| Jam Monkey 23.01.2014 16:18 |
Last year Island Records in Japan started to reissue (again!) vinyl replicas of all the Queen albums on the new Platinum SHM-CD format. As the name suggests the metal part of the disc on these CDs is platinum, which is supposed to have an impact on the sound quality. So far A Night At The Opera, News Of The World and Queen have been issued, with Sheer Heart Attack due for release in March. At the same time there is a similar release with plain old SHM-CDs. I've just bought the three available albums, and I've got to say they look great. Of course, this is about the 12th CD issue of these albums in Japan, but this has to be one of the best. Each album comes in it's own box, which as always has an OBI. Inside the box is the disc, all of which are a rather nice green colour, and the vinyl replica sleeve. The sleeves match the original UK issue and there is also a replica of the original Japanese OBI (which was included in the 2008 issue, but not the 1998 or 2004). The original inner sleeves are also included, and there is a lyric booklet as well with English and Japanese text. All in all, as album reissues go, I really like them. |
| Jam Monkey 23.01.2014 16:19 |
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| Jam Monkey 23.01.2014 16:19 |
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| Jam Monkey 23.01.2014 16:19 |
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| Jam Monkey 23.01.2014 16:19 |
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| AlexRocks 23.01.2014 16:34 |
Fascinating! Thank you so much for the information and photographs! That made my day! Oh hell yeah! |
| the dude 1366 23.01.2014 23:59 |
Don't throw out your old cd's. As an audiophile I can tell you that 99% of remasters are a downgrade. Buy if you like, just don't give up your old ones. Look up "loudness war" and see why. Queen is meant to be fully dynamic. |
| Jam Monkey 24.01.2014 01:45 |
the dude 1366 wrote: Don't throw out your old cd's. As an audiophile I can tell you that 99% of remasters are a downgrade. Buy if you like, just don't give up your old ones. Look up "loudness war" and see why. Queen is meant to be fully dynamic.No serious Queen fan would ever do that. |
| Wijnand 24.01.2014 02:15 |
These look great... I'll start saving... Thanks for sharing! |
| tero! 48531 24.01.2014 13:59 |
I'm no expert on audiophile issues, but how exactly can the material of the disc improve the sound quality? Isn't the music on CDs' a bunch of 0's and 1's regardless of the material? It's like claiming that the sound quality of CD-R copies made on Sony -brand discs is better than the copies on Maxell -brand. |
| mooghead 24.01.2014 15:05 |
You're not wrong, its like people who claim a £200 hdmi cable gives a better picture than a £5 one, all they do is transfer zeros and ones. |
| AlexRocks 24.01.2014 19:52 |
I understand the contrast in the songs but there is without doubt that there are a good many Queen songs that are WAY to extreme in volume from one direction to the other. It makes some of them unlistenable. You turn it up to hear parts of songs that you would not otherwise and then it is too loud. You turn it down and then you miss parts of songs. So I would welcome some changes concerning that. |
| DLCVinnuendo 25.01.2014 13:40 |
great version, but the cd label is so sad |
| inu-liger 25.01.2014 21:51 |
Jam, would you mind posting a photo of one of the CD's data sides, with a regular CD next to it so we can make a visual comparison? :-) |
| inu-liger 25.01.2014 21:52 |
DLCVinnuendo wrote: great version, but the cd label is so sadI actually kinda like it, but it would be so much better if the track listing was actually on there! |
| Jam Monkey 27.01.2014 15:50 |
inu-liger wrote: Jam, would you mind posting a photo of one of the CD's data sides, with a regular CD next to it so we can make a visual comparison? :-)Regular SHM CD on the left, platinum on the right. |
| inu-liger 27.01.2014 17:30 |
Nice, definitely a slightly darker shade with the platinum discs! |
| tero! 48531 28.01.2014 09:20 |
I guess it really shows that ANATO can be re-released in unlimited versions, when some people get excited by a slightly different shade of reflection on the flipside of the disc! I hope you don't take this too personally, but that kind of response is the reason why the whole PtSHM-CD was invented in the first place... |
| Wiley 28.01.2014 10:01 |
So, are 1's and 0's easier to spot on Platinum CDs? What about the old MSFL "Gold" plated releases? I won't judge as I buy countless editions of the same item just because the sleeve is a bit different but... is there REALLY any difference? Also, are sample rates still 44khz (CD quality) or are they 96khz or some thing like that? |
| inu-liger 28.01.2014 22:52 |
