We’re in the thick of it now. It’s the final weekend ramp-up ahead of the BTHD—Big Time Holiday Day—and this is the exact moment a certain level of purely palpable panic sets in as you realize you’re still missing that perfect gift for the audio nut, er, enthusiast in your life.
Never fear, for MM is here to give you many more music box set options than you could possibly acquire! (Me, I make sure to get ’em all myself so that I can better service what you need. That’s my rationalization for it, at least.) The good news is, the balance of the boxes I’m covering below can still be obtained via reputable online retailers and/or favored, brick-and-mortar indie record stores in time for you to send ’em to your intended audiophile recipient by way of overnight (or 2-day) shipping, and/or get ’em wrapped up in order to place ’em under the tree like you had it figured out all along.
Not only that, but since most of you have been nicer than naughty this year—well, most of you, that is, but not all of you—I’m also including one bonus stocking stuffer item at the tail end of this post: my Top 5 Dolby Atmos releases of 2025. Why? Because I can (and I know you wanna know what they are anyway).
And thus, here is my final presentation of holiday shopping recommendations of ten more box sets (count ’em!), at least one of which should be the perfect big-ticket item you’ve been seeking for that special audiophile someone in your life.
THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE
BOLD AS LOVE – THE AXIS: BOLD AS LOVE SESSIONS
In recent years, the Jimi Hendrix estate has doubled down on producing lavish box sets befitting the legacy of the world’s great guitarist. Last year’s Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision 5LP/1BD and concurrent 3CD/1BD offering was a master class in curating the legacy of the studio Jimi had up and running in Greenwich Village in NYC before his untimely death at age 27 in September 1970. This year, the family’s box set focus is on feting December 1967’s Axis: Bold as Love, the second LP released by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, which has now been expanded into 5LP/1BD and 4CD/1BD Sessions-centric box options via Experience Hendrix/Legacy. To me, Hendrix was one of the most important creative forces of the 20th century—right up there with The Beatles and Miles Davis—so anything his estate releases from the vaults is pure aural manna to these ears. Any working demo, session outtake, and live offering lends that much more insight into Jimi’s unique creative process, and the Bold/Sessions box serves up 27 previously unreleased recordings from 1967 in that regard. Keep ’em coming, I say!
I should also point out that the 45-single-sized, 8.25in square 4CD/1BD edition of Axis will fit quite nicely on your shelf right alongside the similarly sized Electric Lady Studios 5CD/1BD box with ease—so if historical releases like this one continue to emerge from Jimi’s vaults (and there’s no reason to expect that they won’t), here’s hoping they remain uniform in their presentation/format.
The Atmos mix on the BD—done by longtime Hendrix engineer/producer Eddie Kramer, along with Chandler Harrod—reflects the vision Hendrix actually had for his music back in the day. As Kramer once told me firsthand, Jimi was always in pursuit of how to present his music in 3D even though they were “only” working in stereo, and this Atmos mix delivers on that promise. (So does Kramer/Harrod’s truly mindboggling Atmos mixes of “. . .And the Gods Made Love,” “1983. . . (A Merman I Should Turn to Be),” and “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” on the Electric Ladyland BD that was released by Experience Hendrix/Legacy just a month ago in November 2025—but that’s a separate discussion for elsewhere.) Hearing “If 6 Was 9” (Track 7) in 360 degrees gave me outright chills, from Jimi’s skyward-floating narration (“Nobody knows what I’m talking about”) to the rotating recorder bleats and recurrent drum-riser foot-stomping that rollicked clockwise through all the channels in the back half—spirits in the ethereal world, one might even say. In all honesty, the BD could have been subtitled Atmos: Bold as Love. Bottom line: Don’t wait until tomorrow to get this collection.
Ratings (on S&V’s goes-to-5 scale): Music: 5. Sound: 4.5. Packaging: 4.
