Neil Young Official Release Series, Discs 1-4 - LP Box Set - New/Mint/Sealed

$

460

Neil Young Official Release Series, LPs 1-4 Box Set - New Sealed 
Reprise Records ?– 9362 49769-6
Series: Neil Young Archives Official Release Series – DISC 01-04
Format: 4 × Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Remastered 
Box Set, Compilation, Limited Edition (# 002204)
Country: US 
Released: 01 Dec 2009
Limited edition of 3,000 made available exclusively from becausesoundmatters.com 

Each box, as well as the 4 albums contained inside, carry a gold stamped number. 

Pressed at Pallas on 180g high quality vinyl, and housed in gatefold Stoughton paper-wrapped jackets. 

Contains completley remastered versions of his first 4 solo releases.
For my money the best sounding re-issues I have ever heard. Absolutely beautiful - warm, dynamic, clear, noiseless - and worth every penny.
Review:

What you’re really interested in hearing about is the sound quality of these reissues. But first a word about the packaging: Warner Brothers has gone to the trouble and expense of using deluxe paper over cardboard jackets that are authentic to the originals, though there are barcodes, new catalog numbers and updated mastering credits— all tastefully and respectfully done. All original posters and inserts are included. Pick up the new Harvest  and you’ll be hard-pressed to tell it from the original, so perfectly does the new, thick outer paper stock match the original.

What’s very different about these reissues though, is the sound: I have multiple originals of all of them, including both the original Haeco-CSG version of the debut album and the re-do (obviously, though Warner Brothers and Young went with the original cover, the second mix was used) and I have to tell you, these reissues, mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman and pressed at Pallas in Germany (buy a copy of my second DVD It’s a Vinyl World, After All  and you can take a guided tour of Pallas, shot in high definition), sound far superior  to the originals. Look, I’ve been listening to these four albums for up to forty years  now and I was not prepared for what I heard on all four of these albums. Grundman’s chain is sounding better than ever after what I hear are a series of upgrades. 

Starting with the second album, Young arranged for multiple voices, often his own multi-tracked, but never before have the individual voices been so clearly locked in three dimensional space and timbrally distinct. The way the voices project into 3D space (including Young’s main centered one) is positively eerie (assuming your system can reproduced this, because trust me, it’s in the grooves in a way it’s not on the originals). Instrumental textures are far richer, fuller and better defined. Harmonics are fully fleshed out. Reverb trails extend to infinity before disappearing into background pitch blackness. There is so much more there there in every respect, it’s almost stupefying. You can see Young before the microphone and experience every little vocal tick and breath pressurization. It’s not important because you can hear these details. It’s important because hearing them imparts greater meaning to the proceeding and certainly a greater appreciation of his singing and the deliberateness of his communications skills.

I wish I could tell you that the 140g versions, pressed, I assume,  from the same stampers, sounded as good, but even correcting for the VTA/SRA differences, they don’t. They do sound plenty good, mind you, and better than the originals, but not quite as good as the 180g versions contained in the box set. And good as the Blu-ray versions are at 192k/24 bit, they don’t touch the vinyl.So, my advice is: when the numbered, limited edition box is finally introduced shortly, if you’re as big a Neil fan as I am, don’t hesitate until it’s too late. Buy and enjoy this box set. Warner Brothers, thanks to the tireless and meticulous efforts of Warner Brothers Senior Vice President and vinyl fanatic Tom Biery, demonstrates yet again, that it is possible for a major label to do vinyl correctly: cutting from analog masters, pressing at the best plants and packaging to provide fans with the genuine experience. It’s sad that the others don’t have the will to properly manage the task.