Otherwise, I'll stay with my positive review. The box was made with care (with the exception of Mono Masters). The first thing I had checked was whether the plates have possibly the waves as they partially in Stereo Box 2012 came to light and the mood spoiled. Here everything is fine.
Sonically, I find the new mono LPs very good. Whether this is now on the purely analog manufacturing process, I would like to not swear, because the 2012 digitally remastered stereo box also sounds very good.
The aim of this box was all mono LPs as they then appeared in Great Britain, to resurrect as a faithful reproduction. These include the then usual Flipback cover (looks used to, but was so), the label printing, the texts on the back (incl. The former indication "Made and Printed in Great Britain ... by Garrod & Lofthouse Ltd." , or "Ernest J. Day & Co." on "Please Please Me"), Top-Loader during White Album, then all inserts. Until smallest at the details here the first edition is reproduced. Man discovered even on the LPs in the run-off area, the initials of the respective engineers (NS = standards Smith on the first 6 albums, GE = Geoff Emerick on turret to White Album). Unfortunately I have no first edition, but I suspect that there are also to be found so. Only the inner envelopes are not the original modeled (as in the CD-mono-box). The White Album is again provided with serial number (my has 90,195,559). In the Stereo box had unfortunately waived.
Each record comes with a certificate stating the pure analog path to produce the records and the current copyright and production information. If we are to believe the accompanying book, you could eliminate some shortcomings here, on the one had to take into consideration in the 60's with the then usual (mostly primitive) turntables (used to play back in the bass range). Unfortunately I have no original 60s LP compare to that, but more on this below. The companion book is another plus point for this box. No copy of the 2012 accompanying book (though not as extensive), but a perfect complement. Another not to be underestimated aspect makes this box so special. This box is very likely the last pressure that have been drawn in a purely analogue way from the original master tapes. The tapes are now partially over 50 years old. In the case of "Please Please Me" you had to resort to a replacement of the old master tape. All other master tapes were against probably still in very good condition (who knows how much longer?).
As a sound comparison I have, as already mentioned, unfortunately no original LP from the 60s, but only the records from my "blue box 1C198-53 163-176" (but is not original 1978, as I now know because the DMM LPs must be pressed later. See comments). There are "Please Please Me", "With The Beatles" and "A Hard Days Night" included as a mono LPs ("For Sale" was in my box already as a stereo LP). 11 of 13 LPs this box were in DMM-procedure (Direct Metal Mastering, digitally remastered) made. What was then evaluated as a major advance, but I do not like sound as good as these new mono LPs. The DMM panels sound somehow too narrow and sharp. The new mono LPs the sound has more volume, sounds balanced and round. It makes much more fun to hear these LPs. I would have never thought that Mono can sound so differentiated. This struck me especially during White Album and Sgt. Pepper, but also Rubber Soul sounds very good. What course of this process also comes to light again, is the increased noise in the transitions / song pauses. This is inevitable, since a tape is running and no digital source. If anything original, then right. One can now find good or bad. The original sound of the songs on the master tape is thereby genuinely to disk. That was ultimately the goal of this edition. Therefore, operating the largest outlay is only about the optimal settings for the analog signal to be found and that comes sure the songs good.
I find this box very well done and forgive for the undistorted and especially good sound, and the original design of the cover a perfect score. The companion book with a lot of insight into the creation of each LP, and recaps on the then press, this deserves actually again an extra point.
But where there is light, of course, is also shadow.
a) The price is nearly 400, - (more expensive than the stereo box) too high. In the mono-box nunmal missing the "Yellow Submarine", "Abbey Road" and "Let It Be", which is known to never appeared in mono.
b) The originality of the cover with Flipback-adhesive design are worthy of all honor. In practice, they prove somewhat difficult. The LPs terminals easily in the envelopes (180g discs are now times also a bit thicker). Here you really have to be careful that you do not equal the inner linings verknickt when the LPs pushes back in the cover. The rounding of the discs press thereby also in the cover board. If in my case mainly on the White Album.
c) The Press error in Mono Masters have very annoyed. All 3 LPs show defects in the form of two inclusions in LP 2, and partly. Small depressions in the other two LPs. The wells can not be heard, but this is not normal. At first I was not noticed because my main interest lies with the 13 albums. The needle can not jump strangely at the inclusions, but this of course you can hear correspondingly strong. This must not happen! Because the box is otherwise perfect, I draw from only one star.
