Roy Orbison - The All Time Greatest Hits of Roy Orbison

Great Addition To Your Music Collection-Much Better than the DDC Version!

Just received my copy and right away I wanted to compare it to my several year old DCC version. This new release tops it in everyway, everything stands out more, Roy, background vocals and the bass is tight and clean.

The DCC comes across as I always felt dull, veiled and noisy sounding mush like the DCC release of Elvis is Back (buy the FTD version). DCC has a sound to their release and most have a veil over the production, dullness if you will.

The Sound is open and clean, yet holds enough musical warmth and body; Mobile did a nice job with the balance across the musical spectrum. I will say the DDC version Roy voice sounds a bit warmer due to the production that keeps everything on the warm, warm side.

Having owned the LP of this CD, I can tell you the Mobile nails it much better then the DCC did, and I enjoyed owning the DCC due to just being able to own the release.

Great find and I am very glad this album was released again, the Sony Essential collection does not hold a candle to this release, these are the original songs from a classic singer and this truly is a classic release worth your purchasing dollars.

Buy it, sit back and enjoy!

August 17, 2008

"I want that one" - no standard discs any more, thanks

Superlative quality! You all know the songs; it's just a question of what quality this CD is. Well, I couldn't believe the difference between this and my standard Big O CDs eg. the Rhino release "For The Lonely". I always thought that was good quality. Now I can directly compare. What a revelation.

This sound is richer, deeper, louder - yet softer around the edges (that analogue feel) - while having far better clarity. Vocals are more pure, especially when played loud.

It's as simple as this: once you hear this, you're expectations of a CD are likely to change forever. The value for money equation is overwhelming. Instead of regarding gold etc discs as being only for special albums I now regard this quality as being my buying objective and I only buy "normal" CDs when this quality is not available - and then very reluctantly. Cut down on something else!

All these years buying "normal" CDs without realising what a huge quality difference there can be. As my son pointed out, for ~$30, we got a quality improvement that would take thousands of $ in hifi upgrade to achieve. I'm now searching far and wide to upgrade as much of my collection as I can. August 6, 2008

5 stars for sound quality although this isn't my ideal Orbison Anthology for track selection

This is the second go round on a audiophile gold disc for "The All Time Greatest Hits of Roy Orbison" so which one to get? It's a no brainer really--pay less than $30 for this terrific remastering job (which just sounds different than Steve Hoffman's marvelous remaster from a decade ago for DCC)or $87 for the DCC. This blows away the conventional release in terms of sound quality with better warmth and a smoother more analog sound. Heck it even beats the pants off the compilation "For the Lonely" released by Rhino (although this is missing 3 songs on that compilation but has additional songs NOT on that compilation as well).

The running order replicates the original Volumes 1 and 2 of this set. Based on my recollections this is comparable to the DCC but sounds slightly different--both sound terrific (I can't locate the DCC right now)but is every bit the equal of the FLAC files from that release I have on my computer (keep in mind that FLAC files although they are digitally identical to the original CD files can have a variation in sound just from being transposed from one medium to another--I know it sounds contradictory but I've found that to be the case as have others for what it is worth. DIfferences would be extremely subtle however and you might not really notice them depending on your system).

The only complaint I have with this set is the same one that I had for the original and the DCC--I'm not a big fan of all the songs included and would have rather have seen a "Best of" that focuses on the best songs that Roy released not necessarily all the radio hits. Songs like "Pretty Paper" for example have an appeal that continue to elude me. I've never liked it and probably never will. Some of the other songs are a bit too ordinary and Roy had some better material on some of his albums but even the ordinary ones have a special spark to them.

This version comes in a gatefold sleeve that has all original artwork from the previous editions of the album plus a four page booklet with information on the recordings and a brief essay. As with the DCC the new edition of "The All Time Greatest Hits of Roy Orbison" sounds terrific--it's open, has a smooth analog feel and tone to it and hasn't had the sound artifically boosted for the digital domain.

In short, it sounds terrific. It may be a tad louder than the original DCC (hard to say since I don't have the DCC to compare it to at the moment)and some slightly different EQ choices but, if so, it's not noticably so and the original dynamics of the songs are kept in tact. I didn't detect any digital compression to alter the sound. July 7, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...