Rainbow Long Live R‘n‘R Japan SACD from China???

Several sellers on ebay offer this limited edition, japanese SACD from 2010:

Long Live Rock N Roll Super Audio CD - DSD Rainbow Blackmore's Rainbow Japan Cd 4988005633347 | eBay

All the information on the obi strip appears authentic, down to the barcode. Then again, all of the sellers are located in China... And with the official edition being long out of print, I wonder what am I looking at here? Chinese ‚overstock‘? Fakes? Are they even SACDs at all?

If they are real, they will not play on a regular CD player, as the original edition was single layer.

Has anyone bought one of these from a China seller?

 

Nope, I bought mine from a store based in Japan. The photo looks like the real thing but I would check around on ebay for other folk selling it as well. I would be wary of this listing though.

 

Different China sellers use different images, and they all look ok on the photo. So it‘s not like they are simply using a stock photo and if it is a fake, at least it is reasonably well made.

 

It does seem a bit cheap in my opinion. Hopefully others will chip in with their thoughts.

 

Don’t want a counterfeit disc? Do not buy from Chinese or Russian sellers. Simple.

 

Uh-huh. I wish it was as simple as that. I deal in vintage collectibles and one of the biggest sellers of counterfeit goods in my field is located in NY State.

 

China and Russia are still China and Russia though.

With that said, I just recently got boot versions of the Minstrel in the Gallery box by SW, and one other JT box. Came from the US. One irony being, the discs themselves were identical copies of the real thing. Just didn't have the books.

 

D0n't buy from China (or Russia)....high probability it's a counterfeit.

 

Despite the warnings here, I decided to give it a try and bought this SACD from one of the China sellers.

It was half price, even compared to the original japanese retail price. I inspected it very carefully, up to the tiny details and there is no doubt in my mind that this is the exact same SACD that was sold as a ‚limited edition‘ in Japan.

I don‘t know what the deal is here, but this album is real.

As to the SQ: The sonic limitations of this album have been extensively discussed in other threads. This SACD was mastered from the original analog master tapes, and the sound comes surprisingly close to the original vinyl album that I bought back in 1978. I actually find it quite amusing that even a dedicated high-end system can‘t raise this one: For me, it brings back memories of the really cheap lo-fi system I had 40 years ago. Which is a fun thing, actually.

 

Just remember there are a 1st press with problems of this SACD. the song Gates of Babylon has a 1 sec noise that was fixed in a 2nd release