Beatles - Vinyl LPs

Rick, I have found the MFSL recordings to be excellent. Although, I'm not sure if they are still being pressed by MFSL. I'm also not sure that MFSL is the same company in terms of sonic quality.

I also still have a Parlophone box set that is actually pretty good. I find the Capital recordings to be horrible, and the Japanese pressings to be quiet, but a little bright.

I second the Parlophone box set. Much less expensive than the MFSL (I have both), and very close in sound quality. Check ebay.

the brand new vinyl releases out of japan are the best yet.

Let It Be Naked sounds pretty good, too.

Spencer

I have been collecting Beatles LP's for a long time and there is no question in my mind (and many others who have equal or greater experience than me) that the Japanese EMI-Odeon are the best sounding Beatles LP's. These have a black label (although I do have the first two Beatle LP's in mono that are EMI-Odeon and they are red vinyl). Unfortunately for you these will be hard to find. I waited years to get the full boxed set EAS-66010-23 and paid around $300 for an unplayed set (looks just like the Parlophone set in a blue box, not cream colored as indicated in the link listed below). I also have 'The Beatles Box' that came out in 1980 also on EMI-Odeon. This is a compilation of the best Beatles songs on 8 LP's. These pressings are the same as the full boxed set (same black label)and I really recommend this set. I also own a number of the individual MoFi recordings and the EMI-Odeons are clearly superior to the Mobile Fidelity pressings. The Japanese Apple recordings are probably the easiest to find and they are very quiet with great packaging, but I find them to be a bit on the bright side. An exception is the Pro Use version of Abbey Road, which is excellent. Most of the German pressings I've heard are also quite good, in particular the 'White Album' on white vinyl (Direct Metal Mastering IC 172-04 174/74). I have not heard the newest Japanese pressings, but for what they cost I'd hope they are good! I seriously doubt they will be better than the EMI-Odeons. Here is an interesting link for Beatles Box sets that will be very useful in your search: http://www.rarebeatles.com/boxsets/boxset.htm

Hope this helps. By the way, my observations are based on the use of my Well Tempered Reference table and arm currently with a Grado Reference low output (1.5Mv) cartridge.

One final note. The recent English pressing of Yellow Submarine on yellow vinyl is outstanding!

being a big fan of Japanese records i have purchased a few of the recent 2004 releases, while i really had high hopes, i was a little disappointed, they were pretty bright sounding. i love the earlier Japanese releases and find them to be superior to MFSLs, and others standard issues.

Tswhitsel, you would have a field day at my home with my Beatles collection.

I had collected specialty (non-bootleg) material. Colored vinyls, marble vinyls, serial numbered promotional copies, test pressings, Japanese, German, French, Italian imports. All Parlophone boxes including, LP, EP, and 45s. Mofi box, The Beatles Box (from Liverpool), Australian boxed EPs, picture discs, all of the original Christmas 45 releases (with the enclosed letters from the fan club), flexi discs, etc, etc, etc.

I also had one of the original Parlophone Red mono box LP set, which were supposedly very rare in the U.S. 99.5 percent of this stuff? Never played.

I should sell it all, but I never will.

Thanks for all of your replies. Looks like Japanese EMI-Odeon is the preference, followed by MFSL, Parlophone, and Japanese Apple. Of course, all of the albums I have now are Capital. (except one MFSL Abbey Road). This at least gives me a place to start. If anyone has a particular favorite album catalog number, send it along. There are still way too many on Ebay to sift through. Thanks again,
Rick

I've got a Sgt. Pepper's MSFL in excellent condition that needs another home. My analog system isn't up to the standards to do this pressing justice.

Here is one of my favourite music sites, perhaps you've been there? For excellent music forums check out www.stevehoffman.tv

You'll find lots of Beatles info and perhaps meet some relly cool people!

The new Beatles LP's are digital remasters.
The Steve Hoffman site is great also.

Tim