The Big O: Roy Orbison Singles Collection

[btomarra]

Need some info on this from all you fellow audiophiles out there. Sony US was to release this domestically but at the last minute pulled it. It is a UK release. It features the Monument A-sides on disc one, the b-sides on disc two as well as both album and stereo mixes of Oh Pretty Woman.

I have a question on the source tapes for this release. Candy Man has some crackles (almost like a distortion) every time Roy's vocal comes in. I have the DCC release and love it. None of that noise appears on it. This import has some great b-sides like Born On The Wind. Over all the sound is excellent.

Does anybody own this? And are the source tapes from copies or vinyl. I e-mailed Sony UK on this and can't get a reply. Wish they released it here!

Thanks! :confused:

[Mal]

Brian,

I picked this set up a few months ago. I was dissapointed that it did not feature the original single mixes (apart from "Oh Pretty Woman") but at least it contained the B-sides.

One of the first things I noticed was that "Goodnight" sounded like it had been mastered from a vinyl source. The odd thing is that they didn't use the 45 for this - it is the stereo mix. Other releases on CD use a tape source for this stereo mix (and it sounds fine to me) so I'm not sure why this was not used for this release.

As for the overall quality - I haven't listened to it that much (which can be a telling sign as to the quality of the mastering!) but I was not too impressed. Of course, next to Steve's mastering, it doesn't stand a chance. In its favour, at least the transfers seem to be fairly pure (ie no obvious signs of processing).

Anyone know about the reason for the vinyl transfer of "Goodnight"?