Short on "Mono versus Stereo":
Of course I listen to the first LPs prefer mono as in stereo on. But that oft-cited Auspruch by George Harrison that the Beatles Mono preferred, true in my opinion, only on this very initial phase of the Beatles, a stereo was still in its infancy. The "stereo pingpong" the first plates is extremely and headphones almost unbearable. It is precisely this phase of stereo technology meant probably George Harrison. The mono LPs of the Beatles sound, however all of them very well (Thanks to George Martin and his former sound engineers such as Norman Smith, Goeff Emmerick, Ken Townsend, etc.), so I'm going to the LPs of "Please" to "Revolver" always in the prefer mono version. Later, when the stereo equipment and the multitrack recording capabilities were getting better and more extensive, no one has returned to mono. And of course, not the Beatles. What has me but always wondered, is that the Beatles, who are known to be always very keen to experiment, had not already recognized the potential of stereo to Sgt.Pepper times and only the lengthy mono mix accompanied, but the stereo mix of Pepper just the technicians leaving (maybe they had to the then extremely long production time simply fed up with the studio work, not to mention the tight deadlines of publication). George Martin stereo options was fully aware of how the book "It started in the Abbey Road" in the "Studio" can read. Stereo and the associated multi-track technology was at Sgt.Pepper a playground for the technicians and producers. You can hear the mainly at "A Day In The Life". The voice of John Lennon begins initially in the right stereo pan, then slowly moves to the middle and ends in the left panorama when he would vacate the place for the middle part of the swelling orchestral chaos. This is followed by the McCartney-part whose voice appears in the right panorama and passes it in turn to Lennon, whose voice now quasi lifts and flies like detached from right to left and back again. The last stanza finally sings Lennon from the left stereo image. All in all I think it's a very interesting mix, the George Martin and his engineers have come up with and was as trendsetting for rock and pop music, like many other studio tricks with the Beatles. When Sgt. Pepper and the White Album I listen to the mono and stereo version alike happy. Only because of the diversity of some recordings, but also because the sound is very good in both LP versions, the mono LPs are really punchy.
You just have to have both!
For whom is this new box is now recommended? Collectors will strike here immediately, even if the price is a deterrent. But you have to be very careful these days when buying LPs. The quality control because you need to take yourself. After unpacking the first each LP due pressing errors, then investigate on the turntable after runout (wave). If something should not be OK, change immediately! You really get the feeling that a conscious partly the music industry today. Wants to foist poor quality. The Rolling Stones LP boxes I have read by more serious quality problems.
But back to this box: For people who want to have all the Beatles plates in the collection, but are faced with the decision: mono or stereo box? Here I would opt for the mono box and buy the missing stereo LPs "Yellow Submarine", "Abbey Road", "Let It Be", and the stereo Past Masters to. The grandiose companion book of the Stereo Box is unfortunately not available individually.
I myself have to count me among the collectors and big Beatles fans probably because I bought two boxes am (as well as the 2009 Mono & Stereo CD boxes) and very happy with it.
ps
When I look at my reviews I'm so, you might think that I hear exclusively Beatles (which is far from the case) and then still only distribute good marks. The reason is that I have so far reviewed products, which I find really good and would recommend. As an example, also published this year US box. The have and I will not buy, since not the original US-mixes were used (which differ primarily by more Hall of the original from England), but simply copies only the 2009 remaster. So the English original mixes, just distributed differently. One buys virtually only a few other covers, as most the 2009 box have. This stinks out for money making. Here I would no longer awarded as a point, as you have no difficulty to originality of "US-sounds" made. ... But I have not bought it!
![Fade Out Lines [VINYL] (Vinyl)](https://img.tgreer.com/thumb/85x85/3/c4/3c454e5ee19b2793.jpg)
