Rudy
Member
Let me start with saying that I am not a reviewer. This is my personal impression of the Queen - Studio Collection box set, which I bought from Music Direct for $399. As a Queen fan I was looking forward to that since its introduction in July. Although I was skeptical about the colored vinyl. I personally prefer black vinyl. And I was also skeptical that the records were recorded from digital files. I wanted to post a link here to the official Queen site where they explain why it was mastered from digital, but for some reason they pulled the box set. Here is a quote from the official Queen site which I copied a few month ago:
“The original plan was to master everything straight from the analogue mix tapes, where available. But in fact most of those tapes, having suffered from the effects of time, were in need of some restoration. The problems encountered included speed errors, missing audio, newly developing clicks and other unwanted noise. So the decision was made to create new super-high quality digital masters, using 24 bit samples and a sampling rate of 96 kHz. All the restoration was then performed in the digital domain, and the vinyl was cut from these perfected files. All restoration was carried out with the lightest of touches, with a profound respect for the originals, and the resulting masters are undoubtedly the finest ever.”
The 15 Albums (18 records in total) come in a nice box with a book. Each album is wrapped in a outer plastic sleeve which is kind of fragile. The inner sleeves are poly lined paper sleeves with cut corners. The book is really beautiful and contains a lot of pictures, statements, interviews from each band member and the history of Queen. I was listening every day to one record. And while I was listening I read the chapter from the book to each particular record. Two weeks. Every day Queen. What a blast !
Regarding the sound quality: First of, I have no comparison to the original because I sold them a long time ago. A mistake which I will not repeat. The quality of the sound gets better with each record. Queen, Queen II are OK. ‘Sheer Heart Attack’ and ‘News Of The World’ are better. ‘The Miracle’ and ‘A Kind Of Magic’ are awesome. I would say that the different sound quality has to do with the recording studios and technics over the time when those records where made. There is a lot of information in the book. And I can not hear that it was mastered from digital.
The vinyl quality on the other hand is another story. There are a quite some clicks and pops, which does not bother me to much. But there are ‘scrritcch’ sounds on some of the records which go like for half a revolution or less. The sound is like when you tear up a piece of paper. There must be some debris in the grooves. I clean every record with my VPI 16.5 before I play it. But I could not get rid of this debris. Perhaps it is groove damage. Whatever it is, I can not see it because of the colored vinyl. All records look perfect. And some of them have such a vibrant color that you think you hold a huge candy in your hands. Don’t lick it !
IMHO the main reason why colored vinyl is not such a good idea is that the people from the QC at the pressing plant cannot see that there is something wrong with the vinyl and release it.
The last 2-3 days of listening and reading the book were very emotional, at least to me. So, is it worth it? YOU BETCHA ! Even with the imperfection in the vinyl they are still better than the ones I had. And reading the book while listening to the records was an awesome experience.
“The original plan was to master everything straight from the analogue mix tapes, where available. But in fact most of those tapes, having suffered from the effects of time, were in need of some restoration. The problems encountered included speed errors, missing audio, newly developing clicks and other unwanted noise. So the decision was made to create new super-high quality digital masters, using 24 bit samples and a sampling rate of 96 kHz. All the restoration was then performed in the digital domain, and the vinyl was cut from these perfected files. All restoration was carried out with the lightest of touches, with a profound respect for the originals, and the resulting masters are undoubtedly the finest ever.”
The 15 Albums (18 records in total) come in a nice box with a book. Each album is wrapped in a outer plastic sleeve which is kind of fragile. The inner sleeves are poly lined paper sleeves with cut corners. The book is really beautiful and contains a lot of pictures, statements, interviews from each band member and the history of Queen. I was listening every day to one record. And while I was listening I read the chapter from the book to each particular record. Two weeks. Every day Queen. What a blast !
Regarding the sound quality: First of, I have no comparison to the original because I sold them a long time ago. A mistake which I will not repeat. The quality of the sound gets better with each record. Queen, Queen II are OK. ‘Sheer Heart Attack’ and ‘News Of The World’ are better. ‘The Miracle’ and ‘A Kind Of Magic’ are awesome. I would say that the different sound quality has to do with the recording studios and technics over the time when those records where made. There is a lot of information in the book. And I can not hear that it was mastered from digital.
The vinyl quality on the other hand is another story. There are a quite some clicks and pops, which does not bother me to much. But there are ‘scrritcch’ sounds on some of the records which go like for half a revolution or less. The sound is like when you tear up a piece of paper. There must be some debris in the grooves. I clean every record with my VPI 16.5 before I play it. But I could not get rid of this debris. Perhaps it is groove damage. Whatever it is, I can not see it because of the colored vinyl. All records look perfect. And some of them have such a vibrant color that you think you hold a huge candy in your hands. Don’t lick it !
IMHO the main reason why colored vinyl is not such a good idea is that the people from the QC at the pressing plant cannot see that there is something wrong with the vinyl and release it.
The last 2-3 days of listening and reading the book were very emotional, at least to me. So, is it worth it? YOU BETCHA ! Even with the imperfection in the vinyl they are still better than the ones I had. And reading the book while listening to the records was an awesome experience.
