72 of 80 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Better Hurry, `cause It's Goin' Fast!, December 12, 2009
This review is from: The Beatles [USB] (Audio CD)
This really is the ultimate "The Beatles" collector's item. The photos hardly do this item justice. I was expecting a lightweight, hollow aluminum apple, and that's hardly the case. You could hurt someone with this thing. It's solid and heavy. The USB is magnetically "tugged" gently into its housing. The box is absolutely beautiful. It's a treasure!
It's tempting while admiring the object to keep handling it, just don't drop it! The stem is sturdy enough - it really "makes" the apple, too - but letting this thing drop to roll around is perilous at best.
You can browse album artwork and photos while listening to the tracks on the built-in player. The interface is very clean, straightforward and true to the original works.
The sound quality is absolutely phenomenal! The subtle, ticklish guitar at the beginning of "Honey Pie" is new to my ears. The vocals are truly remarkable throughout the "albums," every word comes through with perfect clarity.
The 24-bit FLACs are far above and beyond anything I've ever heard from any of the previous Beatles' releases. The MP3s sound remarkable, too. Note that burning MP3s from the 16-bit CDs will result in compressed 16-bit material. The most sonically astonishing MP3s can only be found on The Beatles Stereo USB - these files are compressed from the source material.
The quality of the audio and of the physical product is incredible. I highly recommend acquiring The Beatles Stereo USB while you still can. There is absolutely nothing I regret about my purchase of this product.
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122 of 150 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
WOW, December 10, 2009
This review is from: The Beatles [USB] (Audio CD)
I bought one of these Beatles USB Apples today and all I can say is OMG!
I've been buying LP records since 1966, then audiophile half-speed master pressings in the late 70's/early 80's, (and every other type of audiophile vinyl) and then CDs in the early/mid 80's. I've always been on a quest for "the perfect version" (sound quality wise) of whatever I was into at the time. I know that vinyl LPs are having a bit of a renaissance at the monent, and nobody loved records more than I, but let's face it...unless you have major bucks to sink into a super high-end system, they don't sound all that great with a cheap phono cartridge on a (GASP!) belt-drive USB turntable. And even if you buy a gazillion dollar cartridge, and a multi-gazillion dollar phono pre-amp, you're still going to hear only half of the channel separation (or less) than you get from a CD. (Take THAT, vinyl heads!) Throw in all the surface noise, the pops, clicks and ticks, worn out grooves, and you're right back in 1968, listening to the "White" album or "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones Ltd" on a GE Wildcat Stereo in your bedroom.
All analog curmudgeons and their dinosaur opinions aside, (non-compressed) digital audio saved us from (adding any more) tape hiss or surface noise. Even vinyl fanboys have to admit that. I was one and I did. (I do miss the 12" x 12" artwork though!)
Ok...so I waited since 1987 for the Beatles CDs to be done right. Sure, "Please Please Me" and "With The Beatles" were recorded, meant, and intended to be heard in mono (by George Martin, anyway). But back in 1987 we were truly robbed when "A Hard Day's Night" and "Beatles For Sale" were only released in mono, when perfectly good stereo mixes existed (those albums were originally recorded in the studio on multi-track machines and mixed for both.) I remember the 60's...when you went into the record store and they had TWO racks of your favorite newest release...one rack was MONO and the other STEREO and GOD HELP YOU if you ever got the wrong one. You'd end up sterile. Or bald. Or insane. Your cattle and your crops would dry up. Your children would have eleven toes and three eyes and would turn out to be ax-murderers. The moon would leave its orbit. Jack, you simply tore a hole in the space/time continuum if you ever played a stereo album on a mono record player.
Back to 2009...for all the uninformed people who say the Beatles are "double dipping" by releasing these remasters, take this >>> many bands have already done 3 or 4 versions of their CDs (Doors, Fleetwood Mac, Rolling Stones and millions more) and they re-release newer, louder versions that don't sound any better every few years. The Beatles waited 22 (count 'em...TWENTY-TWO!) YEARS to re-do theirs. So shut up and go play GNR or Miley Cyrus or some screech n' growl death metal on your Nano.
Anyway...
I LOVE the new, 2009 stereo remasters of the Beatles catalog. They truly ARE better than sliced bread, Chia pets and the Clapper. The sound is AMAZING. Or so I thought until today.
I put this USB stick into my computer, put my AKG 240 headphones on and started listening to the 24-bit Flac file version of Abbey Road. I can die right now. After hearing these better-than-CD-quality files, (ABSOLUTELY, COMPLETELY, POSITIVELY TRULY BETTER!) I have found the Holy Grail as far as sound quality and the Beatles music are concerned. I got a deal on this at a local record shop ($208!) but it is easily worth 3 or 4 times that. Not because it's a little green aluminum apple, or it's a limited edition, but for the SOUND QUALITY, matey. The sound is even more detailed than the new remaster CDs. It's more spacious, open and clean. I can't fully describe it, really. The songs have depth and presence. You can close your eyes and it's like your listening in the control booth as the Beatles are there live, recording these songs. They're crystal-clear...it sounds like "music in 3D."
I have the MFSL Beatles half-speed mastered LP set, and the original 1987 CDs, and they truly sound like AM radio in comparison to this. It really is THAT incredible. Oh sure, some will moan that it could have been better with higher than a 44.1 sampling rate, or they should have been saved in 24 bit wav or 24 bit aiff files, but they'd never be happy with anything, would they?
For the here and now, there is NO BETTER version of the Beatles' material. And we might be waiting ANOTHER 22 years for them to top this USB Apple.
In addition to the Flac files, it comes with the whole shebang on MP3's encoded at 320 kbits. They sound great too, but you can rip 320 kbit MP3's from the CDs and get the same, I believe. There is no DRM (Digital Rights Management) on these files, they're yours to put on as many computers as you want. For those moaning about being able to play Flac files, download Goldwave and re-save them as 24 bit wavs or 24 bit aiff files and give your iPod a real treat instead of that low-quality MP3 crap you're downloading.
Beatles forever!
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