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Nirvana lead second wave of rock/pop blu-ray audio releases

NIRV
A mock-up the Nirvana In Utero Blu-ray Audio

Nirvana‘s Nevermind and In Utero are two of the titles being reissued this month on the Universal’s ‘High Fidelity – Pure Audio’ branded blu-ray audio discs.

Other albums issued include The Rolling Stones‘ classic Exile On Main Street, Queen‘s A Night At The Opera, Crime Of The Century by Supertramp and Beck’s Sea Change.

Like the first batch – that have had a rather staggered release around Europe these past few months – these forthcoming blu-ray audio reissues will offer no video content, just three hi-res stereo audio options: Full DTS Master Audio, PCM (Pulse Control Modulation uncompressed Sound) or Dolby True HD.

A big discussion point will be whether we get offered a 5.1 surround sound option to sit alongside the stereo audio, on any of these titles. In the booklets supplied with the first releases Universal state: “Where possible tracks will be available in 5.1 surround, but in order to pay respect to the original material this is not possible for every release”. Certainly the Queen title has been available in 5.1 on various other formats, so one would expect to see them include that.

Presumably, In Utero will be the new Steve Albini remaster, but it is curious that this blu-ray audio wasn’t mentioned in the press release for that reissue, and will it come with the 32 bonus tracks you get on the similarly priced 2CD deluxe edition?

At the moment these are only available from Amazon Germany, with a release date of 20 September. We will update this page if and when other territories get these releases!


New titles on Blu-ray Audio:

Nirvana / "Nevermind" High Fidelity Pure Audio Blu-ray audio

Nevermind / Nirvana
GERMANY Pre-order: Nevermind (Blu-Ray Audio)

Nirvana / "In Utero" High Fidelity Pure Audio Blu-ray audio

In Utero / Nirvana
GERMANY Pre-order: In Utero (Blu-Ray Audio)

Exile On Main Street / The Rolling Stones
GERMANY Pre-order: Exile on Main St (Blu-Ray Audio)

Supertramp / "Crime Of The Century" High Fidelity Pure Audio Blu-ray audio

Crime Of The Century / Supertramp
GERMANY Pre-order: Crime of the Century (Blu-Ray Audio)

Sea Change / Beck
GERMANY Pre-order: Sea Change (Blu-Ray Audio)

Amy Winehouse / "Back To Black" High Fidelity Pure Audio Blu-ray audio

Back To Black / Amy Winehouse
GERMANY Pre-order: Back to Black (Blu-Ray Audio)

Five Leaves Left / Nick Drake
GERMANY Pre-order: Five Leaves Left (Blu-Ray Audio)

Queen / A Night At The Opera High Fidelity Pure Audio Blu-ray audio

A Night At The Opera / Queen
GERMANY Pre-order: A Night at the Opera (Blu-Ray Audio)

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LedMan

I need to post a correction to my previous post. Beck “Sea Of Change” will be released in both 2.0 and 5.1. Queen “A Night At The Opera” will be 2.0 only.

Today I received Bob Marley “Legend”which comes with a nice booklet and so far have listened to it 3X. I have a Oppo BDP-103, Marantz NR1403 surround sound receiver and a pair of B&W speakers and to my ears this HFPA blu ray sounds incredible. I’ve owned this album since it was originally released on cassette, various CD versions and the only one I may keep because of additional tracks is the 2CD deluxe edition. Hopefully “Kaya” will sound as good or better since I believe the original masters were used for the recent 2CD Deluxe release.

TheRedPen

PCM = Pulse Code Modulation

[…] Universal push the boat out with this 20th Anniversary Edition of Nirvana‘s In Utero being offered as a 4-disc Super Deluxe Edition, a 45RPM 3LP vinyl set (including 8 bonus tracks), two-disc deluxe, single disc remaster and later this month a hi-res Blu-ray audio.  […]

Phil

Pre-ordered Five Leaves Left, but i wish they’d just included it in the new vinyl box set and charged a tenner more. No doubt Bryter Layter and Pink Moon will follow.

LedMan

Phil, I also pre-ordered “Five Leaves Left” from Amazon.com although it hasn’t shipped yet. Probably another delay with the release date as has been a issue since this campaign was first announced. Do you have it yet and if so what do you think? By now I assume everyone is aware that Queen “A Night at the Opera” is indeed 2.0 and 5.1. I pre-ordered both of these and 8 more releases and 5 will be shipped tomorrow.

Ranasakawa

Surely they can include at least some videos with the audio on these BluRays?

LedMan

I have Supertramp “Breakfast In America” and Stevie Wonder “Songs In the Key Of Life” and both are region free. They are only 2.0 but sound fantastic. I ordered both from Amazon UK.
I also have preordered 11 other HFPA releases including some mentioned above. The only two rock related releases that I know will be 5.1 so far are Queen “A Night at the Opera” and The Who “Tommy” which will be available as part of the upcoming super deluxe set or will also available separately.

rare glam

Presumably these need a Blue Ray Player to play them on just as you need a SACD player for SACD discs? I prefer the Japanese system of Blue Spec II, SHM etc discs where hi-fidelity discs can be played on a standard CD player.

Thomas Hooper

Blue Spec is still a CD, 16 bit not 24 bit.

paul moore

The previous ones were region free, as far as I could tell. Now, sound quality was a different matter …

Michael Bird

Do we know if these are region locked? This is one of those rare instances when I think I want every one of the series (and I even have the Beck disc on DVD-A). Given the very reasonable cost when compared to the secondary market for these titles on DVD-A and SACD (to say nothing of those that are debuting on high res disc), the prices for these are *very* reasonable.

Will

It’ll be interesting to see if Nevermind is a new master.
HDTracks had Nevermind but it was brickwalled.

DP

Would love all those in 5.1!

Joseph Stone

Anyone know for sure if these will be in 5.1????
I know that Patricia Barber Modern Cool was 5.1 as well as the Tom Petty and Rush Titles! Beck Sea Change is outstanding on DVD-A and SACD, so they already have the 5.1 masters, so it only makes sense. These will all be great regardless though

J. Stone