Judging by the pics, I thought he was puttin' that shite on eBay already.

LOL @ "knives" on an internet message board questioning the inherent quality of the fucking White Album and suggesting that it is only held in such high regard because it is the Beatles. in 2009. LOL.

Debunking the Higher Bit Rate Myth

So last week, Apple began its experiment of selling non-protected, higher-quality songs on the iTunes Store for a 30-cent premium.

The no-copy-protection part is historic, and brave of EMI Records, and indisputably valuable.

The “higher-quality” part, however, is highly debatable. Yes, these songs are encoded at a higher bit rate (256 kbps instead of 128). But does that mean twice the quality?

Not by a long shot. So far, two different tech outfits — Gizmodo and Maximum PC — have performed careful comparison tests, A/B tests using fancy headphones, to see if people can hear any difference between the old and new iTunes formats. And you know what?

People really can’t.

Maximum PC’s conclusion: “To our subjects’ ears, there wasn’t a tremendous distinction between the tracks encoded at 128Kb/s and those encoded at 256Kb/s. None of them were absolutely sure about their choices with either set of earphones, even after an average of five back-to-back A/B listening tests.”

Both outfits draw the same conclusion: Consider that 30-cent premium the price for getting songs without the copy protection. You’re not going to hear much quality difference.

-------------------------------------------------

i've always heard the same thing. of course, on this board there's going to be a disproportionate amount of people who CAN hear the difference.

Oh yeah, so by that test you're telling me an MP3 sounds as good as a CD? Seriously?

Also, I'd like to know who the test subjects were. You can train your ears just as you can train your eyes. I have trained my ears. I'd suggest folks such as Sid has too. It's the business we're in. And with those trained ears differences in MP3 bit rates are quite apparent.

And as far as any MP3 compared to a CD. There's no contest.

SOMB talks about Pepper and The Beatles.

Not sure why the need to pick on The White Album getting a 10.0. Does this mean you don't think there aren't flaws on the other five albums that got that score? You think 'Run For Your Life' is as perfect as 'In My Life' or 'Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)' or 'Good Morning' is comparable to and 'A Day In The Life'?

to most people, yes. i already qualified posting that article by saying that most people on this board have better ears than the general public. i know you have a better ear than i do, and the vast majority of the public does. can i tell the difference between a high quality mp3 (say 320 or so) and a CD? i have no idea. and i've never had good enough stereo equipment for it to matter, anyway.

who else thinks the White Album is the best Beatles record? over the years it is still my favorite. each song on that album pretty much spawned a particular band that sounds like that individual song.

That said they should have just done a big article and talked about the new packaging and the differences in audio quality between these and the original CD issues, rather then doing individual reviews on every album.

"Little Child" is a minor, just-average early Beatles song yeah, but in the stereo mix, when the harmonica solo hits, some of the drumming leaks into the harmonica's channel and it's just exhilirating. Elevates the song to another level for those few seconds. Love these sets.

The main harmonica and piano are separate overdubs, a total 3 generations. The harmonica solo, a "4th track" (generation) on the song, is edited in to hold the rest of the song to "only" 3 generations. The instrumental track is saturated, as can be heard in stereo...

who else thinks the White Album is the best Beatles record? over the years it is still my favorite. each song on that album pretty much spawned a particular band that sounds like that individual song.

to be honest i probably need to sit down and listen to the albums from front-to-back before i even say anything. i've been listening to singles or everything on shuffle or otherwise just jumping around here lately. but my opinion in the past has always been that the white album was one of my least favorites. it never stuck together for me and had a lot of songs i disliked (more weak spots than the other albums). you're right, there or weak spots on other albums too, but the white album always seemed more displeasing to my ears. i was just trying to figure out why that was [via generating a discussion on the album by playing devil's advocate]

I used to get into serious arguments about the White Album with my dad. It would usually start with me saying something like it's my favorite all-time album and he'd launch into a tirade about how much it sucks. Context is important; The Beatles were part of his teenage years (he was in the fan club, he saw them open for Little Richard) and years later by the time the White Album was coming out, he was no longer interested in music, he was getting married and he just didn't have that connection anymore. I always bring this up, but he usually dismisses it as "If it was good, I would have been interested!" or something to that effect. Also, he's got the "I was there!" card which he is not afraid to play. I know he likes "Blackbird", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Julia". But the rest of it is "just them messing about" according to him and he cannot be convinced otherwise.

Calling "Wild Honey Pie" 'terrible' seems to be missing the point entirely.

It's fifty-three seconds of the Beatles fucking around and making some silly noises. It's not some embarrassing failed experiment or grand ambitious project gone wrong. Calling it "terrible" would seem to imply that the Beatles intended it to be "good" in the first place.

Plus it has some crazy guitar and it's catchy as hell.

My least favourite Beatles song is probably "Hold Me Tight" but it's at least got that chunky, chugging guitar going for it; I love Maxwell's Silver Hammer for the totally un-Beatles synth line after the chorus. Plus the sound effects are done well and the drumming is recorded (and played) wonderfully.

one of my new rediscovered favorites from these remasters is definitely 'It's All Too Much', fuck that song slays

there's an 8+ min version on various bootlegs that is worth tracking down too

1. 56 days in the top 100
The Beatles Stereo Box Set
~ The Beatles
$259.98 $179.99

2. 39 days in the top 100
The Beatles Mono Box Set
~ The Beatles
$298.98 $229.99

3. 63 days in the top 100
Abbey Road (Remastered)
~ The Beatles
$18.98 $11.98

4. 50 days in the top 100
The White Album (Remastered)
~ The Beatles
$24.98 $16.99

5. 24 days in the top 100
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Remastered)
~ The Beatles
$18.98 $12.99

6. Ranking has gone up in the past 24 hours 10 days in the top 100
I Dreamed A Dream
~ Susan Boyle
$11.98 $9.99

7. Ranking has gone down in the past 24 hours 37 days in the top 100
Revolver (Remastered)
~ The Beatles
$18.98 $12.99

8. 35 days in the top 100
Rubber Soul (Remastered)
~ The Beatles
$18.98 $12.99

9. Ranking has gone up in the past 24 hours 14 days in the top 100
Past Masters (Remastered)
~ The Beatles
$24.98 $12.99

10. Ranking has gone down in the past 24 hours 29 days in the top 100
Let It Be (Remastered)
~ The Beatles
$18.98 $12.99

who else thinks the White Album is the best Beatles record? over the years it is still my favorite. each song on that album pretty much spawned a particular band that sounds like that individual song.