Friday, October 7, 2011
Rush 6-disc Sector box sets; Fly by Night, A Farewell to Kings, Signals in 5.1 coming November 21st
UPDATE - 10/19@9:43AM: Here's the official press release for the Sector box sets release.
UPDATE - 10/13@4:17PM: 
Here's a low-res promotional image of the box sets courtesy Metal Tim at BW&BK.
Last week we learned via 3 mysterious listings at Amazon.com that Rush will be releasing a set of 3, 5-CD box sets on November 21st named Sector 1, Sector 2 and Sector 3 respectively.
Little was known about these releases until just recently when Eric at Power Windows got his hands on the Universal Music Group's Distribution infosheet:
On November 21st, Universal Music Enterprises (UMe) celebrates the legacy of Canadian rock trio Rush with the release of three separate six-disc box sets which together spans their entire historic Mercury Records recording career. Each 'Sector' contains five of their 15 Mercury albums in chronological order, all transferred to high resolution 96kHz/24-bit and digitally remastered for optimal quality. In addition, each volume includes an exclusive booklet packed with unpublished photos, original album lyrics and credits, and features one album from each set specially remixed on DVD in high resolution 96kHz/24-bit, 5.1 surround sound and stereo, compatible with both DVD-Audio players and DVD-Video players. Each album is packaged in a replica vinyl mini-jacket of the original album release with all three box sets forming a Rush CD road case.
SECTOR 1: Rush - All The World's A Stage, and on DVD in 5.1, Fly By Night
SECTOR 2: A Farewell To Kings - Exit Stage Left, and on DVD in 5.1, A Farewell To Kings
SECTOR 3: Signals - A Show Of Hands, and on DVD in 5.1, Signals
So while we won't be getting all 15 albums mixed in 5.1, we will be getting 3 of them! Not to mention the fact that all 15 will be digitally remastered in high resolution 96kHz/24-bit audio. The packaging sounds very cool too. This was much more than I had expected. All 3 box sets are available for pre-order at Amazon for $45.02 (Sector 1, Sector 2, Sector 3).
Comments
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It's pretty clear to me that the CDs in these sets are going to be standard 16-bit 44.1 kHz CDs like all other CDs. They may be REMASTERED in 24/96 but the final CDs are downsampled to 16/44.1 ... else they would not be on the CD format.
I'm really curious to see the quality of the mini-LP sleeves. They are not all created equal. If they were up to the quality of the Beatles mono box or a lot of those Japanese releases, that would be awesome. If they are more like the ones in recent Sony box sets ... lame.
Hopefully someone will chime in about the quality of the downgraded regular CD's. The DVD may be worth the price alone (with 5.1 and hi-rez 2 channel). I am curious to see if any discernable difference from the remaster series. I really wish they would have at least released those on the DVD or Blu-ray, even if only two channel lossess.
#14 and #15 RIGHT ON! What is with all the "haters" on here. $40 too expensive for 5 discs, come on! If you were to buy the Japanese "mini albums", they cost $35 each. Now they go for two to three times that price. Stop complaining and rejoice in the "RUSH Limelight". By the way, nobody's forcing you to buy it either.
#11
I'm not denying the quality improvement from 16/44.1 to 24/96 or 88.2. I posted in #5 that I would welcome these.
What I'm on the fence about is 5.1 mixes in regards to making something that wasn't intended for 5.1 into that medium. I also was agreeing that I don't think we need another remastered version of the albums' cd quality stereo format.
I'm not sure about the 96/24 versions. With that high of a resolution, I believe the files will be too big to put on a regular 700MB CD. Does anyone know about this? I have a bunch of high res stuff on DVD audio, and in 96/24 the files are huge! Also, they would probably not play on most CD players that currently work with standard 44/16 resolution. I just downloaded "Hot Rocks" by the Rolling Stones in 88/24 format and it is over 1.5GB in size in compressed FLAC format. It is a double album, so that is still over 700MB per disc. A 96/24 sampling rate will have even larger files. How can this be right?
I guess $30-$40 for 5 discs with one being DVD 5.1 is not a bad deal. I am curious how well the increased resolution would be on a regular CD vs DVD or Blu-Ray which gets to Lossless capabilities.
I just ordered all three-why? well, I've always wanted the mini-album cd sleeves, I've been trying to track down a SHM-CD copy of Power Windows for months and I figure this is the next closest thing, and the total for the 3 Sectors was less than 10 dollars a CD on Amazon.com
Oh, and I've been drinking and listening to Hemispheres, too.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. My dad also cannot understand why I spent money on a HD TV and Bluray player because he says he can't tell any difference and that it's a scam to get you to buy the same thing over. Look, if you don't want it and/or simply can't tell the difference that's fine but insulting everyone as saps who want this and can appreciate the difference is embarrassingly silly.
The following first sentence would be more appropriate in the press release: "On Nov.21 Universal Music Enterprises CA$HES IN and EXPLOIT$ the legacy of Canadian rock trio Rush with the release of three $EPARATE $IX-DI$C box $ET$ which together spans their entire LUCRATIVE Mercury Records recording career". Or,"LET'S MAKE AN ATTEMPT TO BUY OUT THEIR ROADRUNNER DEAL. IF THAT FAILS,WE CAN STILL CHEAT THE FANS BY RE-$ELLING THE BACK CATALOG THAT WE AT UNIVERSAL MUSIC PARTIALLY OWN ANYWAY!". That said,I think the whole "surround sound" experience is very overrated. Frankly,instead of the surround sound DVD,why not a DVD of the Fly By Night,A Farewell To Kings,and Signals TOURS in lieu of the "5.1" albums? I'm sure many of us would rather have that ANYTIME! So,#9 I'm in complete agreement with you. No shame whatsoever! In closing,I'm more than happy with my original album and CD catalog. I'll save my money for the Clockwork Angels album and tour. Great comments everybody,have a great weekend!
Bytor and the SnowDog in 5.1. Xanadu and Cygnus X-1 Book 1 too. But too many other major new Rush nuggets coming up for that kind of outlay. When this 3-section set doesn't sell well, they'll probably release the 5.1 DVDs separately....
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