Prince And The Revolution – Purple Rain

I have an RCA Music Service pressing, however it appears to be pressed by Allied, not SRC.

Matrix / Runout (Side A runout): 1-25110-A-SH3 [Allied 'ɑ' logo] B-19421-SH3 SLM △6851 1-1 SM1-5 0-7 R-160175 A SH-SP
Matrix / Runout (Side B runout): 1-25110-B-SH8 [Allied 'ɑ' logo] B-19422-SH8 SLM △6851-X SP03 R-160175 B 1-4 SH-SP

The mastering and pressing is great, btw, despite being a club edition. Even with the groove wear on my copy, the dynamics shine through. It seems likely the same BG mastering. I'm thinking about picking up a cleaner copy of the SRC pressing (as that appears the only club pressing listed), but my existing copy is hard to let go.

One of my best sounding albums.
The drums & bass are amazing. Absolutely worth owning this pressing.

When I first put it in this Blu Ray would not play in 5.1 on my Sony UBP-X700 4k player, it would fold that mix down to stereo. Per a Steve Hoffman forum suggestion "Try changing your player from bitstream to PCM or vice versa (or from "auto" to PCM or vice versa)." This worked for me if others had the same issue. This has never happened on any of the dozen plus surround (Atmos and 5.1) mix DVDs and Blue Rays I own. This is similar to reported issues with the 2023 Diamonds and Pearls Blu Ray.

The Atmos surround mix here, like the D+P disc before it, pays no special attention to the original stereo mix at all, merely cuts it's own way through the album. The glue that held the stereo mix together is completely removed here, and put back together in it's own way - I'm pretty certain the man himself would have hated how this sounds overall. Tracks like Let's Go Crazy and When Doves Cry amplify the vocals and the guitar, and leave the keyboards behind.

It's true in all of these tracks that you will definitely hear things you've never heard of before. Tracks that benefit the most I feel are The Beautiful Ones and I Would Die 4 You, where you can hear the piano lines of the former really well, and the vocals sound great in the latter.

This is an interesting diversion on listening to a classic album - it in no-way sures or replaces the original stereo mix, that is still king. What this surround mix does is almost put you in the seat in the studio as you get to hear all the elements that are put into creating the album, and you have a first hand experience of a rough mix before making the album you've known for 40+ years.

Another welcome addition to the catalogue, while the Estate can't get it's act together to release anything from the Vault, I'll take these Audiophile Blu-Ray's of all the albums up to and including the Black Album.

Blu-Ray disc authoring people - please stop adding menu music to these, there really is no need for it

The slipcase does not fit around the Blu-Ray. Has anybody else the same issue?

I was surprised by how translucent this disc was. You can almost read the newspaper through it.
Is this normal ?

It also comes with a little booklet with the lyrics and the photos of the two posters available with the vinyl (regular and the picture disc).

If you plumped for the Super Deluxe Edition 'exclusive slipcase' version then you will be pleased to know it looks very nice. It also doesn't fit the blu ray packaging. Good job, SDE.

The 24/96 original stereo mix sounds amazing and is the best I’ve heard this album. Very dynamic with exceptional clarity and instrument separation.

The Blu Ray is better than the original vinyl and the 2013 24/96 Rhino , the latter was up to now my reference version and it is described as the 1984 original master.

The source of the Blu Ray 24/96 stereo stream is described as the same and the waveforms corroborate this, but the Blu Ray sounds significantly clearer with far better separation.

There are only two recognised stereo production masters:

1) 1984 original master
2) 2015 digital remaster

Since both the and Blu Ray are almost certainly sourced from the same 1984 original production master the differences must be down to a newer/better digital transfer/capture of the original 1984 production master.

Would have been nice to also have a new stereo mix without compression on the Blu Ray as well but hey the original mix sounds phenomenal here so I’ll pipe down…..

Can we have 1999 and ATWIAD as well please in the same format.

2024 Dolby ATMOS mix 48/24.
Original 1984 Stereo mix 96/24.
The hi-res stereo mix is the 1984 mix as mastered by Bernie Grundman. It is not the 2015 Paisley Park remaster that was featured on the 2017 deluxe edition.