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Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful Content, So-so Quality
Review: I imagine that there are quite a few fans out there who, like me, adore the Hitchhiker's books but have never heard the orginal radio shows. To all of you out there: you won't be disappointed. The radio dramas have a very talented cast, and they're full of wonderful soundscapes and effects that bring the sometimes abstract plots of H2G2 into sharp focus. Other reviewers have put it better, so I'll leave it to them.
The added features give an interesting perspective -- there's a "making-of" feature with interviews of the cast and producers, and there's a wonderful extended interview with Douglas Adams which covers not only the making of Hitchhiker's but his views on, well, Life, the Universe, and Everything. I imagine that Mr. Adams must have been a wonderfully charming person in real life; he certainly comes across that way in the interview.
That said, the sound quality of the first and second series on MP3 is not so great. I was happy with mine until I heard a friend's copy -- she had the same "Collector's Edition" but in Audio CD format on 8 discs. (The packaging is basically the same, though obviously 8 discs take up slightly more room.) Compared with the CD format, my MP3's sounded a bit flat and fuzzy, and there are cracks and pops. It didn't bother me because I'm used to listening to old records, but it was disappointing to hear what was supposedly the "same edition" sound so much better. The flat sound of my MP3 edition might just be due to the fact that I don't have any fancy dedicated MP3 player, just my PC and Windows Media Player, but I thought it worth mentioning.
If you want to pay a bit more (not much more) to get better sound quality, the ISBN for the Audio CD format is 0-563-47702-4. I can't seem to find it on amazon.com, but it's on amazon.co.uk. (Amazon, please don't be mad at me for recommending something from your counterpart!) If you're not an audiophile, the MP3's are pretty good, a bit cheaper, and you can get them without overseas shipping. Either way, the Collector's edition is definitely worth picking up.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice idea, but not worth it for loss of sound quality
Review: I love the radio series of Hitchhikers...REALLY love it, both series of it. I owned them for years on cassette tape and used to listen to them regularly. Then, recently, fueled by the news of the new Tertiary Phase (which will be broadcast in Sept. 2004), I decided to upgrade my cassettes of the Primary and Secondary Phases to CD.And I saw this wonderful sounding "all on one CD" mp3 release, going for a cheap price, and thought, "What a great idea!". Although slightly dubious about what the sound quality would be like, I ignored the other negative reviews here which criticised it and bought it anyway. Bad mistake. There is a constant barrage of crackle and popping going on in the background, which ruins the programme for me. The radio series is so reliant on its sound and sound effects that having a constant popping in your ear is not only irritating, but downright insulting, and I am shocked that the BBC actually allowed this to be released. The fact that SIX CDs are compressed onto ONE (with LOTS of room left over if you look at the burn markings on the CD) should be warning enough, but I did not heed it and paid the price. Quite a large price, actually, because I instantly went out (in quite an annoyed huff) and bought the original CD releases of the Primary and Secondary Phase. Which sound beautiful. Do yourself a favour and do NOT bother ordering this mp3 CD; spend the extra dough and get the decent original releases. Or perhaps wait for a DVD-Audio of it...really THAT is what the BBC should have done. You may end up spending double what you would if you got this mp3 CD, but believe me: the Hitchhiker's radio series IS worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Nice idea, but not worth it for loss of sound quality
Review: I love the radio series of Hitchhikers...REALLY love it, both series of it. I owned them for years on cassette tape and used to listen to them regularly. Then, recently, fueled by the news of the new Tertiary Phase (which will be broadcast in Sept. 2004), I decided to upgrade my cassettes of the Primary and Secondary Phases to CD. And I saw this wonderful sounding "all on one CD" mp3 release, going for a cheap price, and thought, "What a great idea!". Although slightly dubious about what the sound quality would be like, I ignored the other negative reviews here which criticised it and bought it anyway. Bad mistake. There is a constant barrage of crackle and popping going on in the background, which ruins the programme for me. The radio series is so reliant on its sound and sound effects that having a constant popping in your ear is not only irritating, but downright insulting, and I am shocked that the BBC actually allowed this to be released. The fact that SIX CDs are compressed onto ONE (with LOTS of room left over if you look at the burn markings on the CD) should be warning enough, but I did not heed it and paid the price. Quite a large price, actually, because I instantly went out (in quite an annoyed huff) and bought the original CD releases of the Primary and Secondary Phase. Which sound beautiful. Do yourself a favour and do NOT bother ordering this mp3 CD; spend the extra dough and get the decent original releases. Or perhaps wait for a DVD-Audio of it...really THAT is what the BBC should have done. You may end up spending double what you would if you got this mp3 CD, but believe me: the Hitchhiker's radio series IS worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: Must Have for any SciFi Fan
