MoRA Box Set + Analogs

[kuro_neko]

all the reviews are pretty much calling the methods employed by EMI despicable (which they are), so shortly after the release of Watashi no Houden, here they are off expensive box sets, yet again, even including Watashi no Houden.

the cd review is especially scathing, he makes some very good points about what fans want and what they are getting and the very dirty ways that EMI is going about milking fans for money.

I'm still not sure if I will buy these. I mean, whats the point. I see a lot of people on the boards going for them and I'm assuming that most of you guys don't have her solo albums? I mean, whats the point, a remaster? Some fancy new book? I'm a completist, but I'm not made of infinite money. I really hate EMI right about now.

[Ringo~Bingo]

I agree that's it's vile to repack what we already have and in Hoden's case what we already just bought!! but I'm one of those person's who will buy it anyway simply because it' the "new" Shiina release. as long as there are folk like me about they will release this sort of stuff and they know it will sell.

[Yahiko]

im getting the cd box since i dont own any of her solo albums

[Glathannus]

I feel that the disgust toward EMI is misplaced, because there is a silver-lining to this (beyond the tired mantras of "support the artist" or "gotta catch 'em all"), that nobody seems to be looking at.

There really is no reason for EMI not to release the DVD box. The only major drawback to the product (aside from the chronologically unfaithful zoning of the A-Sides and B-Sides) is that you don't have the option to buy individual albums in 96kHz/24bit, but really, if we couldn't have already bought any of the old solo-career albums in 96kHz/24bit before, then what's the harm in buying all of them in one combined package?

At first I thought of the CD box as "milking from EMI", but now I'm thinking of it as something else - an alternative to the DVD box. Now you might wonder "What's the point in an alternative? Why not just release the DVD box only?". And that brings me to my point - if the DVD box were the only MoRA box that EMI were releasing right now, a lot more people who aren't able to use it, would be buying it for lack of other options.

I was angry about the HF DVD being a limited-only item, because it was 96kHz/24bit packaged in such a way that more people would be buying it for the packaging (or the motion graphics) rather than for the 96kHz/24bit. I was the only person expressing any frustration over that, and now that EMI is offering us alternate formats in the same packaging, now all the sudden people are angry, as if they are expected to buy both. Am I the only person here who is happy that normal people who have no use for 96kHz/24bit, won't have to buy the DVD box (and deprive audiophiles of the chance) if mainly what the normal people want is the packaging? 7900yen for three Japanese albums is reasonable, even without the bells & whistles - which you are practically getting for free.

As a technologically-proficient audiophile (the two don't always go hand-in-hand), I have very little desire for the CD box, except I think it would make a great gift for a new fan, or better yet a gift for an old fan financially struggling through college, who could never afford any of the original releases. I had already been plotting and scheming how to package the solo material together for someone, and the MoRA packaging seems to be for-the-most-part better than anything I could jury-rig together.

For all the angry people out there, why don't you stop thinking about yourself or anyone else who already owns many of the original CDs, and instead focus on the people who haven't been getting what they wanted? (some people who own the CDs had already been wanting 96kHz/24bit for years, then there's the people who haven't owned much of anything)

You can continue to call the MoRA boxes "milking" if you want, but I have to respectfully disagree. The CD box is effectively more like a consumerized substitute of the DVD box so that less of the true audiophiles are deprived of their chance to buy the DVD box. Now if you want to bash the July 2nd compilations, I can hardly argue for their merit.

[Ringo~Bingo]

I'm buying ten boxes to deprive the audiophiles!!
I don't know anyone who would want these so I buy just for myself.
I mainly just want to hear what the box says.

[Captain_Harlock]

Does anyone know if the DVD box only has the audio? I can rip it, but that's boring. I'm dying for better quality tracks ( if they -are- remastered for it ). I don't really own shiina music besides live dvds and am really looking forward to this box.

Also, vinyls. Where are they sold?

