Beatles releasing Vinyl Box Set in Stereo ...

http://www.thebeatles.com/#/news/Vinyl

"Manufactured on 180-gram, audiophile quality vinyl with replicated artwork, the 14 albums return to their original glory with details including the poster in The Beatles (The White Album), the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band’s cutouts, and special inner bags for some of the titles. Each album will be available individually, and accompanied by a stunning, elegantly designed 252-page hardbound book in a lavish boxed edition which is limited to 50,000 copies worldwide"

I heard on the radio that the boxed edition will retail for $500. 50,000 copies X $500 = $25Million. I bet they are sold out in an hour.

They are going to release the Mono versions next year.

I don't know what to make of this. I love the Beatles, all my LP's are worn out, I don't like the way the CD's sound, especially the remasters. It sounds like someone turn on Gloss and compressed them to oblivion. I'm probably going to pass.

I've heard that about the first 4 albums, but after those I was always under the impression that the original UK releases were in Stereo.

I'm not a big fan of mono anything, so I've always preferred the American Stereo release of the first 4 albums. It's the same tapes and recordings as the UK Mono releases, just hard panned on different equipment.

I've got enough Beatles music.

backwoods

Only the mentally ill will keep buying these Beatle reissues.

About 20 years ago I bought a box set of their CD's, it included the Past Master ones as well. It came in this nice little black rolling top case. The reason I bought it was, it was advertised as the digital transfers of the original metal masters and sounded better than anything previously released. I couldn't hear any difference at all when I got them. I bet if I ripped a file from each one and did a null test, they'd be identical.

That was when I stopped falling for the 'newly mastered/newly remixed/newly found fresher master' crap. The only reason I'm even remotely thinking about this is everything I own now is worn out and/or scratched. But ... it said these are the LP versions of the newly remastered CD's that came out a couple years ago and I thought those sound like crap ... so I don't know.

I was cleaning out my garage recently, getting ready to move, and I found an old ... and I mean old, cassette of The White Album that I made from an original Apple LP. That tape sounds awesome, and it's been laying in the bottom of a plastic tote in my garage in Iowa for the last 12 years enduring -20 to 110 degree temps, critter infestations, unGodly humidity, dust from gravel road etc etc. My truck has a cassette player in it and it's all I've been listening to lately. I just can't believe how good it sounds!

Never again for me unless it is a tin lunchbox signed by all four Beatles.

Yeah, but you sure as heck fire ain't gonna get that for $500.

They are going to release the Mono versions next year.

 
This makes me wonder... are they just going to release the early LPs in mono or all of them, that would seem odd. Surely Abbey Road was never a mono mix... was it??
 
J

I also own both of the remastered Cd collections and they both sound wonderful on
my system.

Of course it's a collection so there's not many that's not there.

The thing I'd really enjoy having is a nice jukebox in my shop as I have all the
colored vinyl 45's except two very rare ones that are colored differently and a good number of the matching jukebox tags. One of those big bubbling kind. I'd even
put in a dinner booth! LOL

they just copied the Monkees anyway

Whether I listen to MP3s on cheap Sony desktop speakers or tapes of old worn out vinyls or CDs, I always enjoy the Beatles. 

I highly doubt that a new pressing would increase my listening pleasure all that much. Besides revealing more and more of the shortcomings of the equipment that was used to record the music, I don't see the point. I'm sure that they didn't mix those albums thinking - "imagine how good this'll sound in 50 years" or "careful w/ that crossfade there, that little thing that we can't hear will be exposed in the future"...

bapu

I should get Laser Technology turntable too?

A guy I knew many years ago that was a friend of a friend, had a laser guided arm on his record player. It was the kind that the arm went straight across so it tracked in the groove evenly. You could set it like a CD player in that you could say, play track 1, then 4, 3, etc etc. It used the laser to detect the gaps between the songs.

It must have been a higher end turntable because of the linear tracking arm, and the laser, but it sure looked like a cheap piece of crap.

I can sure understand that but I make the decisions on what sounds good or not.

Of course I didn't buy them for what they may or may not sound like. They are simply
part of a collection although I did listen to them and was very pleased with the complete
production and packaging.

I have a point of view that supports me owning the new project.
The biggest reason is that I want to leave a very nice collection for my grand daughter
and I can relax knowing that I've already got it. Stuff like this is just icing.
Something like this is just an addition that may have more value to her someday than
the music.

As for our ears and our satisfaction it's already happened....many years ago.

The closest we could get to the studio for their sessions is the Mobile Fidelity Box.
If one wanted to hear the best recordings from them...that's it. Everything else is
just whatever will turn a buck or add to a collection.

That's just my take and someday I'll enjoy listening to the best recordings made from
the original master tapes on limited runs on virgin vinyl. Should anybody want to really
hear them....how can it get any better than those?.....It can't unless you hear the master
tapes....or were there.

Do the original masters exist? I can only guess but a note of interest is that Mobile Fidelity
received the master tapes in California to determine if they were good enough for them
to do the project. I remember reading that they were blown completely away by the quality
so sent them to Sony to get the project done.
The collection can still be had on Ebay. I've seen it go from 8 to 1500 hundred. I've though
more than once to get another so I could have one to play and one untouched.
The 1500 dollar one I remember was still sealed in the original shipping box.

So for sound quality...there's only one worth talking about IMO.

spacey

As for our ears and our satisfaction it's already happened....many years ago.

The closest we could get to the studio for their sessions is the Mobile Fidelity Box.
If one wanted to hear the best recordings from them...that's it.

Ahh ... that's what I was looking for. :) Thanks for your input!

Everything I've heard released by Mobile Fidelity on CD sounded like the high end was rolled off way too much, compared to the original releases. I've never heard a Mobile Fidelity LP, so I can't make an honest comparison between the two. My brother has a bunch of them, but would never even let me see them, let alone play one. Heh. I've never heard a single complaint about their LP's, but I have heard several about their CD's, so there may be something to me picking up on the high end roll off.

I own A Night At The Opera, Dark Side Of The Moon, The Wall, The Police Synchonicity (Sold it on eBay), Days Of Future Passed, and Breakfast In America on Mobile Fidelity UltraDisc Gold CD's. I kept going back to the original CD releases and stopped buying the Mobile Fidelity ones because they just didn't compare in my opinion. Which leads me to this ... I had a chance to buy an unopened MF Beatles LP set one time for $600 ... I didn't do it because of the experience I had with the CD's.

Oh well ... I didn't need another set anyways. I can point out, 10 seconds before it happens, every single place where one of them takes a breath, sighs, laughs in the background, every stupid ad lib thing Lennon says before, during, and after a song, forward and backwards (I have actually listened to everything the Beatles released backwards and created a web site about it.), so I really don't need another set to hear it clearer. :)

But I completely get why you're building your collection and thinks it's great that your doing it! I think I would jump right on it if I had the cash ... but right now I have to update everything, and I mean everything, in the 23 year old house we just bought in MO. You see, it was designed and furnished by a well meaning 90 year old lady in 89' with horrible design skills. If anyone needs a double seashell shaped bathroom sink ... in pink ... let me know ... it's yours!!!!!!!!! <--- I'm not joking! LOL!

Bub.