Bargains

[Dave2002]

There are five Seon discs on this Gustav Leonhardt 80th birthday set which I acquired ten years ago. They seem to be the only discs I have from that label and while they are well worth having, I note that they do not offer great length per disc value - around 40 -50 minutes. If that is the case for a large number of the 85 discs on that box, you are not getting a favourable shelf space to time ratio.

However, still much better than jewel cases for individual CDs.

[Bryn]

Is there a “new” SEON box? I bought one a year or more back. Haven’t played too many of that one. The Vivarte looks good.

If space is really the only issue, plastic boxes such as these might help - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Whatmore-11...orage+boxes+cd

However they might only give a temporary reprieve, and eventually something has to give, or go.

A great pity that Poundworld folded. They used to sell a similarly sized clear plastic box with lid for, um, £1. I wish I had bought a few more while they were available. As it is, all 80 CDs from the Sony Leonard Bernstein Edition Concertos and Orchestral Works box are now housed in one such. They were/are just big enough to take jewel cases, too.They were supplied by TML, described as "Storage Box & Lid" with the br code product number 5 022092 001029. I will follow up that link, which I only just bothered to search for. They hold around 24 CDs in jewel cases, or over 80 in card slip-cases.



[I now find thay are availalbe via amazon.co.uk for £2.99, with 'free' p&p, or 10 for £19.99]

[gurnemanz]

Those plastic boxes may be practical but are hardly an aesthetic enhancement to a living space.

[Bryn]

Those plastic boxes may be practical but are hardly an aesthetic enhancement to a living space.

Whereas these things are?

[Dave2002]

A great pity that Poundworld folded. They used to sell a similarly sized clear plastic box with lid for, um, £1. I wish I had bought a few more while they were available. As it is, all 80 CDs from the Sony Leonard Bernstein Edition Concertos and Orchestral Works box are now housed in one such. They were/are just big enough to take jewel cases, too.They were supplied by TML, described as "Storage Box & Lid" with the br code product number 5 022092 001029. I will follow up that link, which I only just bothered to search for. They hold around 24 CDs in jewel cases, or over 80 in card slip-cases.



[I now find thay are availalbe via amazon.co.uk for £2.99, with 'free' p&p, or 10 for £19.99]

Not sure about those particular boxes. Some boxes are really too big, though can hold a lot of CDs. I quite like the long ones which hold about 50 CDs in jewel cases, and can be stacked. [I gave a link for one such, earlier in this thread]
I have had several deliveries of those over the last few years, and at quite reasonable prices - I think actually somewhat lower than the price for the box I linked to earlier on.

Re aesthetics - yes - I agree - but put them in cupboards or under a bed - out of sight. Also, rip the CDs to hard drive, so that the physical copies are just kept for reserve. However, that can be a faff.

Using boxes may simply delay the "problem" of having too many CDs and DVDs becoming critical.

Unfortunately putting the boxes into lofts and the garage (which at present I have had to do for some of mine ...) is not a good idea, as those environments might get too hot or too damp. I'm hoping that my own use of such overflow areas is only temporary, and won't lead to really big problems long term.

[gurnemanz]

Whereas these things are?

Quite. I have those Bernstein discs. They are stored loose in a CD rack. This works fine. The absurdly impractical packaging is in the loft.

[MickyD]

Wow - that's pricey. I didn't pay anything like that. That's the only one I know about too.

Fear not, folks, you haven't missed a second SEON box...I was just saying that I never bought the original one due to lack of shelf space! Would still like it, though....

[Dave2002]

Readers from or in the US might find these of interest - https://www.classicselect.com/collec...-99-cents-each

I think that's a current active site so the 99 cents price should hold.

I stumbled across this almost completely by accident. Following the JSB Cantatas thread I looked for BWV 60, which lead to Harnoncourt on Qobuz. From there I noticed the Big Harnoncourt Box (available from Am.uk for around £7.99) and later the Big Gustav Leonhardt box (am.uk for around £10.99). I have had some of the Bach Guild download collections before - sometimes they have performances which seem otherwise unobtainable. A wider search led to the site mentioned at the top, which appears to be offering each collection for 99 cents.

