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November 26, 2009

Now that I have had The Beatles Stereo CD Box Set for almost a full week I think it’s time to do a review of the set as a whole. Now that I’ve had a chance to hear all of the remastered Beatles albums I can say without any doubt that they sound much better than the old Beatles CDs.

It’s amazing how much clearer these new CDs sound when comapred to the old CDs. I’m hearing so many details in the music that I didn’t even know were there! It’s really like rediscovering The Beatles awesome music again as I go through each of the 14 albums in The Beatles Remastered Stereo Box Set.

There’s already been a lot of argument among fans of The Beatles over what sounds better; The mono mixes or the stereo mixes? This debate is raging because along with this stereo box set The Beatles Mono CD Box Set was also released on 9/9/9.

I think the stereo CDs sound much better for the later LPs because they allow for greater clarity which is particularly essential considering how much is going on in most of the later mixes. It’s harder to choose which is better with the first five or six albums. I still like the clarity of the stereo mixes even with the earlier albums, but it is true that the really wide panning can be a bit distracting so I think there’s a good case for the more “powerful” sounding mono mixes too!

I definitely think both of these box sets are “must buys” for real Beatles fans. After all the mono mixes were how the albums were originally intended to be heard so they have great historical value, but the stereo mixes sound really really good, so you have to have those too.

Obviously the main reason I love this box set is how great The Beatles music sounds in remastered stereo but I also should give a “shout out” to the really great packaging. Each CD comes with it’s own informative booklet full of pictures, lyrics, historical details, and information on the recording of that album. Each CD case folds out so that it has six sides in all (actually the double albums like The White Album & Past Masters have eight sides!)

The Beatles Stereo Box Set Packaging – Please Please Me / The White Album