Pushing a little further into September, precisely the 16th, you can expect Japanese-styled Mini-LP CDs for Steve Miller titles that include Children of the Universe; Number 5; Brave New World; Sailor; and Your Saving Grace.

You don't have to wait until September 16th for these cds, I have all 5 in stock. It's "Children Of The Future" and they are EMI Toshiba remastered releases TOCP-70274 to 70278.

What Starz is referring to, and where the confusion is here, is that Caroline Records has had an importing program for a while now under which they import overstock (i presume they are overstock) of these mini-LP cardboard sleeve titles, and sell them domestically for about $25 each. So, September is when they will be available to order from this U.S. label. I think they already offer the Blondie ones and a few other bands, and are also supposed to be selling the Quicksilver Messenger Service mini-LP series later this summer. I've never ordered one to check, but they are supposed to be the exact Japan issues, not a copy/knock-off manufactured here.

Anyone considering these, i wouldn't wait either. Roxanne's prices (from my experiences) are always competitive, and the packaging and service is A+.

I've had this set since it was initially released in Japan last year. Great music.

Can anyone actually verify that the Steve Millers are in fact, remastered? I asked the same question on the Hoffman site and nobody actually owned any of them to compare. Plus, on amazon.com there's a warning that these Japanese mini-LP CDs are no different, sound-wise, than the old Capital CDs.

Matt, that amazon warning sounds about right. I did own all of the Capitol cds of these prior to getting the Japan cds. I couldn't detect any significant difference in mastering (nor was any credit given in the booklet for new remastering, as it was given for the Little Feat Japan cds). In fact, i did hear a few embedded pops/clicks in a few songs that i had never heard in the U.S. Capitol cds.

Personally i bought these for the cardboard sleeve packaging, but overall they sound at least as good as the U.S. cds (as the U.S. cds were mastered/manufactured many years ago, i'm not sure if there's any subtle audio benefit from these cds having been run more recently with present state of the art techniques employed).

Oh, the sound quality on the old Capital discs is fine. I just wish they were slightly louder I guess. Not into-the-red loud but at least on par with everything else that's been remastered in the last fifteen years so these songs don't sound so underrecorded (volume-wise) when they come up on shuffle on my iPod. I know the Hoffmanites will tell you everything is remastered too loud lately and I more-or-less agree; still, I think a happy medium can be acheived between ear-blasting volume and having to turn it up.