An odd thing about the Big Harnoncourt box - from the Bach Guild - is that there's hardly any music by Bach on it. Currently listening to Rameau via Qobuz. The sound quality isn't great - maybe it would be better if I connected to a more powerful system - but the music is unusual enough to be worth checking out. Maybe someone like Jayne or Bryn could comment if it's better on the higher quality Qobuz streams - I suspect it probably won't be, but I could be pleasantly surprised.

[mathias broucek]

You can buy from that site from the UK. Bit rate is only 256 so not as good as Qobuz. I bought the complete Haydn Quartes and was happy enough

[Dave2002]

You can buy from that site from the UK. Bit rate is only 256 so not as good as Qobuz. I bought the complete Haydn Quartets and was happy enough

Bit rate isn't the only factor, though it might indicate something. Did you use Paypal to make it work? I might revisit that site shortly - some of the collections are probably worth having despite what may be not so great sound quality.

However, if Qobuz or any other company have access to masters which haven't degraded, then it might be possible to get better quality out of the originals. Otherwise one might have to look for some of the original versions on LP. I think one Haydn syphony set has recordings with David Blum conducting the Esterhazy Orchestra - worth checking out.

[Dave2002]

You can buy from that site from the UK. Bit rate is only 256 so not as good as Qobuz. I bought the complete Haydn Quartets and was happy enough

That was a Vox Box by the Dekany Quartet - I already had that from somewhere. Just did a test puchase - 7 x Bach Guild collections for 5.25 dollars from that site. Seems have worked, and I downloaded one and sampled it already. Not bad, really.

[Bryn]

On QOBUZ, the recent re-issue of Morton Feldman's Atlantis, Oboe and Orchestra, and String Quartet and Orchestra. Lossless download for €2.97 (including pdf of the booklet notes. I paid considerably more than that for the first issue CD.

https://www.qobuz.com/fr-fr/album/morton-feldman-atlantis-radio-sinfonie-orchester-frankfurt-lucas-vis/fyf9iqcb97oqc

[Beef Oven!]

On QOBUZ, the recent re-issue of Morton Feldman's Atlantis, Oboe and Orchestra, and String Quartet and Orchestra. Lossless download for €2.97 (including pdf of the booklet notes. I paid considerably more than that for the first issue CD.

https://www.qobuz.com/fr-fr/album/mo.../fyf9iqcb97oqc

Thanks Bryn, downloading as I type.

There are a few other very cheap MF recordings there, too. I've got most of them though.

[Dave2002]

I mentioned this site a few days ago - https://www.classicselect.com/collec...-99-cents-each
Seems to work well for me now, but how long the deals will be I don't know. At 75 cents (US) for each large collection it's hardly going to break the bank - unless one buys all the "stock".

I've so far downloaded:
Beethoven Piano Sonatas
Beethoven String Quartets
Big Haydn Box
Big Haydn Symphony Box
Baroque Box 2
Chamber music box 2
Ballet box

Quality is adequate - though I've not had a chance to really push this by playing through better equipment.
There are many recordings/performances which may be hard to get on CD now, and some are really good.

I'm hoping to pull down another tranche shortly, though one problem is that each box is of the order of 1 Gbyte, and my MBP laptop is already short of space. I have other machines, and hard drives etc., but I don't have the time to call those into action right now.

If anyone else tries any of these I'd be interested to know how they find them. Don't expect Hi Res quality (JLW et al) but some of the music is good/well enough performed/unusual. Currently listening to Haydn's Symphony 75 which I don't know - David Blum and the Esterhazy Orchestra. One of the Chamber music collections has Dohnanyi's Piano quintet No 1 - which is relatively unknown.

You can pay more for just one single track download. One of these collections has around 200-300 tracks!

[Bryn]

I have just ordered the $0.99 Beethoven Symphonies (LSO, Morris), and Mozart Piano works (solo and orchestral). I will sample the Beethoven in around 15 minutes. The Mozart will take rather longer to download.