PO: Beatles Box Set

[mrrom92]

Waste of plastic.

[dreamover]

gonna wait til they're out, find abbey road, and if it sounds as good as the cd remasters compared to the 80's cds, i'll probably bite at whatever price the box comes down to by then.

[almightyseancore]

dream, you probably already know this but if not, abbey road has been in print for like, ever, and the modern pressing sounds just fine.it's usually only around $10 or $12.

[dreamover]

yeah, i have it. but it was already their best sounding record, and will be easier to compare the new and old press.

[somethingvinyl]

Word on the street is the best sounding Beatles records are the MFSL Box:

http://www.collectorsfrenzy.com/details/320978123599/Beatles__MFSL_Vinyl_Box_Set__Mint

[Guest]

I don't know if I could justify a $1150.00 box set.

I'm certainly not ballin like that, yet!

[serum7]

Word on the street is the best sounding Beatles records are the MFSL Box:

http://www.collector...l_Box_Set__Mint

I'm sure it's great, but I doubt my modest setup is really worthy of that sort of investment. All I know is my blue box versions sound fantastic. I was lucky enough to find one that was pretty much mint. It looked like the original owners bought it and never listened to any of them except Abbey Road.

[mrrom92]

Word on the street is the best sounding Beatles records are the MFSL Box:

http://www.collectorsfrenzy.com/details/320978123599/Beatles__MFSL_Vinyl_Box_Set__Mint

You've gotta be kidding me. The MFSL versions are some of the worst sounding versions around. They'll be way better than these new copies though.

Blue box, my friends. Blue box. Or 1st pressings/70's/80's reissues, but whatever floats your boat.

[kidamnesiac]

If we want to get really technical, the best pressings are supposed to be the Odeon pressings from Japan, at least for the mono catalog. They fetch upwards of $150 a piece in good condition. I will buy a mono remaster box like crazy. Like crazy!

[somethingvinyl]

You've gotta be kidding me. The MFSL versions are some of the worst sounding versions around. They'll be way better than these new copies though.

Blue box, my friends. Blue box. Or 1st pressings/70's/80's reissues, but whatever floats your boat.

I'm going by what I've heard from people who've been collecting records longer than you've been alive. Maybe MFSL aren't the best, maybe the blue box is the best, but it's utterly ridiculous to say that MFSL are the worst. They're one of the pioneeres that took the original masters that were sourced to reproduce an audiophile record.

[degenerex]

Anybody want to sell me a blue box?

[dreamover]

You've gotta be kidding me. The MFSL versions are some of the worst sounding versions around. They'll be way better than these new copies though.

how do you figure?

[The Vool]

Holy shit!

I would sooooo pay $400...but I'm afraid shipping to Germany + 19 % tax (& fees) would break my neck!

[markok]

Holy shit!

I would sooooo pay $400...but I'm afraid shipping to Germany + 19 % tax (& fees) would break my neck!

In such cases Im more worried about the damages such a big box might get during overseas. In my experience, the bigger the vinyl package, the more f... up it will get during transit.

[mrrom92]

I'm going by what I've heard from people who've been collecting records longer than you've been alive. Maybe MFSL aren't the best, maybe the blue box is the best, but it's utterly ridiculous to say that MFSL are the worst. They're one of the pioneeres that took the original masters that were sourced to reproduce an audiophile record.

I don't doubt you. A lot of older collectors bought into the marketing hype when these came out. Doesn't actually make them good though. Unless you like weird unnatural EQ across the board.

The old MOFI really pioneered some great advances in LP production, and I thank them for that, but there really isn't a single one worth owning. Not one. The new MFSL has a few misses, but mostly hits, and their records are coming out better than ever.

Oh, and those Japanese red wax pressings? They're pretty meh too. I only like the Japanese pressing of Revolver because so much of the album is harsh sounding, and the fact that the Japs cut from a tape copy kinda "warm up" (dull out) the sound to a point where it's listenable for me.

But you know what, I could just tell you that they're all awesome so everyone on this board can buy MFSL/Japanese/2012 reissues, and I'll be left with all the superior first pressings to snap up.

You might wanna consider that only the UK issues were cut directly from the 1st gen masters and by someone who was familiar with how the album was supposed to sound.

[somethingvinyl]

^^^^ Oh yeah, there were definitely people who bought into the hype.

I wouldn't pay the prices they're asking. My aim is to eventually own the UK pressings. My dad bought every US pressing sometime in the mid-60's while in Vietnam (in the BX) and never opened them. I'll eventually inherit those. Still, when I fell in love with the Beatles, it was with the CD and they only issued those [until the box set] as UK versions. So since those are the proper albums, those are the ones I want.

[The Vool]

In such cases Im more worried about the damages such a big box might get during overseas. In my experience, the bigger the vinyl package, the more f... up it will get during transit.

Yeah, you're probably right...imagining this gives me goosebumps! Hopefully, one day, this will be sold here in Germany as well...money doesn't matter in this case

[mrrom92]

^^^^ Oh yeah, there were definitely people who bought into the hype.

I wouldn't pay the prices they're asking. My aim is to eventually own the UK pressings. My dad bought every US pressing sometime in the mid-60's while in Vietnam (in the BX) and never opened them. I'll eventually inherit those. Still, when I fell in love with the Beatles, it was with the CD and they only issued those [until the box set] as UK versions. So since those are the proper albums, those are the ones I want.

