The Beatles Remasters

Please note that no audio files are provided so no copyright issues here, however you can do this test by yourself if you have the sources, plus the software needed is free.

The track that I used is Strawberry Fields Forever from Magical Mystery Tour which is one of the last albums to be mixed in Mono and I wanted to test the three versions of the same song (1987 stereo, 2009 stereo and 2009 mono). You can see the info on each of the versions and the real meat which is the graphic generated showing the frequency spectrum.

All tracks were extracted directly from the CD using Exact Audio Copy to WAV format with no errors and Track Quality at 100%
The MP3 version was extracted back to WAV to able to analyze it.
Tested with SpectraScope 2.8

FILE 1
The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever - Magical Mystery Tour 1987 CD release
WAV size 43,159 Kb @ 1411 kbps, 16 bit, 44.1 kHz
Left Channel analyzed (Avg.)

Now lets take a look at the waveform for this version.

FILE 2
The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever - Magical Mystery Tour 2009 Mono Re-master
WAV size 43,140 Kb @ 1411 kbps, 16 bit, 44.1 kHz
Left Channel analyzed (Avg.)

FILE 3
The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever - Magical Mystery Tour 2009 Stereo Re-master
WAV size 42,605 Kb @ 1411 kbps, 16 bit, 44.1 kHz
Left Channel analyzed (Avg.)
And its waveform


FILE 4
The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever - Magical Mystery Tour MP3 from 2009 Stereo Re-master
MP3 size 5,876 Kb @ 192 kbps, 44.1 kHz
Left Channel Analyzed (Avg.)

The differences are truly remarkable, specially between the 2009 Stereo and the MP3 version, you can see how the levels drop dramatically after the 16 kHz mark, and this is with a 192 kbps file, try any slower and you could find a complete lack of sound above14 kHz. But that's what you expect from any mp3, butchered worthless leftovers from a song, why would anybody even consider paying 99 cents for an mp3 from iTunes is beyond my understanding.

Now you can see that the 2009 re-masters show absolutely no sound loss even after the 22kHz mark which presumably is also beyond human hearing capabilities but the sound is still there, as it should be.

What really hits me is seeing how the 1987 version is showing significant audio loss, now this is after the 20 kHz mark, although the levels are not as low as in the MP3 one the reduction is there, in real world terms, that's about the same as what you'd hear from an FM broadcast since not all frequencies can be transmitted, but while the quality is fine for radio it's not up to the standard of a CD recording, still, the fact that the 1987 CDs don't provide a full range of sound give the new re-masters their rightful place in the collection.

Now the waveforms, unfortunately this is where critics to the remastered versions have a point, sorta, you can see that the volume has been obviously turned up, no waveform needed to notice that, but to tell the truth there is no significant compression applied, at least not the way other recordings have been affected, the overall integrity of the sound is still there. Now, there is damage, some clipping occurred and bits and pieces of sound have been lost, you can see some peaks that got cut here and there, this is such a shame, there was no reason to turn it so loud, however this clipped peaks are very few, if any, since you can see them just peaking at -0.4db without actually clipping.

In the case of the Mono version there is simply no contest, the quality of the sound is outstanding, you might argue that when you listen to this version the volume is lower than it's stereo counterpart, but that's why the volume knob is for and the experience is also completely different, no clipping, no compression, no sound loss. The decision between mono and stereo will eventually become a matter of preference, BTW, I'm staying with mono in most cases. What we see here is the visual proof of the superb sound quality in the recordings.

The difference in sound between the 1987 and 2009 versions of the Stereo mixes are significant. The former suffers from major sound loss at higher frequencies while the latter lives in the realm of modern dynamic compression and clipping, however these effects are very dim and compression is only noticeable in some parts, if it wasn't for the clipped peaks the 2009 one would've been the ultimate version but even then I'm keeping the re-masters, I just don't think that a FM broadcast-quality song is more valuable than the full audio one.

I would like to add another version to this test, the original vinyl, unfortunately at the time I don't have the means to record a vinyl to any digital format, at least not in a way that can make a decent transfer so I will leave that one for later, but for now I think the 2009 re-masters deliver as the best The Beatles have ever sounded.