The Beatles 2014 MONO VINYL Box Set - History, Analysis, Review

since its release in 2014 this mono box set has become legendary amongst beatles collectors in this video i'll take an in-depth look at every aspect of it including how it sounds when compared to the 1960s uk originals and find out just how good it really is [Music] hi i'm andrew from polygram auctions this 2014 collection wasn't the first time the beatles album had been released as a mono box set back in october 1982 emi had issued the beatles mono collection which was a follow-up to the blue box stereo collection it had put together four years earlier for us beetles collectors the date the 9th of the 9th 2009 was one of the most anticipated and exciting dates in beatles history for nearly 20 years since the release of anthology one many people around the world were getting married on this lucky date i like many other beatles fans rushed out to be the first to get their hands on the beatles original studio recordings a 16 cd remastered stereo box it but also crucially the 10cd the beatles in mono box set this beautifully put together mono set gathered together 10 of the band's mono albums with a two-disc mono masters album and even included the original 1965 stereo mixes of help and rubber sole which had never been available on cd before also magical mystery tour had replaced yellow submarine which had been included in the 1982 set but as it was just a fold-down of the stereo mix it was unfortunately deemed unworthy of inclusion however by way of compensation vintage mono mixes of the album's four original tracks were included on the mono masters album unlike the standard digipax of the stereo set this mono set was made in japan and was of much higher quality each disc came in a beautifully made and mini reproduction of the original uk flip back cover with like the stereo set labels designed to match the uk pressings they even had mini reproduction inner sleeves too all were snugly housed in this glossy white box with an informative well put together 44-page booklet containing in-depth analysis of the mono masters rare photos and an intelligent opening essay by kevin howlett needless to say it was a big success with both fans and audiophiles alike and the initial pressing run of 50 000 sets worldwide sold out within a month fast forward now three years to 2012. the vinyl revival was gathering speed and was now something even apple couldn't ignore so turning to abbey road's team of first-rate producers and engineers all the stops were pulled out to make this set the best sounding beatles vinyl set ever a lot of time and effort were spent in finding the right vintage gear and the original master tapes once those were in hand they cleaned up the bad edits applied surgical eq designed to prevent issues such as sibilance and inner groove distortion and cut the whole lot using high rate 24-bit sampling to produce a set of lps which would not only they hoped stayed true to the originals but improve upon them when it was released in november 2012 all that time and effort seemed to have paid off and the set received favorable reviews and sold well but the main issue for audiophiles and hardened collectors was that it was a digitally sourced set which meant it was basically the 2009 cds on vinyl those issues aside however the big question was where was the monobox well the team at abbey road had already been hard at work on it and the plan was to release the stereo and mono boxes together much like it had been done with the cd sets in 2009 as with the stereo set the plan had been to use the 2009 masters as the source but just as the project was nearing completion mastering supervisor steve berkovitz suggested a change of plan to mastering engineer sean mcgee berkovitz was a music industry veteran and had overseen many successful reissue projects for sony's reissue label legacy most notably the acclaimed bob dylan mono collection in 2010 which crucially had been mastered from the original analog mono master tapes so then it occurred to berkowitz and mcgee that instead of putting the digital mono files on vinyl like the stereo set why don't they cut the vinyl directly from the original analog mono master tapes so that's what happened and using original cutting engineer harry moss's notes as a guide they scrapped the digital work and started again but this time in analog the original mono tape rails arrived from the vault in excellent condition only please please me with showing any significant signs of age the oxide and glue on that tape had started to shed causing high frequency loss and it was clear that it wasn't going to stand up to more than one or two plays so a copy tape was made for cutting also unwilling to risk damaging the original btr tape machines on which the sessions were originally recorded a more reliable later model studer a80 was selected as the playback machine care was taken to make sure the azimuth of the playback heads was aligned to match exactly that of the machine used to record the song originally in some cases that meant making a nerve-wracking adjustment with a screwdriver as the tape was running through the studio was fed into an emi tg console where mcgee set about replicating and tweaking harry moss's original eq settings mcgee quickly found out how challenging cutting mono was and confessed that he couldn't have done what harry moss had achieved in the 60s on his equipment back then it's a shame harry was no longer around to take the compliment one of the main issues to avoid when cutting a record is to stop the stylist jumping the grooves and it's a real art balancing a good sounding mix with one which would track correctly at sufficient volume with one which is too aggressive and make the stylist jump this was actually a problem emi encountered in 1963 on the beatles second album with the beatles that was recalled on the day of release due to jumping on rollover beethoven however it wasn't with the beatles which was causing the headache this time it was rubber sole the album was recorded with such a huge amount of bass it was decided that even modern systems wouldn't be able to handle the full amount on the tape so although the base was increased to a higher level than the 1965 cutting they still had to hold some back i'd give anything to listen to that tape and hear how much bass is actually on it before we address the subject of sound quality let's have a look at the quality of these covers fortunately they decided to copy the style of the cd covers by reproducing the flip backs on the rear panels which gives them a real authentic 1960s feel it would have been perfect if the front panels had been laminated like the originals instead of this dull eggshell-like finish but the rear panels are really nice and they even attempted to reproduce the slightly shiny rear panel of the early please please me covers and correctly use matte card for the rear panels of the other flip back sleeves the cover of beetles for sale was always a weak affair but this one is good and strong the only real difference between this and the original is that the spine isn't pinched on the ends sergeant pepper also has his inner flip overs and also feels nice and heavy in the hand the cutout sheet is here too but the red and white inner sleeve which looks so good on the cd set appears to have just been blown up instead of copied from an original the cover of magical mystery tool also has a rather amateurish look to it i don't know if they're all like this one but the scale on the front