I hope you won't think it too off-topic for me to mention that The Rolling Stones DSD Remastered CD's are now out in jewel-cases in the UK. And at mid-price. This covers their highly acclaimed sixties output.

These new editions came out in 2002 as hybrid SACD's in highly annoying digipaks. I don't mind digipaks or vinyl-replicas as collectors' items or box sets we never play but for a timeless studio album you're going to play regularly for about fifty years you surely don't want packaging that is going to fall apart within weeks.

These jewel-cased editions have actually been around since the last lot but never before available in the UK.

Anyone else annoyed by digipaks? If an artist reissues their catalogue in such packaging (ie Eno), I just keep the old CD so I can swap the discs around.

Thank you for highlighting my pet peeve when it comes to CDs: I hate, hate, hate "unconventional" packaging.

Not all digipaks are awful. The one for DUSTY IN MEMPHIS, in which the CD fits LP-style in a reproduction of the original album, is clever. The ones I can't stand are the ones that outsmart themselves by, for example, being taller and wider than jewel boxes so that you can't store them alongside your regular CDs. I actually purchased a second copy of EASTER EVERYWHERE by the 13th Floor Elevators because it was in a jewel box, as opposed to the ridiculously oversized digipak that housed my first copy.

By far the worst I've seen is the reissue of Michelle Shocked's SHORT SHARP SHOCKED (I presume the other reissues of her early stuff are the same way), which houses the two discs in an oversized box - _on a rubber spindle_. WTF?!?

Sorry to go on like this; I realize there are more important issues vexing the world than the fact that I had to waste a replacement CD case so that I could fit Sigur Ros' TAKK inside a box. But it bugs me, and I'm happy to have the chance to vent about it.

I've just purchased today 3 Rolling Stones records in DSD : "aftermath", "beggars banquet" and "let it bleed".
That's fuckin' good rock'n'roll ! The SACD remasters released in digipak in 2002 cost too much, that's why the only RS albums I owned before today were those released by Virgin Records in the early 70's.
I don't like digipaks in general, "takk" by Sigur Ros cause me many problems to put away in my CDthèque...
I have the same problem for George Harrison's "all things must pass" (2001 remasters), Mundy's "jelly legs" and Spiritualized's "let it come down".
But I'm agree with you concerning the "Dusty in Memphis" digipak, very good artwork !

hahaha!!! takk!!! that case is just plain stupid. you scratch the CD every time you take it in and out of the case. i can't see that CD working in a few years. i almost didn't buy it just because the case was so bad. at least most digipacks have the same CD holding mechanism inside. takk is just silly. as is radiohead's live album.

I have the same feelings. I hate digipacks. The worst thing is if they get damaged you can't just replace them like you could with jewel cases. It irritates me to no end if you come back home from the shop and discover your digipack has a broken spindle and the CD keeps falling out. It happened to me two or three times already.

I didn't know that a CD package could cause so much frustration...luckily for you there's the Acclaimed Music Forum where you can get rid of your anger!