Haber, Dave (26 August 2009). "Update: Beatles Mono Box sold-out at more retailers now" . Retrieved 28 August 2009.

The Beatles are finally emerging onto streaming services but, if you want quality stereo Beatles recordings, vinyl is surely your option. But which pressing is best? The latest Abbey Road suite of pressings or older, more collectable, releases? Paul Rigby talks to Abbey Road about the latest pressings and undertakes detailed A-B comparisons with older releases to get to the sonic truth Dutchcharts.nl – The Beatles – The Beatles In Stereo" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 20 September 2023. While not a sonic recreation of the original 1960's pressings, it's clear that the Abbey Road team wanted to represent the sound of 2009 Digital Remasters on vinyl. Each disc is digitally sourced from the 2009 24bit/44.1kHz masters (something that was advertised at the time). This means all the digital edits and mastering found on the streaming/CD versions are all here on the LPs. Testing was undertaken over three generations of stereo pressings. I selected an original copy of With The Beatles (1963) which I proposed to test with the 1978, UK version of the EMI box set reissue (better sounding than the comparable USA and Australian versions and sourced direct from the master tapes) and the new 2012 copy. The original pressing of Magical Mystery Tour (1967) was compared directly with the new version while I also decided to undertake a more considered test with the 1978 and 2012 versions of Abbey Road (1969).

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As you can see, the mono mixes, for those early albums, were the most important. After all, mono was how most Beatles fans were listening to their music. There are plenty of minor differences between the mono and stereo mixes which can be spotted by the fan: a few extra seconds of music here, a different sound effect there. Generally speaking, more care and attention was placed upon the mono mixes for the early albums. Overall, this is a great sounding box. Maybe the 1980 box will sound better, but it doesn’t have these great covers so I guess nobody wins. I highly recommend this box to anyone who does not have any stereo pressings. The set debuted at number 40 on Billboard's Top 200 chart and the magazine reported that 12,000 copies were sold in its first week of release. [17] [18] In Japan, it debuted at number 10, selling over 20,000 copies in its first week on the Oricon album charts. [19] The set was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in April 2010. [20] Charts [ edit ] Chart (2009)

Help! Was a -2/-3, and it was far superior over the original and the mfsl. You can actually hear the vocals on “The Night Before,” and the guitar on “I’ve Just Seen a Face” sounded so great. DeCurtis, Anthony (8 September 2009). "The Beatles The Beatles: Stereo Box Set Album Review". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 20 September 2012 . Retrieved 19 November 2014. If you do want that "original pressing" sound and are willing to invest the time online, there are ways of compiling a cheaper collection that sounds closer to the original UK stampers. There are a lot of options around the world of great sounding reissues and some of the original stampers stayed in production for many years, with the original cutting engineers recutting into the 1980s! Then there is always the option of spending top dollar on original UK pressings (which are near impossible to find in NM condition). Austriancharts.at – The Beatles – The Beatles In Stereo" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved 20 September 2023. Harris, David (19 September 2009). "The Beatles: Reissues". Spectrum Culture . Retrieved 29 May 2021.It so happened that the complex EQ applications had already been done for the CD version, “To use the 192kHz sources now would have entailed recreating the EQ source that we did at 24bit/44.1kHz, which wasn’t viable.” Ultratop.be – The Beatles – The Beatles In Mono" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 29 September 2023. In 2014, five years after the initial CD release, mono editions of each of the albums were released individually in vinyl format, though the mono editions for CD were still available only in the box set. All of the USA albums were released individually on CDs containing both the mono and original stereo mixes; this is the only other way to acquire the mono mixes on CD.

Lewis, Anthony (30 August 2009). "Meet (and be) the Beatles". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 3 November 2012 . Retrieved 28 August 2009. The fast version was destroyed. It was a heavy record, but the stereo mix made it into a piece of ice-cream. [12] Limited edition [ edit ] Gold & Platinum Certification - March 2010". Canadian Recording Industry Association. Archived from the original on 26 August 2011 . Retrieved 20 June 2010.

Notes

Abbey Road was a -4/-3 beautiful recut by Harry a few times after the original Malcolm cut. His best cutting was on the green vinyl edition, in which I actually prefer over the -2/-1 original. The MFSL has its moments but is just way too bright. I’ll take the -2/-1, but with the vinyl of this 1978 pressing.

With the Beatles was a -3/-4 cutting. I have 3 different WTB pressings that have a -4 side 1. I’ll give it to HTM, -4 sounds great. But -3 wasn’t the best. It was too hot. Again, I would take the MFSL over both. The MFSL mastering worked well for the hard panned albums.

A Hard Day’s Night was a -2/-3 cutting. Side 1 was basically the -1 but with a 2 stamped over it. I am not a fan of the -1/-1 original of A Hard Day’s Night, so side 1 was too hot and was sibilant heavy. Side 2 was a complete 180. It sounded FANTASTIC! Smooth, clear and uncongested. Would take this over the original and the MFSL. Morris, Christopher (3 September 2009). "EMI to press more 'Beatles in Mono' ". Variety . Retrieved 5 September 2009.