40th Anniversary Box

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

That's weird, I could not find a way to edit my post above like we could in the old forum.

Correction above, I meant to say, I have been very impressed with the SHM CD's from my Carpenters 40/40 set and from Olivia's 40th anniv box set

 

[Jeff]

Congrats Chris! Next month I hope to try again and get a legit set such as yours. It drives me crazy not to have this collection. My 40/40 shmcd sounds magnifiscent no matter what critics apply. To have the lp's would be an aural treasure at the very least.

Jeff

 

[manofsteel1979]

I myself bought this set a few months back. Thanks to the previous posts on this forum, I was able to avoid a couple brushes with some fakes before FINALLY finding a legit seller on Ebay. In the week leading up to finally purchasing it, I was in constant email contact and asked some key questions and asked them to take clear photos of the set. She was honest from day one that it wasn't in perfect condition, as the box itself has a small ding on it and the booklet to "An Old Fashioned Christmas" is coming apart from the Hardback cover. It was clear that it definitely had been used, but otherwise the discs were flawless and great care was taken with them, which was my main concern. We negotiated a price that was much lower than the original asking price (nearly $100 lower!), AND they sweetened the deal by throwing in a DVD copy of the original master of the "CARPENTERS FOREVER" television special that ran on Japanese TV sometime in the early 2000's. Apparently they had "connections".

As for the quality of the sound, I was blown away. It's hard to describe the difference, but there certainly is a difference to at least my ears. Plus all the little touches put into this set are extraordinary. It's a "dirty ol' shame" shame that this never was officially released in the US, but if you are a fan, this is a great addition to your collection.

My advise to anyone getting this set is be patient and don't jump on the first one you see. I had been looking and researching for a year or more. Don't be afraid to ask questions and require authentication from the seller, because if they have nothing to hide, they will most likely be forthcoming. Also, don't be afraid to haggle!! It certainly pays off as long as you are respectful.

Happy hunting to all!!

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Sounds like you got a great deal and glad you got a legit one at that. I was also concerned about making sure I was getting a legit box set after reading about what happen to Jeff here on this thread. Since I am so meticulous with how I treat my music stuff, I had to get a unopened box if I could still find one. I take such care especially with the box sets and treat them like they are gold, it's crazy but I want them to last my entire lifetime.

There is 1 thing I noticed about this 40th box set, it's regarding cd-text. Once I had the box set opened, I took disc #1 (Offering) & disc #13 Sweet 16 to my car to listen. My car's audio system works through the navigation display that will read CD's on the display. The albums in this box set along with the albums in the 35th box set all play with the names of the songs on my nav display, pretty cool to see the Carpenters name and all the track titles appear as it reads the cd-text. However, the Sweet 16 disc does not contain cd-text and reads track 1, track 2, track 3 on my car display. I guess it's because those songs didn't have cd-text? or it was the way that this cd was made? I don't really understand how all the albums contain cd-text but Sweet 16 does not. It's not a big deal but something I noticed right away.

 

[Harry]

CD-Text is just an extra add-on to the "redbook" standards for Compact Disc. It's a little extra information that's encoded on the disc and some players, usually car players abd things like DVD and Blu-Ray players can read it and display the info.

Many CD-authoring software programs offer the option of adding CD-Text. I use a Nero program that will add it if I check the box while burning a CD-Audio disc. These days, I almost always burn a copy of a CD to a CD-R for use in the car, basically for two reasons:

- The car's display is a nicety that, like Chris, I enjoy.
- There's little to no risk if the CD copy gets damaged in the player, or even bouncing around in a moving car. I can always make another one.

You say the 35th set has CD-Text too? I never noticed - since I never took the discs into the car!

