Oh my...there goes $239.99 (Beatles mono box)

Purple Stickpin

Purple Stickpin

I just received an e-mail from amazon regarding the mono boxed set. Apparently, while the mono set will remain a limited-production item, it will no longer be capped at 10,000 sets. In other words, they're making more. How many more, it did not say. But if you want one, now's the time to strike.
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
There was conflicting talk about that when they were first announced. It seems like a cynical move to have a numbered set of 10,000, then a further unnumbered set (cheaper, I can only imagine).

I would never pay a premium for a "numbered" CD box set if I had the option to buy it unnumbered. Who gives a shit? Maybe the unnumbered boxes won't have the cover facsimiles or inserts...who knows.

Either way, I'm counting the days until this fucker is dropped on the doorstep.

---

From the 8/31 LA Examiner:

"EMI is continuing to manufacture and supply retailers with the limited edition The Beatles Mono Box Set, an EMI spokesperson told us on Monday. More are definitely coming and the set will be back in stock.

As we've mentioned previously, significantly more than 10,000 of the mono sets have been made for the U.S. alone. The Beatles Mono Box Set, by the way, is manufactured and assembled in Japan."

So perhaps limited in this case means limited to how many they can sell. ;)

---

Later that same day...

Dear Valued Customer,

Your item, The Beatles Mono Box Set (CD) / The Beatles (Artist), has just processed in our distribution center. Your order may take an additional 5-7 business days to ship after all items in the order are processed.

So I guess they "processed" it and then set it aside on a shelf to age gracefully for a few days? "We shall sell no box before its time!" Well, at least it's on the way. In 5-7 days.
 
nervas

nervas

more crickets than friends
Well that really sucks to learn they will make more. Wait I'm getting ahead of myself. If they make more, that aren't numbered for a lower price, I may try and take mine back to exchange. I certainly would not have paid more for a numbered edition. Unless it had Sir Paul's sig or something, but not just for a number.
 
nervas

nervas

more crickets than friends
Nope, I was able to get the mono set thru Best Buy. It was the pre-order, but they just took the money from my credit card about 1 week ago, and now the best buy link is dead, so I'm hoping I got one. However as I said above, I'd rather have paid a lower price for a the non-numbered set.
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
Who knows. If they continue to manufacture it, the price will come down, that's inevitable. But the more I read the more I'm not sure the first 10,000 are actually numbered. There was a lot of misinformation out there about this thing. I guess we'll find out next week.

Even if the price goes down, it's still going to be in the $200 range, and the individual stereo discs are still going to to be the mass market replacement for the 1980's CD masters. So to me it doesn't really matter how it all shakes out, the fruit of the beast is still the mono remasters, and the box is apparently the only way to get them.

On a completely unrelated note, someone already asked me, "When are you going to rip those mono Beatles CDs for me?"
 
nervas

nervas

more crickets than friends
bc13_a.jpg


As I said at the beginning of this post, sometimes I can't even tell the difference between stereo and mono. However, I do own the above blue box set of LP's. So I would imagine these are in mono? Therefore the box set I receive next week, will be very similar to what these already sound like?

Is that a fair assesment?
 
Purple Stickpin

Purple Stickpin

My understanding of the blue box set is that the first four are in mono, but the rest are in mock stereo (likely the last three, Yellow Sub, Abbey Road, and Let it Be are in true stereo, as that's the only way they were produced).

But, the new discs should sound much better than these. That's the word on the interweb street, as it were.

I'm waiting mostly for the mono Revolver and Sgt. Pepper. I have an Italian boot CD of Revolver in mono, but it isn't much.
 
Purple Stickpin

Purple Stickpin

Sorry for the double post, but amazon just informed me that my order for the mono boxed set shipped and is due on Thursday.

Be back after I change me knickers.
 
nervas

nervas

more crickets than friends
I'm faithfully tracking my shipment on UPS.com. It's out for delivery as of 6:04am, so any minute that sucker should be dropped off at my doorstep. Hopefully my ever so loving girl will pick it up and safely secure it inside. We have had a box stolen right off the front door before!
 
Purple Stickpin

Purple Stickpin

nervas said:
I'm faithfully tracking my shipment on UPS.com. It's out for delivery as of 6:04am, so any minute that sucker should be dropped off at my doorstep. Hopefully my ever so loving girl will pick it up and safely secure it inside. We have had a box stolen right off the front door before!
Click to expand...

Always Always have shipments like this sent to your work address. That's what I do, and I've never had a problem. Well, until today.
 
nervas

nervas

more crickets than friends
Yes you are absolutely right! I thought I had learned my lesson. Well, my girl was home when it arrived and it now sits nicely on the desk in front of me. I have not even opened it yet, but will in about 5 minutes!
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
There's a pretty in depth interview by CNN with the guys who did the remastering. If you're into that kind of thing.

The best news in the interview (to an audio geek) is that the mono remasters were not limited during transfer. Limiting and compressing make everything sound like the same non-dynamic wall of noise sludge drone (as the kids say), so I was glad to read that.

I don't expect to see the box here for another week or so. I am subject to slow-boat cheapskate shipping.
 
marina del rey

marina del rey

What the hell?! I preordered the mono box set about a month ago, and today they decided to send me this email:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for ordering with http://www.tower.com! We regret to inform you that The Beatles Mono Box Set (CD) / The Beatles (Artis from order # 45XXX83 has been listed in error. We are processing a refund. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Sincerely,
Tower Customer Service
Click to expand...