Holy crap, talk about a lucky inheritance. I would totally understand if you were attached to them and wanted to keep them, being that they were your father's and there's a personal connection to them. And there's no reason to even play old US pressings in this day in age, from a sonics standpoint, but with the prices those go for in that kind of condition, you could probably off just one of them and get a mint blue box, or the whole lot and then minty first presses for the entire catalog, hahah.

Right now I'm selling two Beatles LPs on eBay, one is a trashed 1st US mono of Meet The Beatles, and the other is a 1st UK mono of Revolver, the recalled mispressing with the alt version of Tomorrow Never Knows.... The listing for the trashed copy of Meet The Beatles is seeing way more overall activity. Go figure. I guess nostalgia sells.

[jipc]

For us kids in the UK - http://www.whatrecords.co.uk/live/landing/landing344.asp

£274.99

[The Vool]

Hmmm...£302.99 (380€) incl. shipping...will think about it!

[gabpower]

It says it's limited to 50,000 copies worldwide. I'll wait a year until the price drops.

I was talking to a friend who bought the CD box set when it came out and it was about $220 but now you can find it for $100.

[dreamover]

Mono LP's will be available in 2013.

[dreamover]

There has always been demand for The Beatles’ albums on vinyl. Indeed, 2011’s best-selling vinyl LP in the United States was Abbey Road. Following the success of The Beatles’ acclaimed, GRAMMY Award-winning 2009 CD remasters, it was decided that the sound experts at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios should create new versions of The Beatles’ vinyl LPs. The project demanded the same meticulous approach taken for the CD releases, and the brief was a simple one: cut the digital remasters to vinyl with an absolute minimum of compromise to the sound. However, the process involved to do that was far from simple.

The first stage in transferring the sound of a master recording to vinyl is the creation of a disc to be used during vinyl manufacture. There were two options to consider. A Direct Metal Master (DMM), developed in the late seventies, allows sound to be cut directly into a stainless steel disc coated with a hard copper alloy. The older, alternative method is to cut the sound into the soft lacquer coating on a nickel disc - the first of several steps leading to the production of a stamper to press the vinyl.

A ‘blind’ listening test was arranged to choose between a ‘lacquer’ or ‘copper’ cut. Using both methods, A Hard Day’s Night was pressed with ten seconds of silence at the beginning and end of each side. This allowed not only the reproduction of the music to be assessed, but also the noise made by the vinyl itself. After much discussion, two factors swung the decision towards using the lacquer process. First, it was judged to create a warmer sound than a DMM. Secondly, there was a practical advantage of having ‘blank’ discs of a consistent quality when cutting lacquers.

The next step was to use the Neumann VMS80 cutting lathe at Abbey Road. Following thorough mechanical and electrical tests to ensure it was operating in peak condition, engineer Sean Magee cut the LPs in chronological release order. He used the original 24-bit remasters rather than the 16-bit versions that were required for CD production. It was also decided to use the remasters that had not undergone ‘limiting’ - a procedure to increase the sound level, which is deemed necessary for most current pop CDs.

Having made initial test cuts, Magee pinpointed any sound problems that can occur during playback of vinyl records. To rectify them, changes were made to the remasters with a Digital Audio Workstation. For example, each vinyl album was listened to for any ‘sibilant episodes’ - vocal distortion that can occur on consonant sounds such as S and T. These were corrected by reducing the level in the very small portion of sound causing the undesired effect. Similarly, any likelihood of ‘inner-groove distortion’ was addressed. As the stylus approaches the centre of the record, it is liable to track the groove less accurately. This can affect the high-middle frequencies, producing a ‘mushy’ sound particularly noticeable on vocals. Using what Magee has described as ‘surgical EQ,’ problem frequencies were identified and reduced in level to compensate for this.

The last phase of the vinyl mastering process began with the arrival of the first batches of test pressings made from master lacquers that had been sent to the two pressing plant factories. Stringent quality tests identified any noise or click appearing on more than one test pressing in the same place. If this happened, it was clear that the undesired sounds had been introduced either during the cutting or the pressing stage and so the test records were rejected. In the quest to achieve the highest quality possible, the Abbey Road team worked closely with the pressing factories and the manufacturers of the lacquer and cutting styli.

An additional and unusual challenge was to ensure the proper playback of the sounds embedded in the ‘lock-groove’ at the end of side two of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Requiring a combination of good timing and luck, it had always been a lengthy and costly process to make it work properly. In fact, it was so tricky, it had never been attempted for American pressings of the LP. Naturally, Sean Magee and the team perfected this and the garbled message is heard as originally intended on the remastered Sgt. Pepper LP.

This is fantastic. They used 24 bit masters and had them mastered by using a Direct Metal Mastering (DMM) process and well as lacquers made (more traditional) and decided the lacquers sounded better. (I could've told them that). They also had the test pressings ran at two different plants to choose the best one.

I bet these will sound incredible.

[Guest]

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-beatles-vinyl-album-catalog-reissue-20120927,0,4463869.story

50K copies

[mcm1610]

This would be sweet if I didn't already own them all. My mom used to be a huge Beatles fan. I have every album they put out plus most of the solo work.