The Beatles 2009 Remasters
The Beatles UK studio LPs were initially remastered digitally for CD back in the late 80s at that time mastering digitally was still a relatively new art and since then much has been learned about how to do it best but even more important is that at that time the digital technology was still in it’s infancy in comparison to today.
All of the movements forward in digital technology and all of the information learned of how to best make digital masters have been put to good use with the Beatles remasters of 2009. On September 9 The Beatles released both The Beatles Stereo Box Set and The Beatles in Mono. And both remastered box sets sound fantastic. If you have not yet heard them then I recommend that you hear The Beatles remastered as soon as possible.
Which flavor of Beatles remasters should you purchase? Well for this Beatles fan the answer was definitely “both of them” but if you can only have you will probably want to go with the Beatles in Stereo since it contains all of their studio LPs and most listeners will prefer listening to the stereo mixes in comparison to the mono mixes.
The Beatles in Mono is aimed at serious fans who want to listen for every single difference between the mono and stereo mixes (and sometimes they are quite different) and for those who want to hear the band how they originally heard them (this, of course, applies to the original fans who were there for The Beatles in person in the 60s.)
As of December 8, 2009 there’s a third choice: The Beatles USB Memory Stick. This USB memory stick includes the Beatles entire stereo remastered box set in a little stick that fits in the palm of my hand. Isn’t that cool? It includes all of the albums in two formats; high quality mp3s and better than CD quality 24bit FLAC.
That “better than CD quality” thing is what will excite the audiophiles but for most it’s the mp3s that’ll be played the most.
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