The Beatles Remasters: Mono or Stereo

Well now that we know the story, I guess most of us will have to settle for stereo.

I listened to the stereo version of A Hard Day's Night and it sounds so much better!

I've celebrated the Beatles Day to the fullest: cranking my stereo box-set (bought in my local record shop called Yellow Submarine in Finnish :D) in chronological order and finally becoming familiar with the entire Beatles catalogue. Right now I'm listening to the White Album for the first time ever, believe it or not! It really was worth waiting for this glorious day and hear it in such great sound quality! I was only familiar with a couple of tracks on it and all I can say so far is...What a quirky album, lol. Such a marked difference to what went on before... I'll have lots of fun with it in the future!

Y'all are surely whetting my appetite.  Maybe I'll pick up a couple tomorrow.  Probably start with Rubber Soul and Revolver, then work my way backwards and forwards.

The Beatles Remasters

I originally posted this in The Shed 2

Apple goes a bit pear-shaped

'I would go as far as saying that the boffins at Capitol/Abbey Road have missed a trick.They have fallen at the first fence.
There should be a sticker on the albums from Rubber Soul through to and including Revolver saying 'Buyer Beware!'
There is a bit more punch and they are less tinny,but they (the remasterers) have not sorted out the vocal seperation that has blighted the stereo cds since they were issued.

For example; Revolver. 'Eleanor Rigby' Paul McCartney keeps his voice in a jar by the door in the corner of a very large room. The seperation/channeling of McCartney's vocals is so extreme that I checked the input connection on my speakers! Listening to it on head/earphones is useless. In these times where most people listen to music on headphones,you would think that the boffins would have considered this.
A few tracks on Revolver suffer badly from seperation but,suprisingly,most of the tracks had the vocals double tracked left and right and sound fine.

I am still going to buy the first four albums, I bought A Hard Days Night and that sound very good, and I will also buy the albums from Sgt Pepper onwards. The reason for this is that the first four albums were never rebungled for stereo and the last four were recorded when the Fab Four suddenly took an interest in stereo recording.Previously,the band never wanted the albums to be recorded/mastered in stereo.

I have 'Japanese' 'remasters' in mono and stereo of all of the Beatles albums and I must say that on the whole I prefer the mono versions.
They have a warmer,fuller sound. The White album sounds great both in stereo and in mono. The subsequent albums were never recorded in mono.    

Back To Mono '

Edited by Man Erg - September 10 2009 at 02:22

Got the stereo box yesterday and spent most of the night listening to the whole lot, just lying on the couch and having a great time.

I should be receiving my Stereo box set in the mail soon.  Can't wait!

Now, I have managed to hear some uploaded songs via youtube that are apparently from these new remasters, and I have enjoyed immensely what I have heard so far. Some of the vocal issues I have had with the previous mixes have been fixed, with double-tracked, left-and-right channel vocals present the majority of the time. However, some songs still feature vocals in only one channel, though the overall mix and master is much crisper, and you can hear a helluva lot more Bass, I noticed right away.

But I'll give a more indepth review once my copies arrive, whenever that is. Either way, it's going to be worth it because the production values and packaging are clearly much better quality from what we've already got. Plus, I haven't but one original Beatles Compact Disc, so this will be my first true CD collection of The Beatle's works. The only way I've had the entire discography before is on Vinyl.

@Man Erg: Transferred them to iPod as mpeg4 and listened to them via earphones. I've finished listening to all of them and my overall impression has not changed, it's absolutely fantastic. 

^very true, but stereo in 1965 was not what it is today, it was still an experimental novelty, though i used to love playing with the balance control on these recordings..

Edited by mystic fred - September 10 2009 at 11:25

I am definitely interested in acquiring one of the box sets.  The big negative with the mono boxset is that it's about $50 more expensive - and then I still have to get the stereo remasters of Abbey Road and Let It Be.