Speaking of the Beatles...

Dr. Ebbetts and Pbthal are very well-regarded needledroppers.  They make very high quality rips of virgin or mint-quality vinyl.  Pbthal in particular is excellent.  They're not remasters per se, just rips of existing vinyl LPs. 

You can't be thinking of getting them legally, are you? Because their work is definitely copyright iinfringement and you need to get them from the dark corners of the internet. Anyway they can be found easily, if you know where to look. And we can't tell you where to look.

Edited by scytheavatar - 11/18/10 at 4:15am

For me the '09 Remasters are fine. But you could definitely find those in places that we cannot talk about. PM me and I could help you out.

For those who have heard the recent commercially available remasters, are others really worth seeking out?

Pitchfork has a detailed review of the box sets and the individual albums.  IMHO the remastered stereo albums are overrated.  Some of the tracks are clipped.

 

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

 

1987 CD

 

2010 Remaster

 

2010 Mono

I own both the stereo and mono remasters and prefer the mono box by a large margin.  The Beatles just sound so natural in mono and I feel like I'm listening to something as close to the original LP's

I have both the new stereo and mono remasters and I also probably slightly prefer the mono, but what I was asking is whether or not it was worth seeking out the ones by PBTHAL et al. over them.

Nope.

I agree with batphink.  The 2009 remasters are your best bet -- particularly the mono remasters where available (except for maybe a song here or there).  Get the Mono set and the stereo-only records separately (Abbey Road, Let It Be, and Yellow Submarine if you must).

The original release of the CDs sound great. If it ain't broke...

I'm here to eat my words a bit. Just got the mono box cheap at Amazon and it's definitely better than the old CDs up through Sgt Pepper, which is pretty much all I'm interested in. The most interesting thing is the original LP stereo mixes of Rubber Soul and Help. I like those better than the CD stereo mixes done in the 80s. I'm coming to realize that original release is always best.

not sure what forum exactly to ask this question, but how good would the Beatles sound on AKG K701's? (dont have them yet)

 

btw, I just have the 09 remasters and am very happy with them

The one set you definitely need are the mono masters. After that, it depends. Some albums, like the original 1987 White Album are preferred because they are essentially flat transfers. The 87 White Album preserves the dynamic range of the master tape and is limited ever so slightly. Even better, the 87 White Album has no EQ processing. This means that the 87 White Album is the closest we are going to get to having a master tape copy. Same goes for the 87 Magical Mystery Tour and the 87 Sgt. Pepper.

 

I would recommend the PBTHAL over Ebbetts if you want to hear a great representation of what The Beatles sound like on vinyl. They are not the end all, be all regarding sound. They are just very good representations of the vinyl sound.

 

The 2009 stereo remasters are great but they are not accurate representations of the original tapes nor the original releases due to the change in dynamics and overall EQ work. That said, if all I could have were the 2009 mono/stereo releases, I would be a happy guy. It's the easiest way to get good sounding Beatles in one swoop.

 

My audiophile set is a mixture of the 2009 releases with the 87 releases all re-done by me. Everyone who has heard them, loves the sound.

 

I would not use the K701's as my first choice.

Edited by LFF - 12/6/10 at 7:48am