SRPs: $142.99 (5LP/1BD) / $69.99 (4CD/1BD).
Alas, in the “so many box sets, so little time” department, the remainder of this post will consist of capsule evals for the remaining nine boxes here—otherwise, this installment would become the longest post in the history of the interwebs, and even we don’t have that kind of bandwidth. Rest assured, any collection I cover from this point onward meets the exacting ratings standards we’ve long established for the Music, Sound, and Packaging axis, so you really can’t go wrong with any of them.
Vince Guaraldi: A Charlie Brown Christmas. (Fantasy/Analogue Productions).
SRP: $150.
Now, I couldn’t just let the season roll on by without a top-shelf holiday entry, could I? Analogue Productions’ 60th anniversary 200g 45rpm 2LP UHQR edition of this all-time classic from 1965 is top-shelf across the board. It features A-plus-level, all-analog mastering courtesy Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab from the original analog master tape, is pressed on Clarity Vinyl, and comes as a limited edition of 2,750 numbered copies. Most especially sublime are the two tracks that reside on LP1, Side 2: “Linus and Lucy” and “Christmas Time Is Here,” both of which feature Guaraldi’s soothing piano lines buttressed by Jerry Granelli’s intuitive snare and brushwork. If our ratings appeared on a scale of 10 being the highest instead of 5 as the pinnacle, this one would actually go up to 11 for both Music and Sound—and, for that matter, the Packaging is pretty stellar too, Charlie Brown.
The Who: Who Are You – Super Deluxe Edition. (Polydor/UMR).
SRPs: $124.99 (7CD/1BD) / $89.99 (4LP).
This expanded look at the 1978 swan song of the Keith Moon era of The ’Oo is an all-out blast, with loads of sessions and demos, an alternate stereo mix by Glyn Johns, scores of live tracks from their troubled but ultimately redeemed 1979 tour of the States (with Kenney Jones on drums), and—most importantly—and all-new Atmos mix by the ever-ubiquitous Steven Wilson on BD. As Wilson oh-so-aptly puts it in the liners, “The only real difference [is] that I have tried to place the guitars on a more equal footing with the various synthesizers, which tended to be dominant on previous mixes.” Just dig the Pete Townshend-approved, reinstated guitar solo during “Sister Disco” (Track 4), and the overall punchiness surrounding the snot, snarls, and sneers of “Who Are You” (Track 9). If you’re more of a vinyl fan, not to worry—the half-speed-mastered 180g 4LP black-vinyl edition (which boasts just the core LP and 3LPs of the live 1979 material) is also a treasure trove of sonic goodness.
Genesis: The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway – 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition. (Atlantic/Craft/Rhino).
SRPs: $194.99 (5LP/1BD) / $119.99 (4CD/1BD).
For whatever reason, I’ve never given Lamb its proper due, and perhaps that had more to do with its length and storyline density more than anything else. This massive box set rectifies that oversight of mine in all measures, with unreleased Headley Grange Sessions demos and live tracks galore (including a pair of unreleased encores from the band’s January 1975 performance at L.A.’s Shrine Auditorium). Miles Showell deftly handled the original album remastering at Abbey Road via the 1974 analog tapes, and his expert touch is in full evidence on the box’s first four sides of vinyl. The BD features Atmos mixes overseen by Peter Gabriel and Tony Banks at Real World Studios—and their respective, longstanding 360-degree expertise shines through on the expansive splattering of “Fly on a Windshield” (Track 2), the more subtle effects of “Hairless Heart” (Track 8), and the cascading denouement of “It” (Track 23). Let’s hope the balance of the Genesis catalog will also get this level of expansion and re-appreciation.
Split Enz: ENZyclopedia Volumes One & Two. (Chrysalis).
SRPs: $59.99 (5CD) / $59.99 (3LP).