Harry

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

I actually hardly ever play my original CD's in my car, I learned my lesson before on that when my last car ate up an expensive CD. The car I have now with my nav screen the sound system will read CD texts so that is why I am always curious when I buy any new CD's if my car will read the text. It also has a USB in my armrest that works directly into the sound system through my navi, the neat thing about the USB option is I can load up a 32GB USB stick and as long as the song contains the metafile album artwork, it shows up on my navi while the song plays. I pretty much use my USB option now to listen to my whole music library. I use iTunes to load my original CD's into and converts it to 320 kbps then I upload a high res scan of the original artwork and load it into that particular album so the metafile artwork is there on that song. Then I load my itunes library into this USB stick. It was alot of time to do all that but it pays off in the end. Its basically the same way if you buy a song from iTunes it contains the metafile album artwork in that song, same goes for Amazon when you purchase a song there.

This way I have my complete music library on a 32GB USB stick that plays in my car with album artwork for every song. Here is a quick print screen I took w/ my cam, it obviously looks much better in person, hard to capture on a camera, this screen print is from my USB playing my my car, not a CD. It takes about 8 or 9 secds for the artwork to load (the big pic on the right) as you can see the 2nd pic just loaded the next song and has yet to load the artwork, it loaded at 9 secds. This happens to be my original German Christmas Portrait CD (that I originally loaded into itunes as mentioned above then loaded the album onto the USB stick)

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

I have noticed since listening to Sweet Sixteen CD that Jingles 1 & 2 are combined together into 1 track at a time of 1:07. In the past they are always been 2 separate tracks so I'm not sure if this is the first set we have ever seen both jingles listed as 1 track.

I'm still trying to understand what made them choose these songs as Sweet Sixteen.

 

[Harry]

I have noticed since listening to Sweet Sixteen CD that Jingles 1 & 2 are combined together into 1 track at a time of 1:07. In the past they are always been 2 separate tracks so I'm not sure if this is the first set we have ever seen both jingles listed as 1 track.

I'm still trying to understand what made them choose these songs as Sweet Sixteen.

Good luck trying to figure out THAT logic!

Going back to your comment about CD-Text and the older 35th Anniversary set, just for the heck of it, I dug out my 35th set and checked out a couple of discs and I see no evidence of the official CD-Text information. I suggest Chris, that your car stereo may be pulling the information from some other database (satellite? Internet?) and not CD-Text.

My car is a 2007 model with 2006 technology in the stereo system and only uses official CD-Text for its display, or file names from MP3 or WMA files.

Harry

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

I believe you must be right, when I first got my 35th anniv box set I had a 2007 model and would not read the CD-Text on that set, since then I have a 2011 model and I believe it's pulling it from Gracenote because the 35th box set and the 40th box set are both showing CD-Text on my nav display and I was quite suprised and happy to see it.

 

[Jeff]

My set should be here sometime next week. After much consideration I located an old penpal in Japan and I'm assured this time around the box is legit!

Happy dance!

Jeff

 

[manofsteel1979]

AWESOME!!! Let us know what you think!

 

[Mark-T]

Definitely would love to hear more!

 

[Jeff]

My set arrived from Japan today. It's beautiful and LEGIT!!! Wow I didn't think I could pull this set off after so much time has gone by. Initial spotty listening has my ears celebrating. Clarity, purity and depth. I am happy I have a friend that was so unselfishly helpful in obtaining this box. Reviews to come...

Jeff

 

[bste2003]

Well my set arrived - how dissapointing - Its a cheap copy presented in what looks like a shoe-box. The translations from Japanese to english make no sense what-so-ever and most of the album covers are in Black & White - The sound is surprisingly good but what a waste of money, especially when I have no intention of shelling out £500 for the legit set

 

[Nicolas reeve]

I have just got a set cheap from china , with no number on the box, the spines look spelled correctly but the seal was cut and the gap in the box is a worry.

if it's to good to be true, did i buy a dud. I'm new to this forum and i cant figure how to add a pic

as it ask's for a url. any help would be good.

 

[Harry]

Sadly Nicolas, without even seeing it, I suspect your set is a fake. If it's "cheap from China", that's almost a guaranteed counterfeit. Counterfeiters scour the Internet looking for items that they can copy that are in demand and then set about making their copies and prey on the public at large.

