In case you didn’t know, The Beatles re-masters are being released today (9/9/9). Even more exciting is the fact that you will be able to get all of them in mono and in stereo. So, you can hear them the way they were meant to be heard!! From my understanding, though, the mono versions will not be released as single CDs. You’ll have to buy the box set. The mono box is supposedly “limited edition”, but I would bet anything that in a year, you’ll be able to buy the mono ones without any problem (and mostly likely be able to buy the single discs without dealing with the box set…and find them used at Amazon). Here’s a really interesting discussion on an Audiophile site about the mono vs. stereo editions.
I think after reading this Audiophile opinion, I am going to buy a couple today at lunch (ok, maybe more than two if they just happen to be sitting there) in stereo as you can’t buy the mono ones (right now) as single CDs. I’ll grab the mono set at some point when it gets past the “limited edition” status …..though I am dying to hear the earlier albums the way that The Beatles and George Martin created them. Now, which ones to buy? Leaning toward Revolver and Abbey Road. We’ll see what happens when I hit Best Buy to use the $20 gift card that they were so kind to give me for giving them $1000 recently.
Update: Bought Revolver, Abbey Road, and Sgt. Peppers in stereo. Revolver sounded so amazing that I went back to the store and bought the Mono box set (the last one!). All Best Buys are sold out of the Stereo box set. Got home and started with Please Please Me and I’m at Rubber Soul now. Wow is all I can say…