The Beatles - In Mono CD Box Set

By Edison (California, United States)

I think it would be more helpful for potential buyers to compare the various incarnations of Beatle material out there so that buyers can make an informed decision about what is right for them. There really is not a definitive package of Beatle recordings. Each has it's own magic and benefits and you just need to figure out what you are after.
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. 

The Beatles - Japanese 5 CD's Bos Set

By Steve Manassas
In the 1960s and 1970s, Toshiba-EMI, forerunner of EMI Music Japan, and now Universal Music Japan (UMJ), issued the largest number of Beatle records of any country in the world - more than 30. In addition to three "specially created for the Japanese market" albums, Toshiba-EMI also issued all of the standard British LPs, as well as all of the U.S. albums, except for Beatles '65,Rubber Soul, and Revolver, and also issued non-U.K. European compilations, such as THE BEATLES' BEAT and THE BEATLES' GREATEST. They were also the only country, outside of the U.S. and Canada, to issue Capitol Records' documentary The Beatles' Story, in a deluxe box set, no less, with text of the album's narration in Japanese and English (!). Toshiba-EMI also issued all of the compilation/theme albums of the 1970s and early 1980s, including both the U.K. and U.S. versions of RARITIES, as well as the World Records 8-LP mail-order box set From Liverpool: The Beatles Box, which, sadly, I do not own.
As a result of EMI/UMJ's heavy involvement with The Beatles in Mono (The Complete Mono Recordings), as well as The U.S. Albums collection, it was only natural that UMJ put together a 50th Anniversary collection of The Beatles' Japanese albums on CD. There are only 5 discs in the set, including the three "specially created for the Japanese market" albums - MEET THE BEATLES!, THE BEATLES' SECOND ALBUM, and BEATLES NO. 5 (with front cover art and graphics similar to Beatles '65). While obviously modeled after their U.S. Capitol counterparts, these Japanese Odeon versions have significantly different track listings. On the reissued vinyl albums on Apple, which I own, some, but not all, of the tracks appeared in "fold-down" mono mixes created from the stereo master tapes, but the CDs are pure mono, from the 2009 remasters. NOTE: The version of "Love Me Do" from MEET THE BEATLES! is the standard LP version with Andy White on drums, not the original Ringo-on-drums single version, as Amazon claims. Once you unscramble the unusual running order of the tracks, the three CDs contain the complete contents of the Please Please Me and With the Beatles albums, plus all of the MONO MASTERS non-LP tracks from "From Me To You" through "She's A Woman," with the exception of the B-side "I'll Get You," which was apparently displaced by "Can't Buy Me Love" on THE BEATLES' SECOND ALBUM.
The Japanese version of A HARD DAY'S NIGHT has a significantly different cover, but is otherwise identical to the 2009 remastered U.K. stereo version. The Japanese version of HELP! has the original 1965 stereo mix, which can also be found on Disc 5 of THE BEATLES IN MONO box set (tracks 15-28, following the mono mix).
As with the earlier mono and U.S. box sets, each CD comes in a resealable outer cellophane wrapper, with faithful reproductions of the original LP sleeves. HELP! has an impressive gatefold sleeve, with the standard British cover artwork on the front, a black-and-white autographed photo of the band on the left-inside gatefold, Japanese liner notes on the right-inside gatefold, with a color photo similar to the U.S. album on the back, but with different cover graphics. Each CD - issued with the original black-and-silver English-language Odeon label - is housed in a rice-paper inner bag, with reproductions of the original paper inner sleeves, complete with flaps. The first three albums have plain off-white inner sleeves; BEATLES NO. 5 and HELP! have colorful inner sleeves (slightly different) promoting other EMI Japanese releases; classical on one side, mostly from Capitol and its subsidiary label Angel Records, and pop, rock, and jazz titles, many of them also from Capitol, on the reverse side. Interestingly, the Japanese BEATLES FOR SALE is featured on the inner sleeve, even though it is not included in this CD box set. Each CD also contains reproductions of the original inserts, with Japanese, English, and German lyrics; the HELP! album also contains a color still photo of The Beatles from the film.
The package also contains a mini-cellophone package of the five OBI strips for each of the albums, and a colorful collector's book, featuring reproductions of the early Japanese LPs, EPs, and singles (some duplicating the U.S. releases, others with unusual couplings), a photo of a master tape box for one of the EPs, and photos of several Beatles-related Japanese music magazines. The EPs, usually mono 45 RPM records in most markets, are in stereo and play at LP speed, 33 1/3 RPM. I own the Apple reissue of the HELP! EP (Odeon/Apple OP/AP-4110) and it was the first and only record to have "I'm Down" in true stereo, until the ROCK 'N' ROLL MUSIC LP was issued in 1976. The ANNA EP (Odeon/Apple OP/AP-4118) contains a simulated stereo version of "Sie Liebt Dich"; a true stereo version would not emerge until the RARITIES albums were issued in the U.K. and U.S. in 1978-79-80. In addition, BEATLES NO. 5 was the only LP in The Beatles' worldwide discography to include "Sie Liebt Dich" prior to RARITIES. Only four Beatle albums contain both German-language tracks: BEATLES NO. 5 (possible "fold-down" mono on vinyl, pure mono on the CD), the U.K. RARITIES (stereo with echo), PAST MASTERS ("fold-down" mono on 1988's PAST MASTERS, VOLUME ONE; true stereo without echo on the 2009 remastered two-CD set), and MONO MASTERS (pure mono). The U.S. RARITIES includes "Sie Liebt Dich" in true stereo without echo; Capitol had previously issued "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand," in both mono and stereo, on SOMETHING NEW.
The liner notes of most of the rest of the booklet are in Japanese only, but the song lyrics also appear in English (and German, for "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand" and "Sie Liebt Dich"). They appear to be the original words and are not translated from the Japanese. Even the outer slipcase box, which has English text, has its own resealable cellophane wrapper, so collectors can keep the wraparound Japanese-language banner intact on the outside of the box.
This set is not for everyone; most fans will be satisfied with the standard British and U.S. releases. It is aimed at Japanese Beatle fans, who, much like their U.S. counterparts, want CD versions of the albums they grew up with, as well as the worldwide Beatles collectors' market. This collection will probably not come down in price anytime soon, and once out of print, will no doubt become even more expensive, so if you are interested, grab one before it is gone.