# CURRENT Box sets you want to be reissued with better Packaging / Design / SQ



## Granate (Jun 25, 2016)

I open this thread because the Rare OOP are another topic.

This one is about *CD collections currently on print* that, despite being a bargain, you wouldn't even mind to pay extra price for a new sound remaster, a better cover/sleeve design or overall packaging, information, details.

It's true that CDs have no longer phisical librettos, but I am more concerned now for Orchestral recordings. The main labels are now repackaging: DG is mainly remastering their recordings but they seem far from offering a nice, firm box with a detailed booklet. Warner Classics is now slowly releasing boxes with recordings designed in Original Jacket, plus they offer cardboard sleeves instead of plastic like DG. Sony is doing a very good job too, but I'm from Europe so the CBS and Columbia recordings are not so familiar here.

You can mention anything you own or want to own but you aren't convinced yet. Like:

Picture of Box and year of release
Things you want to improve: Package / Information / Cover Design / Sound Quality or Remaster.

Or even you can talk about boxes currently on print that, although not perfect, are hardly beatable in their edition.

PS. I am not one that complains for orchestral recordings butchered in several CDs, like many Mahler box sets do.


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## Granate (Jun 25, 2016)

*Mahler: Complete Symphonies (Collectors Edition)*
Leonard Bernstein, DG, 2010
ASIN: B0033QC0WY
_Reason: Ugly design, thin plastic sleeves._


















*Bruckner: Symphonies 1-9 (Symphony Edition)*
Herbert von Karajan, DG, 2009
ASIN: B001DCQI8W
_Reason: Uneven desing in box and paper sleeves, maybe a new remaster, I hope. And if it isn't too much, they cound bring up the three individual 7,8 (WPO) and 9 (BPO 66) plus the two Te Deums._

I'd like to buy both, but at the same time I still want to wait for new releases.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Bernstein's Haydn box comes with sleeves that hold the CDs so tightly that you almost need pliers to get them out.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

I don't have it but surely ( but seen it at a friend) the last Mozart box from Universal is a shamble.









The information is good but those cheap sleeves.


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## Johnnie Burgess (Aug 30, 2015)

Pugg said:


> I don't have it but surely ( but seen it at a friend) the last Mozart box from Universal is a shamble.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


It has 200 cd's it would be hard to put them in anything but paper sleeves without taking up a lot of room and using a lot of plastic. How would that be for the environment?


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## Johnnie Burgess (Aug 30, 2015)

Manxfeeder said:


> Bernstein's Haydn box comes with sleeves that hold the CDs so tightly that you almost need pliers to get them out.
> 
> View attachment 96255


Same as with his Mahler set.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Johnnie Burgess said:


> It has 200 cd's it would be hard to put them in anything but paper sleeves without taking up a lot of room and using a lot of plastic. How would that be for the environment?


They could have used some more firm paper like the Mercury Living Presence for example.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

I like the cardboard sleeves. They make it easy to pull one disc and place the sleeve on to another pile of recordings. They are also clearly more clearly labeled than the plastic sleeve paper and frequently reproduce original album covers


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## Granate (Jun 25, 2016)

Pugg said:


> They could have used some more firm paper like the Mercury Living Presence for example.












I agree, they look thick. I think that CDs in cardboard, inside a firm box, can be well-preserved and also save shelf space. In one trip I broke two jewel-cases (CDs unspoiled).


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Manxfeeder said:


> Bernstein's Haydn box comes with sleeves that hold the CDs so tightly that you almost need pliers to get them out.


This is true of a lot of the Sony/BMG issues. And with the Mahler set mentioned by Johnny Burgess, it's compounded by their insistence on using a gatefold sleeve for some of things originally issued that way on LP. EARTH TO Sony/BMG: A CD isn't an LP.

The same problem besets "Wagner at the Met". I've torn several of the sleeves trying to pry the CD's out. These packages were clearly designed by people who don't ever actually use the products they make.

And while I'm ranting:









Nothing wrong with the packaging, which may take up a lot of space, but is quite sturdy and attractive, with complete documentation. Whoever designed this one did a superb job - if only someone had paid such attention to the actual music. This set is riddled with unnecessary breaks in musical continuity - and that's been true of this RING recording through multiple issues. The only acts of this RING that should require a musical break are Rheingold, Act 2 of Walkure, and the Prologue/Act1 of Gotterdammerung. But Act 3 of Walkure, all three acts of Siegfried, and the final two acts of Gotterdammerung are all split between discs. Ridiculous.


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## Granate (Jun 25, 2016)

Manxfeeder said:


> Bernstein's Haydn box comes with sleeves that hold the CDs so tightly that you almost need pliers to get them out.


