I have been debating with myself about whether to buy the entire Beatles Catalogue of LPs in Stereo on 180gm vinyl. Even though they have been on-sale since November 2012 there is very little information about whether I should buy them or not. So, I will have to make my own mind up.
I have read the customer reviews in Amazon and mostly they are favourable. Many customers, however, have received LPs which are damaged or spoilt by scratches, warping, mis-centred spool holes and even fingerprints. Amazon has provided good customer service and has replaced the damaged vinyl. But what about the music does it sound better?
To me, Beatles music sounds great no matter how the music is reproduced unless it is 64 bit per second MP3. So why should I buy the re-mastered vinyl records when I have already got a number of the original mono versions: I also have the latest CD re-masters which sound almost perfect. But, the music was always better than the technology.
All the reviews, that I have have read so far, have all been about making comparisons between older vinyl versions and the current offering. There is also the continuing and arid debate about which is better: CD or Vinyl? Think about it, both media are able to provide HIFI sound reproduction and should really sound almost the same. One medium may, subjectively, please you more but so what?
As I said before, I am happy to listen to the Beatles reproduced in any format on a good HIFI and even a poor one. The Beatles music has stood the test of time and ranks at the top of popular music along with Buddy Holly, The Beach Boys,The Pink Floyd, The Doors, The Rolling Stones and Elvis etc.
I have listened to and sung Beatles songs so many times that they are almost imprinted in my mind. I do not think, therefore, that I can objectively make comparisons between reproduction formats. The music sounds just as good to me in mono or stereo. I can even excuse the scratches and pops on the old vinyl LP's that I have. LP's which have suffered abuse from simply being played too much.
We need a little history to put things into perspective. In 1963, when the first Beatles LP's, "Please Please Me" and "With the Beatles" were released most people could not afford HIFI systems. We had to listen to our favourite groups on the AM Radio or on Dansette type record players or Juke Boxes in coffee bars..
None of this was HIFI and compared to today the sound reproduction was quite primitive. Full Frequency recordings were non-existent as far as popular music was concerned. The pop music sound engineers had to produce record masters which sounded good in mono on valve radios, valve record players and Juke Boxes. Television sound reproduction was not that much better even though it was broadcast on a VHF frequency.
To become popular with young people the music had to generate excitement, be full of strong rhythms and had to have easy to remember short songs. The songs also had to have relevance to a young audience. Elvis, The Rolling Stones and the Beatles fitted the bill quite nicely. The music also had to sound good played loud to the discontent of our parents.
Most people could not afford to buy good sound reproduction equipment; the Dansettes had heavy tone arms and sapphire needles which were guaranteed to wear out and damage the vinyl. Lending and borrowing records was also popular and this of course led to further damage of the precious LP.
Part of the thrill of listening to your favourite groups was saving up to buy the new release. You had to plan your savings to match the date of the new release. For most young people, the idea of going into a record shop and buying four or five LP's on impulse was a fit of fancy.
On the bus home you admired the Album art but you did not dare pulling the vinyl out of the cardboard sleeve for fear of a jolt of the suspension sending your record rolling down the aisle.
The Dansette was a primitive record player with few adjustments. There was a speed control 78, 45 or 33 rpm and on some of them had 16 rpm but no-one ever used it. There was a volume control and bass and treble for the amplifier. There was no need for a balance control; it was all mono. You had to let the valves (or tubes) warm up before you could hear a thing. As soon as you got home you warmed up your Dansette before unwrapping the vinyl: patience was the order of the day.
Once the amp was warmed up and you set the volume there was little else to do put play the record. Perhaps, you blew the dust off the needle; held there by static electricity from a previous playing session.
You pulled the record out of its cardboard art work by using the paper sleeve and then carefully slid out the precious vinyl being careful not to leave finger prints. You inspected the the vinyl for scratches and warp damage and tilted the record to see the grooves. You carefully placed the record on the turntable and hoped that the ceramic cartridge and worn out sapphire needle would n't damage your pristine vinyl too quickly.
