'The Beatles' - The White Album Listening Thread - Your thoughts
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Wouldn't we all!
I wasn't sure either, but the book that comes in the box set says it was done in September 2017.
This is probably my second fave Beatles album. Abbey Road would be tops for me.
It's amusing that so many of you have futzed with this and gotten into engineering nuances. 30 or 40 years ago, I would have been right there with you. Today, wiring up systems, fiddling with controls and a/b'ing each track on each different release holds little interest for me. Still, I have immense respect for each one of you tekkies. I'm impressed, but have turned lazy!
To me, much of this record is muddy on EVERY release. I'm sure that much of that was by design, just like Live at Leeds with fake surface noise on original release. Some of the fidelity is damn good, however.
I like certain things about mixes in 5.1, 2ch and glorious mono. Admittedly, I have yet to catch the 2ch remix. Perhaps in my car this afternoon...
In the last week, I've got several 2ch SACD's and a few supper deluxe boxes. With the things I just ordered, there are a handful more of boxes and a raft of 2ch SACD's en route. Likely, it will be weeks until I spin them all. An embarrassment of riches!
A couple years ago, I had a discussion w/Jim at Mofi. I commented that an SACD release of theirs sounded inferior to its' equivalent single layer Japan SACD. He reminded me about all these variables like equipment, room acoustics, listening with beans in your ears (60+ year olds will understand.) And then there's a little thing called mastering.
Listening through mid-fi and high end gear, it becomes painfully obvious as to fidelity of certain albums and (re)masters. People listening through crumbpacks or earbuds have no idea what we're talking about.
Hey, should I invest in an anechoic chamber?
PS: Jon, your post was Good News.
It's amusing that so many of you have futzed with this and gotten into engineering nuances. 30 or 40 years ago, I would have been right there with you. Today, wiring up systems, fiddling with controls and a/b'ing each track on each different release holds little interest for me. Still, I have immense respect for each one of you tekkies. I'm impressed, but have turned lazy!
To me, much of this record is muddy on EVERY release. I'm sure that much of that was by design, just like Live at Leeds with fake surface noise on original release. Some of the fidelity is damn good, however.
I like certain things about mixes in 5.1, 2ch and glorious mono. Admittedly, I have yet to catch the 2ch remix. Perhaps in my car this afternoon...
In the last week, I've got several 2ch SACD's and a few supper deluxe boxes. With the things I just ordered, there are a handful more of boxes and a raft of 2ch SACD's en route. Likely, it will be weeks until I spin them all. An embarrassment of riches!
A couple years ago, I had a discussion w/Jim at Mofi. I commented that an SACD release of theirs sounded inferior to its' equivalent single layer Japan SACD. He reminded me about all these variables like equipment, room acoustics, listening with beans in your ears (60+ year olds will understand.) And then there's a little thing called mastering.
Listening through mid-fi and high end gear, it becomes painfully obvious as to fidelity of certain albums and (re)masters. People listening through crumbpacks or earbuds have no idea what we're talking about.
Hey, should I invest in an anechoic chamber?
PS: Jon, your post was Good News.
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genesplitter
Member
Skimmed through the past dozen pages but may have missed it. Does the blu-ray include 5.1 surround versions of the Esher demos?
Nope! Only the main album.
Giles has mentioned in the White Album release interview on the BBC that he will be considering "Abbey Road " and "Let It Be " next if the opportunity arises , ie. permision is granted.
Can't give you a link but the interview is supplied by BBQ in his post within the Hi-Rez titles section.
I'm a big fan of Beatles albums from Pepper and the rest chronologically following,
My order of preference is White Album , Abbey Rd , Magical Mystery Tour , Pepper , Let It Be , Yellow Sub . All a very prolific music output fr a band that retired too early .
And yes their solo albums immediately following the 60's decade are standouts , most especially for George , John , and Paul .
I know of no other artist or group that can match this output of incredible rock music . In the pantheon of Rock music these are the most noteworthy albums and receive well deserved accolades fr all rock critics .....in the past historically and up to the present day.
My order of preference is White Album , Abbey Rd , Magical Mystery Tour , Pepper , Let It Be , Yellow Sub . All a very prolific music output fr a band that retired too early .
And yes their solo albums immediately following the 60's decade are standouts , most especially for George , John , and Paul .
I know of no other artist or group that can match this output of incredible rock music . In the pantheon of Rock music these are the most noteworthy albums and receive well deserved accolades fr all rock critics .....in the past historically and up to the present day.
I agree that the 5.1 Mix really brings out the Lennon songs. That’s not to say that everything else isn’t good. I just have more appreciation of his tracks, moreso now, than I ever did. A couple of months ago, I was saying that there were some throw away tracks on TWA and it should have been released as a single record. After listening to the Surround Mix, I no longer feel this way. Every single track on this album is mandatory.
IMHO, a few tracks could have been left off. But 1 LP/CD would have been a bad idea. There were tracks left off the 2 original LP's that I would have included.
"...serving me a writ, while I'm trying to do my bit..."
"...serving me a writ, while I'm trying to do my bit..."
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lennon fan
Senior Member
I just thought of something...isn't this, through the Blu ray, the first time you can hear the complete sequence of the White album in proper order without changing discs/sides? The uk 8-track messed with the sequence, and the reel had to change sides.
Depends on how pedantic you want to get about it. My reel deck auto-reverses, I've owned CD changers in the past and I've used a music server for over a decade now, so...
But since you brought it up, it's interesting to me that running the Blu-ray through MakeMKV resulted in the stereo+5.1 as well as the mono being broken into two parts each.
lennon fan
Senior Member
yeah, I hadn't thought about non physical world media. thanks
When listening to the blu-ray I heard my player change tracks between the two parts ! (The player’s head seems to go back and forth, it’s somewhat noisy)
I’d love to see the sales numbers on this set. Especially, in comparison to Sgt. Peppers.
I see Apple Music has the Super Deluxe Edition available for purchase and streaming. That’s the entire box minus the Blu-ray mixes.
I see Apple Music has the Super Deluxe Edition available for purchase and streaming. That’s the entire box minus the Blu-ray mixes.
When I made up my "White Album" USB stick for the car, I put all 29 tracks in 1 folder, numbered them 1-29, and I thought of the same thing. Very cool.
Hey Jon...feel free to delete this post after reading it...but since you mentioned a USB stick...any more updates on the Acura sound system..
But The White Album has 30 tracks so did you leave one out?
BTW, I've been riding around in my Acura jamming out to the 5.1 mix of Album 2 (and Album 1 too) especially "Revolution 9"
I've never listened to that track so much in my entire life, but in 5.1 that track totally works!
It really is like it was composed with surround sound in mind.
I'm sure if they had the technology back then, they would have mixed it in surround sound.
But The White Album has 30 tracks so did you leave one out?
BTW, I've been riding around in my Acura jamming out to the 5.1 mix of Album 2 (and Album 1 too) especially "Revolution 9"
I've never listened to that track so much in my entire life, but in 5.1 that track totally works!
It really is like it was composed with surround sound in mind.
I'm sure if they had the technology back then, they would have mixed it in surround sound.
How does it sound on your car system?
The whole record sounds AMAZING on the Acura system.
It's exactly what a 5.1 mix should sound like.
It's both full-bodied all around, and yet still very discrete a lot of the times too.
I'm extremely satisfied with this box set purchase, and this along with "Roxy Music" are the defining 5.1 releases of 2018.
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