The Complete Singles Collection

[hodgo]

I have to say that whilst I admire the work of Steve Hoffman I can't bear to visit his forum as there are far to many people opinionated people who think that every recording should be transfered flat from every tape and that any form of compression is evil and that any body but Mr Hoffman must be useless - which is not living in the real world.

I wish SACD had taken off - I don't think it's even made a minor mark in the UK. In the US there is a small following leading to things like some Nat King Cole albums being issued in 3.0 surround (Basically the 3 track tapes transfered to disc) These must be quite incredible - if only I had a SACD player and a surround system!

Richard

Richard you are 100% right about the Hoffman forums, it's full of of complete nutters, the amount times I have to hold myself back from saying something like "GET A LIFE" is ridiculous also many of them are Yanks with too much money who believe they are never wrong, but if you read between the snobbery and use our British common sense it's possible to pick out a lot of great knowledge and discard the chaff.

My ears originally told me something was way wrong with various modern remasters as with the Bowie remasters, so I tried to find out why & ended up discovering Hoffmans forum, I immediatly saw it was full of opinionated aggressive people who have the loudest voices, but if you persevere and look wisely you can find sensible info, for example I had a Sammy Davis Jnr collection on universal it's way too compressed, loud & noise reduced that I can't listen to it, I found out via Hoffmans forums about one on BMG that was supposedly better so I bought it and it was much more natural, so it's just a matter of ignoring the idiots & pick out the good bits.

Regarding Steve Hoffmans Nat King Cole SACD's, there's 7 of them and mine are all on Pre Order, I can't wait to hear the original 3 tracks along with the mono versions on my SACD player and surround set up, they'll be truly fabulous, Hoffman had to get special equipment built to transfer to the quality he desired for them, so they really will be that good.

[Don Cooper]

Ooh er, Missus. I re-read my post from last night and realised the crack about Parka and Anorak,
which was meant to upgrade the latter to the former,could be construed as disrespecting my
erstwhile conversationalists-never my intention.Bugger!
As Zsa Zsa would say, " I love you all, Dahling's! "

Don

To don my Parka again for a minute, sometimes it's fun to go retro.Sainsbury's sell a little
USB/battery-powered mini-speaker in the guise of a mini-guitar amp with cod bass and treble pots.
The fun I have playing Matt through it and imagining he has lugged it to my house to play an
impromptu gig. I Love the Little Things anyone?

[Don Cooper]

btw, Graham

on my SACD player and surround set up

...

Yanks with too much money

...

Speak as I find, lad.

(I'm only crawling.Trawl back through my earlier post's and you will confront my Uncle Sam moment. On me like a pack of Coyotes, they were.)

Best from Brum

Don

[john]

I have just ordered mine from Amazon this morning, slightly more expensive than HMV but still very reasonable at £11.99.

[Rmoore]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002 ... B002WJMW8K

This is the direct link to The Complete Singles Collection.

Richard

[hodgo]

btw, Graham

on my SACD player and surround set up

...

Yanks with too much money

...

Speak as I find, lad.

(I'm only crawling.Trawl back through my earlier post's and you will confront my Uncle Sam moment. On me like a pack of Coyotes, they were.)

Best from Brum

Don

Hey Don

I have some great American friends that I've come across over the years, but that said from what I see on various forums my comments above hold true for a sizeable number.

I know I have an SACD player & surround set up, but it doesn't mean I or anyone else for that matter is loaded, but when you go on Hoffman and other hi-fi forums, and you see threads like..."What is the best Stylus for around $5000", or folks who have Hi fi set up's where the CD player cost $5000 and total hi-fi cost is around $20000 or more (Those figures are the low side it's often higher) , or they'll pay hundreds for a particular vinyl pressing, it does make you think.

These are by no way the majority and most are great folks, but you do find a lot of agressive Americans whose opinion you can't argue with and who can give criticism but will not take it, they are often the loudest element who give the decent folk a bad name, but luckily they are the minority and once you realise that and ignore what is a minority, a place like Steve Hoffmans forum is pretty good and I know some lovely American folk who are frinendly, knowledgeable & helpful.

Graham

[paul jh]

I just pre-ordered from HMV. The shipping cost to the US is more than half the price of the five CDs.

[Lena & Harry Smith]

The price is right from HMV, but like John, we have ordered ours from Amazon.

[Marian]

The majority of items I've orderd from Amazon have arrived safely, but in the last few months two just haven't materialised at all, one was for a Christmas present, so I'm a little apprehensive about ordering from them, especially as HMV are so competetive. Still waiting for HMV's pre-order to be listed for The Greatest though.
I also see Amazon haven't responded to Richard's post on the site about the listings for The Greatest being incorrect.
They also haven't informed me when both releases would become available to order, that I signed up for.
Marian.

[Lena & Harry Smith]

Yes, it does become frustrating waiting for goods to arrive, although we can't say that we ourselves have had that problem with Amazon, but there's always a first time.
We've generally found that Amazon dispatch quicker than HMV due to HMV encirculing Jersey, or is it Guernsey ??, but another reason is, we were given Amazon gift vouchers from some friends for Christmas and decided to use those.

[Marian]

I expect I've just been unlucky Lena and Harry.
Nice and useful gift to have for Christmas. Have you used your Woolworths one yet?!!!!!

[Lena & Harry Smith]

I mentioned it to my cousin who had given these gifts to both my Sister and I .
She had forgotten what she had given us. When I told her, she fell about laughing and said try spending it at Wellworths.

[hodgo]

I order around 200 or more CD's a year from Amazon & it's resellers and to date I've never had a problem yet, from my point of view it's the most reliable company for such things.

[paul jh]

I feel it's important to order from the last great British record chain, HMV. They have ventured into other products lately, but their focus has always been music.

Having said that, I'll probably be ordering The Greatest from cdwow to get the free shipping from Asia.

Richard or Administrator: Can this thread be moved to a new special section on the Complete Singles Collection, so we can find everything in one place. (This also applies to The Greatest thread; it needs its own section as well.) Thanks!

[Glenn]

Hi everyone

I had an email from HMV this afternoon to say my order is in the post....

#So spread sunshine all over the place
Just put on a happy face#