Customer Reviews

The Beatles [USB]

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

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.

I pre-ordered from Amazon to receive on first day available. Wasn't really sure what to expect, but took a chance. I'm so glad I did. The sound is incredible and I've heard new sounds in songs that I've listened to hundreds or thousands of times before. I would suggest loading all the music onto your computer and then saving the apple for display (looks great) and when you want to listen to maybe on your surround system through your tv if it has usb port( which many now have and many in the future will probably have as well). I was so impressed that I tried to buy two more for my kids through Amazon on 12-10 and they were out of stock already. Availability seems to be a problem with only 30k made. Watch the stem as I've heard reviews of it being apt to break. I would suggest keeping all packaging to increase collectors value which I believe might be pretty good.

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!

OK, I'm an audiophile. If I am going to listen to music on a quality system, then I expect to hear quality sound. I am also retired, so I am a first time Beatles fan. So how wonderful it was for Love to be released on DVD-Audio in 24bit/96kHz high-resolution. And when the Beatles remasters were released on CDs, I thought I could sit them out - surely a high-resolution audio release would follow in the near future. But no, I couldn't sit them out, sucker that I am - one look at the packaging of the CD box sets and I was sold - I had to have both the mono and stereo releases. And they are so nice. Being a little older than 21, I have the original 1987 limited release CD box sets of all but three of the Beatles albums (of course, I have the other original CD releases, just not in a boxed set).

And do the new CDs sound better than the originals? Oh yes they do - a smoother sound, no clipping, the bass stands out more. Yes, I was chuffed with these new releases!

And then, by pure chance, I discover that there is (another) limited edition version of the stereo albums - 44.1kHz 24-bit FLAC release on a USB stick (along with some MP3s - ugh!). Only 30,000 world-wide, I'm told. Bloody Hell - can I still get one? A quick check with Amazon tells me yes. Quick, quick order it. Got it! Phew!

Will I regret this, I wonder? The MP3s are DRM free - but what about the FLACs? And is the improvement in quality over the CDs worth another few hundred dollars - after all, it's only 44.1kHz, not 192kHz, or even 96kHz, OR EVEN 48kHz! Nervous wait for transport of USB apple from US to Australia. Is it worth it?

It finally arrives. I unpack it, and the first thing I find is the metal apple's stalk is broken off (a common complaint, I have since read). Panic sets in - I can't get the USB out!!! Eventually, I sort of push the stalk back in, it holds, and I extract the USB (I fix it later with superglue). OK, off to the computer, can I read the files and copy them to my hard drive, or is some clever copyright protection present that nobody has thought to mention? I need not have worried - I can backup all the files and decompress the FLACs to WAVs. EMI ARE TO BE HEARTILY CONGRATULATED ON THEIR ENLIGHTENED APPROACH TO COPYRIGHT! THANK YOU EMI!

Right, onto the music quality. I have many DVD-Audio and SACD discs (as well as vinyl of course - again, all the original Beatles LPs). My system is capable of producing audiophile sound. If you play the Beatles FLACs (or WAVs) from your computer, make sure you have an audiophile sound card that plugs into your Home Theatre/Audio system. DON'T be content with playing the FLACs through your computer speakers (unless you have very, very good ones, or a good headset - but see my comments below on this).

I listen to a Hard Day's Night first (first folder in the Music directory). Then Help. I'm stunned! Completely blown away! I have DVD-Audio discs at 24bit/96kHz that do not sound as good as this! It just goes to show how good a properly digitally transferred master tape can sound. EMI, you are to be congratulated again. In terms of audio quality, these sound files are a world beyond the CDs: there is real depth and clarity in the voices, the harmonics, the instruments; listen to the solid beat of the drums, the thump of the bass, the twang of the lead guitars; all is just so much more real. Even with computer speakers, you will notice the difference. And you won't want to listen to the CDs (and certainly not the MP3s) ever again (good job the packaging of the CDs is nice!!!)

If you are prevaricating, don't: get in quick before these sticks are not available anymore.

Will EMI release higher-resolution versions? I hope that there will be a 24bit/192kHz blu-ray edition soon (or maybe a higher capacity USB, which is perhaps the way to go!). On the release of the remastered CDs, Paul McCartney said in Rolling Stone that there is plenty of time for high-resolution releases. Well, as I said, I'm retired and therefore aging; so please don't wait too long - think of your original fans! Do me a favour though - go straight to 24bit/192kHz (and include the mono releases) and don't screw me with a 24bit/96kHz version first!

The second record I ever owned was the 45 rpm version "I Want To Hold Your Hand / I Saw Her Standing There" in 1964. Through various incarnations of other singles, LP's, reel to reel tape, CD's, DVD audio and now the ubiquitous USB. What a long, strange trip...

I have only had the USB for a couple of days and I cannot stop listening to it. That being said here are some steps you might want to follow.
1. Load the entire folder structure from the USB on to your hard drive maintaining the original folder order.
2. Because I use iTunes to manage my library, I had to convert the Flac files to Apple lossless. Depending on your system set-up that might not be necessary.
3. I used dbpoweramp, a great program for Windows (Mac users check out MAX file converter). Dbpoweramp does batch file conversions. I did one album at a time. To do the conversion I created a separate folder and added sub-folders with all of the album titles and put the Apple lossless versions there. The original Flac file is not affected when you create the Apple version.
4. After doing all of that in about one hour, I backed up everything I completed to a back-up hard drive that connects via USB.
5. Then I put the little Beatles USB back in the Apple it came in, placed all original documentation in the box and put it away. I do not plan to use it again unless I have a catastrophic computer failure.