In those days no-one except the rich could afford decks with stroboscopic speed control and turntables with belt or direct drive. Speed control was pot luck with a Dansette and the rim driven turntable was an annoying source of rumble on top of the wow noise caused by lack of speed control. There was no tracking control for the cartridge or balance controls for the tone arm.
So what happened when you placed the needle on your pristine vinyl. If you were lucky you hit the groove before the first track started. You heard the rumble of the deck and the wow from the variable revolution speed. You were also lucky if you did not hear any snap, crackle or pop. The mere act of pulling the record from its sleeve generated some static. Most records in the 60's were also pressed with built in imperfections which generated clicks and pops.
Your mind quickly learnt to ignore these imperfections and aided by the sound of the music itself you never heard much interference unless you actually scratched the surface of the record. Pop music rarely had any soft passages so it was not ruined by all the snap, crackle and pop like a classic or jazz album would be.
Quite often you could not hear any rumble but too much wow from the variable speed motor could ruin almost any type of recording. If your record was warped it could be unplayable and any form of warping created excessive wow and flutter and harmonic distortion; best to return a warped record.
You may think why we bothered. The new music of the Beatles and the Stones was so exciting that every young person had to listen to them. Added to this was the generational gap and the feeling of rebelliousness. I remember that most parents were particularly annoyed at the Rolling Stones being played at full blast; much more so than Elvis or the Beatles.
Real HIFI did not become generally available or affordable until the late sixties and early seventies when there was a big improvement in the quality of consumer decks, amplifiers and full frequency range stereo recordings. Reel to Reel tape recorders also became available to create party tape compilations.
Cassette recorders and players also become more affordable and improved in quality. Cassettes made the creation of party tapes easy. Any party tape worth its salt had a liberal supply of Rolling Stones and Beatles tracks. Cassettes were used to copy LP's to save them from wearing out but I never did this.
During the seventies stereo VHF radio appeared more widely on the scene so HIFI was now available over the airwaves. TV sound could also be a source of HIFI music and the TV channels were beginning to cater more and more for pop music lovers. We were starting to enter the era of analogue HIFI heaven.
When CD arrived, in the early eighties, music was stored on a small disk which was very strong and less prone to being scratched or damaged and then stereo HIFI became much more usable and convenient. The sales of analogue stored music declined rapidly. But vinyl LPs and music Cassettes, for that matter, still held an appeal for some music lovers.
LP lovers swear that their experience is still better. I have never held this view but I still listen to LP's to remind myself of the good old days. I still listen to Cassettes in the car. For me CD sounds better for general usage as there is no surface noise to contend with. The surface noise on LPs and Cassettes ruins the softer parts of the music when listening to classical music, jazz or folk.
My musical tastes have changed. I do not listen to as much popular music as I used to, so CD and Hard Drive sourced sound are taking precedence from a convenience point of view. And, they do not interfere with the quiet parts of music.
Why do LP albums still hold their appeal? Apart from the ritual of adjusting your turntable and sliding a record onto a deck, there is the build up of hearing the slight sound of the record itself before the music starts. It is like an orchestra warming up or a jazz band counting down the beats at the start of a number. Similarly you hear a slight hiss from the Cassette before a number starts. This is all quite appealing.
All this is missing from CD or Computer based music; you are straight into a track without warning. Perhaps the purity of sound and its immediacy is disconcerting. There is no doubt that CDs and LPs sound a little different. That is why I get out the vinyl every now and again; just for the memories.
Cassette still has the appeal of convenience for me, as my aging car does not have have a CD player. There is no doubt that the sound reproduction is no better than an MP3 player (at 128 Kbps). What does that matter? I have a Cassette to MP3 adapter for the car but I cannot be bothered to fiddle with it. The music itself sounds just as good especially as far as The Beatles are concerned.
