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Beatles Mono vs. Stereo

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CliftonHanger1 View Drop Down
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    Posted: 28 Nov 2021 at 5:42pm
I know this is age old topic and likely been posted previously. But just went through a phase of listening to Beatles in mono on vinyl. Gotta say - much prefer stereo for all eras. Maybe just brought up with the stereo listens but mono almost decreases my affinity for this great catalogue. Case in point: picked up a vinyl copy of the Mono Masters (2009) and was really struck by how much better and natural all songs sound in stereo. Love to hear other POVs.
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lfc jon View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote lfc jon Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Nov 2021 at 7:00pm
I too was brought up with stereo but I do listen to music on a mono bedside radio (DAB) and yes I think it sounds more natural in stereo, In mono you seem to focus on one point in my case the speaker on the radio but when I listen to the HiFi I look through the speakers (in between) I'm not looking at the speakers, If that makes sense. In stereo there is more space, a more fuller sound  "I'm not on about bass here" I have a mate that likes to watch a film in stereo rather than in surround sound he says it is more natural, he uses his HiFi for the sound with two subwoofers. I must admit I have watch a film with him and compared the two and I found I preferred it in stereo, surround sound just didn't add anything to the watching experience to me.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Fatmangolf Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Nov 2021 at 9:09pm
I prefer the stereo version of the remasters.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote fluddite Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Nov 2021 at 10:50pm
Originally posted by Fatmangolf Fatmangolf wrote:

I prefer the stereo version of the remasters.

Two issues here:

1) Mono vs. Stereo
As a famous Liverpudlian (1940-1980) once observed, “if you haven’t heard ‘Sgt. Pepper’ in mono, you haven't heard ‘Sgt. Pepper’”. And he (+ messrs McCartney, Harrison, Starkey and Martin Snr.), like Your Mother, Should Know. Ditto for everything up to December 1968: if the people making the music concentrated on the mono mixes and left the (often horribly panned) stereo to whichever spare engineering staff were doing the late shift at Abbey Road, it suggests that the mono is what they wanted heard. The fact that post-1970 repressings of Beatles LPs (the ones many of us grew up on, even before the 'Red' and 'Blue' compilations became the gateway drug for future generations) were pretty much exclusively stereo skewed all our "hi-fi" (now "audiophile" expectations) unless we were lucky enough to have older siblings/parents with mono originals - even then, the 1970s default assumption was that stereo must be better because "stereos" had two speakers. Come the 80s, it was Beatles CDs - only in stereo. So if we've heard the stereo versions as our LP/CD defaults for so long, we're (self included here) predisposed to think "that's what they sound like". For me, the 'Beatles In Mono' CD boxset of 2009 was a complete revelation in terms of coherence, vocal/instrumental balance and sheer oomph; the AAA mono LP remasters of 2014 slightly more so; those AAA remasters and (even better) some cleaned-up 1960s mono originals once I'd finally acquired a mono cart (AT33) more so again.

2) "Originals" vs. "Remasters"
Whatever the merits of mono vs. stereo versions of Beatles LPs, at least the original stereo pressings went out under the Beatles' collective imprimatur (i.e. all 4 + Martin Snr. were there to say yay or nay to whatever got issued and marketed). Once you start to stir in 1980s (and after) digital mastering - let alone the Martin  Jnr. approach of creating "a new mix that presents the album the way the Beatles would have done so... had they cared about making a proper stereo mix and had access today’s technology" (I'm quoting here - https://www.beatle.net/sgt-pepper-stereo-remix-launch-party/) - it seems to me that you're opening successive cans of worms wriggling further and further away from what the Fab Four + Martin Snr. actually intended between 1962 and 1970. IMLTHO, Martin Jnr's "had they cared" is taking the piss Big Time.

So - older pressings (mono or stereo) best. In my opinion, mono beats stereo - the 2009 mono CD remasters are fine, the 2014 AAA mono LPs better, 1960s mono LPs in good nick best of all...
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote fluddite Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Nov 2021 at 11:48pm
Originally posted by lfc jon lfc jon wrote:

I have a mate that likes to watch a film in stereo rather than in surround sound he says it is more natural, he uses his HiFi for the sound with two subwoofers. I must admit I have watched a film with him and compared the two and I found I preferred it in stereo, surround sound just didn't add anything to the watching experience to me.

I'm with your mate on this. Stereo is for people with two ears; in the 70s, we always used to say that Quadrophonic (remember?) was for people with four. By extension, modern multichannel home setups and - even worse ('cos you can't adjust the volume or any of the other settings) - their cinema equivalents must be designed for people with five ears. Or possibly seven. I blame Cinerama. Mind you, most movies released before the mid-1970s had wonderfully-mixed mono soundtracks, and that's how they should still be heard. After 1976, I blame Dolby Laboratories. Oh, and bloody Star WarsWink
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Fatmangolf Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Nov 2021 at 8:19am
I chose my words carefully, thank you for expanding on the point I made. Panned mono to give a stereo is an art but only a small part the track content, if any, will be natural stereo with ambience and directional cues. We hear and can locate sound from all round us, thanks to those two ears. Generally the surround setups compensate for the limited field of vision when life is shown on a screen much smaller than our field of view.
Jon

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Aussie Mick Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Nov 2021 at 12:06pm
YES! Sgt Pepper’s in Mono all the way, for all of the reasons mentioned above!
Mick
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