The Remasters – First reports

The Blue Box: Still holds up

Some lossless tracks from the new Remastered CD series of The Beatles have been made available to people in the industry. The tracks in question are from the Sgt Pepper album. One person has been comparing the new remastered version to the fan made vinyl rip from the Blue box by Dr Ebbett’s. Here are his conclusions:
“I’ve been doing some A/B/C comparisons and have found that the DESS Blue Box Pepper is rather close indeed to the clarity of the ’09 Remaster… if one were to clean off the inherent vinyl noise. In fact, the DESS version probably sounds warmer than the new release. [There’s also, however, an odd stereo separation issue.] Of course, that lands us squarely into the “which do YOUR ears prefer: vinyl or CD” debate and as we all know, there’s no right answer to that one. At least, now we have a GOOD CD version to choose from. And, as I’ve said before, the good Doctor has nothing to be ashamed of: the Blue Box release holds up pretty well in the face of unfairly stiff competition.”
And, from the same person:
“I’m listening to the samples again. Right now. As I’m typing this.”
“Look: this is the best (stereo) copy of the Pepper album I’ve ever heard (a portion of). It’s the UHQR on steroids. Another shining example: Paul’s “ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh” at the beginning of Lovely Rita is just… ethereal. It breathes. It’s ALIVE. It’s not like you’re standing in the studio with him, but only because if you were his voice would be coming from straight in front of you and not transitioning across your ears like he were floating by on a cloud.”
“There are voices and sounds that were buried in the mix and inaudible during A Day In The Life that I can now hear clear as day.”

The vinyl mono box was available in black or red