Would you buy a collector's edition...of an album?
 

Flashback to a few weeks ago: Danielle and I were looking for something to watch on Netflix and I decided to type "Pink Floyd" into the search and one of the things to pop up was Classic Albums: Pink Floyd - The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon. MIND. BLOWN. Go watch it now. Fuck the rest of this thread, fuck the rest of the Internet, go watch it. OK bye.

I don't have too many albums that I could listen to the whole way through and love every track (Led Zeppelin - I, II and IV, The Beatles - Revolver and Abbey Road are probably the only others) but DSOTM has changed a lot for me since my father used to play it on the stereo when I was a kid. I'd never want to hear beyond On The Run back then. Then, as a teenager I'd only really listen to Time and Money. Now I can't hear any of the songs without wanting to hear the rest.

So today before work I'm doing my normal Internet routine and I get to Facebook and I see that there are some new remasters coming out later this year, and I see they have what they're calling are the "Immersion" editions of DSOTM, The Wall and Wish You Were Here. They're each $127.06 (why the wacky price, dunno) and they each have CD, DVD and Blu-ray discs filled with remastered and unreleased material, as well as some collectibles and exclusive merchandise and shit. Of course the main issue is how does that remaster sound but the main question I have is this: people buy collector's editions of movies and video games but it's not often I see a collector's edition of an album...but is it worth it?

I'm going to focus on DSOTM since the other two, while they're great albums, don't have nearly the same feeling as their predecessor does. Watching that Classic Albums episode, it's fair to say that a great deal of work went into the production of DSOTM (and hell, you get to see Alan Parsons dissect the master and recreate it, which is absolutely fascinating) and, on disc six in this collection, there's actually an early album mix which I'd be interested in hearing. They also have a lot of concert footage that they previewed in Classic Albums, and of course they have both a 5.1 mix and the original quadraphonic mix on DVD and Blu-ray. The other stuff is mostly for collector's but doesn't interest me so much.

I guess what I'm getting at is that we see releases like this, like I said, for movies and games and I know there are people on Gamingforce that have bought collections like this for movies and games but I'm curious to see if there's anybody out there who'd get this collection or maybe a collector's edition of their favorite album. For me, all we have are two speakers on our stereo so it's not like I'd experience what I'd be paying for, though I have heard the quad mix of DSOTM and THAT is an experience. Still, I'm not an audiophile so maybe I'm not the right person to appreciate this sort of thing.

I am a bit of an amateur audiophile, so there are definitely albums I'd get. There are albums I have. Queen Live at Wembley, for instance, is an utter game changer with the proper audio set-up. I like to pick up vinyl remasters when they come out, as well.

Absolutely. I have amassed quite a few collectors editions already and have been planning on picking up all three of those Immersion sets (though I'm REALLY hoping they put out an Animals immersion set, I won't be holding my breath :( ). I'll post some pics tonight, but the highlights of my collection are without a doubt these two:

Miles Davis: Bitches Brew 40th Anniversary Set
Porcupine Tree: Anesthetize