The Beatles - different album versions - WHAT DO I GET?

Any of them, Everybody has their favorite pressings.. Mo-Fi's,  Mono's and the original stereo pressings, Hell Thery're all great......My Favorite is Abby Road, Then the white album.....and Sgt.Pepper..........But buy and listen to them all!!!!!     IMO....

I've dabbled with pretty much all of the versions of every Beatles album, and in the end I settled with the official 2009 remasters of the albums. Both for uniformity's sake, and the fact that they had worked on them for so long and put so much effort into it with the master tapes that Dr. Ebbetts seemed to have quit his work because he announced that they finally topped him.

Of all the retail versions, I would get the mono box and the remaining albums in Stereo as that is as official as it gets.

The 2009 remasters are as good as they are going to get until someone like Steve Hoffman does them on Gold CD or SACD.

Get the mono albums up til just before "the white album", then get the stereo for everything after that. As far as I know, the stereo mixes prior to that point were only an afterthought and not even done by the Beatles themselves. So in that case the mono is the "real deal". As for the remasters... they're not as awesome as people make them out to be. The mono's sound as good or better than other mono versions I've heard but the stereo remasters are peak limited and/or compressed. I could have sworn I read in press statements that they weren't going to do that...

There are some good deals on both stereo and mono remastered box sets on Amazon and Fry's. Worth checking out.

Please be careful when buying either box from Amazon sellers. Both the box sets (the Mono especially) are frequently opened, used, resealed and sold again as new.  I bought a mono box off an Amazon private seller that he advertised as "new sealed" for $125.00.  I should have known better.  After I removed a clumsily applied cello wrap and opened the box, I found all the albums unsealed and out of order, with the MMT cover completely folded over.  It's OK to buy from Amazon itself (when they are doing their own fulfillment).  Also, be aware that there are many counterfeit versions of the monos floating around.  Do a Google search for "Beatles mono box counterfeit" and several items will pop up with explanations on telling real from fake.

For my $.02:  mono remasters up to and including Sgt. Pepper, stereo remasters for everything else.  Past Masters, flip a coin.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 9pintube 

Any of them, Everybody has their favorite pressings.. Mo-Fi's,  Mono's and the original stereo pressings, Hell Thery're all great......My Favorite is Abby Road, Then the white album.....and Sgt.Pepper..........But buy and listen to them all!!!!!     IMO....

I agree that these three albums are great, but like them equally, with Let it Be not far behind IMHO.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vkamicht 

Get the mono albums up til just before "the white album", then get the stereo for everything after that. As far as I know, the stereo mixes prior to that point were only an afterthought and not even done by the Beatles themselves. So in that case the mono is the "real deal". As for the remasters... they're not as awesome as people make them out to be. The mono's sound as good or better than other mono versions I've heard but the stereo remasters are peak limited and/or compressed. I could have sworn I read in press statements that they weren't going to do that...

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