New Grateful Dead Box

[TommyTunes]

Picked it up at lunch today of far I only had a chance to listen to Athem of the Sun in the car. Very crisp sound, good resolution of detail but not to smooth. However the shear volume of it is staggering, all their WB lp's each loaded with bonus tracks and 2 cd's of new(should say unreleased) material all in digipacks with their own booklets. The 80 book is not the last word in Dead history but does have some interesting photos.
If you love vintage Dead, like I do, it's an incredible offering. Best Buys is getting $109 this week.

[Unknown]

They're all in digipaks? C-R-A-P. Dammit, and I was so looking forward to buying this set.

[Sckott]

I agree. Digipaks suck mule butt. They tend to be fairly fragile in handling, get scarred up in storage easilly, and tend to be less easy to work with in general. Once the center spoke-wheel gets weak or breaks, the digipak is useless. I guess I'd just put them in regular jewel boxes and carefully shelve the rest. Anthem Of The Sun was a great album too. Sounds like WB is slurping up the extra in profits from this money saving scheme. /rant.

[Unknown]

What annoys me most of all is that it would have probably cost WB around 50 cents to include jewel box inserts for those of us (most likely a substantial majority of consumers) who prefer jewel boxes to digipaks. I don't have any problem buying jewel boxes for the discs, but printing up inserts is a pain in the ***. Hopefully some creative Dead Head computer geek will do up some fancy downloadable inserts.

[Unknown]

Um...I don't really get all the complaining about the digipaks? Aside from possibly busting the middle ring, I'd rather have them for the simple fact that I know I won't be adding another broken or cracked jewel case to some landfill. Take care of your collection, enjoy the music and things will be just fine.

[Matt]

Anyone have the Genius of Soul box set, the one Rhino put out by Ray Charles? The jewel boxes they used for those look fabulous, and I think they're better made, so they aren't as brittle as your typical jewel case. That's the sort of packaging I'd like to see on more box sets: jewel cases made with better plastic.

[Unknown]

Actually, jewel boxes are supposed to be recylcable. Digipaks apparently aren't. Believe me, digipakks aren't any more environmentally friendly than jewel boxes.

[Unknown]

Any plastic products that can be recycled need the recycle symbol and the number that corresponds to the type of plastic it is so they can be properly identified. Jewel cases have neither of these markers. If you know this information, pass it along, perhaps they can be recycled?

The point is, your less prone to chucking something housed in paper because the artwork is integral with the case. You wouldn't throw away an old LP sleeve just because it isn't brand new or has a few nicks on the cover? You might seek a fresher copy, but.....this way you and I are responsible for what we've purchased and how we treat it.

[Matt]

If you want to recycle jewel cases, they're made of polystyrene. The good thing is, even if they don't have this symbol, if you drop them off at a recycling facility and tell someone they're PS or, in some cases, just label them as such, they'll recycle them. Back when I was in grade school, I did the same with comic bags that were LDPE but weren't marked as such, and they were okay with that.

The bad thing is, polystyrene recycling is pretty spotty. Most facilities around the Chicago area don't take them, to my knowledge.