Observations
1. It is very convenient to use.
2. The sound is absolutely the best we have (so far). It is full, warm with excellent midrange and extremely deep bass. The treble is not overly bright or brash. It is a very smooth sound.
3. Instruments and vocal harmonies are much more defined. There are guitar licks, bass melodies, various drum hits and voices in the harmonies that I have never heard.
4. Do not buy this unless you have a playback system where the audio quality of a 24-bit file can be realized and your computer can connect to your processor digitally. That is unless you are buying for collection purposes or shear simplicity of not having to deal with shiny discs.
5. I can confirm what another reviewer said that Rubber Soul did not convert with the Meta data in iTunes (go figure).

Conclusion
I waited to purchase and researched for a long time due to a number of potential pitfalls that might have been encountered. I avoided all of the pitfalls and I am very pleased. I am even happier because several days after I bought it, the price increased dramatically (good luck I guess).

In the Amazon blog, there were many discussions about computers not being able to transmit the 24-bit file to the computer due to sound card issues (I do not believe I have that problem). I will check into that because my blu-ray player has a USB input and I am going to connect my back-up hard drive to it and see if there is an improvement in sound quality. The blu-ray is connected to my processor via HDMI. I will submit a follow-up with the results. Buy the little apple while it is still available.

PS: Follow-up on the blu-ray playback is delayed due to the Sony BDP-570 being only capable of playing lossy audio files.

First off: the sound is great, the Apple isn't some flimsy plastic thing, but a rather solid, heavy casting.

However, if you're interested in using this product with iTunes and desire to have album art and documentary videos in a standard compliant file format rather than in some proprietary Flash crap, you only get to enjoy it after jumping through a lot of hoops.
I spent in all about 2 full days to:
a) convert FLAC to Apple Lossless, such that the full-resolution is available in iTunes
b) convert Apple Lossless to highest-quality VBR MP3, such as to have reasonably small, yet great sounding MP3s to load on the iPod
c) dissect the Flash files to extract the JPEG images and reconstruct PDF liner notes for each album, and despite the effort, the PDF files still can't be indexed and searched, so maybe if I had some more sophisticated OCR software, I could run a second pass over these files to turn them into "searchable image PDF" files, but the OCR software that's part of Acrobat Professional couldn't hack it.
d) replace the abysmally low-res album cover art embedded in the pre-encoded files with high-res album covers ripped from the Flash files
e) convert the Flash videos into H.264 videos that can be views from within iTunes.
f) fix spelling and missing track meta data in various places, e.g. the ridiculous 2009 date for the music (if you're looking for 60s music, you don't care when the music was remastered, but when it was written and performed), the remaster date belongs into a comment field, etc.

To this moment I haven't figured out how to remove the write protection on the USB stick, which was advertised as having "extra capacity for other tracks". I wanted to use that extra capacity to save a backup of my PDF liner notes and Apple Lossless encoded tracks.

So if you're looking for the ultimate in sound quality for a Beatles release, it's hard to beat the 24-bit FLAC files, unless you have access to the master tapes. On the other hand, given how nice the packaging and how good the sound quality, it's thoroughly disappointing that the most basic tasks, such as meta data tagging, PDF booklets, MP4 videos were simply missing. For that amount of money it stinks if you have to basically create a re-issue of the product on your own time.

It would also be nice if there were instructions somewhere how to disable the write protection on this USB stick, such as to be able to use the extra space, as the press release said would be possible.

I too, like many on here, have owned multiple formats of The Beatles over the years. From records to tape to the original 1987 CD's to 2009 Stereo/Mono Remastered CD's, there is no comparison to the FLAC 24 BIT files on this. The sound is so clear and crisp that you can hear everything! It is like listening to the tracks live from the studio. This was well worth the extra $230 I paid while stick in stock here at Amazon.

Also, wanted to pass on what I did to use the FLAC files. I downloaded MAX for my MAC, which is free, and configured it to output to AIFF 24 Bit files. From there I simply dragged them into iTunes to listen. This whole process was very simple to do. Now these AIFF 24 BIT files will NOT play on my iPod Classic (5G) but they do play on my iPhone 3GS and did come over as 24 BIT files.

If you are looking for The Beatles Remastered Set or even if you already have them, this USB with the FLAC files will not disappoint you!

If you appreciate great sound quality and love the Beatles as much as I do, snap this up while you still can. The 24-bit FLAC files on this surprisingly heavy little bauble sound amazing. I had been overwhelmed with the quality on The Beatles Stereo Box Set, but these 24-bit files reveal even more detail. I can hear picks hitting strings; bass drums are more audible, the voices sound like they are in the room. Buy it. I'm serious.

What an idiot -- I never checked the details of this until recently and discovered the flac files are 24bit resolution at 44.1kHz sampling rate, which is better than the 16 bit resolution of the CDs. So I promptly ordered it and am now a pleased owner. Some of the previous comments about broken stalks had me worried -- mine arrived intact and I will exercise due caution.

Someone else commented that you can't copy the video files to your hard drive. I found this to be untrue. The .flv flash videos copy without a problem (I use the VLC player to play them -- but note the files on the USB stick do not have the .flv file extension, you may want to add it). The .swf files which display album covers and such easily play in my browser (internet explorer). Actually, the entire contents can be copied and backed up.

One negative note: I found it necessary to redo all the tags for the flac and mp3 files and rename the files and directories to my liking, and also to redo the album art tags. The art used is of the new CD releases with the banner down the left side. Since the original artwork is provided, I simply made screen shots and resized them.

I originally ordered this from Fanfire in summer and received one in December with a broken stem which I returned. After two months they are telling me that they do not have another one to replace it. Then I ordered one more from Amazon last week and received it today with broken stem. This is it, I don't want it anymore.