Bob Marley and the Wailers are showcased in the 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of the Legend greatest hits package. The Deluxe Edition includes a Blu-Ray disc and a CD, along with a small booklet that contains, among other things, the lyrics to each of the songs.
The Blu-Ray disc defaults to stereo audio and has a 5.1-channel mix of all of the songs on Legend, as well. The user can select either DTS-HD Master Audio or Dolby TrueHD for the 5.1-channel audio. The mix for DTS-HD Master Audio and the Dolby TrueHD options is the same. Both options are, of course, lossless. The songs are the same between the CD and Blu-Ray, with the exception of "No Woman, No Cry" (live on CD, album on Blu-Ray), "Easy Skanking" (alternate version on Blu-Ray) and "Punky Reggae Party" (alternate version on Blu-Ray).
The late Bob Marley is one of my favorite reggae artists and that's probably because of how accessible his music is. If you like rock or blues, you'll like Bob Marley. Bob Marley is probably best known as having written one of Eric Clapton's biggest hits, "I Shot The Sheriff", even though Marley had recorded it first.
This is an excellent sounding disc. The bass levels are good and the use of the surround channels is excellent. With the exception of the first three tracks, the sound quality is consistent throughout. I can listen to this disc at any level and it doesn't lose its appeal. The discrete instruments in the rear channel are appropriate and mostly don't "unbalance" the mix. The sound quality is so much improved over the old reggae records that I remember as having such a compressed sound. Bob Marley sounds alive and modern in these new mixes.
My only sound quality complaint is the bass levels of the first three songs. There is a slight over abundance of bass on these songs. An occasional over-exuberant bass note will suddenly appear and be very noticeable. It's as if the mix was attempting to bring up the bass guitar from the old tapes and didn't quite get the cutoff frequency or slope quite right.
My only other complaint is that the disc first asks if you want to connect to the internet. Then you have to select one of the 5.1-channel tracks from the audio menu. In order to do this, the TV has to be started. It's impossible to just play this disc to hear the music. The interesting pictures of Bob Marley and the band kind-of make-up for the need to "turn-on" the video monitor.
I'll take half a point off for the bass in the first three songs as well as making stereo the default setting. 9.5 rounded is a 10. So, I'll give Bob Marley and the Wailers "Legend" a rounded-up 10. I've very much enjoyed listening to this 5.1-channel album many times since its release.
Overall, I'm jammin', jammin' till the jam is through (in 5.1)...
Andy