Well, those bastards are never getting one red penny from me again.
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
Sounds like they took more preorders than they could fill. I wonder is any big shitholes stores like Best Buy have them in Los Angeles? I can check one here in Pasadena a little later today.

---

Yikes, no boxes (not even stereo, let alone mono) anywhere around here. Even the small indie shops don't have it.

Though Best Buy did have the individual stereo remasters, so I picked up two of those that are missing from the mono box. No Yellow Submarine though. Odd, because they had dozens of each of the others.
 
Purple Stickpin

Purple Stickpin

You can buy the 1999 Yellow Submarine re-issue (the one with all Beatle tracks, not the 1987 one with the incidental music from the film). It's my understanding that the recent remastering process (or something quite similar) was applied to the 1999 Yellow Submarine version. Most of the tracks sound fantastic, except for Hey Bulldog, which is distorted. I'm not sure if this album was recently remastered again, or if the 1999 version was just re-packaged. Come to think of it, the Yellow Submarine album for the stereo box probably is the original album from '69, just remastered.

marina del rey: wow; that sucks. I know amazon is sold out, but they indicated to me that there would be more, so you might try to see if you could order from them for the remaining copies. I know amazon has been discussed around these parts in the past, but I was very impressed that they gave me free shipping (hell, it shipped on 9/8 and arrived today) and also discounted my price to to the subsequent-to-my-order adjusted price of $229.49.

It strikes me that they didn't have to do that, but they did.
 
marina del rey

marina del rey

I think I've found a couple places online that still have them, but they're in the $269 range. I'm going to try some of the retail stores here on the westside this evening and if I can't find anything I'll probably just reorder through one of the more expensive sites.
 
Purple Stickpin

Purple Stickpin

There was a story in the L.A. Times online about a major record store selling all 90 copies of the mono set in three hours. By mid-afternoon, they'd also sold 160 of 200 copies of the stereo set. So, you may need to overpay. $269 isn't horrible, and it is a nice set.
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
Purple Stickpin said:
Come to think of it, the Yellow Submarine album for the stereo box probably is the original album from '69, just remastered.
Click to expand...
I think it is, based on the stuff I've read. I found it on the way home, so I picked up all three stereo discs, then, surprisingly, the mono box was waiting for me when I got home.

Now it's too much to absorb...
 
Purple Stickpin

Purple Stickpin

mjp: If you want to hear the most audible differences I've noted so far, check these out. I posted this on the Rick Resource website:

---
I suppose that now that I'm duly impressed by the mono set, I'm gonna have to get the stereo set. In the mono set, the greatest differences I've noted so far are:

1. Flange in Lennon's vocal on Lucy in the Sky...
2. Tempo and pitch of She's Leaving Home
3. Overall bass sound in the first four albums. In other words, it has beef! You could hear the bass before, but you couldn't really feel it. Please Please Me sounds like it was recorded last week with a bank of 15's on the bass. I Saw Her Standing There, in particular, really shines.
4. Lady Madonna really has opened up.
5. Hey Bulldog sounds fantastic on the Mono Masters CD #2. For some reason, the version on the 1999 re-master sounds over-driven and distorted. At least on my copy; no reason to suspect mine is any different. All of the other 1999 yellow sub tracks sound fine to me.
6. The Mono Masters version of Revolution is dirty and heavy as a box of lead. Lennon would dig this one for sure.

Some mild disappointments:

1. I really expected Paperback Writer and Rain (two of my all-time favorites, and just a brilliant period for me) to jump out of my speakers, but they didn't. A little extra wash on the vocals in the echo part of Paperback Writer, but nothing really new to me on Rain. They sound about the same to me. Maybe they were just done very well back in the day.

Well, that's it.

Edited to add: Damn; Rubber Soul sounds like a different album with Paul's bass just right up there. Listen to all of it. I've got a big old smile on my face for all of this.
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
I think a lot of the bass you're hearing the way it's supposed to sound for the first time is because the mono remasters aren't limited and compressed. I always found when mixing reggae as soon as they would turn those fucking compressors on the sound would flatten out and die. "But dude, you have to use a limiter, it makes it sound uniform and professional..." Ugh.

Thanks for the notes, I am really looking forward to sitting in my music room with these all day very soon. Had to do something tonight so haven't really had a chance to listen yet. Ripping them to wav files right now for my hard drive backup copy.
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
I looked at FLAC, but WAV is so entrenched that I have to assume it will have a long life. Plus I have two 1TB backup drives here, so space isn't really a concern. The lossless backups are just for emergency purposes anyway. It's kind of cool to have everything on a couple hard drives that I could grab if a fire broke out. ;)

This box set, I have to say, exceeds my expectations in just about every way. It's worth every penny, even if you have to bounce the rent check. I hope the Marley estate is watching, because this kind of high quality, comprehensive retro presentation would be perfect for Bob's work. It would have to be a lot bigger than this, but if it was done right I'd pay an arm and a leg for it.
 
Purple Stickpin

Purple Stickpin

Yes, it is an impressive effort, both visually and aurally. Pricey (at $17.65 per CD for the mono), but worth it to me. It's funny; I was reading some product reviews on-line today about what a rip-off it was and "it's just another set of what we already have..." and when I checked, these reviews were written back in August. What the hell is wrong with people?

Oh, and by the way, mjp, the first two of those notes I gave you (Lucy in the Sky and She's Leaving Home) come straight from the notes booklet with the CDs. But they are so significant that they bore repeating, in my mind. The rest are my own.
 
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