Now I remember why that situation was familiar to me. In my contemporary pop music collection on CD I have two albums I love in very thick cardboard but also unbearably tight: Chvrches' The Bones of What You Believe (2 Bonus track Edition) and Of Monsters and Men's Beneath the Skin (Standard).

It's a good debate about convenience of the size of cardboard and gatefold sleeves.


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

Tebaldi the greatest female opera recording star for Decca in 1950-60s period (along with Sutherland 1960-70s) gets insulted with bare bones generic cube box career 66 CD collection with white paper sleeves, a disgrace.....notice any difference with the recent mutli box Pavarotti collection as far as quality (and respect for artist)

I guess it would be OK if they offered "both" a bare bones box and a deluxe box, but Miss Tebaldi has only one, la regina deserves much more........

Also the dreaded generic cube boxset returns for Solti Wagner collection, again notice any difference from older set it replaces?


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## Granate (Jun 25, 2016)

DarkAngel said:


> Also the dreaded generic cube boxset returns for Solti Wagner collection, again notice any difference from older set it replaces?


The 90s edition of Solti's Wanger is irreplaceable. The quality of the package is Karajanesque. It won't ever come back I'm afraid. It even has librettos. Don't ever bin it, make your descendants keep it during 50 years and make a fortune selling them for 10 grand.
My doubt is: how is the new Solti Wagner box inside? I have seen that it has a thick booklet but I know nothing about the sleeves. Are they plastic like the rest of DG releases,even the eloquence Böhm Ring? Or cardboard?


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

Granate said:


> My doubt is: how is the new Solti Wagner box inside? I have seen that it has a thick booklet but *I know nothing about the sleeves. Are they plastic like the rest of DG releases,even the eloquence Böhm Ring? Or cardboard*?


I don't have it but I suspect it is the same cheap generic white paper sleeve treatment as Tebaldi box......
Also the Ring in this new Solti boxset is the older 1990s remaster......


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

Granate said:


> *Mahler: Complete Symphonies (Collectors Edition)*
> Leonard Bernstein, DG, 2010
> ASIN: B0033QC0WY
> _Reason: Ugly design, thin plastic sleeves._


It looks all ready for a Fedex Pickup


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## Granate (Jun 25, 2016)

bigshot said:


> It looks all ready for a Fedex Pickup












If they could do the slightest, most unoriginal effort, they could just revamp the first box design. Nothing more. Nothing less:


















I've been revising the whole cycle and I don't think, except for the widely criticised Live 75 Mahler 8, that it needs any remastering effort. Just please go back to the ERTÉ illustrations.


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## Granate (Jun 25, 2016)

DarkAngel said:


> I don't have it but I suspect it is the same cheap generic white paper sleeve treatment as Tebaldi box......
> Also the Ring in this new Solti boxset is the older 1990s remaster......


Yes. I've heard that the 2013 Remastering is not really better than the 1990s one. It's just different.


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

I always loved the artwork from the original DG Bernstein Mahler CDs and have several individual CD sets just because of that


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Granate said:


> Yes. I've heard that the 2013 Remastering is not really better than the 1990s one. It's just different.


The 2013 has better sound. I have both.


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## Granate (Jun 25, 2016)

DarkAngel said:


> I always loved the artwork from the original DG Bernstein Mahler CDs and have several individual CD sets just because of that


I can still buy the 1980s Original CDs one by one, but it would cost me much more money and I also want to save shelf space for other Mahler cycles.
Besides, the Bernstein DG box (Volumes I & II) had cardboard sleeves with the Original Jackets. Maybe some time in the future they release a box with those sleeves only for Mahler. I don't know if the rights of the ERTÉ illustrations were only purchased for the first editions, but the revamp of the OJ discards that situation. I'll be patient.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

I note Sony have just released the complete Rudolf Serkin recordings for around 150 pounds. I am a great Serkin fan but already have plenty of his recordings so I wish Sony had just released the Mozart concertos separately. I don't feel like forking out 150 quid for them!


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## Granate (Jun 25, 2016)

DavidA said:


> I note Sony have just released the complete Rudolf Serkin recordings for around 150 pounds. I am a great Serkin fan but already have plenty of his recordings so I wish Sony had just released the Mozart concertos separately. I don't feel like forking out 150 quid for them!


Sony has been releasing a handful of white boxes (Performer plays Composer) every year. Surely sooner or later your desired box will be available.


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Itullian said:


> The 2013 has better sound. I have both.


Same. The difference is subtle, but on good equipment, you can hear it.


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