Definitive Mastering Failure
354530
my goal was to get this one-disc set and replace my 2 cd set (Smiling Phases), because this one hits all the highlights in one easy to program shot! unfortunately between the 1991 release of Smiling Phases and this one from 2007 (?), Universal took charge and destroyed the mastering.. I was hoping this disc simply transferred the old, outstanding mastering to this release.. I knew better, but hope nagged at me to at least try..
729041
I must agree and add my $0.02. It is VERY OBVIOUS to me that this is too loud on the mastering job.

If I could send it back, I would - they screwed this up. People spending this much money should have the real deal

Here's a CRAZY IDEA - with a zillion discs in these 'deluxe' editions, WHY NOT HAVE THE MAIN ALBUM PRESENTED WITH PROPERLY NORMALIZED AUDIO AND ANOTHER WITH THE LOUD VERSION - People might actually learn the difference.

PS: In general, you're better with a properly mastered CD and turning up the volume yourself
1382340
I'll keep it short and sweet. The album is fun for any Star Wars fan... The one star is for the garbage mastering job on this red, "high definition" cd... Compressed audio, noises and wacky sound levels. I sent mine back!! The CD I made from my record sounds way better!
4353038
The vinyl was good.  The CD was mastered in 1988 and it is *absolutely horrible*.  Weird compression artifacts and imbalances, loss of depth, and the pipes take on a weird shrillness which is the exact opposite of what most listeners probably seek.  Awful.  Painful.
1979380
The Legend Films DVD release was improperly mastered with both the B/W and color versions overly bright, and that error has been maintained with the mastering the Blu-ray. There are no blacks, just light grays, and the tonal balance is all off and wan. One must significantly lower the brightness on one's display to get an acceptable image. The colorizing looks much better as well when darkened. I'm of the feeling that the image was brightened for colorizing, but then it wasn't darkened again (as it should've been) before final mastering.

As far as the HD upgrade, it is minor. It appears that a great deal of digital noise reduction was used, leaving patterns and edges of objects rather waxy. It also shows up how some of the colors bleed over on different objects. I only paid about $9 fo this Blu-ray, but come on... At LEAST get the brightness issue corrected!

Legend Films - why?!
3983305
Great music obviously, but awful remastering - even worse than the 3CD Chrome Box. Sounds thin and tinny, like it's coming out of a transistor radio. The mighty Chrome deserve better, but they'll never get it as long as they're on Cleopatra.
4217212
I'll agree with other reviews in that this is one of the most butchered remasters I've heard. Maybe the good mastering engineers just aren't around anymore. Overcompressed, overEQ'd, thin.
1845465
The DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound on the Blu-ray audio disc is one of the finest recordings of all time!!! After  my buddies & I listened to it...we all looked at each other & the exact same words came out of our mouths...I want all my recordings to sound like that!!! Steven Wilson is a master at remixing for surround sound!!!
Once you hear the 96/24 DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound NONE of the other Mixes included in this box measure up! They are all pathetic by comparison! If you like surround sound and want the finest recording EVER...spend the $100 plus dollars for this box set...just to get this Blu-ray disc!!!
3383043
I love this album, and I bought the 2CD collector's edition mainly for the 2nd disc, which includes the 12'' single version of Temptation. Unfortunately, it's another victim of The Loudness Wars, and is overly compressed and too loud. I can't stand how so many albums are ruined by too loud re-mastering!!! They did it with N.O. "Singles" too (although I have recently seen they have re-re-mastered it a bit bit less loud). Hang on to your old albums and records, they'll be worth more when people finally realize how record companies are now apparently managed by greedy, tone-deaf accountants who seem Hell bent on destroying all good music by re-mastering-re-packaging-regurgitating the same stuff over and over in progressively worse editions . *sigh*
4351647
As is usually the case, I find myself in general agreement with Madamemusico.  I am a little more favorably impressed with this recording's Robert Merrill and the Robert Shaw Chorale than she is--a relatively small variance.

Nevertheless, I give this set a miserly one star to her five.  The reason is quite simple: this is, in my opinion, a botched remastering and, alas, one all-too characteristic of today's EMI.  Perhaps the company's recording engineers are deaf, indifferent, incompetent, morbidly fond of consonants, or some weird combination of these things.  The result is a marked deterioration in sound quality in this "Pagliacci" from the old Lp issues.

Poor Bjorling is the worst victim.  On my first (and only!) playing of this set, I was brought up short again and again by ghastly wheezes or exaggerated consonants or apparent clicks of teeth.  I was repeatedly forced to declare to myself that Jussi just did not sound like that.  So much of my attention was forced, willy-nilly, upon mere sounds that, for all intents and purposes, the performance was lost.

