Beatles mono vinyl aaa box set

Price has gone down by £18 to £288 on Amazon...

I notice that, on pre-orders alone, they are #1 on the Vinyl Bestseller list

I don't doubt that the Beatles tapes are now stored under "Smithsonian-like" conditions. But who is to say how they were treated way back when? I have not bought the latest vinyl (stereo) releases because they were digital. I have no intention of buying the latest AAA mono vinyl, but I'll wait to hear the reviews. Again, for me, it comes down to how many iterations of the same music can the marketers keep releasing? At some point, just listen and enjoy .

Dear Joe,

EMI have a system of storage that has been caring for master parts from recordings for well over a hundred years.

Don't forget that for a record company their most significant asset is the set of master recordings that form the basis of their issues and re-issues.

EMI have tapes dating back for the whole period of tape recording and have been caring for this in optimal conditions for longer than most of us have been alive.

Not every company has been so successful at caring for its archive ...

ATB from George

From the blurb on the Beatles website they seem to be doing the best they can to reproduce the original sound of the first mono pressings by actively comparing with the original vinyl. This could be the best you can get aside from buying absolutely mint first pressings which is obviously not practical. If they succeed then I hope others follow suit with other legendary recordings. 

I have some sympathy with Joe's comments. If someone is happy with what they have then it's a waste to spend another $400+ on more copies of the same music. 

Steve

Well, I think I'll stick with my original "Please Please Me" wot I bought when it came out. The cover's got a couple of minor blemishes (ahem) & it's a bit crackly but still playable. I think it cost me nearly a quid!

The same question I asked myself with the latest LZ reissues Joe.

Tony,

Very cool post and photo of Please Please Me. I hope you still listen to that copy on occasion. I bought my first copy of Abbey Road in 1975 when I was 12 years old. The cover is in great condition, and despite being played countless times, the vinyl still gives me chills. 

George,

I'm happy to hear about EMI's storage of their recordings. I wasn't aware of that. I will have to reserve judgment on the new mono vinyl until I hear it (If I have the chance).

Steve J

I probably have enough Beatles music to keep me satisfied, and the majority is vinyl from the 70's-80's. No mono vinyl, though (other than a few 45's). I have the mono CDs for that. Perhaps if they release single LPs of the new mono series I'll be tempted to give one a try. Please Please Me would be fun, or perhaps the White Album .

I'm encouraged by what I read here and I hope the new AAA releases sound great. If that's the case, then it will beg the question as to why the latest stereo vinyl was ADA. Weren't we told then that the stereo tapes had deteriorated and were not of adequate quality to be used for direct transfer to vinyl???

The mono reissues will be available individually as well.

Tony - lovely photo of Please Please Me. It looks like its been thoroughly enjoyed. Probably kept its value too - perhaps worth about a quid!

I was a kid in the 60s and I remember playing that and Rubber Soul over and over and over and over. My copies were enjoyed beyond repair moons ago and I am looking forward to hearing them again  in glorious mono. This time I will treat them with slightly more respect.

I won't pretend they are cymbals, or leave them out on the floor in direct sunlight, or see how many I can stack on the auto-changer, or get the dog to carry them on its back. Or my favorite old experiment of playing them at 78rpm and placing old pennies one by one on the headshell and seeing how many it took until the needle ground into the record and stopped the turntable spinning. About 9 if I recall. Great fun.

Regards

David

I might buy one or 2,  last year I found a Mono Magical Mystery Tour, expensive but worth it.  I think all of mine from Revolver up were stereo, Mom gave them to a family with boys when I went to college,  I still tell people that and I'm 60....

Shame it's a mono reissue.

Why?

I generally don't like the mono versions. Mono is great for solos. Preference for mono seems to revolve around whether the Beatles actually turned up to the stereo mixing sessions. 

I generally prefer the stereo versions. That's what I grew up listening to. To me, stereo is better for speaker listening, while mono can be nice for headphone listening. There are differences in the mixes, and sometimes in the takes. Some subtle, some obvious. It's all good, though; it's The Beatles!

This might help.....

A "back to mono" button on his jacket in the 1970's.

Graham.

............ John Lennon liked mono. I don't.

Just maybe that's how the Beatles intended them to be heard, which is good enough for me. 

It was as if the Beatles or George Martin didn't know how to record or mix for stereo, particularly on the earlier albums. This is curious when you consider how James Lock was achieving excellent results in stereo for Decca in the late 1950s. 

I don't know what all the fuss is about , it's not as if the music is any good!

The more my system improved the more I appreciated mono pressings. Mono doesn't mean a flat soundstage by any means. Most of my original Beatles LPs are stereo. Where I have both I tend to prefer the mono now, particularly with the early albums.

Count, stereo was thought to be a gimmick in the early '60s and George Martin and the Beatles concentrated on mixing for mono and the stereo mixing was left to technicians in the studio. I think they only started to get involved with the stereo mixes with Revolver.

It's been many years since last I played my old mono "Please Please Me"; I was a bit worried it might be too damaged to listen to. So yesterday I gave it a spin. Apart from the crackling between tracks and a slight jump at the end of a track on side two it sounds amazingly good! Think I'll rip it & use Audacity to kill the inter-track fried bacon. 

Nice mint copy you have there Tony.

Here's a clip to whet your collective appetites

I can't believe how fragile the master tapes look. One tends to think of master tapes of an inch or two in width. These are barely the width of normal cassette tape.