Review of the Beatles Remastered Stereo Box Set

First let me make the point that I am a huge Beatles fan and I am writing this review from that perspective. I'm not writing it from the perspective of a casual fan (ie: the type of person who just owns their greatest hits CDs.) To me The Beatles are the greatest band of all time. I've listened to all of their albums countless times. So this review comes from a very informed place.

Already Owned All Beatles Albums On CD

Like many Beatles fans I already owned all of their albums on CD and like many I was initially somewhat suspicious of how much better could their music actually sound (considering I already though the CDs I owned were the best albums of all time.) But then the more I read about how the albums were being remastered and how often times I enjoyed my Beatles CDs inspite of the sound (not because of the sound quality but because of the music quality) I started to get more open to the idea.

Amazed By The Increase In Sound Quality

When I got my Beatles Stereo Box Set in the mail last week I was impressed by the packaging (the black box is very cool and the individual CD packaging is much better than with the old CDs) but I was absolutely amazed by the actual sound quality on these discs.

There are so many details on these recordings that I had never heard before. Sure they had always been there, but they used to be buried in the mix in a way that made them difficult to discern. Now every part in the music has it's own place in the mix and this allows it to be heard in a new way.

Most notable is how much thicker and more powerful the low end sounds. By this I mean the drums and the bass really punch through the mix with new punch and clarity. I've always loved Paul McCartney's bass playing, but now being able to hear it like this - it's a whole new level of awesome.

Stereo Vs. Mono

Now with The Beatles Mono Box Set (which I also bought) allowing fans to easily hear the original mono mixes, there are a lot of "stere vs mono" debates popping up and I have to say that I believe I am falling squarely on the side of stereo.

I know that the mono mixes are how the band "originally intended these albums to be heard" but to my ears the stereo mixes just sound much more crisp. The individual sounds are so much easier to hear.

But that being said, I do definitely think a case can be made that for some of the songs (mostly the earlier songs) the mono mix could be superior just because the stereo panning is so weird and sort of unsettling on those songs.

As a huge Beatles freak I recommend buying both box sets of course. But I do think if I had to only get one or the other I'd have to go with the stereo set for two big reasons. The first being that I think overall the stereo mixes sound better. The second being that it contains all of their albums while the mono set is missing Yellow Submarine, Let It Be, & Abbey Road (because they were never mixed in mono.)