Why buy the new Beatles vinyl at all then then? If you are doing it for nostalgia's sake you will be disappointed. The mastering will have been done to get the best out of today's sound reproduction equipment. The original Beatles albums were mastered to get the best out of a Dansette or a Juke Box. We cannot return to those days.
We cannot return to the living conditions of the early sixties either. The modern era was only just beginning in Europe. We were behind America but catching up fast. The age of consumerism, youth and celebrity culture was just beginning. So was mass consumerism even if it did n't feel like it. You still had to save up for your purchases. There were no credit cards and hire purchase was hard to come by especially for teenagers.
A holiday job could not finance a record player and the records. Your parents still held the purse strings and it would be another ten years or so before teenagers wrested financial control from their elders.
Social control was also changing, the censorship laws were being repealed. The BBC unsuccessfully tried to introduce a ban on some of the Beatles tracks as late as 1967. There were references to drugs on the Sergeant Pepper Album. "Found my way upstairs and had a smoke. Somebody spoke and I went into a dream." How times have changed: but you cannot even smoke a cigarette on a bus nowadays.
When I bought all the new CD re-masters, I bought them one at a time. Perhaps, I was harking back to the good old days when I could only afford to buy them one at a time. This really did not work for me. I could now afford to buy them in one go; the poverty and guilt effect has worn away.
We have got used to luxury. We cannot escape it. Luxury does not always come in the form of money. There is technical and engineering advance so we can all afford mobile 'phones now. In 1963 a smart 'phone or an MP3 player was part of science fiction.
So why buy the new 180 gm vinyl? You are doing it for the luxury of hearing the Beatles on an LP with almost perfect sound reproduction. On these masters the volume of the "S's" is being reduced. This was not necessary for the original masters as most the record players sixties did not accentuate sibilant sounds.
http://beatsperminute.com/news/beatles-vinyl-remasters-to-finally-see-release-in-november/
Some vinyl purists are criticising the fact that the LPs are originating from digital masters. But this is beside the point. The sound quality will not be compromised and some of the techniques used to reduce the noise clicks and pops on the original tapes would be very difficult if not impossible using analogue tapes.
The sound engineers have used specialised pressing techniques to "warm up" the sound for vinyl. I see no point in doing this as the original versions of the albums had a lot of rock and roll content. They weren't meant to be played warm, you had to play them as loud and hot as possible . You needed your dancing shoes not slippers.
http://www.elusivedisc.com/THE-BEATLES-STEREO-VINYL-BOX-SET-180g-16LP/productinfo/EMILPB33809/
Will I be buying the boxed set even though I can afford the luxury? After writing this, No I will not. The albums would rarely leave the box. The CD re-masters will sound almost the same and the music will be just as great. I lived through the history of the Beatles so the book will probably not interest me much. I have got some of the original vinyl that I can play for nostalgia.
As far as mono is concerned, I can feed the stereo music through a mono powered speaker. The sound reproduction is miles better than a "Dansette", so I can't back to 1963 this way. I am just left with memories and words - No, I am not going to buy a Dansette. At this very moment I am copying a Past Master LP to Cassette tape so there will be some nice tape hiss between each track but I won't hear it in the car.
There is one thing that it is exceptionally difficult to do with a CD and that is to play the end of Sergeant Pepper backwards. I used to do this quite often (manually) with my mono LP. I could never make out what what being sung but there was plenty of wow and flutter. I am surprised that I never damaged that groove.
It might be worth buying the Sergeant Pepper re-master for that reason alone but be careful that you do not damage your high resolution deck and MM cartridge. The old Dansette was much more sturdy in that respect.
If you really want the luxury and can afford it then go ahead with my blessing. You deserve it after reading this. Always remember there are still the mono versions to come. That is the timeless appeal of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, The Pink Floyd, Caravan, Buddy Holly, The Beach Boys, Ry Cooder: I could go on forever.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-11-12/entertainment/ct-ent-1113-beatles-vinyl-20121112_1_beatles-nostalgia-beatles-catalog-beatles-lps/2/
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