[Tokyo Jihad]

Its weird how the forum never agrees with me, even when I'm of a positive opinion. I don't think this is milking -- its her 10th anniversary -- why the hell not package her albums together?? If yer just getting into her (and what a time to do so!) then its a simple way to kill 4 birds with one stone.

Sure it's aimed a bit at the hardcore with the book and box -- but you also don't have to flippin buy it =p

[Glathannus]

Originally Posted by Captain_Harlock

Does anyone know if the DVD box only has the audio? I can rip it, but that's boring. I'm dying for better quality tracks ( if they -are- remastered for it ). I don't really own shiina music besides live dvds and am really looking forward to this box.

Both MoRA boxes seem to be the same packaging as each other (except the DVD box includes its own form of Watashi to Hatsuden because there's no other way to buy that content in 96kHz/24bit), but the DVDs in their natural form are much less useful to the average person. The "remastered" only makes a difference if you are actually listening to the full 96kHz/24bit, and many peoples' home equipment will unofficially play that as only 48kHz/24bit, which is only 150% as good as CD, rather than 300%. And that's if you can even play it at all. Many DVD players would rather not deal with 96kHz/24bit at all than downsample it, and most ripping programs are the same way. It's also worth mentioning that portable MP3 players cap at 48kHz/44.1kHz & 16bit because they are expecting your music to originate from CDs, so nothing you rip from a MoRA DVD can have any audible advantage over the original CD releases, within the context of portable playback.

Try audio-only ripping one of the three latest PV DVDs (HF/SenkouShoujo/WatashiNoHatsuden), then get back to me on how easy and rewarding that was for you. Ripping/playing a MoRA DVD is basically going to be the same experience, only without any motion-picture or live action optionally associated with it. If you don't hear anything different (or even hear anything at all), and/or if naming/tagging/converting the files takes far more of your effort than ripping a CD, then you might want to reconsider which of the MoRA boxes are actually worthwhile for you. Any music in 96kHz/24bit is pretty much home-use-only, and once you've gone through all of the steps to make the content more widely compatible, you've then lost all of the advantage that 96kHz/24bit has over 44.1kHz/16bit, because your converted version would basically have to be 44.1kHz/16bit (as mandated by most of the hardware/software you take for granted).

Originally Posted by Captain_Harlock

Also, vinyls. Where are they sold?

Amazon Japan (with no limits mentioned), HMV Japan (apparently with a quantity limit of 2 per customer), and sooner or later Tower Records Japan will probably list it too. YesAsia has never listed any of the three vinyls released after Gunjou Biyori / Sounan throughout the last four years, so there's a strong chance they won't have Muzai Moratorium or Shouso Strip either (for fuck's sake they've never even had a listing for the Muzai Moratorium CD!).

[Captain_Harlock]

Thank you for the information.

I usually listen to my good quality dvd audio at work in the studios late at night, so I really have no problem with sound quality .

I've never really ordered anywhere but cdjapan and yesasia. Do the other websites, such as Amazon Japan, HMV Japan and Tower Records Japan
have an easy way to order from Canada? I know this is getting off topic, but I'm wanting this stuff really bad, haha.

[zarya]

Originally Posted by Captain_Harlock

I've never really ordered anywhere but cdjapan and yesasia. Do the other websites, such as Amazon Japan, HMV Japan and Tower Records Japan
have an easy way to order from Canada? I know this is getting off topic, but I'm wanting this stuff really bad, haha.

HMV and Amazon are pretty easy to order from, especially HMV since the whole site is available in English. However, both charge a lot for shipping because they use EMS (= FedEx) and whenever I've bought things through them, I always got charged duty fees. I made a review post of all the websites I've tried last year (here), so if you want to use it for reference go ahead and my experiences should be similar to yours, since we live in the same city.

I've ordered my box through YesAsia, and if I decided on getting the vinyls, I guess I'll get them through Amazon.