If you have a way of contacting whoever sold it to you, I'd attempt that to try to get my money back. Genuine sets can be had, but they will ALWAYS cost more than you'd like to spend. Unless you fall upon an estate sale where the merchandise purveyors have no idea of its value, you'll pay handsomely for a genuine set.

Harry

 

[Nicolas reeve]

Dear Harry, Thanks i had the same trouble with some "nike" free run sneakers too, in that case the bank cc card took care of it.i will go to paypal, and see what they say. i think i will stick to the shm 40/40 which is still around.

 

[Harry]

Dear Harry, Thanks i had the same trouble with some "nike" free run sneakers too, in that case the bank cc card took care of it.i will go to paypal, and see what they say. i think i will stick to the shm 40/40 which is still around.

Be careful with those too. It was another limited run and a quick check on eBay shows three listings. One is $29.99 + shipping. The others are in the $70 range.

To me, the $29.99 looks too cheap to be genuine. The seller has it listed as "still-sealed" and promotional. I don't know about Japan, but in the US, all promotional discs were always unsealed.

Based on the normal price of SHM-CDs, I'd say the ones in the $70 range are likely OK, but even there you have to be careful. Ask the seller for a few details looking for the following:

- the Japanese 40/40 came in a fatter-than-normal jewel case. It's 12mm thick instead of 10mm.
- the discs should be silver with a clear-center ring that has "SHM-CD" printed four times, alternating with the "" logo, also four times.
- the playing side of the disc, in the silver, larger center ring should be inscribed: UICY-91346 1W (91347 on disc 2) and IFPI L244
- the small silver inner ring should say: IFPI 4011

A seller of the genuine article should be able to provide you with this info. Even a still-sealed set can have its width measured as a clue.

Harry

 

[JMK]

Though it may not be the case with this particular release, I regularly get sealed promotional CDs, DVDs and BDs directly from the labels issuing them, for my writing work. In fact, it's almost unheard of to get an unsealed item. (Occasionally the UPCs have drill holes or cut marks through them).

 

[Harry]

Though it may not be the case with this particular release, I regularly get sealed promotional CDs, DVDs and BDs directly from the labels issuing them, for my writing work. In fact, it's almost unheard of to get an unsealed item. (Occasionally the UPCs have drill holes or cut marks through them).

You're probably right about that - I forgot about the regular-issue discs that have holes drilled through the cellophane. Heck, I even still have a few of those around here.

I was probably time-traveling in the brain back to the days of promotional LPs. Those that were specially stamped, labeled, imprinted, were usaully not sealed in cellophane.

But $29.99 for a double SHM-CD? Uh-uh - too good to be true - I don't trust it.

Harry

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Check out this listing, would you say this is a bootleg 40th Anni Box Set, if you scan you mouse of the picture showing the CD booklets you can see a zoomed in photo, look closely, it looks like MAADE in America. I think we talked about this but I have never actually seen a pic. My set has the correct spelling on the book binder. We should somehow keep this photo to help inform other Carpenters fans that something is wrong here. LOL, unless this is a honest misprint?
Eaby Item #261032056265

 

[Jeff]

Yep! That looks like the one I started out with. Fortunately it was returned and refunded but definitely not legit. There are several more errors on this imposter too. Some of the inserts are out of sync with the corresponding album. Do not buy this friends!

Jeff

 

[newvillefan]

DVD with sub-channel with Richard's talk about behind scenes of music videos

That's very cool! A first by Richard I think?!

 

[GaryAlan]

I'll keep my fingers crossed, as I just ordered a copy of this 40th box set from Reckless Records, in Chicago.
Hopefully it is legit, as the price was a mere $155, which is pricey but dicey!

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Gary, you paid $155.00 for the 40th box set? I have my doubts that it would be legit as these are going for much higher prices. I hope it's not for your benefit though...let us know.