Beatles - Re-mastered Mono LP set

The new Beatles Mono LP set is due for release in November this year.

No doubt some people will be agonising whether to buy them or not. All I can say is if you have got the money and vinyl is your preferred choice of playing recordings then go ahead with a clear conscience. I shall not be buying this new set, even though I have got the money, because my preferred choice of listening to music is digital from a laptop, streamer or CD player. I still enjoy vinyl and still play some of my old Beatles records on a turntable for fun.

There is a lot of rubbish written about mono versus stereo and which is the best way to get back to the original sound. You cannot get back to the 1960's sound with any of the re-mastered releases but more of that later.

There is so much rubbish written about LP versus CD  and now the various digital formats and this is beyond my comprehension. Soon the internet airwaves will be full of the old arguments about which is the better format and which take of the Beatles sounds better the mono one or the stereo one.


When I was a youngster back in the sixties I listened to the Beatles so much that I can remember most of their songs exactly word for word and chord for chord. So can most of my contemporaries unless they hated the Beatles and preferred the Rolling Stones; people were just as partisan in those days.

To all intents and purposes we only ever heard the Beatles and all our other favourite groups in Mono.

These were the combinations:

Mono LPs played on a mono record player with a ceramic cartridge and with valve or tube amplifier all in one box. These were played so loud that the distortion was really noticeable but no-one cared.

Mono LPs played on a mono record player with a ceramic cartridge and with transistor amplifier and all in one box. Once again the music was played so loud that there was noticeable distortion but no-one cared.

Stereo LPs were sometimes played on Mono record players but too loud again and of course you heard them in Mono.

Listening to a mono LP on a  mono valve radio in AM; the transmissions were often distorted by interference.

Listening to a stereo LP  on a mono transistor radio in AM; and once again the transmissions were often distorted by interference.

Listening to a mono or stereo track played on a VHF black and white telly. The sound reproduction was slightly better unless you had the volume turned up to full. The telly only had one speaker so you always heard mono. There was less interference and a better frequency response than AM radio.

Listening in mono on a jukebox played in a coffee bar or pub.

Playing a mono LP on your parents stereo if they could afford one. The end result was mono.

Playing a stereo record on your parents stereo if you were lucky and of course it sounded better and different. I bought Sgt Pepper in 1967 in stereo in anticipation of my parents getting a HIFI.

Listening to FM radio in the latter part of the 1960s but mostly on a radio with a single speaker  - so in mono. Stereo FM did not become widely popular until the early 1970s when people could afford the latest equipment. FM stereo was a big improvement to listening to a mono record player.

The technical choice was as wide as we have today, excepting that digital did not exist and tape recorders were very expensive and audio cassette recording was trash until the 1970s came along.

The sound reproduction was awful compared to what we have today. There was no real discussion about the differences in mastering techniques and the small differences in how the mono and stereo versions of the Beatles albums were put together. No-one could care less, as all we were concerned about was listening to the best pop music even though it was usually distorted.

My sister and I had musical ears so we could tell that She's Leaving Home was playing in a different key on the stereo and mono versions of Sgt Pepper.

Of course, I never got annoyed by the vocals on the stereo version of Eleanor Rigby which now seem to be disembodied and jumping from one speaker to another because I was always listening in mono.


If you think for one minute that buying the boxed version of the Mono Beatles LP will get you back to the magic days of the 1960s then you are mistaken. You will be buying these versions for the excellent sound that they will give you even if they are played on a humble turntable. If you are paying £30 or so for each LP then insist upon getting undamaged vinyl and  sleeve covers. Why should your music appreciation be marred by a warped record or one that has in built crackles because of bad manufacturing  and quality control?

I can suggest two ways to get back to the so called golden days of the 1960s even though we did not have much cash to buy the LP when it first came out or listen to it through decent equipment.

1) Buy a second hand Beatles record mono or stereo from the 1960s. A cheap one will have plenty of scratches and it will also be damaged by excessive playing on what would now be termed as primitive equipment - a worn out sapphire stylus with a very heavy ceramic cartridge.

Buy a refurbished 1960s record player complete with sapphire stylus and ceramic cartridge.

Place the record player on a rickety sideboard or on the floor. Clean the record if it has a lot of gunge on it or otherwise leave it. Play the record with the volume turned up full and jive. You are almost back to how we listened and danced to the Beatles in 1964.

2) Tune in a single speaker transistor radio which has the AM medium wave band, you will probably have one in the house, to a distant radio station hundreds of miles away and during the day time; this will mean that the station will probably fade. If you have got the patience, hope that the station plays a record from the 1960s; the Beatles even.

