My Beatles Quest: Best Sounding LP's

$600-$1200.00 for a first press mono Apple White Album? I know they're rare, but $1200.00 rare?

 

Yikes! Didn't we all grow to know and love these songs on AM transistor radios and cheap plastic General Electric suitcase-style stereo record changers?

For me $100+ for an LP is just not worth it. At those prices I'll live with the currently available CDs. For those of you with the dough, more power to you!

 

Yes, I have seen true NM examples from reputable sellers go for that much on Ebay on more than one occasion (we're talking about vinyl with no scratches or hairlines and maybe one or two spindle marks) - didn't pay that much for mine though!

 

Totally agree. I learned that lesson the hard way.

 

That's about right. If anything, the real world prices are slightly higher.

I know it's quite a bit of coin, but the stamp collectors (hoarders/speculators) have gotten to the Y&B Beatles market. This, coupled with the noteriety UK vinyl sellers have for over-grading and outright "mis-description" (sic?) pushes the prices up up UP.

If you want good sounding versions for a LOT less, I'd recommend going for pressings from other countries. Many German pressings are very good, and can hold their own against Y&Bs IMO. Select Japanese pressings hold their own and even edge out Y&Bs IMO.

 

Hi
Good to see you here, welcome to the SHF.
Just to correct you though it should be made clear (and there have been many attempts to do this) The beatles records you speak of ARE stereo records. There is distinct/unique signals coming from R & L channels with leakage across both. This is a 'stereo' record. True it was not recorded with specific stereo mic placement but it is a stereo record. In the case of PPM the stereo version WAS mixed down to a master..the stereo master used to make the PPM album. EQ and echo were introduced into the signal chain when this was done. The German Die Beatles utilizes a copy of the original 2-track. This explains it's appeal to audiophiles.

 

You can get Dr. Ebbetts needledrop CDs of all of the best versions for around $25 each and spare yourself the trouble of hunting these costly albums down. One caveat...STAY AWAY from the so called "Japanese Dr. Ebbetts" CDs on Ebay. Some of them are inferior to the real Dr. Ebbetts!

 

With all due respect, the Dr. Ebbett's CD's don't use the best versions (with the exception of one of the albums - Please Please Me), and even when they do the sound is not stellar as it's much too bright.

 

These are pirate CDs and cannot be compared to the real thing.

 

One guy told me recently that he paid 1000 GBP for a NM copy.

 

Actually, you are wrong here. Dr. Ebbetts has done a MINT needle drop of nearly every collectible version of every Beatles LP including the Blue Box UKs, red vinyl Japan monos, German issues, even the mono Brazilian issues (for those that care). His current catalog has over 200 different needledrops and I doubt you would be able to list a version he hasn't done. I have talked to him many times and can tell you that he DOES NOT tamper with eq or use any noise reduction. So if you claim his CDs are too bright then that's how the original LP sounds.

I have several including his Japan mono red vinyl White Album and the UK Blue Box remasters. I got rid of my original EMI issues once I got these.

 

Sorry, but the blue box UK LP's are not the best versions available. For all practical purposes he has not done any of the UK tube cut 60's LP's, so aside from a couple of sides of the White Album he has not done any of the 60's UK Beatles stereo LP's that I have myself.

Furthermore, regardless of what he may say his needle drops are noticeably brighter (by a few dB's from 8K on up) compared to what I hear on my own LP's. All of his needle drops exhibit the same sound, so whether he is EQing them or not the proof is in the pudding.

 

2 Grand?

I'll stick with my 1982 Red mono Japanese pressing.

 

Nonsense, I have both Ebbetts CDs and actual LPs and they sound close. Very close. Feel free to check my profile.

Respecting the law aside, the Ebbetts CDs are IMO showcases for the true potential of redbook.

Wha..? Wow.

If the entire 1982 Japanese EAS red vinyl series, selected UK Y&B monos (you made a mistake earlier regarding the "no tube cuts"), HorZu Die Beatles, "wide" purple label Canadian Capitol Beatlemania! With The Beatles, Dutch stereo The Beatles Greatest, HorZu MMT, and the entire friggin' Bob Dylan US Columbia CL (mono) catalogue don't count as being amongst the "best versions" out there, then I don't know what does.

I have also never heard the term "bright" ascribed to Ebbetts releases. Never. If anything, they are too "full" and "warm" for some systems. And you're telling us that they're nearly twice as loud ("a few dB") from 8kHz up compared to your vinyl? I would suggest respectfully that you re-check your VTA, it's likely a little too low for those thick slabs of vintage British vinyl. It's happened to me.

 

Actually, that one's going for $400 now on eBay. It'll catch up.

 

No UK tube cut stereo LP's is what was meant. My argument is that the blue box LP's are not the best versions out there. I think it's hard to argue that they are. Besides many of the non-UK pressings that you mention are not tube cut: Beatlemania, German MMT, etc.

I am also hardly the first to describe the Dr. Ebbetts CD's as bright. Do a search here, and you will find a large number of posts saying exactly what I'm saying. Also they are not earbleedingly bright, I am only talking about 1-3dB's added from 8K on up.

 

Well, there we go.

 

Where's that popcorn smilie?

 

The three 'Ebbetts' I've heard (RS, R, WA) were rubbish. Clearly some sort of 'crackle reduction' software had been used, that's why they sound so shrill because you have to EQ the signal by whacking up the top-end because it's been so wrecked by the filter. I also got healthy doses of inner-groove distortion, especially on the White album.
The way people here talk about these disc and the so-called 'Dr' is quite bizarre. Like the Wizard of Oz or something, some white haired, genial old duffer, behind the curtains somewhere sticking it to EMI/Apple and spreading the good-word of the original Beatles albums.
El torro poo-poo!
Some garage in Russia or Ukraine hooked up with a hot broad-band connection and a cd duplicator more likely. Then times that by another thousand or so bedroom dweebs tinkering with the 'original' needledrops with their wacky plastic EQ units and pirated noise-reduction software.
All the stories about how high-end and top-shelf the 'Dr's' TT was to do these needledrops never stack up because I've got needledrops from friends done on budget systems, and done them myself (my ND of 'Something Else' got passed around here a while back) that sound MILES better.
Anyone flogging these Ebbetts cd's must love the SHF because it's free, uncritical advertising for pirated music.
I'm as hacked off as anyone about the ridiculous state of the Beatles catalogue and the fact it's left this vacum to be filled by the bootleggers and pirates but this worship of some phoney, non-existent 'Dr' is really weird.

 

There are a lot of fake Ebbetts CDs knocking about. His UK Mono 'The Beatles' is excellent.

 

Fakes of fakes. The White album mono cd I've got was given as a 'genuine' Dr Ebbetts. It sounds crap, honestly. Someone told me that the 'original' Dr Ebbetts were made with a badly aligned cartridge so 'he' did them all again. How convenient. International research shows that almost all pirated/bootlegged material uses established channels of money laundering with the drug trade being the #1 investment closely followed by illegal arms trade, pornography and counterfeit pharmaceuticals.
I wonder where the 'Dr' invests his cash from these '$25.00 Beatle Specials'?

 

I bought an Excellent+ copy of a mono first press, no. 280574 a few months back for £235, with all inserts and paper divider. Definately good copies out there for a decent price.