The upshot was that I finally admitted to myself that I had purchased a lemon.  I have ejected this wretched thing from my collection, casting it out into uttermost darkness.  I replaced it with the excellent Naxos remastering (based on old Lp versions), available here in Canada, at least.  That version is fully worthy of Madamemusico's five stars.
1387804
I was surprised and hopeful to find a 2012 ABBA compilation - there have been several remastering issues over the years.  This is far and away the WORST compilation sound-wise that I have ever heard.  I had three fillings before listening to this set, and now have only one left.  The bass is extremely high, the vocals are dampened, and it just generally sounds like a transfer from an old 8-track.

The tracklist is impressive, but the quality is embarrassing.  I fully recommend THE DEFINITIVE COLLECTION over this piece of crap.  Whoever 'mastered' this set should be jailed for crimes against ABBA.
2570355
A fairly quick internet search of some of the audiophile forums will reveal the issues with the Culture Factory "remasters" of many of their titles. In particular, this wonderful Suzanne Vega sophomore effort is horridly hampered by brickwalled remastering that over-modulates Ms Vega's vocals (most notable on the opening track, "Tom's Diner." This brickwalling continues with bass drums on several tracks that land with an over-loud thud not meant to be a part of the album's originally mastered soundscape. In particular, tracks like "Ironbound," "Calypso," and "Language" are rendered almost unlistenable. This CD is way, way too loud. If you can track down a copy of the original 1987 pressing or a regular domestic pressing from A&M, trust me and the several others online and steer clear of this unfortunate mess.
85708
Choppy recording Ends of songs cut off Skipping The whole feeling/atmosphere of All of the music is ruined by flaws
4195515
Firstly, I don't know what a review from 2005 is doing under this product description.  This is not an adverse comment on the review, merely a statement that it is irrelevant to this 2008 Japanese SHM-CD release.  Universal Music KK  and Warner Music Japan have released in limited quantities pressings called SHM-CD or Super High Quality, which supposedly gives unprecedented clarity of sound and requires no special player.  Unfortunately, the source material they have used is second rate, and all you get, in most cases, is a clearer version of a bad master.  In this particular case, the sound is muddy and has no sparkle or dynamic.  If you compare some of the tracks that have been remastered and appear on Crosby Stills & Nash Greatest Hits&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Greatest-Hits/dp/B0002NUTSI/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Greatest Hits</a>&nbsp;and Neil Young's Greatest Hits&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Greatest-Hits/dp/B00063EMJ6/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Greatest Hits</a>&nbsp;you will hear how they should sound. Why would anyone pay over US$40 for a poorly mastered and muddy sounding SHM-CD when they can buy the standard versions cheaper and get excellent sound ?  I have yet to find a case to substatiate the claims of Universal and Warner Japan regarding this new format (they released Carly Simon's 'No Secrets' using a 37 year old master !).  EMI have their own 'new' format to extract higher prices from buyers called HQ-CD (High Quality CD) and Sony Japan have just released their take, called Blu-Spec - and no, it has nothing to do with Blu-Ray players.  Take my advice and buy the local product that has been carefully remastered.  I have yet to hear a 'great' CD remaster of Deja Vu, despite its classic status.  We wait in hope.
3360532
This is a great record from Down Under in the early 80s!  The mastering is so ridiculously loud, you can barely make out that you're hearing drums.  Avoid this and stick with the vinyl and youtube.
4681784
Amazing collection, brilliant to have the first five albums together, but TOTALLY RUINED by the sound quality. I concur with the other reviewers who pointed this out, and can't understand why some would-be reviewers think the sound quality is great. Bah! The 1992 Fontana CDs are much richer, and you can actually hear the bass lines, and most importantly, his voice sounds resonant and "big". On these new so-called remasters, the bass is lost, the sound is thin, and his voice is recorded so sharply that if you play it loud, it almost takes your head off. I think that record companies should be held to account for shoddy mastering jobs like this, and made to respond to complaints. Why wasn't Walker himself enraged? All I can say that the magic of these discs has gone, because what was a gorgeous, almost liquid sound picture is now flat and lifeless.
352174
The albums in this box-set feature some of the worst "loudness war" mastering I've ever had the chance to analyze. I'm not going to get into much detail on what the "loudness war" is - look it up on Google and YouTube for a few thousand examples. In simple terms, a recording is said to have been victimized by the "loudness war" when it was mastered with the audio volume so high that it exceeds the limits of the CD format specifications. Among other nasty effects like unwanted distortion and loss of dynamic range, this usually causes "clipping", that is, parts of the audio simply don't "fit" into the CD's volume range and are cut off, or in other words, lost. It doesn't matter if you play a "loudness war" CD at low or high volume - it will always sound distorted, uncomfortable to listen to, and you simply won't be hearing everything that was in the original recording because much of the audio was lost or damaged in the production of the CD. Recording companies have been cannibalizing musical masterpieces like these albums for years now, and I wonder why no class action has been filed against them yet for what is, in a nutshell, a crime against the consumers.