Gladys Knight Music:

		List Price: $19.98		Label: Hip-O Records Salesrank: 15459 Released: May 23, 2006
		Our Price: $10.60
		Used Price: $12.96
		Media: Audio CD

Gold Reviews:
Gonna split the baby here...
2009-08-14 - There are a number of 5-star and a couple of 1-star reviews (based on the recording quality) for this CD, and all make good points. I'm going to land in the middle and say that this is a 5-star CD with 2-star sound.

Gladys Knight and the Pips and the material are fantastic. You could hardly ask for a better bargain than the generous selection that fills the 2 CD's. Everything that I wanted is here, and it's really a listening treat that any fan of the group would have to enjoy.

However, if you are a stickler for sound, this remaster is unlikely to leave you satisfied. I have a fairly good system and often buy SHM and Blu-Spec CD's because the sound is an important part of my listening experience. Mr. Corbett goes into great detail about the poor remastering, and while I don't have his technical expertise, but I'll try to explain it in my own way: Do you remember when you were a kid and you connected two Dixie Cups with a string? Well, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point. I'm not saying it's terrible (I've certainly heard worse), but I was disappointed. If you listen on portable media or don't focus on audio nuance though, you may find this recording perfectly acceptable. If so, then good for you, because you're getting a great deal.

To summarize, this a lot of wonderful music for a very good price. If you are not buying it because it's remastered and aren't an audiophile, there's nothing to complain about. If, however, you are thinking of buying this CD because it's remastered or perhaps want to replace an older one with it, you might be better off with a better pressing.

Dynamite music + poor remastering ='s a strong 3 in my book. No offense, Gladys... you will always be a 10!


Gladys Knight and the Pips Gold
2008-10-06 -
I thoroughly enjoyed the Gladys Knight CD; it is comprehensive, and the price was fair. The delivery was quick.

A Shining Star
2008-08-15 - This was a surprise bday gift for the special man in my life. We had
gone to her concert and I wanted something to commemorate it. He loved
the gift and plays this all the time.
Gladys Knight did a fab performance. Her vocals today were as good as ever. The entire show was elegant and professional. It was the best concert ever!!

Another great album destroyed by the "loudness war"
2008-07-01 - And they did it again... It seems that Sony/BMG/Universal Music, through their many labels (like Hip-O, under which this album was released), are becoming the leaders of the infamous "loudness war" (Google the expression for more info). Basically, that means mastering the CD with the audio normalized beyond the CD format dynamic range limits. That way, on many of the songs, louder parts are simply clipped, that is, those audio frequencies are simply not present anymore, because the audio was mastered so loud that the audio was clipped (cut off) when it reached the limit the CD format allows, and those frequencies are irreparably lost in the process. The idea is to deceive the average consumer into thinking that he is getting a better sounding recording, when it's the exact opposite - it's just louder, and worse - with parts of the audio actually missing.

I've just received the CD set and ran a full audio analysis of the "On And On" track. There are at least 446 clipped samples on the left channel and at least 264 on the right channel. To see the sound carnage for yourself, just extract the track and open it with an audio editor like Cool Edit, zoom in on the clipped sections, and see the poor sound wave cut off into a flat line, with the sound it was meant to reproduce completely LOST.

It's about time.
2008-05-11 - Finally someone decide to release ALL of Gladys Knight and the Pips hits. This Double disc set covers all three labels (Motown, Buddah, and Columbia), and some Gladys's solo hits. All the hits are here and its about time someone recognized one of the greatest soul groups ever. Thank you Hip-O Records. Maybe you should think about a box set.