No-one ever used headphones in those days but sometimes we used a ghastly single white ear bud type earphone if we did not want our parents to know we were listening to Radio Luxembourg rather than sleeping.

3) Instead of buying the record  player with a credit card, pay with cash that you have saved in a jar or piggy bank from the spare change that you have got in your purse or pocket until you have got the right money. This will give you some of the air of anticipation that we had back then when we bought our first record players - or records for that matter as we had to save hard for them too.

Do not be tempted to play your brand new Beatles albums on the sort of equipment I have just described as you will ruin them on the first play.

Sit back and enjoy your re-mastered LPs first with the music coming from between the two speakers. And then secondly from only one speaker using the balance control.

If you are lucky enough to afford the stereo re-masters as well, then you can afford to buy a mono active speaker and rig it up. You will then be able to hear the stereo versions condensed into mono so that you can compare both formats.  I am willing to guess that the music will sound just as good which ever way you listen. Enjoy.

PS
Some of you are probably thinking about buying a turntable for the first time to go with your new records so please be aware of the next paragraphs.

Here are facts that you cannot escape from. If you scratch your pristine new 180 vinyl you will hear a popping noise. The mere act of pulling the record from a sleeve will generate some static electricity noise and you will quite probably hear this on replay. If you allow dust to build up on the stylus or the record itself you will hear a noise. Too much dust and fluff could cause the record to jump track or sound muffled or both.

All of this type of noise can affect the playing of LPs whether you have paid £300 or £3000 for your turntable. One  fool on a forum suggested that a £3000 turntable and cartridge can filter out scratches, static noise or the effects of dust and fluff. It cannot and it will sound just as ghastly as on a cheap deck. Make sure you protect your records.

An expensive deck will help to eliminate wow and  flutter and rumble noise and should  reduce harmonic distortion to a minimum. But, you must set up the deck correctly and level it and protect it from vibrations and acoustic feedback.

Sit back and enjoy the music.

HIFI Cable Humbug and Snake oil etc.

There is too much emphasis placed on spending huge sums of money on HIFI cables. Most of what is written about this subject is complete tripe. HIFI magazines promote myths about the benefits of all sorts of equipment.

Before magazines pay any credence to the performance claims of manufactures they should test the cables using the scientific method and use double blind ABX listening tests and then subject the result for peer review by independent sound engineers and statisticians.

When I have swapped interconnect cables around on my system I have not noticed any difference in performance. In fact I have found that reasonable quality and priced interconnect cables from Maplins do not sound any different to much more expensive ones. The same applies to speaker cable; you can buy excellent quality speaker cable for £1.50 per metre and I am not certain that this performs much better than bell wire.

Good quality copper cable does the job nicely.

http://gizmodo.com/315250/pear-cable-chickens-out-of-1000000-challenge-we-search-for-answers

With the increasing use of USB DACs also beware of an claims regarding USB connectors as no scientific tests seem to have been conducted on these. The performance claims could be equally as bogus.


Like most houses we have umpteen sets of music and computer equipment plugged into the mains with WIFI connexions producing all sorts of radio frequency transmissions. You could be led into believing that you need power conditioners and all sorts of other equipment to "clean things up". Some power conditioners cost hundreds of pounds.

I have performed this simple test. I switched on every piece of equipment that we have in the house including set top boxes to receive terrestrial and satellite television. I switched on the BluRay player, the CD player and the DAC and Laptop which are connected to my amplifier.  I  then turned up the amplifier to half volume and three quarters volume. I could hear absolutely nothing even with my ears pressed up to the speakers. I then  turned up the volume to full and then heard a slight hiss with my ears pressed up to the speakers. None of the electrical equipment in my house or the power supply was interfering with the performance of my HIFI equipment. The slight white noise was coming from the amplifier which is only to be expected at full volume. The equipment is obviously well shielded and filtered.

I suggest that you do this test before investing in fancy cables or expensive power conditioners. In some houses there may be a case for shielding the gear from interference from the power supply. But test this first before buying; the interference could be caused by faulty equipment or poor connexions.

I am amazed that so called audiophiles and HIFI journalists can be fooled into thinking that  very expensive speaker cables etc. improve performance. These are the very same people who find the snap, crackle and pop noise and the surface noise acceptable when they are playing LP records  on exceptionally expensive turntables.

Don't get me wrong I love listening to LPs but I have to accept their limitations and no amount of money spent will cure the LP of the in built flaws of static build up, surface noise and dust. I also accept that a Maplin's interconnect cable performs just as well as a cable costing hundreds or even thousands of pounds more.

I spend the money saved on the music which is all that really matters.