By Edison (California, United States)
As for me, so you know, my background is a musician and recording studio owner with 32 years of experience. As for my perspective in comparing Beatle recordings, I've owned the entire Beatles catalog, both American and British versions, in multiple and various pressings on vinyl LP, as well as many unique foreign pressings, cassette and some 8-tracks. I currently have the 1980's box, the Capitol box sets, the Apple remastered stereo box and the Apple remastered mono box and I've been listening to them all side-by-side for this review.
I think buyers of these discs may fall into a few key categories:
1. Long-time Beatle fans who had the original LPs
2. Audiophiles who are looking for the most pristine audible version
3. Young/new fans who just want a nice copy of everything
In short, I'd recommend the following for the respective categories:
1. Apple remastered mono box or Capitol box set, rounded out with individual missing discs
2. Apple remastered stereo box
3. The previously-available 1980's box set
Here's why:
For category 1, the remastered mono box set (or the Capitol box sets, which are stereo and mono) may be the way to go, then just round it out with the individual copies of the missing discs. The mono box has much better sound, clearer than ever before, but still reminiscent of the original LPs tonality and far superior packaging. The mono remasters mimick the original LP packaging even down to spine text and the printed paper inner sleeves! Each disc in the mono set has a resealable outer plastic sleeve (Japanese style) and a plastic inner sleeve to protect the actual disc. The box itself affords direct access to any CD without disturbing the others and the overall box is about the size of CDs, so it fits nicely on a CD shelf (albeit a slightly taller CD shelf; e.g. CD/DVD shelf).
The remastered stereo box is a terrible package. It's 12" high and vertical, doesn't fit on the shelf with other CDs/DVDs. You can't access any CD individually. Instead you have to lift this cloth strap to pull an entire stack of CDs out to get to the one you want, frequently spilling the others everywhere like a deck of cards. You are forced to grab the disc surface to get it out of the cardboard sleeve it's in. Only the front cover reproduces the original artwork. Everything else, back, inside and booklet, while it's nice that there are new, never-before seen photos, makes it hard to reminisce if you remember the original LPs. But for audiophiles and new fans, this packaging might be fine, or even preferred.
The remastered mono CDs only have the original liner notes on the back cover, as they were on the LPs, but this is difficult if not impossible to read. The mono set also lacks the album recording notes that the stereo box has. Only notes for the past masters discs seems to be included in the mono set. The benefit of the remastered stereo CD packaging is that the original liner notes are printed in a booklet for each disc, so they are easy to read.
Unlike the mono remasters, the stereo CDs themselves have significantly different sound from the original LPs. Whether you consider it better is subjective depending on your listening goals. For example, Please Please Me (and all other discs that Paul Hicks remastered) seem to be bass-heavy compared to the original LPs and CD sets. While it's quite an improvement that you can now hear the bass lines clearly and the balance seems more up to date with modern recordings, it just won't be as familiar to those who owned all the original albums. Additionally, the beautiful reverb tails that were on the original Please Please Me album seem to decay quicker on the remaster. (Possibly due to various limiting/compression/eq artifacts?) The mono remaster of Please Please Me seems to suffer this same way. The reverb tails are slightly shorter than previous CD editions like the Capitol box or 1980's Apple box.
The mono set, being mono, all musical elements have to fight for audibility in the center, so, for example, you won't be able to focus on a particular instrument all the way through as easily. The real benefit of the remastered stereo box sound is that you can now clearly hear many of the little things that were previously buried in the mix. It is beautiful and incredible sounding. The various layers of overdubbed parts across the entire box set are clearly audible, which is a treat to hear clearly for the first time.
There are a very few cases, however, where this isn't true. One very small example is on Don't Bother Me. Early in the song George can be heard saying "Fast" on the backing track, but only on the Capitol box set stereo version is this completely and clearly audible with the level of detail other tracks in the Apple stereo box have. This gets back to my point that there really isn't one definitive set. Details come out differently in different versions. There are also some strange artifacts of this latest stereo remaster. For example, on Maxwell's Silver Hammer, the lead vocal occasionally seems to shift between being perfectly centered to splitting into a duophonic kind of sound from both the left and right. None of my other copies exhibit this characteristic. I believe this may be caused by phase artifacts introduced in the remastering from the heavy processing required to being out all the details. I also noticed that on some songs the lead vocals actually were quieter than on other available CD editions, possibly caused by the same.
The short movies included on the stereo remaster CDs and the DVD are sometimes interesting, but not great. There are a few comments buried in there that I had never heard before, but there are also strange inaccuracies; like seeing stills from Paperback Writer/Rain promo films during the Rubber Soul segment. In general, the movies are only a bonus for Beatle completists, due to a couple details that are revealed. They aren't terribly enlightening otherwise.
While the mono set lacks the videos, the bonus of the mono set is the complete original cover art (front, back and inside, where applicable) as well as all the original inserts, e.g. the 4 individual photos from the white album and the original green cut-out card in Sgt. Pepper, not to mention the groovy rose-to-pink paper inner sleeve, etc.
These sets are a bit overpriced. If the stereo set had the mono packaging, then it would be worth the price. The mono box really should be reduced to the price of the stereo set or less, particularly since it's no longer a limited edition (or at least the edition has been expanded such that it's not as much of a rarity now) and it doesn't have all the music or extras (no booklet for each album, no movies).
The terrible packaging, the overpriced price tag and significant deviation from the original sound (in general) knocks the remastered stereo box down to 3 stars for me. (Yes hearing all the little details is great for me as a fan, but the tonal balance was compromised notably to get that, and that is not how these albums were originally mastered nor intended to sound by George Martin and the band themselves. I think these details could have been brought out reasonably without changing the sound as much as they have.) Because of the cost and significant differences from the original cover art and sound, I can't consider the stereo remaster a 'definitive' set, but rather a supplement to the others sets that are available.
The mono remaster box however, I give 5 stars for having pristine sound without sacrificing the original tonality of these legendary recordings, having the original LP packaging and inserts, much better protection of the discs and sleeves, as well as sized to fit on a CD/DVD shelf.
In summary:
If you are a long-time fan who wants to reminisce and re-experience the original LPs, I would suggest either the new Apple remastered mono box set or Capitol box sets, then round it out by buying any individual stereo discs that are missing (Abbey Road, Let It Be, etc.).
For the new fan who wants a copy of everything but isn't nit picking over whether they can hear John say, "Cranberry Sauce" on Strawberry Fields or whether everything is in mono or stereo, the previous 1980's box set would be just fine. You might even find it used/cheap on an auction site, now that these remastered boxes are available. For what it's worth, the previous 1980's box set actually does sound like the original LPs. It's just that people are listening to them on modern equipment. Those mixes were originally created for equipment with tube amplifiers and real wood speaker cabinets, which impart a great deal of bass and warmth to the sound. Putting the same mix through printed circuit board stereos with modern plastic little speakers doesn't quite work with the music to produce the intended result.
For the audiophile who must hear the creaking chair on the final chord of Sgt. Pepper in stereo, the newly-remastered stereo box would be the way to go. The remastered stereo set is also good for anyone who wants to read the original liner notes from the albums and learn more about how the albums were originally recorded.
For the Beatle-completist who must have a every version of a Beatle recording, I'm assuming you already own the 1980's box, the Capitol boxes, the Apple-remastered stereo and the mono box sets prior to reading this review, and there is no review that would help you, since a Beatle purchase is compulsory.
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