsteen box, "The Album Collection Vol. 1, 1973-1984" (11/17/2014)

I purchased all seven albums as FLAC HD yesterday from http://live.brucespringsteen.net/ (nugs.net) and never again will I use this service. The download software (nugster) is so flakey it would be exaggerating to call it beta software. Why they had to partner with such an appalling provider for the downloads is beyond me as there are so many alternatives that work much better. And what is even more frightening is that when these turn up illegally on the net (as surely they will) the download experience will be vastly superior to what nugs.net are providing. If I was a retailer and had had a customer fork out $126 for such an error strewn experience I would not only be embarrassed but ashamed but there again this is the music business we are talking about so why am I not surprised.

 

Hmh, I did the same two days ago and had no problems at all. Their software worked flawless for me and the download speed was on par with HDTracks (which in my experience is a bit faster than some of the competitors).

 

I did the same for 4 albums and the downloads went smoothly for me...

 

The good news is that I have received shipping confirmation e-mails for the vinyl and CD boxes from WOW HD today. Now let the customs lottery begin!

 

I haven't purchased these, but a few days ago I did purchase some Pearl Jam shows which also uses nugs for their service. I initially had problems downloading also, but after I updated to the latest Jave the dowload software ran flawlessly (my Java was at something like 6.x and they are now up to 8, I believe) and dropped the files where I wanted them.

 

I don't have Java installed at all, unless it is part of another program. I have a brand new Windows 7 machine and so far I have stayed away from Java. Do I really need Java for the Bruce Springsteen site?

 

If it's like the Pearl Jam downloads, for hassle-free downloads, I think you will. Before I updated, I was having to select each track individually and it wouldn't prompt to ask where I wanted the file saved, and then when it was done downloading it automatically opened up my music player software and started playing the track. After the Java updated, the software gave me the choice of folder to download to as well as downloading all tracks automatically. I'm also running W7.

 

The complete metadata for the WIESS HD-FLAC download from http://live.brucespringsteen.net/ shows:

<DESCRIPTION> : 01 The E Street Shuffle (4424 MFiT)
<ORIGDATE> : 2013-12-18
<ORIGINATOR> : GW
<ORIGREFERENCE> : CHMTIPYRAMIX16853154411444321000
<ORIGTIME> : 15:44:11
<TIMEREFERENCE> : 158760000

So it seems it belongs to same remastering batch, don't know why it's priced cheaper than the rest...

 

I'm an FYE member so I their sale price with member discount along with a discount for orders over $60 netted down to $58 shipped. I guess my curiosity couldn't resist and if I don't like the sound then I figure I can sell as NM for $45.

Looking forward to checking these albums out after the holiday. Any other sound quality findings yet? Mostly positive so far.

 

My vinyl is on its way today, hope it won't take 3 weeks as they did before, same with customs

 

I think it's priced exactly where 24/44.1 files should be priced, especially if the rumor of future 24/96 downloads is true. I think 17.99 is the standard price for 24/96 files at HDtracks.

 

Mastering for CD includes generating the DDP. This is part of the services provided by a mastering engineer or house. Why would they leave dithering up to a duplication facility?
http://theproaudiofiles.com/ddp-disc-description-protocol/

 

That's a crazy good price.

 

Why are you still harping on this? I was just trying to come up with plausible explanations. Just because it isn't a common or logical explanation it doesn't mean it couldn't have been done in this situation. Please let's move on, whats done is done.

 

So you'd shell out a lot more money for the same content only to find out it's compressed to hell?
In this case my choice is easy: I'd go for the red box in a heartbeat!