John Williams (4) – Star Wars: The Ultimate Vinyl Collection

Interesting box set, especially for people who want all the Star Wars soundtracks, from episode 1 to 6. This is a reissue of the remastered soundtracks, following on from the 1997 special edition and the 2004 reissue of 4, 5 and 6. For episodes 1, 2 and 3, this is a reissue of the soundtrack for those episodes.
This boxed set also includes two DVDs:
- The soundtrack of episode 3 ‘Star Wars: A Musical Journey’.
- A DVD of interviews with John Williams and Harrison Ford

Rounding out the box set are a fold-out poster and three collectable stickers.

As a youth I played the LPs of Star Wars and Empire regularly. When the full soundtracks were released in 1997 I could never go back to those old LPs which cut and paste different pieces of music together.

What a strange decision then, to release the full soundtracks on CD and to release the cut and paste relics on Hi Res and Vinyl.

The vinyl makes some sense (nostalgia, space limitations), but to forgo a proper full release of the complete soundtracks on Hi Res. It must have been to appease the vinyl buyers (hey you'll get a Hi Res copy too!)

But for those who prefer the full soundtrack, it looks like a Hi Res edition will never be available now that Disney has this. Disney has also released Hi Res versions of the LP masters recently.

The consolation is that the CD versions sound pretty good!

Very sad to read all the negativity around this set. I recently bought this slightly used from a seller on here, and I must have lucked out. The entire set plays beautifully and has fantastic sound quality. The packaging and sleeves are all wonderful, too.

Terrible quality pressings. Stear clear. Incredibly disappointing. Noise, lots and lots of noise. Cracks and pops constant. I have 50+ year old records I’ve picked up Goodwill that after a trip through my record washer sound better than these. I’m down right angry. The put all the effort into the nice package and ship terrible sounding records.

Great, sturdy packaging, with fine printed graphics.
Solid 180 Gr. black vinyl.
2 vinyl sleeves with beatiful prints on them (Anakin/Darth Vader - Obi Wan, Anakin, Grievous, Clone Trooper, Yoda, Darth Vader)
Sound quality not up to par with limited release edition.

I bought this on clearance from ThinkGeek for a very great price -- I believe it was around $90. Pretty awesome considering it floats around $199 on Amazon. Unfortunately, the first 3 records I tried were all severely warped. It was pretty bad -- to the point that one wouldn't even play. On top of that, the card for the download code says "Offer valid until 01/8/18". That's just not acceptible. I visited the web page for it and it doesn't exist anymore. The company still exists and still has download code redemption pages up for other releases. There should be no limit to when you can redeem something you've already paid for. I returned the set and told support I wanted to exchange. By the time they actually gave me credit for returning it, in order to do the exchange, they had sold out. So not only is this a negative review about these records, it's also a negative review of the company that is handling the download codes ("My Play Digital"), as well as ThinkGeek. Such a disappointment. Otherwise, the box itself seemed pretty cool. I was very excited for this set and then very disappointed on multiple fronts.

Hands down this is one of the WORST set of LPs ever issued for Star Wars. Pops, thuds and crackles on a classical score? No thanks and unforgivable on a box set, which apparently is a celebration of some of the greatest scores ever written for cinema. I have heard 6 copies of this box set and there was something distractingly wrong with every set from bubbles and blisters in the vinyls, to warps, spindle holes not being consistently the same size (how that even happens I do not know). A New Hope was absolutely awful on every set I heard particularly the beautiful closing parts of sides one and two; THUD THUD THUD all the way through. Non fill was also an issue especially on Jedi-SCRAPE SCRAPE SCRAPE. I managed to get decent copies of Episodes II and III (which is all I wanted it for) but really this was an atrocious sounding release from my experience.

Heads up for people that care about the download card inside: mine had an expiration date of 1/8/18. The myplaydigital.eu site won't take redemption codes any more. Can't complain about the vinyl or the package, but it's a slight bummer to lose out on digital (by a few days, in my case)

First off, the packaging is amazing. The prequels include things like credits and side notes from George Lucas and John Williams. Even the vinyl sleeves are pictures from the films. The 180 gram does John Williams justice. The original films are a whole other deal. They are exact replicas of their original pressings going down to the t-shirt insert that was in the 1977 vinyl release and the poster. The original films sound less polished and a bit noisy. Overall, this is essential for any Star Wars fan or fan of John Williams infamous score. They might not be colored or flashy like the I AM SHARK variants but this should definitely satisfy any audiophile.

My copy has severe distortions on several discs, plus one is slightly warped. Definitely _not_ what an "Ultimate Vinyl Collection" should be like.
John Williams' seminal scores deserves soooo much better treatment than this.
Come to think of it, lack of quality control has been a running theme of many new vinyl releases lately...

Music: 11/10
Pressing : 2/10