Rolling
Stones - Let It Bleed: 50th
Anniversary Limited Deluxe Edition
(1969/ABKCO Records Super Audio CD/SA-CD/SACD Hybrid (CD-compatible)
set w/12-inch & 7-inch vinyl, lithographs, book & poster)
DSD
Sound: A- CD Sound: B+ Extras: A Album: A-
An
excellent wave of Rolling Stones concerts, films and albums keep
hitting the market and we have been able to cover many of them, now
adding an elaborate reissue of their classic Let
It Bleed
(1969) album. If anything, the album has grown in importance,
influence and sounds better than ever. This new set includes the
album twice in both stereo and monophonic versions.
Back
in later 2002, ABKCO issued all the pre-Rolling Stones Records albums
by the band in the Super Audio CD format that was a early rollout of
any major catalog in a higher-definition format than CD and the
results were stunning. We covered a few of the albums from that
group including Let
it Bleed
and you can read all about it at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/403/Rolling+Stones+ABKCO+SACDs+(1963+-+71)
That
was a stereo version, so besides the heavy audiophile vinyl versions
of the album in stereo and mono, a new monophonic-only Super Audio CD
(also with a CD layers that will play on almost any CD player
worldwide) also debuts in this set and diehard fans of that version
will be thrilled. It sounds amazing, though lacking what I prefer in
the stereo edition. After 17 years, that stereo SA-CD holds up
tremendously well like most of the great SA-CDs. You have to have a
player to play the ultra high definition Direct Stream Digital (DSD)
SA-CD tracks, but it is worth having a player that delivers that.
Besides
a Japanese SA-CD of the album that we have not covered/received, but
has had mixed reviews for its quality, it is a single disc like the
older U.S. edition we originally covered and is included in this
superior box set.
The
other hard copy disc (unreviewed) that we do have a few tracks to
compare to are the three sets of sound options for ''You
Can't Always Get What You Want''
and ''Gimme
Shelter''
that appeared on yet another limited edition Rolling Stones release,
the audio-only Pure Audio Blu-ray of the band's greatest hits
entitled Grrr!
Issued in 2012 for the band's 50th
Anniversary, it featured 50 of their biggest and best known hits,
including the debut of many later hits from the current Rolling
Stones Records era.
Only
in stereo like all the SA-CDs that have been issued to date, three
96kHz/24Bit lossless sound options were offered: PCM 2.0 Stereo,
Dolby TrueHD 2.0 Stereo and DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo, the
DTS of which I liked the best. So I compared the Stereo SA-CD's
versions of the two tracks to the tracks here and got interesting
results.
The
Blu-ray had the advantage of being transferred ten years after the
Super Audio CD version and I could hear a little slight detail in a
few instruments I could not hear on the Super Audio CD, but you can
hear a ceiling and sonic limits on the Blu-ray's versions of the
tracks the SA-CD does not have, proving once again how superior the
DSD (Direct Stream Digital) format (oversampled 2.8 Million times!)
is to the other ones (I don't expect those tracks would have been
much better at 192/24 either) on the Blu-ray, so the SA-CD
re-included here more than holds its own. As compared to the mono
SA-CD vs. the Blu-ray, it is more a matter of preference, but the
mono disc also has no ceiling and stereo can only do so much to
compensate for that when it has a ceiling.
Of
course, that begs the question, will any of the classic Stones albums
ever come out in any kind of multi-channel versions down the line?
Late 1960s albums by The Beatles and Yes have already had 5.1
editions issued and the Blu-ray from the Abbey
Road
box set offered stunning 12-track Dolby Atmos versions of their
entire album. I would love to hear and think Stones albums and
singles at least going back to tracks like ''Paint
It Black''
and maybe even back to ''(I
Can't Get No) Satisfaction''
could qualify. Obviously, vinyl fans could care less ands that is
why they in particular should get this set while they can. I was
impressed by how well all the reproduction parts of this box were
done. Also, the cover is one of the greatest in music history with a
great back cover to match.
Extras
and features included in this Limited Edition Numbered Box Sets again
has 2 180 gram LPs in Stereo and Mono with restored original album
art 2 SACDs in Stereo and Mono housed in custom 12" sleeve 7"
single of "Honky
Tonk Women"/
"You
Can't Always Get What You Want"
in Mono with original picture sleeve 80 page hardcover book with
essay by David Fricke and never before seen photos by Ethan Russell
Three 12" x 12" hand-numbered, replica-signed lithographs
printed on embossed archival paper, housed in foil-stamped envelope.
If
you love music and The Stones, you'll want to get this stunning box
of Let
It Bleed while
supplies last. It is one of the best box sets devoted to any classic
album we've seen and heard to date, including all the great Beatles
release in the last few years. It is just amazing!
-
Nicholas Sheffo