Review: I originally borrowed the cassette version of this Radio Dramatization form the library, but I could never find a copy for sale. This MP3 edition compiles all 6 cassettes / CDs onto 2 CDs at a much lower cost. I ordered it from Amazon.co.uk. It's far more entertaining than the standard "one person reading the book" style audio book. This version is a dramatization, which includes voice actors and sound effects. Very highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A must-hear before the movie comes
Review: The first radio series of Hitchhiker was utterly marvellous, and I believe will stand up in history as the 20th century's equivalent of 'Alice in Wonderland'. The second series never achieved the same zenith, for several reasons: 1. It was very much a follow-on to the first series, and thus it could never hope to be as devestatingly original. 2. Although there are one or two grand ideas in the second series -- such as the Platonic concept of a disinterested philosopher actually running the Universe, and Zaphod colluding with psychiatrists to destroy the Earth -- these don't permeate the whole series in the same way that the Earth-as-ultimate-computer idea held almost everything together in the first series. 3. In fact, apart from Zaphod feeling he must find Zarniwoop, our heroes wander fairly aimlessly through the second series, largely reacting to circumstances and just trying to survive. 4. The absence of Trillian means that there is no female protagonist until the three Lintillas arrive in episode 5. Quite apart from the benefit of a female perspective -- if Douglas was capable of writing from one -- a female voice gave additional colour to the first series. Until you've heard a couple of episodes, it can at times be hard to distinguish between the voices of Mark Wing-Davey, Geoff McGivern, and at times, even Simon Jones. 5. One of the many stars of the first series was the background music, which provided a wonderful selection of much of the best 'space' music of the 1970s -- Stomu Yamash'ta, Patrick Moraz, Terry Riley etc. In the second series -- perhaps for reasons of expense -- we get Paddy Kingsland's original music, which is nice enough, but was never going to win any awards or achieve commercial success. 6. Douglas Adams seemed to have used up many of his best philosophical ideas in the first series. At times you definitely feel that Peter Jones, as the Book, has been given a second-rate selection of observations for the second series. The second series contained one or two of Douglas's gripes about the late 70s -- e.g. the noisiness of discos, and the surplus of shoe shops on the high street -- but one wonders whether it was really worth making them a major theme of a sci-fi story. 7. The decision to broadcast episodes 8 to 12 on Monday to Friday of the same week was a mistake. It was just to much to take in so quickly. Perhaps the production team were unaware how the first series became such a cult: university students (particularly in Cambridge) were taping each episode, and very quickly copies of copies of copies of the original broadcast were circulating around the colleges. You really needed to hear each episode at least three times to begin to appreciate all that had been put into it. With episodes coming every night, as they did in the second series, you never stood a chance of getting that familiar before the next episode arrived. OK, that's all the negative criticism. There are many reasons for liking the second series almost as much as the first series. Stephen Moore is fantastically versatile here -- e.g. as Marvin, as the pupil, and as the disinterested philosopher -- and his achievement really deserved to be compared with Alec Guinness in 'Kind Hearts and Coronets'.
Rating: 
Summary: Good contents but poor audio quality
Review: This box cosists of 2 CDs. The first contains all 12 parts of the original BBC Radio 4
Hitchhiker series as 124 MP3 files (encoded at 160kbps). The second contains Douglas Adam's
Guide to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (28 MP3 files, also 160kbps).
The radio series really is a must have for every Hitchhiker fan ! It was available
before on 6 regular CDs in two sets called "The Primary Phase" and "The Secondary Phase".
Unfortunatly this MP3 edition - while being cheaper - has comparatively poor audio quality
with lots of cracks and pops that are *not* present on the original CDs (I also own
"The Primary Phase"). The files sound as if they were recorded from an old vinyl record.
I can not help but think that these cracks and pops were introduced deliberately to justify
the more expensive non-MP3 editions.
My advice: get the original CDs and encode them yourself (80kbps at 22kHz will do) - you'll
get much better sounding MP3s that way.
Curiously enough, the files on the second CD (Adam's Guide to H2G2) have good quality and
are crystal clear.
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