Search - John Denver :: THe Essential 3.0 John Denver (Eco-Friendly Packaging)

Music is still the deciding factor, not packaging!

AsiancCharm | Frisco, Texas, USA | 03/23/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Compact discs have been in production since the early 80's. Despite some creative packagings in a few boxsets, I haven't witness any mindblowing designs in terms of housing the single/double/triple CD. For people who owns a lot of CDs (over 10,000), packaging that aims at saving space and reducing the weight of the product are most welcome!



Of the several cardboard-housing designs, the ones that do not use plastic tray are the best because the tray sometimes gets disengaged from the digipack, and it's not that easy to reattach them because the best thing that does the job well is Silica-gel glue. Now tell me how many households in the USA keep Silcia-gel glue for the rainy days?



Packaging is never a strong deciding factor for me in purchasing CDs. The sonic quality (remastering, recording engineering, CD formats: HDCD, SACD, Blue-spec, etc.) of the music and the artistry of the musicians are two most important factors. The Essential: John Denver 3.0, along with the original 2-CD set of the same title, probably has the best remastering versions of most of John Denver's classics and hits. I said so because I did track to track comparisons with the earlier 4-CD boxset The Country Roads Collection (1997). If you can stay away from the individual and compilation CDs that were remastered around 1990, do so because RCA didn't do a good job back then (muffled strings, vocal and guitar, etc.).



Although the US BMG has remastered some individual albums of John Denver (like The Greatest Hits, Rhymes & Reasons, Back Home Again)in the mid 2000's, there are still a lot of albums that need the same treatment. I am now turning my quest for better remastering products of John Denver's old catalogue to the Japanese. The Japanese BMG has remastered all the individual albums of John Denver from his beginning days with RCA till the late 70's. Unfortuately, most of these Japanese albums are out-of-print now, and the one that are still available are hideously expensive ($25 plus). I will write reviews here on these Japanese pressings whenever I get a hold of them."