“Where did you go to find Spilt Enz records?” one of the groundbreaking New Zealand band’s cofounders, Tim Finn, asked me on Zoom recently. It’s a fair question (and one I will get into in much more depth in another post to come elsewhere), but it was admittedly hard to find copies of most of the art-rocking new-wave band’s initial slate of LPs here in the States back in the day—especially since we were actually served a jumbled-up recasting of their earliest efforts, technically without our knowledge of it even having been done that way. (No wonder I gravitated toward heady, somewhat spooky Mental tracks like “Stranger Than Fiction” and “Spellbound.”) Thankfully, this comprehensive box set covers the Enz’s formative years, starting with their July 1975 debut Mental Notes via a 2025 remaster by Phil Kinrade at AIR Studios, as well as Enz member Eddie Rayner’s all-new remix of August 1976’s Second Thoughts—an album that had been recorded at Basing Street Studios in London with Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera behind the board—in addition to other singles, rare tracks, and heretofore unreleased material. If you think you know what Enz is all about based on their MTV-era breakthrough, you don’t know half the story—and this initial ENZyclopedia installment is a right proper aural history lesson. Added bonus: Rayner is as much an Atmos fan as I am, and his 360-degree mix of those first two Enz albumz on a limited-edition BD is also worth discussing. In fact, he and I will indeed be doing just that elsewhere in the new year—and it’ll be well worth the wait, mate!
Time now for the box set lightning round for the final five, before we get fully Atmos-ized. (Same ratings rules apply.)
John Coltrane: 1960-1964. (Atlantic/Rhino High Fidelity). SRP: $249.98 (6LP). The importance of John Coltrane’s aural output cannot be understated. This massive mono box set covers six LPs from his most fertile early-1960s period on Atlantic—all of them being all-analog cuts from the original analog mono master tapes by Kevin Gray and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal. Absolutely essential, albeit limited to 2,000 individually numbered copies and available exclusively at Rhino’s official site store here.
Spandau Ballet: Everything Is Now – The Early Years: 1978-1982. (Parlophone). SRP: $124.98 (2LP/6CD/1BD). Prior to their “True” 1983 breakthrough, these always stylish, New Romantics-era British new-wavers had other legs to stand on, all dressed in white. Not only that, but (yep, him again) Steven Wilson lends them an Atmos boost too—as witnessed by the full, perky percussive uplift of “To Cut a Long Story Short” that opens the BD proceedings.
Mötley Crüe: Theatre of Pain – 40th Anniversary Deluxe Vinyl Box Set. (BMG). SRP: $149.98 (4LP). Time to don our full metal jackets in order to fully appreciate the contents of this quite heavy box, which rightly celebrates the mighty Crüe’s mid-’80s world domination period that was framed by the populous penetration of the lighter-waving, chart-topping “Home Sweet Home” and their raucous cover of Brownsville Station’s eternal 1973 gem, “Smokin’ in the Boys Room.” I especially dig the color vinyl presentation here too: orange/black splatter for the core Pain album, red/white/blue splatter for the two Live LPs, and orange/pink splatter for the clear vinyl Demos.
Nick Drake: The Making of Five Leaves Left. (Island/UMR). SRPs: $100 and up (4LP) / $100 and up (4CD). The legend and legacy of nascent folk singer/songwriter Nick Drake seemingly grows by the hour, and this delicately curated collection only adds to the accolade coffers. The Making of box—which, as you can see by the “fluid” SRP range, may admittedly be hard to find at the moment, but it’s worth tracking down if you can—houses over 30 previously unheard outtakes from the sessions that ultimately bloomed into Drake’s debut Island LP, July 1969’s Five Leaves Left. Both the LP and CD boxes window-mirror each other physically (pseudo-pun intended). The contents have been mastered by John Wood and Simon Heywood, while the final disc in each version is the original Joe Boyd-produced album. Plus, I love how the box’s OBI strip colloquially calls it, in both British parlance and spelling, “an authorised finite edition.” (BTW, those are not my LPs sitting unprotected on that deck; it is a supplied-art image.)