tero! 48531 wrote: I hope you don't take this too personally, but that kind of response is the reason why the whole PtSHM-CD was invented in the first place...I hope you don't mind to back off and not intentionally misread into my comments and patronize me in the process. I was only giving my first impression of that particular disc purely on the aesthetics, because I'm always curious about the little details when it comes to certain physical A/V media (I'm actually kind of weird that way, I will admit). Doesn't automatically fucking mean I'm going to waste my money on this shit like some collecting stepford JUST because of the hyped up physical specs in itself. If the reviews out there had strong merit otherwise, THEN I might consider otherwise, but until then my priorities are still elsewhere with regards to collecting. So leave me out of those accusations. |
| Jam Monkey 29.01.2014 06:04 |
Wow, I supose that makes me a collecting stepford who wastes his money on shit! |
| inu-liger 29.01.2014 21:11 |
Sorry JM, didn't intend to mean it in that manner, suppose I could have worded it better. My point was, just cos some new fancy CD variant comes out and I comment on the physical aesthetic differences, doesn't automatically mean I'm going to jump right into collecting such and such particular new variation(s) of CD's and therefore enable record companies to come up with even more unnecessary CD format variations (and multiple re-releases) just to saturate the market, as Tero implied. If that were the case otherwise, my collection would be chock full of Blu-spec CD's, SACD's, SHM-SACD's, etc. you name it. The reality is, I don't even have the BUDGET for that kind of collecting! It's for me well beyond unnecessary redundancy in the context of things when I'm trying to focus on making effective choices instead as to what I want to obtain for my collection. |
| tero! 48531 31.01.2014 05:50 |
inu-liger wrote: I hope you don't mind to back off and not intentionally misread into my comments and patronize me in the process. ... So leave me out of those accusations.It's easy to blame the reader, but the writer has some responsibility as well Your comment on the item was so absurd that it deserved a scathing response to point out just how ridiculous the products (and the customers) have become. Like I said, it wasn't meant to be a personal. |
| Adam Baboolal 31.01.2014 10:31 |
Quite frankly, Tero, you already stated your opinion. No need to bash people over the head with it! Each person likes what they like and will collect whatever they want. You clearly don't want to do anything like that here, and neither would I or Inu-Liger. But I respect that people buy things that they want and will use them however they wish. Jam's clearly happy at his purchase, so try to be happy for him! |
| tero! 48531 31.01.2014 10:57 |
Adam Baboolal wrote: Quite frankly, Tero, you already stated your opinion. No need to bash people over the head with it! Each person likes what they like and will collect whatever they want. You clearly don't want to do anything like that here, and neither would I or Inu-Liger. But I respect that people buy things that they want and will use them however they wish. Jam's clearly happy at his purchase, so try to be happy for him!Why should I be happy for somebody else's purchases? They're irrelevant, and don't affect me at all. I'm not here to approve anybody's purchases, or seek approval for mine. A far as I'm concerned everyone at QZ can praise this or any other release as much as they want... On that same note, I can critisise the releases (not the persons) as much as I want. It just happens that Inu's post sounded like the most banal compliment you could imagine, and THAT deserved a comment. |
| Jam Monkey 31.01.2014 11:45 |
inu-liger wrote: Sorry JM, didn't intend to mean it in that manner, suppose I could have worded it better. My point was, just cos some new fancy CD variant comes out and I comment on the physical aesthetic differences, doesn't automatically mean I'm going to jump right into collecting such and such particular new variation(s) of CD's and therefore enable record companies to come up with even more unnecessary CD format variations (and multiple re-releases) just to saturate the market, as Tero implied. If that were the case otherwise, my collection would be chock full of Blu-spec CD's, SACD's, SHM-SACD's, etc. you name it. The reality is, I don't even have the BUDGET for that kind of collecting! It's for me well beyond unnecessary redundancy in the context of things when I'm trying to focus on making effective choices instead as to what I want to obtain for my collection.Don't worry, I didn't take any offence. It's just my sense of humour I suppose. I agree that most people (including me) need to focus our collecting. Queen collecting doesn't come cheap. It would be a big job to keep up with all those Japanese releases, by my count this is the 12th CD series issued there. |
| mooghead 31.01.2014 15:42 |
And they all sound the same..... |