Calling all owners of: The Beatles Remastered Box Set (for Xmas Gift)

[edgarbc1]

okay i think im gonna go with AppleTV for mom,
thanks for all the input..
apple tv or mac mini thread

but the next item to make mom's day (and mine with a copy)
is The Beatles Remastered Box Set....

I am strongly headed to go with MONO box set and then
get the individual Yellow Sub, Abbey Road and Let it Be stereo discs

I know Davester has the mono box set... anyone else?
I would appreciate your words of wisdom on this major purchase
which i will likely go half-sies with my brother on the Beatles
stereo box set or mono with supplemental stereo discs..

Have any of you had a chance to compare MONO vs Stereo versions?
(particularly of the white album, which is one of my personal faves)

thanks!!!
Edgar

[davester]

Well, you already know my opinion, and I'm sticking with it, having spent hours listening to my mono set over the holiday weekend. I'm an aficionado of the earlier recordings where the stereo mixes were absolutely atrocious and the mono recordings simply blow them away. Some of the later recordings (White Album and on) had pretty good stereo mixes so the decision is a toss up, but the bottom line is that none of the mono recordings suck while quite a few of the stereo ones do. The first reviewer on this amazon page has a pretty good comparison discussion of the two different sets:

http://www.amazon.com/Beatles-Mono-Box-S...B002BSHXJA

[M>B>]

Since they are totally remastered from "original" tapes I don't think that you could go wrong with either. I went with the stereo set and love it!

[davester]

They are totally remastered from the original mixes, not from the raw original tapes. They were not remixed, which is why the early amateurish stereo mixes done by technicians without input from the band or George Martin are pretty crummy compared to the mono mixes. The early mono albums have a significant "wow, that sounds great!" factor which is not found on the stereo albums.

[JoeM]

I have the mono set and love it. While the mono mixes are really nice, I have to admit I really perked up when the stereo version of Rubber Soul came on after the mono. That really took me back in time since I first heard it that way. I will probably buy the stereo set down the road for the extras.

[Rolando]

The Mono sets sound better, overall. BUT, I remember when they rereleased the Capitol version, I was "WOW" that's cool. Not better, but different. I couldn't listen to those by headphones, but they sound good in my living room or car.

I still think the Yellow Submarine 5.1 Soundtrack is the best sounding (there is a Music only track)...I'm waiting for a 5.1 set. I may well wait forever.

http://www.amazon.com/Yellow-Submarine-G..._1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1259730362&sr=8-1
Yellow Submarine Songtrack!
http://www.amazon.com/Yellow-Submarine-B..._5?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1259730390&sr=8-5

[RAMd®d]

I've got the mono set and most of the stereo discs.

If you like the Beatles, you can't go wrong with either format. Both are a pretty big improvement in detail.

Most of the mono sounds better than the most of the stereo, but it's definitely not absolute. The big strength of the mono is the tight punch in a lot of the music. And it sounds better in headphones compared the the "vocals vs. instruments" in a lot of the stereo stuff.

As a gift, though more expensive, the box set is a much nicer presentation, since the stereo discs aren't a set.

[Yoyodyne ArtWorks]

edgarbc1, you may not need to buy the stereo Yellow Submarine CD, all of the non-instrumental songs from that album are on the mono Revolver (Yellow Submarine track), mono Magical Mystery Tour (All You Need is Love track) or the Mono Masters Disc 2 (Only a Northern Song, All Together Now, Hey Bulldog, It's All Too Much tracks) in the Mono boxed set.

The Mono boxed set is incredible, I highly recommend it!!!