Jethro Tull: Still Living in the Past. (Parlophone). SRPs: $59.99 (5CD/1BD) / $34.99 (2LP). No comments from the peanut gallery allowed regarding this too-on-the-nose box set title, BTW. Once again, Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull get the gold-star for consistently putting out meticulously detailed box sets. This one covers the band’s 1968-71 developmentally formative period, and it’s rife with (yes) 100 pages’ worth of liner notes as well as remixes, edits, and demos galore. Plus, each historical box like this one that Tull releases—now up to 17 in total, upon my last count—retains the exact same 5.67 x 7.6in w/h footprint, making them easy to shelve together. Three guesses as to who did the studio content remixes in both 24bit/96kHz PCM Stereo and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, in addition to handling the DTS 5.1 treatment for the Live at Carnegie Hall 1970 material (and the balance of the content on the companion 2LP set). Hint: His name rhymes with Reven Rilson.
STOCKING STUFFER BONUS:
MM’s TOP 5 DOLBY ATMOS RELEASES OF 2025
As promised at the outset, here are my Top 5 Dolby Atmos releases of 2025—presented, as always, in reverse order. Rather than prattle on about them here per se, links are included to all the original posts so you can find out exactly why these five BDs are the best in what 360-degree music had to offer for our ears this year.
5. Kraftwerk: Autobahn. (Kling Klang/Parlophone). This German band’s enduring influence on electronic, pop, and progressive music writ large is practically incalculable. The Atmos mix update of their November 1974 benchmark Autobahn only adds to their omnipresence, as I discussed
here, which originally posted on March 30, 2025.
4. Dire Straits: Brothers in Arms – 40th Anniversary Edition. (Vertigo/Mercury/UMR). “Brothers in Arms has certain sonic qualities and qualifications that helped it reach critical mass,” Straits master Mark Knopfler noted to me. Knopfler, along with his right-hand Atmos man and bandmate Guy Fletcher, then further confirmed how BIA was perfectly suited for fully immersive mixing here, which posted on May 30, 2025.
3. De La Soul: 3 Feet High and Rising. (Chrysalis). “We’re always trying to think of something cool, whether it’s internally inside, or externally cool.” That’s De La Soul’s Posdnous, who told me exactly why the legendary alt-hip-hop pioneers can do anything in Atmos here, which originally posted on September 21, 2025.
2. Envy of None: Stij(ē)ən Wāvs. (kScope). “Atmos is a really interesting platform. We didn’t want anything kind of fancy and tricky with stuff whipping around, and things like that.” Guitar wizard Alex Lifeson lays down the EoN Atmos law with me here, which originally posted on April 27, 2025.
1. Steven Wilson: The Overview. (Fiction). Is it any wonder, really? Go here, for my deep-dive Overview review that originally posted on March 23, 2025, to see just how SW has yet again pushed the Atmos envelope further than anyone else has to date (and, most likely, even beyond that).
Author bio: Mike Mettler is the last music editor standing for Sound & Vision. He’s also the editor of our sister site Analog Planet, in addition to being a contributing music editor and Sound Chaser columnist for one of our other sister sites, Stereophile, as well as the regular Vinyl Icons column scribe for Hi-Fi News. Plus, he’s quite partial to vintage 1967 Mustang fastbacks, but that’s yet another one of his stories for a different time and place.
For Part 1 of his end-of-year multi-part “Best Music Box Sets” series that centered on Beatles-related group and solo box sets and posted on S&V on November 24, 2025, go here.
For Part 2 of his end-of-year multi-part “Best Music Box Sets” series that included the likes of The Smashing Pumpkins, Love, and Phil Collins, and posted on S&V on November 29, 2025, go here.
For Part 3 of his end-of-year multi-part “Best Music Box Sets” series that included the likes of The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and The Cars, and posted on S&V on December 8, 2025, go here.