cover is all wrong which is clear when it's put next to an original it's just zoomed in too much and the top area above the lettering is cropped off the white album is a really first class package and comes with all its original inserts poster photos and polyline black inners which are a little kinder to the vinyl than the unlined rough matte black ones of the original one of the best things about this set which unlike the albums you couldn't buy separately is the 108 page hardback book it's a real quality production full of wonderful photographs reproductions of tape boxes studio documents clippings and rare promotional material it also includes kevin howlett's excellent essay which apart from the opening two paragraphs is the same as the one in the 2009 booklet it's a really superb book and like anthology something i never get tired of looking at every time i open it up i see something new or discover some fascinating new detail everything about this set just oozes quality from the weight and construction of the box to the vinyl itself all of which weighs in at between 190 and 200 grams each i'm often asked how i listen to mono records well if i'm grading one for sale i use a normal stereo setup because it's more revealing and can detect things like groove wear and static crackle more easily but what's the best method if you want to listen to a mono record in true mono fashion well there are a couple of ways you can do that the first method is to use a dedicated mono cartridge in fact autofont created a special edition of their 2m mono cartridge as a tribute to this set and that's a good if fairly expensive choice the second way is if you have an older amp you may have a mono button or switch which will do the job just as well however the third and cheapest option is the one i'm going to use for this job and that involves two y cables like this these are two rca splitter cables one with a male end and two female ends and another similar cable but with a single female end and two male ends you simply connect the single ends together to make one cable then connect your turntable to the female connectors and the male connectors go to your phono amp it's as simple as that this will give you true mono reproduction without the expense of buying a mono cartridge or finding a vintage amp so now let's get down to the real nitty gritty sound quality i'm going to listen and compare each album in this set with its original uk mono first pressing and see how well this set measures up against the originals i'll also be recording them onto my computer so we can compare volume levels and dynamics etc so let's go overall the sound quality of this set is truly outstanding the main difference in sound quality between these and the originals is most noticeable on the early albums especially to illustrate this in a more visual way let's compare some waveforms side by side of some tracks from the original first pressings and from this set which i recorded on the same equipment at the same volume each time as you can see on this waveform if i saw her standing there from please please me the main difference is in the volume levels between the two discs the 1963 cutting on top was like most records cut in the 1960s cut loud and hot to make sure it sounded good on old systems such as this dansette bermuda a model owned by many british teenagers at the time however the vms-80 cutting lathe used the abbey road to produce the 2014 disks was much more sensitive than the one used in the 1960s and was therefore able to create a better frequency range at a lower volume so in order to see the difference in dynamics between the two let's balance up the volume levels okay there we go at first glance there's not a great deal of difference between them and it's almost impossible to see the subtle changes in eq however if you look closely there is an increase in the number of peaks on the 2014 cut which does indicate more dynamics the 2014 disc is certainly easier to listen to a higher volume and not as fatiguing on the ear as the 1963 disc at the same volume this is all my loving from with the beatles and again it's very close and hard to see any significant differences between the two however feel free to pause the video and take a longer look for yourself and leave your impressions in the comments it's a similar story here on tell me why from a hard day's night however the spectral analysis of this track shows a clear frequency cutoff of 15k on the 2014 version which isn't there on the 1964 original this is rock and roll music from beatles for sale the 2014 waveform is a little fatter than the original suggesting it has a fuller more fleshed-out sound than that of the original this is you're going to lose that girl from help and as you can see it's virtually identical to the 1965 cut it seems that even with the help of modern tools and technology the team were unable to improve upon the album's poor sounding mono mix the next one is nowhere man with the initial withdrawn dash 1 loud cutting on the top it certainly displays a wider waveform than the 2014 cutting below so it really was loud however that pattern is reversed on this which is annual bird can sing from revolver moving on to lovely rita from sergeant peppers which is easily the most dynamic original cutting so far putting them side by side just shows how little difference there is between the original and the 2014 and goes to prove just how good that original mono mix really was on the white album the 2014 cut appears to add more dynamics at least on this track glass onion which is most notable when looking at the end section while the sound of those early albums on the 2014 discs may suit the modern ear and system better the vintage dynamics of the originals gave them i felt a little more energy and excitement which is missing from the 2014 recuts but from revolver onwards i lean towards the sound of the 2014 discs but sound quality after all is a very subjective issue and it's all about personal preference in the end i'm sure you have your own clear ideas about which version sounds best after all it's the music that counts and both the originals and the 2014 discs sound amazing in their own ways if you're looking to get hold of one of these sets it's unfortunately long out of print and prices are steep on the second hand market you can still pick up the mono albums individually if you're lucky but even some of those like sgt pepper are becoming expensive and you also have to be careful to avoid counterfeit copies on the other hand most original uk mono lps especially those which are in lower conditions say in very good to excellent are falling in price as supply has now caught up with demand although a black and gold please please me or a mint example of anything will always be expensive so to sum up i'll say this is the best sounding beatles box set to date but what about the 1982 mono collection i hear you cry well that's a story for another day i hope you enjoyed this video if you did please give me a big thumbs up and hit the subscribe button if you'd like me to do some more but i'll say bye for now and thanks for [Music] watching you

Channel: Parlogram

Views: 78,009

Keywords: beatles, beatles vinyl, beatles lps, collectible beatles vinyl, box sets, mono vinyl, vinyl comunity, parlogram, audiophile, emi, parlophone, abbey road, original beatles vinyl, beatles memorabilia, beatles auctions, vinyl box set

Id: uZJnsy34uD8

Length: 17min 5sec (1025 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 01 2020